Note well...




Days 38-43, September 15-20, DENALI, THE GREAT ONE

We're back. Sorry for our silence these last few days, we had no internet facility. 

This is just a brief posting to let you all know that we just completed the Denali part of our journey until I can post the more detailed  Denali Diary in a few days.

I cannot even begin to summarize in one sentence what our individual or joint impressions of these last five spectacular days are.  To say that they were magnificent would be either an understatement or a lie,maybe both.  The Denali Diary I will post later will be nothing more than a recounting of the schedule we kept, but it will give you a glimpse into how Denali warps both time and distance.  The photos I will post will offer little for you to appreciate the consummate beauty and breadth of this spectular park, home to the greatest mountain in North America.  If ever you have the chance to visit Denali, don't hesitate the seize the chance, as one young German woman named Stephanie did, and is a better person for it, as am I.

Although this is a short posting, I really do want to thank once again those readers who entered the Denali Drive Lottery for me, allowing my to experience this great nature once again.  

We are leaving Denali as I write this and will camp near Talkeetna tonight. Tomorrow I will drop off our new friend and travel partner Stephanie in Anchorage, where she will begin her long journey back to medical school in Germany.  Donner and I will then head south 1000 miles or so on the Alaskan Highway to Skagway, where on the 25th we will board the ferry Columbia for the five-day cruise to Seattle.  There I will decide how to get home.  I will try to stay current with my postings.

This trip is only half over as of today.  To be sure, the best part is behind me, but on these journeys, there is no such thing as a bad day if we are all safe at the end of it.

P.S.  Donner's world expanded enormously during this Denali part of our trip. He had no idea that there are so many smells  to catch his nose, so many dogs to keep out of our campsite, and so much canned salmon to consume.

The Defender did its part to get us where we wanted to go and back again.  In return, I cannot even begin to count the number of admirers it picked up on this part of our journey and certainly all 42 days.

The party in front of Denali.



Ed and Donner, from on the road
P.S...I apologize and take full responsibility for all typos, errors and ambiguities in this message.  I do not have time to edit or even proof my messages.  Please do the best you can to interpret what I wrote.

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