Paul & "Bob" in Wild Alaska...

Hello from Denali National Park! As you can see, I've made a change to the schedule so that I could fit in today's 26-mile day into Denali National Park. This was a great opportunity for me to run deep into one of America's most magnificent parks. To see the revised schedule, go back and look at yesterday's journal entry!

The day began with clouds (the first clouds I've seen in several days). The morning started out rather cool, but warmed up to around 58 degrees by mid-afternoon. The first mile of today's trek into the Park was quite a challenge in that it was up a 10% grade! That's pretty steep! Then, the route continued to climb for 6 more miles... all uphill... and rather difficult. I gained 1,300 feet in elevation just in the early miles of today's route. However, the scenery was magnificent and I saw quite a few rabbits, ptarmigan, caribou and even a large moose. My parents were up ahead of me most of the day in the RV and saw a grizzly bear in the distance. However, for me the highlight of the day was when I was going down the road alone at around mile 15. I spotted a group of 7 caribou off to my right about a quarter mile ahead... grazing and eating. I ran down to get closer and they came up to the roadside where I was and crossed the road about 30 yards in front of "Bob". I got some great pictures and enjoyed watching these wild animals in their natural setting.

Overall, today was one of the most wonderful days I've ever had on the road during a P.A.C.E. Trek because I was in an amazing place that was great to experience. Denali National Park can make you feel incredibly small, and you quickly realize that you are simply a visitor that is passing through. The land belongs to everything wild that lives there, and there certainly is a lot that is wild! All day long my brain was working hard... watching my pace, monitoring my body's performance, reading the road's elevation gains/losses, watching for wildlife, taking in water/food, and more. It was also a challenging day from a physical standpoint. My knees took a pounding with all of the steep inclines... both up and down. I'll do my usual icing treatment tonight and will be ready for another day on the road.

It was a good day and I am connected to a limited Internet connection which is not fast enough to be able to upload the many pictures I've taken for the past four days. I know that many of you want to see pictures, but please keep in mind that I am in a remote part of Alaska. In fact, I have quite a bit of laundry that I need to do but we cannot find a place to wash it. So, it will be another evening of washing out running socks in the sink. I will certainly post pictures just as soon as I can. However, before signing off for today I want to say how pleased I am with how well the teams are doing on this trek. Several teams have already logged the 500 miles... and are still going. Other teams are pacing along with me well and it's a great feeling to know that there are thousands of kids virtually running and walking right along with me. I'll keep pushing forward and I only have about 200 miles of this trek left. In fact, one week from tomorrow I will be crossing the finish line in Delta Junction! Whew! This has been a great run so far and I'm looking forward to what the final week has in store. Stay tuned!

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