July 11 Day 20 Alaska Trip

Leroy still is good friends with all the gang down at Denali Air, where he worked as a pilot for a couple of summers. We decided to pay them a visit after breakfast, so we did. The boss immediately asked Leroy and I if we wanted a ride, and we said "Oh Dear God, Yes!!!" Unfortunately, all of his planes were full up with paying customers through 6pm, otherwise we would have gone up for free, a bargain considering each person normally pays around $350 each for a Mt. McKinley tour. We hung around in Denali Park today instead. Leroy only had one engine failure since he started flying back in 1943 and wouldn't you know..., it was one time when he had a plane full of paying customers on a Denali Tour! While the plane was throwing piston rods through the engine block, he sat it down on the Park Road, without so much as a scratch. The passengers thought it was all part of the ride, mebbe to get a closer look at some wildlife or whatever. The road was the only place to land safely without trees or mountains. It was probably not something you want to happen to you more than once or twice in your whole lifetime. After that, we went over to watch the sled dog demo at Park Headwaters. Their sled dogs are heavier than the smaller race dogs used for the Iditaron, prolly weighing in around 80 pounds or more. The reason that Sled Dogs are still used in the park is because they never break down, in fact they work best at about ten degrees below zero, and they only need about $2 per day in food. The dogs pull sleds of supplies and perform search and rescue missions - or just provide an easy and reliable means of transportation in the park - they pull a steady 10 miles per hour with a loaded sled and musher. After the Ranger talk, he hitched up 5 dogs to a sled with plastic coated runners for use on dirt and off they went! They were so excited about getting to go! After that we left the park with Fairbanks as our destination, about 120 miles due north of the Park. Tomorrow we plan to reach the Artic Circle...