July 22--Rafting the Talkeetna River

After a good night’s rest, Alan and Joyce were leaning toward taking the float trip. We went back to the tour desk and discovered there was one scheduled at 11 a.m. We would need to take a shuttle bus into the town of Talkeetna by 9. There wouldn’t be time after the float trip to get back to the lodge to catch the bus to Anchorage, but the Princess representative was willing to arrange transportation from Talkeetna to a gas station at the junction with the main highway where we could meet the bus on its way from the lodge to Anchorage. We decided to take the float trip. Forst and Louise decided to stay at the lodge and take advantage of the talks given by rangers on Alaskan history.

Alan and Joyce took the shuttle bus to Talkeetna, the small town that was used as a model for the town in the TV show Northern Exposure. Joyce was surprised not to find any of the landmarks from the TV show, including the picture of the moose on the side of a building. We had about an hour to look around before the float trip. We visited several small shops, including a quilt shop.

We suited up in boots, rain gear and life jackets and climbed in the rubber raft. We floated with our guide, Travis, who also did all the rowing and guiding the boat and a woman from the Netherlands who was on a 9 week tour of the United States. If you happen to have a copy of the book listing the eligible bachelors of Talkeetna for 2008, you would recognize him as the #1 bachelor!

We began on the Talkeetna river, which is a glacial fed river, so the water was a light gray milky color from the glacial silt. We saw several species of birds and eagles. We saw evidence of moose and several beaver dams. Travis floated us a little way up several smaller fresh water streams that fed into the Talkeetna river. As the water from the stream mixed into the Talkeetna it looked like stirring cream into coffee.

On one of the streams, a beaver had built a dam completely across the stream. The water level on the other side of the dam was approximately 4 feet higher. Travis edged the raft right up to the dam for a good look.

Our float trip ended as the Talkeetna river flowed into the Susitna, a much larger river. After some mild excitement getting stuck on a gravel bar and then floating past the planned exit point, Travis exerted a little more effort and deposited us upriver at the planned spot and we posed for pictures.

Buddy, the photographer, driver and person who made sure our life jackets fit appropriately, was a Purdue chemistry graduate who had lived the high-powered corporate life and left it all for the peaceful quiet Alaskan wilderness. He shared some great pictures of wildlife that had been taken on earlier float trips that season, including an incredible view of Mt. McKinley taken where we exited the water. We did not get to see the mountain due to low clouds and rain.

We walked back to the Princess tour office in Talkeetna, while sharing a delicious raspberry cinnamon roll and met the man who was taking us to Sunshine to rendezvous with our bus. He was giving another Princess employee a ride back to the McKinley lodge after we met our bus.

We arrived about 45 minutes before the bus and had a chance to talk about working for Princess while we waited. During our vacation we met several retired people and young college age people driving buses, guiding people to their tours, working in quilt shops in Skagway, etc. Alan and Joyce think working for Princess from mid-May to mid-September might be a fun way to spend a few years of their retirement. When Alan learned that after working two summers we could take any Princess cruise for $15 a day, he was almost ready to sign up for next year!

Alan and Joyce met the bus without incident, and the trip to Anchorage was uneventful. We arrived at the Captain Cook Hotel between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. The hotel was very nice. Our rooms were on the 17th floor with a nice view of the city of Anchorage and the Chugach Mountains in the distance.

After a brief rest, Alan did some checking on possibilities for dinner. The Glacier Brewhouse, about 3 blocks from the hotel had been highly recommended by the bus driver on the trip from the Mt. McKinley lodge. Alan called nd was told the earliest reservation was for 8 p.m. which was longer than most of us wanted to wait. Instead, we all enjoyed a pleasant dinner in the hotel.

After Forst and Louise retired, Alan and Joyce took advantage of the long hours of daylight to take in a couple souvenir shops a few blocks from the hotel to look for last minute gifts and bargains.