The day started earlier than I would have thought especially given how tired I was from my bike ride yesterday. I had gone to sleep early for me, around 10:30pm and I slept fairly well, only waking a few times due to being cold. I never did get around to pulling the furnace out before this trip to figure out why there were flames SHOOTING OUT AT AMY FACE when I tried to light it during my last trip to Tanacross so that, along with a couple of other things that I had hoped to have done by now just aren’t done and I feel like I am living in a VERY ALASKAN RV, with blue foam for one wall and all. But I’m dry and not sleeping in a tent on the ground so I’m happy for my Sandcrawler-bago.
Anyway, I was up and making coffee before my alarm was planned to go off at 8am. It is said that if one goes out into nature that our circadian rhythms get reset and for this lady that is normally a night person, all sort of resetting happens and I’m finding that it’s not all that bad.
I was up and ready to be on my bus at 9:30. Prior to the bus ride I even got to pay another visit to a woman I had met online named Karen, one of Dottie’s humans, who had mentioned she really wanted to see my RVÂ since she said she likes the old ones. It’s in quite a state, as I’ll explain below, but I showed her inside and then grabbed my gear and went out to catch my bus for the day.
I suppose this makes the second annual “End of the Road” trip. Last year during my week-long stay with Susan we took the Kantishna / End of the Road trip as the reserved first ride with the Tek Pass. While I’ll found that I normally prefer to only go in as far as Eielson since between here and there is where most of the wildlife can be found, there is something to be said for going all the way to “The Katishna” and taking your photo at the sign at the end of the road. Additionally, had I not gone to the end of the road I would not have seen the moose in the pond nor would I have got those great shots.
Overall we didn’t see a ton of wildlife, but the sow and two cubs lying in the grass made up for it all. Â I’m pretty excited about those pictures. Also got to see a few single caribou in various places, tons and tons of squirrels, quite a few hares (yuck!), a few eagles and a variety of other birds including mew gulls, swamps, ducks. It had been forecasted for rain today so I didn’t expect to see the mountain, but Denali peeked out for a bit while we were at Eielson and she stayed visible for part of our drive past it as well.
My bus ride lasted from about 10am until 7:30pm. We had sun and rain, a bus full of mostly quiet people except for some rowdy kids. Overall a nice day. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow. I do want to get in another Sable Pass ride or sure and I’m contemplating one that is even longer. We will see how good a job the ibuprofen does tonight since I’m a bit sore from yesterday still.
I’m trying to recall what food I eat during these trips since I tend to take WAY TOO MUCH so for the record and so I can better pack:
Dinner was leftover boiled potatoes that I fried with some organic Geee that I had at home (I’m avoiding dairy due to how much I hate the commercial dairy industry and eggs due to allergy, but it was all I had at home and so I grabbed it) and then topped that with Mushroom Masala from Tasty Bites. So delicious and super easy. Canned potatoes would work too, so that’s another easy meal to take camping!
On the bus I ate two apples, two mandarin oranges and a banana with yogurt, plus GORP, some Packaroons and other small snacking type food; I should have brought more than just snacks for the long trip, but it just made dinner all that much better when I go back to camp.
Nearly 10pm and I’m beat so it’s time for bed.
 
  
