Our goal for today was to ride the roughly 240 miles from Anchorage to Denali National Park at a leisurely pace, becoming comfortable with the roads in Alaska and with the bikes.
The day started out rainy and drizzly. We don't usually ride in the rain, but given the forecast, we either had to ride in the rain or plan to spend much of our trip in Anchorage. After a relatively late wakeup for Jared and Josh (this is their standard operating style) and a stop at the post office to send home excess clothes that would not fit in our regular bags (we used the bright red throw away suit case that Jared brought) and a stop at the Harley dealership to buy Josh a bike cover (he left his at home) we got on the road around 12:30 pm.
Other than the rain, the trip was fairly uneventful. We traveled on Parks Road from Anchorage to Denali through towns like Wasilla, Trapper Creek, and Cantwell. We are accustomed to having gas stations very conveniently located. This was our first experience with planning to ensure we had adequate fuel. We came uncomfortably close to running out of gas on the stretch of road between Wasilla and Cantwell.
We arrived at Denali around 6:00pm. We had made a reservation at the Crow's Nest, which is a group of individual log cabins overlooking the Park. The room was rough, but adequate. There were several restaurants to choose from, and some of the locals recommended the Salmon Bake. The food was pretty good. I tried the Salmon Bake dish, and the fish was excellent. The sides weren't particularly good.
The Crow's Nest supposedly had Wi-Fi internet service, but it wasn't working when we were there, so that's one reason we're late updating the site. We walked around the shops in the town, bought some ice cream, postcards, and a bottle of Chivas.
Josh and Kelly have a Helicopter tour of Denali State Park tomorrow. The old man is already complaining of a little soreness from the ride, so he turned in early.
