Around the MT. Mckinley Princess Wilderness Lodge

Posted on July 3, 2013July 3, 2013 by Dusty Roads

This was my favorite lodge.

It may have been considered more remote but I thought it was much nicer than the Princess lodge we just left. After all, how many times have you opened a door with antlers for handles.

A shuttle takes you around the property and all of the drivers were great. A female moose gave birth to twins the day before we got there. The little ones were too small to move far so she was right there beside the road. The drivers always stopped so we could get a glimpse of her through the trees. Try as I might I couldn’t get a clear shot.

We even walked down in hopes of getting a shot without bus windows but for such a large animal, she and the babies were hidden well.

The lodge was afraid all the attention would stress Mama Moose and that she might charge and injure a guest in an attempt to protect her babies. They said if people kept going down there they would be forced to make her move so we only made the one attempt. We didn’t want her forced to move babies so young.

The main pastime at this lodge was Denali (Mt. McKinley) watching. They even had an alert system similar to a wake up call. If you wanted a call when the mountain was visible you signed up and got a phone call, no matter what time, when the clouds cleared and the mountain could be seen.

I must have been getting tired at this point because there was a horse drawn wagon ride that I wanted to take but I forgot all about it until we were boarding the bus to leave!

We didn’t do any tours here. I was on the courtesy internet quite a bit wrapping up details of my job offer so that I could be sure to have a job when I got back from vacation. They had a great gift shop with some of the most unique and reasonably priced souvenirs of our trip. We did quite a bit of shopping here.

Even though we were farther in to the interior or maybe because we were, spring was really springing here. Temps were getting up to 60+, almost breaking the 70 mark. That was the trigger for Alaska’s unofficial state bird to make it’s appearance.

These mosquitoes are huge and plentiful. One of our new friends had bug repellant plastic bracelets and shared some with us. To my surprise they worked.

Denali (the mountain) watching was really interesting. When we got up in the morning the sky over the Alaska range was overcast but the mountains, except for Denali stood out clearly.

The line of mountain tops was so well defined it was hard to believe there was a “missing mountain”. About mid- morning Denali suddenly popped out of the overcast.

Cloud banks drifted and shifted in front of her but that only added to her mystique.

We spent a relaxing morning mountain watching before we had to climb back on the bus for the last leg of our journey to Anchorage where we’d be reunited with our luggage and spend the night before our flight home and back to reality.

It’s 4 am! What am I doing up???

Posted on August 31, 2012August 31, 2012 by Dusty Roads

This was the day I had planned to drive up to Pemaquid. Everyone tells me that the best time to photograph the lighthouse is at dawn. My research makes me think I will have an hour and a half drive from Portland. That means if sunrise is 5:30 am I have to be on my way by 4 am.

Beep Beep Beep my cell phone alarm let me know that it was time to rise and shine. Boy was it dark! I peeked out the window and the reason for the extreme darkness (besides being 4 am) was that it was raining, hard and from the looks of the halos around the street lights it was foggy too. The storm predicted had finally arrived.

In that case there was only one thing to do….Go back to bed.

Nite….

I can’t believe it’s April!

Posted on April 9, 2012April 9, 2012 by Dusty Roads

I can’t believe its April 9 already. April Fool’s Day is behind us. Passover was Friday and Sunday was Easter and it’s still cold! After that mild winter I thought we’d be in a heat wave by now. At least it’s been sunny most days.

Still the problem with that is that now we’re having brush fires. The fire danger alerts are all at critical…in the red! And it’s only April! Some of the area is considered to be in a drought because there was no snow melt and, in stark contrast to the spring of 2010 when it rained so much we had flooding everywhere, each day now dawns nice and sunny. A few passing clouds may drop a few sprinkles but nothing near to what’s needed to wet down the soil and brushland. This is New England! Not Texas or Arizona which have been struggling with drought for the last few years. What is going on with the weather?

I feel like I’ve been neglecting this blog a bit since I came back from Florida. Trying to launch my little side business has been time-consuming. I have to laugh because I set up that little store at dustyroadsphotos.etsy.com and I am getting visitors to the site but so far no orders. What I’m finding is it’s all local folks that are checking it out to choose the cards they want and then they just tell me. That’s ok by me but I hope the word starts to spread beyond my “inner circle”.

I’m going to be adding custom decorator pillows and some prints to the line. I’m waiting to get my sewing machines back from the shop. I hadn’t done much sewing in the past few years so I wanted to have the machines cleaned and checked before I tried using them again. I am really excited about this idea so am quite anxious to get started.

When I was in Florida I was given a 4 day cruise for 2 from my time share. There were two hitches. 1) I have to pay the port fees (around $185.00 per person) and 2) The cruise has to be used within 18 months. I’ve been toying around with my schedule and vacation time and so on and I’m going to try to secure a date for next January. My friend Joe aka JR will be by cruise companion. We’ll be leaving from the Port of Miami and going to Cozumel. Once this is actually booked I’ll share more info on the itinerary.

I just got approved for some time off in July so I’m going to take a mini vacation in Maine. Just have to book the hotel. I’m looking at Portland as my “Base camp” for the 4 day get-away.

Late September is also in the works. I have approved vacation then to go to upstate New York to visit family and friends. There’s a hot air balloon festival in Glens Falls the weekend I’m going and my sister mentioned the Scenic Railroad trip through the Adirondacks. It’s still early in the planning stages.

And the Big Alaska Cruise is back in the works. Goal for that is now May/early June of 2013. We want to see baby animals so spring is the time for that.

So as you can see, there is some travel in the planning stages. My local jaunts have been curtailed a little by car issues and the demands of the new business but that was to be expected. Still I love my aroundustyroads.com blog and don’t want to neglect you either.

Thanks for hanging in with me during this slow posting period.

Mother Nature’s Message?

Posted on September 16, 2011September 16, 2011 by Dusty Roads

This is a little bit off my usual theme but I was watching the late news the other night and the weatherman (yes, it was a man) was commenting on the activity in the tropics and then mentioned that it is snowing in northern parts of Canada. He then went on to say that the most recent copy of the Farmer’s Almanac was out with the predictions for another hard winter.

His comments got me thinking of how “Mother Nature” had been in the news a lot this year or maybe I’ve just noticed it more. There are reality programs about tornadoes and tornado chasing (I wonder if I’d have the nerve to go on one of those trips for vacation?) that have become very popular over the past few years. The debate on Global warming continues while volcanos shut down air traffic with their ash clouds.

Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachman even wants us to think that at least some of the recent natural disasters are a message from God. In late August while speaking at a political rally in Florida she said: “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane…” Yes she was joking but maybe she has a point.

Have you heard of the Gaia hypothesis? I’ve always liked this theory. It appeals the primitive part of me that has a deep respect and affection for nature…not that I’d want to give up all of my modern conveniences…just make them more energy-efficient. But anyway the Gaia hypothesis proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. ( This is the definition listed on Wikipedia)

The Gaia Theory first showed up in the 1970’s and received a great deal of ridicule by the scientific community. How things have changed. Scientific investigation of the biosphere, the salinity of the oceans, global surface temperature, Ozone, oxygen levels and so on have developed into a number of earth sciences. There are even some religious offshoots connected with the theory.

Some of those treat the earth as a living organism and liken hurricanes and tornadoes and other natural disruptions as the mother earth trying to cleanse itself. Well, far be it from me to offer any opinion on that theory but the Jesus Blog has listed the natural disasters so far this year:

Earthquake magnitude 6.9 Argentina-January 1

Earthquake magnitude 5.2 – Southern XinJiang, China-January 1

Earthquake 7.1 magnitude Chile-January 2

More Than 1,000 Dead Birds Fall From Sky in Arkansas-January 2

Dead fish cover 20-mile section of Arkansas River-January 2

Uganda yellow fever outbreak kills more than 40-January 3

Earthquake Near Japan Triggers Tsunami Warning-January 3

Powerful earthquake hits south-east Iran-January 3

Earthquake 7.0 magnitude hits northern Argentina-January 3

Hundreds of dead blackbirds found in Louisiana-January 3

10,000s of Birds found dead in Manitoba-January 3

Thousands of Birds fall from the sky in South America-January 3

Major Flood in Rockhampto,Australia-January 3

Dead Birds Found In Kentucky-January 4

100 tons of dead fish wash up on Brazil’s shores-January 4

Hundreds of dead birds found in East Texas-January 5

Dead birds in Sweden, millions of dead fish in Maryland, Brazil and New Zealand-January 5

Shift of Earth’s magnetic north pole affects Tampa airport-January 5

40,000 crabs found dead on England beaches-January 6

Heavy floods leave at least 35 dead in Brazil-January 6

Earthquake 4.5 magnitude in California-January 12

Huge Waves Destroy Homes in E. Indonesia-January 12

Thousands of marine animals found dead in MATO GROSSO DO SUL/AMAZON Region-Febuary 4

Magnitude 6.3 earthquake– SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND-Febuary 21
Thousands of dead fish have washed up at Sebastian Inlet State Park Florida-Febuary
Millions of small fish including anchovies, sardines and mackerel were found dead at King Harbour area at Redondo Beach, California-March

Magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami devastating Japan-March 11

40ft section of California Highway falls into Pacific Ocean-March 16

Magnitude 3.5 earthquake – OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA-March 17

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake– Vanuatu- March 17

Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes northeastern Burma-March 23

Magnitude 6.8 earthquake hits Myanmar, Thailand-March 23

Magnitude 6.4 earthquake off the coast of Japan-March 25

Thousands of dead fish wash up in Florida-March 25

Hundreds of dead fish found in Midland,Texas-March 26

Hundreds of dead fish and frogs in Marquette Lagoon-April 1

Magnitude 5.4 earthquake in South Sandwich Islands Region-April 1

Magnitude 6.4 earthquake Fiji-April 3

Magnitude 6.7 earthquake in South of Java,Indonesia-April 3

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits Veracruz,Mexico-April 7

Dead birds fall into Kansas yard-April 8

Magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits shore of Japan-April 7

Dead fish found in Cedar Creek, Texas-April 10

Magnitude 6.5 and 6.2 earthquakes hit eastern Japan-April 11

Dead fish float up in 36 lakes in the state of Connecticut-April

Deadly Tornadoes hit N. Carolina and Virginia, at least 47 dead-April 16

Thousands of dead fish are hauled away in Lakeside,NY-April 27

A massive thunderstorm front spawned 137 tornadoes, killed at least 180 people, and mangled sections of Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Huntsville, Alabama-April
Dead fish wash up in San Tan Heights pond-May
Deadly Tornado hits Albany, New Zealand, at least 1 death-May 3

Major Mississippi flooding, destroys many homes-May
Dead fish found in Valsad district of south Gujarat-May 3,4

6.5 Magnitude Earthquake hits Papua New Guinea, Tsunami warning-May 15

Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano erupts,followed by small earthquakes-May 21

Deadly Tornadoes hit Minneapolis and Missouri-May 22

Deadly Tornadoes hits Oklahoma City-May 24

Chedeng exits Philippines, leaves 3 dead-May 28

800 tons of dead fish float ashore in Philippine fish farms-May 29

At least 10,000 metric tons of fish dead in Bolinao and Anda waters in Pangasinan-May 31

Deadly tornado hits Springfield, Massachusetts-June 1

Dead fish found in Ogeechee River-June 3

Dead fish wash up in Bulacan and Ilocos Sur-June 4

Volcano erupts in Chile for the first time in 50 years-June 6

Massive wildfires in Arizona,claimed more than 30 homes-June 8

6.0, 5.5 and 4.4 Magnitude Earthquakes hit Christchurch,NZ-June 11,12

Hundreds of dead fish float up in Delco Lake,Creek-June 15

Buildings,trees and mountains miraculously appear in a China lake (no explanation)-June 17

40 Tornadoes rip through Nebraska,Kansas-June 21

7.2 Magnitude Earthquake hits Fox Islands,Aleutian Islands,Alaska-June 24

Massive dust storm hits Pheonix-July 5

7.8 Magnitude Earthquake hits New Zealand-July 7

7.3 Magnitude Earthquake hits northeastern Japan-July 9

6.2 Magnitude Earthquake hits Philippines-July 11

Hundreds of fish found dead in lake in Kuantan-August 9

A ton of dead fish found in River Segura-August 9

Large number of fish found dead in Central China River-August 12

5.3 earthquake hits Colorado-August 22

5.9 earthquake hits Virgina, jolts NY and Carolinas-August 23

Hurricane Irene hits SC,NC,VA-August 26,27

Deadly Typhoon hits Taiwan and China-August 29

6.8 Magnitude Earthquake hits Alaska-September 2

6.7 Magnitude Earthquake hits Argentina-September 2

7.0 Magnitude Earthquake hits Vanuatu-September 3

6.6 Magnitude Earthquake hits Northern Sumatra, Indonesia-September 5

6.4 Magnitude Earthquake hits Vancouver-September 9

Floods in Pennsylvania-September 10

Texas Fire destroys 1,554 homes, 17 people missing-September 11

Whew! I’m glad they are tracking these and not me. But If the Gaia theory has any validity, and some mainstream scientists are starting to take note, I’d say we have a sick planet and we’d better start helping out. Break out the antibiotics for the earth or something! My sister and I need to get to Alaska before the glaciers melt!