Continent's Highest Mountain...

Today was a good day of moving along with Bob from Cantwell to the entrance of Denali National Park. I saw three moose (two passed on the road right in front of me) and my parents were in the RV on a scenic overlook and saw a grizzly bear watching me from a distance – although I couldn’t see the bear. The route was rather hilly and headwinds beat at me for the final 8 miles. The day began with 25 degree temperatures and by dinner it was 74 degrees! The sun shone brightly all day and the blue skies made the mountains look wonderful. I’m surprised by the lack of snow here. There is no snow anywhere along the roads and even the mountains are pretty brown looking. Even with the warm weather Alaska has been having for the past week there should be more snow in this part of the state. Local residents are putting away the snowmobiles and breaking out their four wheelers for recreation. The Parks Highway, which I was on today, had quite a bit of traffic and I’m sure that kept some of the wildlife away from the roads.

Perhaps I’ll see more animals tomorrow when I get to actually run INTO the Denali National Park. Yes… I’ve changed the schedule due to a great opportunity. For the first two weeks of May the state of Alaska opens up a usually restricted road into the park and allows people to go deeper into the park in private vehicles (or in my case, pushing a stroller). So, tomorrow I am going to run into the park rather than running toward Anderson as originally planned. I’ll essentially be going 26 miles, beginning at the park headquarters. I'll go deep into the park where there are plenty of caribou, wolves, bears, moose, and more animals. Hopefully the nice weather will hold on another day, and the winds that are currently blowing will subside. I have not had an Internet connection since Friday (May 1) and am sorry that I’ve been unable to post pictures and videos. I hope to be able to do that tomorrow (Monday, May 4).

The journal entries for the past three days have been e-mailed in one message on Sunday evening to my friend, Rob, via a VERY limited Internet connection that I was able to pick up in a parking area near the Denali National Park. So, there will be a change of plans for the rest of this trek with respect to some locations and daily distances. I’ll still log 500 miles in 17 days on the pavement for this journey, but a few adjustments will occur at this point.

Here is the revised schedule for the rest of this trek:

Monday, May 4 – 26 miles into Denali National Park.

Tuesday, May 5 – 35 miles from Healy to Anderson, and then transport 27 miles to Nenana, Alaska.

Wednesday, May 6 – 30 miles from Nenana to 25 miles west of Fairbanks.

Thursday, May 7 – No Running (transport to milepost 85 of Dalton Highway).

Friday, May 8 – 30 miles from milepost 85 on Dalton Highway to Arctic Circle.

Saturday, May 9 – Transport to Fox, Alaska (but will run the last 9 miles into Fox).

Sunday, May 10 – 25 miles from Fox to North Pole, Alaska.

Monday, May 11 – 44 miles from North Pole to mid-point on way to Delta Junction, Alaska.

Tuesday, May 12 – 29 miles of running to Delta Junction, Alaska (the finish line!).

To date, I have logged 272 miles in 10 running days. I’m over halfway done with this trek! I’m looking forward to the rest of the journey and am so proud of how well the participating teams are doing. Keep up the great work! I appreciate the kind notes in the Guestbook and I will certainly try to get the past few days of pictures and videos on the site as soon as possible.

That's all from this Alaska milepost! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to run back here tomorrow.