Thursday August 26 2004

Well, what a night!

It must have been 2 or 3 am when a crack of thunder just about lifted me to the tree tops, it was right overhead and so loud.
A lot of lightning close by and the rain is pounding down so hard I had a hard time getting back to sleep.

I have a good tent, has been through a lot of weather and storms and been very dependable. There was so much water coming down and the ground was saturated that it started to come up through the floor.

I jumped up when I realised that the bottom of my sleeping bag along with anything else that was on the floor of the tent was now waterlogged.

I get to the bike, put on my rain gear and begin to empty the wet contents over to the picnic table shelter, wring it all out, break camp and try to stuff all this wet gear back into their stuff sacks, not an easy task.

From here I load the bike up and drive to the Talkeetna Hostel.
I recieve a warm, friendly greeting from the owner Heather.
She lets me dry my things, I book into a dorm bed and have a nice cup of hot tea.

The forecast is not good for the next 2 or 3 days. Wet and more wet.

It is a real homey type of hostel with nice guests, so it is real easy to be here while the weather is bad.
There are no flights as visibilty is bad, I get aquainted with the other people staying here and drink tea.

Thursday & Friday is spent checking out the town, listening to a park ranger tell about Mt. McKinley and climbing expeditions to it.

I visit the local cemetery and read all the names of climbers who have died attempting to climb Mt. McKinley from many countries of the world. I was surprised of just how many have died attempting to get to the top.

This is a real cool town to hang out for awhile and meet friendly people everywhere.

I will check early tomorrow morning to see if the weather breaks and flights are going to Mt. McKinley