Greetings from the Holodeck in Whitehorse (pop. 23,000), the capital of Canada's Yukon Territory and home to most of the territory's 34,000 people. The Holodeck is a computer place with a Star Trek theme. I like it.
After I said goodbye to my 13 Taiwanese friends, I headed back down to Girdwood to visit Sue and relax. We took a couple of saunas, went for a really steep hike and did not do too much else. I also got ready for my next trip.
On the 2nd of August, at 11:56 p.m., I picked up my new passengers, 13 people from Spain. I took them back to the campground and they fell asleep in the tents that I had spent all afternoon putting up. This group was the reason I got the Alaska trips. They booked through a Spanish agency and I am the Spanish speaking guide that was provided. I think they understand most of what I say, at least I do.
They are older than a normal Trek group, in their 30's, 40's and 50's. I prefer groups of this age. They don't get as bored when they have free time and show some initiative when it comes to helping out around camp.
When we all go up in the morning, I gave the Spanish version of my first day speech and then we headed downtown. We looked around Anchorage for a while and even saw the top of Mt. McKinley in the distance. That night we went back to camp. My friend Fiona arrived in Anchorage that night, but neither of us had phone numbers to contact each other. I knew she was getting a hotel room near the airport, so I did what anyone would do when they wanted to find a friend in a state's biggest city. I went from hotel to hotel asking for her and found her in a little over half an hour. It was nice to see her again, even for such a short time and I look forward to travelling with her in South America this winter. Fiona is doing a different Trek trip and, unfortunately, I won't see her again up here.
The next morning my new group and I headed north, to Denali National Park. We saw the dog sled demonstration. On our free day we took flights over the park and some went rafting. The next day we took the shuttle bus into the park to look for animals and hike. We saw a grizzly bear next to a river and the bus stopped so we could look. The bus refused to start and we spent well over two hours watching the bear until a new bus arrived. We continued on, saw some sheep, caribou and a few more bears. In the afternoon, I took 12 of my passengers on a hike up a hill and fun was had by all.
In Denali National Park, when you are done hiking, you have to stop a shuttle bus and ask for a ride. After our hike we stopped the next bus and it only had 12 seats available. My whole group got on and I found myself alone in the middle of one of America's largest National Parks. I started walking the 40 miles back, but after only about one mile another bus came and I got a ride. We had a good pizza dinner and called it a day.
From Denali, we headed up to Fairbanks and had a good salmon bake. We also looked around the city, the museum and the Large Animal Research Station, where they keep some muskox. We spent a night in Tok before taking the Top of the World Highway over to Dawson City. We went to the Downtown Saloon for Sourtoe Cocktails, but no one wanted one. Captain Bill has a preserved human toe that he puts in your drink. You are only supposed to touch it with your lips, but it does occasionally get swallowed.
The next day, we went to the gold mining dredge and a viewpoint before having a free afternoon to explore the goldrush town. I, of course, took advantage of some free time in a city with cheap Internet and updated my page a bit. After that we stopped at a few sights along the road and ended up here, in Whitehorse. This is a free day for them again and I am at the Holodeck, home of the four Canadian dollars per hour Internet place.
This brings us up to today. More some other day.
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