Thursday, March 30, 2006

Roads in Alaska


When I picked up my rental car it had a list of roads that one should not travel while there... they include all the roads I have often traveled on... Chena Hot Springs road was one of them.
This photo is just off of Chena Hot Springs Road... it is Grange Hall Road and a sign says, Slow for Dog Teams. It is a busy training trail for many mushers, including Aliy Zirkle, Rick Swenson,
Jessica Hendricks, Judy Currier, Ray Redington, Jr. Mountains are in the distance, hard to see.

In 2000 we went by dog sled to go camping down this road in the photo, heading for the frozen Chena River. It was in the minus thirties as we took off late day under a full moon. I remember the peace and the silence out on the frozen river, going into the brush to cut bows for the dogs beds and the Big Dipper and full moon highlighting our camping site. We camped in a tent with a small stove which I fed with sticks of spruce all night long. The dogs fared well and were raring to go the next morning.

I did see a small bull moose on the road out here in March... saw many more last September.
This road is at about the 21.5 mile marker. Last summer, I believe it was, at 17.5 miles, two grizzlies went into a dog yard looking for food. They were young and unfortunately one of them did not learn, but the other was able to relocated.

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