We are currently at Riley Creek Campground at Denali--Bear Loop, Site #9. Anyone else close by?
Had a GREAT 45th anniversary dinner at Simon & Seafort's in Anchorage on Sunday.
Also spent way too much time on the 4th floor of the Anchorage Museum viewing an exhibit of photos on the "Wrangell Mountain Boys." This was a nickname given Alaska's first bush pilots, who began their careers flying geologists for the USGS and mining companies doing mineral exploration in the Wrangells during the late 1920's and early '30's. This is when they perfected landing on glaciers with skis, on sandbars and tundra with big balloon tires, and up mountainsides to slow their speed. When Kennecott Mining pulled out of Alaska in 1938, that work ended. But two years later most of them were flying for Morrison-Knudson on War Dept. construction projects (because the Army Air Corps refused to take any of them as pilots!). After the war, they started Alaska Airlines, Reeve Aleutian Airways, and Wien Consolidated Airways. Wonderful exhibit that ends Aug. 25, so hurry down if interested in Alaska's bush pilots.
