Over 50 in the 49th State

Summer Fun Trip 4 Central and Circle Alaska

By carol, on July 6th, 2018

M.B. her puppy Opal and I headed north on the Steese Highway towards Central and Circle, Alaska. We stopped at Eagle Summit and had a wonderful hike in the land of the midnight sun. This was shortly after solstice and the longest day of the year. The sun still never set up at this elevation even a few days after June 21.

This picture was taking around 9:30 pm. We hiked to some large granite outcroppings and stopped for a snack.

We had crossed over where the Yukon Quest comes through the area and marveled at the steep climbs the dogs accomplished.

You can see one of the markers down below.

Wildflowers were incredible.

We car camped that night at Mammoth Creek. Not too many mosquitos but a lot of gnats! MB slept in her little tent with Opal and I slept in my car.

Here it was close to midnight.

The next morning we headed into Central, Alaska. A traditional mining town. Just 8 miles from Circle Hot Springs, the area is still quaint even though the hot springs is in disrepair.

Great food and atmosphere. Still one of the few places in Alaska where you eat in the same room as the bar, where folks are still smoking.

The hot springs still had super clear, non-sulphur water going into the pool. But it was filled with algae. The small building next to the pool was leaning precariously. The once beautiful old hotel is slowly falling apart and rotting away. I visited many years ago when it was still operational. The inside was beautiful with many antiques and mining history.

We traveled 7 miles past the hot springs onto the top of a ridge where we started walking towards the far hills. It became so muddy and rutted with 4 wheeler tracks that we turned around after a mile.

We continued north out of Central to the small village of Circle on the banks of the Yukon River. Miners originally named this area Circle or Circle City for they thought they were at the Arctic Circle. But this ended up being 50 miles south. The Steese Highway ends here and we retraced our trip back south.

Stopping to check out the swallow homes in a bank cut off plus catching a pretty picture of Birch Creek off the bridge were a few things we did on our way back to Central.

All in all, a really fabulous mini vacation.

Summer Fun Trip 3 The Denali Highway

By carol, on July 1st, 2018

LK and I did a fabulous overnight trip over the Denali Highway on June 13 and 14th. From Fairbanks we drove down the Richardson Highway until Paxon where the Denali heads west 134 miles to Cantwell. Our first stop was a glorious view of the Wrangell Mountains to include Mt. Sanford the 6th highest mountain in the United States at 16,237 feet.

There were quite a few hiking trails to pick from, but it was early season and many were too muddy or still covered with snow to want to venture out on. So we did the popular Landmark Gap Trail to Landmark Lake. This is an easy 3 mile hike along a 4 wheeler trail.

The back part of Landmark Gap Lake was still frozen!

LK and I decided this was far too easy, so we started climbing and climbing to the upper ridge line. Beating our way through alders and willows, yelling “YO BEAR” as we went. We were rewarded with small ponds, hanging lakes, beautiful wildflowers and forever reaching vistas.

After we returned to the road we continued the drive westward.

Such beauty!

Hunger rumbled our stomachs so we stopped for a late dinner at Macclaren River Lodge. We both had sandwiches with homemade REAL french fries. What a treat. Then I was still a bit hungry and asked about dessert. Homemade berry ice cream. WOW. Some of the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. We both had a bowl, thinking it would be 1 scoop. Well, 4 scoops each of lusciousness filled us up.

We drove a couple more miles down the road and pulled off onto a small trail and camped in the car for the night. So quiet!

We were up at 5:30 the next morning. We were rewarded with sightings of caribou, moose, fox and an eagle!

And of course, never ending beauty.

We attempted to stop at Alpine Creek Lodge for breakfast and were drooling when we saw it was an all you can eat breakfast buffet, but alas we were far too early!

So we kept going. Stopping for views and for a short hike up to a pinnacle to look over the valley.

A stop at Clearwater Mountain Lodge (once knows as Gracious House) also didn’t yield breakfast as they were just opening for the season. She did offer us coffee which we declined. We ended up going to Cantwell and heading north to Carlo Creek where we had a fantastic breakfast at McKinley Creekside Cafe.

We stopped at Denali National Park for our last hike of our 2 day trip. We took the trail to Horseshoe Lake. There is a lot of beaver activity down there!

Back to Fairbanks to round out our 460 mile 2 day trip. What fun!

Summer Fun. Alaska Endurance Trail Run June 1-2

By carol, on June 29th, 2018

A running race of choices. You could run 6, 12 or 24 hours under the midnight sun of Fairbanks, Alaska. It never really got dark on June 1/2.

I ran the 6 hour the first year. Skipped the 2nd year and this year did the 12 hour. You can check out the website for all the information and results. SUPER fun!

Alaska Endurance Trail Run

Summer of Fun Trip 2. Denali National Park overnight

By carol, on June 29th, 2018

A friend and I went to Denali (my 2nd time in May!) and were rewarded with THE mountain, a bear, dall sheep, moose, grouse, ground squirrels, caribou and vistas that never ended. Overnight at Riley Creek campground and up early to head back to Savage River. We hiked the Savage River trail, far up river. A climb up Mt. Healy to the overlook added another glorious spectacle for the eyes and the soul. Day 2 we hiked back to all 3 of the lakes on the Triple Lakes Trail. Great trip