Hi All, Here I am back in Alaska. I'm sitting in the Erratics (a room where the computers, TV, pool table, domino games, yoga, etc are located), and often all take place at the same time.

My Supervisor Steve in the Erratics

Arrived here safe and sound and met by Jerri. We stayed in Anchorage a couple of days and saw pink salmon spawning plus one king salmon on his way out (it is too late in the season for kings)--the next day went down the Kenai Peninsula to Whittier for a half day trip with all our friends who had arrived for Denali Week. Saw many glaciers calving and great waterfalls.

Jerri and I spent a week at Denali Week with our friends--it's sponsored by the Denali Foundation, not related to Denali National Park, where we had a cabin with a bathroom INSIDE!!! What a treat for Jerri, who has been working here since the middle of May with no break AND no inside bathroom. She has become a bus driver, which is definitely the top of the heap here. Unfortunately she is the lowest person on the list, and has a horrible schedule. Has to get up at 3 am two mornings, and work til 1 am two other days. I am still in the Visitor's Center, selling tickets for the shuttles that go out into the park. Hopefully things will get a little quieter soon, as they will be cutting buses on the 21st when the number of visitors starts to decrease.

We had a great trip out to Eielson last week, where we saw a grizzly sow and her cub crossing the road. Fortunately we were all in the bus! They are busy looking for blueberries, as they try to fatten themselves up for the winter hibernation. Wolves are out, too, and I hope to get a trip into the park this week to the area where they were seen yesterday. Other than that, we passed a yearling moose calf very close to the road yesterday right near the VC. He too is looking for food for the winter.

Another day we went rafting down the Nenana river--it's only a Class 3, but is VERY cold. 38 degrees. Most of the water is glacial runoff. There was one one-mile stretch where we were told we could get in a swim. The muscle power of the rower seemed able to get me bak in (the rafts have high sides), so off I went. Thank goodness we were wearing dry suits, and I only got a bit wet on the edges. Fun!

Big event--took an airplane ride over to Denali (Mt. McKinley) Saturday--it was a gorgeous day and we could see the Muldrow Glacier, both peaks, and the climbing paths up. Great views as we circled the mountain at about 13,000 feet in a high wing 6 person Cessna.

Forgot to say the Northern Lights have been visible 3 nights now. Unfortunately they are totally unpredictable as to time, so I haven't seen them even though we did get up one night at 2 am just in case. If it's clear on Jerri's late driving days, I'm going over there where she parks her bus, and see if they are visible. I are determined to see them before I leave. And it is pretty dark at 1 am--days definitely getting shorter. We're going camping out at Wonder Lake twice, and hope to see them there, too.

Love to all,

Mom/Sally

Hi to All: This past week has been a lot of fun--I didn't have to work until Sunday, so have had lots of time to play and see more of the area. The park is starting to look and feel like fall--but today is in the high 60's, and the sun is out for the first time in a while. It rained all day Saturday, which was unfortunate as I was unpacking the car from our amazing trip on Thursday and Friday over to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. It turned out to be an 11 hour trip each way-which included a couple of very long gravel roads--one over an old railroad track upposedly known for putting spikes into tires. They warn you to take a couple of extra tires for safety. The roads weren't so bad as we had expected, and we decided once we got there that the local residents are deliberately fostering stories about the bad road conditions just to keep visitors out.

We didn't have much time to spend in the Park--arrived just in time to set up a tent by the roaring river and in sight of the Root Glacier. The next day we crossed the narrow footbridge into the town of McCarthy--which consists of about 10 buildings. One of the businesses there is Wrangell Mountain Air--and Jerri and I took a ride over the Park--at least as much of it as we were able to see in 90 minutes.

This Park is the most amazing one in the states, I am sure. It has 4 mountain ranges, the largest ice field in the world with the exception of the polar ice field, many glaciers, more than several miles wide, and 9 of the 16 highest mountains in North America. Although the weather was not great, it was good enough so that we could see some of the park in the 90 minutes we were up. Saw parts of two of the mountain ranges--the Chugach and the Wrangells, but the park is so enormous (13.2 million acres) that it is impossible to see it all in one short ride. We also saw part of the Bagley Ice Fields which are the size of the state of Connecticut!

The Wrangell mountains are jagged with sharp ridges--and we only saw parts of them. Mt. Wrangell is a dormant volcano. We flew over the Kennecott mine, but we didn't have a chance to walk to it, as we had to leave about 2:30 pm in order to get back here by 1:30 am as Jerri had to work the next day. We're definitely going back before we leave Alaska--if only to visit the old Kennecott Copper Mine. Hope to get some hiking in, too.

I'm attaching a few pics, just for fun. Our camping site is the blue dot just before the large river. On the other side of the river is the foot of the Root Glacier. The few cars on the other side of the river, near McCarthy, can get there only in the winter when the river is frozen over. Unfortunately this year the river didn't freeze completely, so they had to pile mounds of snow into the river, and then smooth them over to make a road!

Sally

Dear All,

This has been quite a summer. Two nights ago I saw the Northern Lights for the first time! I was in the Erratics on the computer and someone came in at midnight and said, "The lights are out". Of course I thought he meant the lights on the bathroom or one of the houses. It took a few minutes for me to realize that the reason several others had left the room was that he was talking about the Northern Lights. Well, out I went, and down to the bus yard, where I talked with the security guard and the two dispatchers, all of whom were standing outside with their heads to the sky. They pointed out wisps of white, barely visible, that could have been the Milky Way, and said that that was the way the lights began--they were starting to come out. Jerri was driving the last bus of the night, and I waited there for her to come in about 1 am. We then walked back to our room to put on every layer we could find of long winter underwear, fleece, wool socks, hats, gloves, etc., and went out to brave the cold and see the lights, By 2 am they were quite well out--and we got in Jerri's car and drove down the road into the Park to a turnout on the road where we could see the sky without interference from any lights. We stuck our heads up through Jerri's sun roof and watched. They were mostly in the east though they can be anywhere. They were like white wispy clouds--one was like an arch over the sky from horizon to horizon, but last night they were only white. They stay in one place for any time from one to 15 minutes, then fade, and appear somewhere else, maybe looking like a large comma, a piece of cotton, or any other shape. Sometimes they stick up like diamonds from the horizon and then move around--people say they are dancing then. We were out until about 3:30 am, when the sky began to get light in the east. Mars was huge, and I now understand why Alaska's flag carries the Big Dipper on its blue section--it's right overhead and huge. What a sky!

Am including a few other Alaskan scenes. One is from our trip out from Whittier on the Kenai--the others are from the Wrangell-St. Elias trip. As you can see we camped out near the river. McCarthy is a tiny town, but we hope to go back there for a few days before leaving for home. Will write more later--

Sally

Hi to all,

Well, fall has come to Alaska. We had several beautiful fall days--the trees are all turning--aspens yellow, and the tundra bright red in spots. In many places leaves have already fallen, and there was a hail storm out in the park a couple of days ago. But we've had spells of wet, cold wintery weather, when we could see new snow on the nearby peaks. Today it's raining, though not too cold.

Jerri and I traded our trip to Anchorage last weekend (which for us is Thursday and Friday) for a trip to Wonder Lake, 88 miles into the Park, where colors were supposed to be at their peak. It was almost our last chance to get out into the park, though we have reservations at Wonder Lake again for this weeked. We camped right in front of Denali, and though we thought it was going to rain, it turned out to be a perfect night, with Alpenglow on Denali and the Alaska range, and the stars and Mars so bright. The Big Dipper again was right overhead, with the Polar Star shining away in the Little Dipper. We met another camper--a nice man from New Hampshire, who agreed to wake us up at 12:30 am so we could see the Northern Lights, and he did, and we sat out together on the top of a hill freezing in the 32 degree temperature, but enjoying the Lights again. They were again at the eastern horizon, but there were spikes that resembled searchlights reaching up to the middle of the sky, and one large shape that moved across the sky like an animal crawling. We are still hoping to see some colors, but it is probably too early and too warm. The best lights are supposed to be in the middle of winter--we have seen some amazing photos.

Hiking out at Wonder Lake we saw bear scat, which is easy to spot since it is full of blueberries! Berries are the favorite food of bears, and on trips out into the park you can often see them eating away getting ready for hibernation. We also saw blueberries the bears hadn't found--they were small and sweet, and we were able to pick and eat some, despite the hailstorm that had knocked a lot off a couple of days before. Mosquitoes still in evidence despite 32 degree weather!

We are debating the wisdom of going out to WL campground again this weekend--we have a reservation, which is impossible to get right now, but it was so cold and icy in the morning that we think we may change it and go to Denali State Park, which we haven't visited yet. It would be a lot closer than the 11 hour round trip to WL.

Nothing much else to report--work goes on as usual--I am working about 6 1/2 hours a day, which works out just fine. This weekend is Labor Day, and we are very busy, but it should slack off by the 4th, when the bus schedules change again and many trips are cut out. Some of our friends have already left-- especially the students and school bus drivers. We're debating how to get back- -have scotched the idea of a a four-day boat trip to Bellingham, Washington and now the options are to drive 2500 miles or to fly home from Anchorage. In any case, our last day of work is the 11th, though since that is our day off, we can leave before that. Will keep you all posted.

Attaching some recent photos.

Mom/Sally

Hi to all,

Winter is here--it's really cold every day and night with snow on the tops of nearby mountains every night. Yesterday we had to scrape the windshield and windows on the car before we could drive out. The fall foliage is still gorgeous, and the moose are in rutting season--we drove 7 miles into the Park last night and saw the size of their antlers, which have turned totally white. With the weather clearing up we were able to see Denali in the sunset from many miles away.

Our final trip deep into the Park was last Friday--we would love to skip work today and go in again--it's a perfect, sunny cold fall day, but duty calls. We are hearing about lynx being seen--if I'm here next year I'll definitely be out there hiking in the back country.

Last night we went out seven miles into the park to see the Northern Lights again--it's hard to get up at 1 am but worth it. The lights were bright behind the mountains, and we could see some rays coming up every once in a while. The stars once again were amazingly bright--the Milky Way so flat and white. I tried to locate the Andromeda Galaxy per instructions from Charles, and may have been successful.

It's quieting down here, with more people leaving every day. My last day of work is tomorrow (hooray!), and at this point I have decided to come home by plane, not car, though who knows--I may yet change my mind and drive the 3000+ miles to San Francisco with Jerri. However, right now I will leave Anchorage Friday the 12th at 2 am; go through Seattle, and will be back in Boston at 5 pm. It's been a great summer--a real adventure, as you may have gathered. I'm already beginning to think about next summer and ways to escape the Boston heat. I look forward to seeing all of you (and others for whom I haven't had e- mail addresses).

My New Husky Friend (from my visit to Jeff King's kennels)

Mom/Sally

Dear Friends and Family,

I have decided to drive through the Yukon Territory and over the Top of the World Highway with my friend Jerri--we will see more of Alaska, more Northern Lights and hopefully no snow. We leave tomorrow afternoon through Fairbanks to our first stop--Tok. Communications will be even more difficult for the next few days, so expect me in the Bay Area in a couple of weeks.

Love to all,

Mom/Sally