I write from an RV park near the now ghost town of Portage.  Typical of many Alaskan towns it coalesced about a native village near where gold was discovered.  There was not much gold and then given that there was not much other reason for it to exist, it disappeared.  And so the forest returns.

We’re finishing our last day in the Denali region.  We’ve enjoyed it all.  Watching glaciers pouring from the Alaska Range, a moose with calf in the parking lot, alpine tundra in bloom, the gaudy green of Alaska forest and tundra in June, and even a few mosquitoes.  This afternoon we topped it off with a tour flight to the edge of the summit of Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley, the Big One, etc.)  The glaciers flowing off of the big one are very big ones. 

Saturday (June 17) afternoon in Palmer and I am taking a break during this day of chores.  We arrived safely last evening at the Anchorage Airport after our five days in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.  We may now say we have visited the Aleutian Islands.   Dutch Harbor is a beautiful place with rather awful weather.  At the time of our arrival, however, the weather was pleasant, and the view when landing was spectacular.  The plane turned in from the sea between two ranges of mountains and descended over the blue bay.  Waterfalls rained off the green cliffs. 

We’re back for a day after jumps to Gambell and Nome.  Jumps through space and climate.  We met our tour group in an airport hotel at Anchorage.  After a night on a wide bed we flew to rural Nome via Alaska Airlines and then on to Gambel via Bering Air.  There we walked off the plane and on into town finding views of Red-necked Stint and Lesser Sand Plover in the “airport lagoons.  Along the way we began to experience the wonderful round gravel that makes up the bar that underlies the town of Gambell.  It refuses to compact and is displaced underfoo

We have returned from Valdez where we enjoyed several fine days of touring with Alex.  Our arrival found the harbor town beneath a layer of clouds that shrouded the peaks that wrap all around. 

Wednesday afternoon.  The wind is blowing.  It is raining and it is 54 degrees in the afternoon.  The wimpy residents of Alaska are grousing.  Will spring never come?  We, who don’t know any better feel that it is supposed to be always cold in Seward’s Icebox.  So, we took a hike this morning from the Eagle River Nature Center.  Struck out on bear, despite warnings of their presence, and saw only moose and a marvelous dipper bird.

I’m itching to get out but we’re sitting in the rig.  Anne is on the phone with Elley.  Outside huge flakes of snow are falling gently and ornamenting the spruce trees and our Blue car, Candy, with blotches of white.  The ground is getting blotchy too.  I guess the fire danger is no longer “high” as reported on the park service sign at the entrance to the Nabesna Road.

Enjoyed a great stay in Skagway.  Saw it turn from a ghost town to a boom town when the cruise ship passengers streamed into town.  They boarded trains, buses, tour vans, and even Hummers to go up to White Pass.  We took our car to watch them unboard, shiver, and stair into the white.  Then they took pictures of the wild, pictures of each other, and pictures of themselves.  They had entered upon what seemed to them all the Arctic and it touched them.  We drove on and stopped to make short walks along the road.  Off road was a few feet of slushy over a vici

This is the town where landed many of the prospectors (stampeders) hopeful for that find of color in the Yukon Territory of Canada.  The Canadian government made as a requirement of entry the possession of a year’s worth of provisions.  These had to be relayed over the 3,700 foot high Chilkoot Pass and down to a lake.  There they could raft to the Yukon River and float the rapids to Dawson City.  Ambitious souls.  We will drive over the top.  That will be challenge enough. 

We’re tired after our first day of touring and birding the Juneau area.  The generator and furnace are on.  Anne is frying fresh salmon.  All is well.  We were surprised to wake up to sunshine this morning.  The forecast was for storm.  Some of that came through the night.  The seasonal employee we met this morning told us that here forecasts are only suggestions for the weather.  It seldom follows them.  I told him we changed our plans because of it.  He said that was wise.