"This is How People Die in Alaska!"

To get a different perspective on the U.S.'s largest national park, we spent an awesome day on the river with three goofy but adorable and knowledgeable guides! We started out helping a local get his ATV and payload unstuck. Then got geared up and out on the Kennicott River.

We rafted (though not like we really had to do anything) through beautiful canyons w/good fall foliage on a spectacularly clear day. The Kennicott river joins up with the Nizina River and we continued on the Nizina. Our guide Dale (who has a M.S. In civil engineering) was very knowledgable about the river and the local geology which made the trip even more interesting. Dale also let each of us take a turn w/the oars...though my recent rowing lessons were useless. Given that you move the raft forward, and the oars weighed a ton, I didn't have the strength or coordination for the task. I did however have new appreciation for Dale!

The guides put out a fabulous lunch spread, complete w/hot chocolate and peanut butter brownies made by Dale. Oh, and he sang us Broadway musical songs too. When we got to the end, our bush plane picked us up and flew us back to McCarthy. Our pilot happened to be the owner of Wrangell Mountain Air. Only 2 other people were on the trip, so we had 4 women passengers with male guides. One of the women kept saying, in response to just about everything, "this is how people die in AK!".


After our rafting trip, back at the B&B, I asked John to explain to me how living off the grid worked. He enthusiastically took me on a tour of the garage to see the generator and the basement to see the batteries and other equipment that helped to store some electricity. Marj quickly followed, not sure that me going off on a tour of the basement w/John was such a good idea! He uses propane to heat the water and the gas stove, and he has a wood burning stove and an oil stove. He says it depends on the weather, but he usually runs the generator about an hour each day to charge the batteries.

All in all, it was another great day in WSE.