Tuesday, July 14, 2009 – Denali National Park
The RV convoy split up today. Part of the group wanted to see Fairbanks, so they took off in the morning with plans to stay overnight one night and rendezvous back at Denali on Wednesday. Chrissy, Delaney, Aaron, and I stayed back at Denali National Park.
Our big event of the day was a whitewater rafting trip on the Nenana River. I generally don’t think of heat when I think of Alaska, but the temperatures got up into the 90s when we were there. The rafting company had us wear dry suits that had rubber seals around the neck and wrists and had rubber feet built in. The suits were swelteringly hot when we were in the sun, but once we hit a couple of rapids and got wet with water that had been part of a glacier a few hours before they felt really good and we were glad to have them. We were on an oar boat, so instead of everyone paddling the guide had a pair of oars and was the only one who needed to do any work. We were just along for the ride. It was fun, as whitewater always is, but was also relaxing, which whitewater usually isn’t. The rapids were Class III and IV – enough to be wet, cold, and fun.
There were several wildfires burning in Alaska that summer, mostly north of Denali. About halfway through the rafting trip the wind shifted and started blowing smoke in our direction. It wasn’t too bad for breathing, but it blocked the sun and it was suddenly much cooler. We were already glad for the dry suits, and even more so then.
We went to the Salmon Bake restaurant for dinner that night. As we were enjoying a great meal and recounting our whitewater adventures, we looked up and the rest of our group came walking in. The smoke that was a minor annoyance on our rafting trip was a much more serious event in Fairbanks. The smoke was very thick there making it difficult to breathe or do anything outdoors, so they looked around the city a little and came back to Denali. We were all back together again and ready to embark on the next day of Alaskan adventure.
Where Are We Going Now? 