Spending a few days at the start of the Team Alaska trip in Anchorage afforded the chance to take a day trip out to Talkeetna. Don once again leapt to the fore and organised a hire car and performed the duties of chauffeur and tour guide.

Talkeetna is an Alaskan picture postcard frontier town about 180km from Anchorage by road. Pop culture has it that Talkeetna is the town that the 90’s tv show Northern Exposure modelled the show’s tv town ‘Cicely’ on. This may or may not be totally true and the show was definitely not filmed there (it was filmed in Canada). Regardless of the facts it is a very pretty little town full of atmosphere and Alaskan weather.

We wandered around Talkeetna looking into the various stores, enjoying the town atmosphere and even strolling in the drizzle that seemed to be perfectly appropriate given the frontier feel of the town. We also discovered a small photo gallery specialising in Aurora Borealis photography; the photographer using Talkeetna as a base for their quest. For lunch, we chowed down at the Denali BrewPub on burgers, fries, beers, etc.

Eagle River Nature Center

On the way to Talkeetna we drove past the Eagle River Nature Center, which is a State Park wildlife/wilderness area. This was our first opportunity to take a hike and experience the beauty of Alaska’s wild environment. We discovered, in Anchorage, that TeenyPeeny was not a fan of small planes and we also discovered here that he had a deep seated fear of being mauled to death by a bear. This is not normally a problem in Australia but bubbled pretty quickly to the surface when we were reading the noticed boards and noted that there had been recent bear activity in the immediate area.

Not daunted…the team bravely headed off on one of the loop walks for a spot of Alaskan nature. Needless to say, we witnessed the breathtaking beauty of mountains, streams, muskeg, forest and waterfalls. We were hoping to see moose, elk or caribou, even bear (in the distance, except for TeenyPeeny) but alas, the wildlife didn’t show for us on this occasion; not even a beaver.

The scenery more than made up for it though. There was a hollow tree that easily swallowed four of us, except TeenyPeeny who was on constant bear watch. We walked along part of the original Iditarod Trail, immortalised by the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The group returned to the carpark and learned that a bear had indeed passed through the carpark only moments earlier according to some other visitors but again Team Alaska did not bear witness to said bear. Needless to say, TeenyPeeny was keen to get back in the car and get going again…

So… TeenyPeeny, Cankles, Pretzel and AndRob flew out of Sydney on the 14^th May, 2016 and, after a few hours stopover in Honolulu, finally landed in Anchorage, Alaska on Sunday, 15^th May at 5:00am in the morning. Despite arriving at 5:00am there was a courtesy phone for our hotel, the Lakefront Anchorage Hotel, and we were picked up by a hotel minibus and at the hotel by 6:00am. What’s more… our rooms were ready and we were able to check-in straight-away.

Our first impressions were that the hotel was perfection, a dark timbered lobby and hallways with various stuffed animals including bears, elk, musk ox, etc. The hotel itself is situated on the waterfront of Lake Spenard with magnificent lake views from the bar, dining area and outdoor courtyard. A breathtaking way to start our trip.

Pachos and Don were arriving a little later from Washington D.C. so the four of us had previously planned to shake off any jetlag by walking down to Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant for a good ol’ American breakfast. It didn’t disappoint with plenty of pancakes, drip filter coffee, bacon, eggs, maple syrup, biscuits, sausage gravy and grits. By the time we returned to the hotel Pachos and Don had arrived and Team Alaska was formed.

Lake Spenard

Anchorage is located on the coastline but also has a number of lakes nearby. The Lakefront Anchorage Hotel is located on the shore of Lake Spenard, which has been joined with Lake Hood to create the world’s largest floatplane base. The hotel patio area fronts the lake and a float plane operator docks there every evening offering sightseeing flights after giving a talk and inspection of his floatplane. Our group, minus TeenyPeeny, booked a flight the following day and the pilot generously offered us a five minute city loop flight right then and there as a taster.

Taking off and landing in the float plane was smooth as silk and both flights were an excellent way to get a first feel for the beauty of Anchorage and the vastness of Alaska. TeenyPeeny, who is not fond of light aircraft, elected to stay at the hotel and have his first experience with U.S. style bar service and tipping etiquette.

We took a walk around part of the lake shore near the hotel, inspecting numerous private floatplanes tied up at the many little moorings. Alaskans go on a waiting list for years to get a floatplane mooring on Lake Spenard and have to prove that they own a floatplane to prevent speculators from corrupting the market. It seems that floatplane ownership is nearly as prevalent as car ownership in this part of Alaska.

Sightseeing Anchorage

Over the years Pachos has visited a great many of the Hard Rock Cafes around the world so it was inevitable that Team Alaska would end up in Hard Rock Anchorage (it has unfortunately closed since our trip). It was a great place to cheers the start of our odyssey and start to explore Anchorage.

Downtown Anchorage is an attractive mix of city, country and frontier all rolled into one. It has modern buildings as well as the stereotypical Alaskan weatherboard clad timber buildings. The town centre atmosphere was relaxed, inviting and tourist friendly. Don being a keen cyclist organised a group bike hire, which proved to be an excellent way of seeing a variety of Anchorage locations at our own pace and our own discretion. The bike tour had a rough start when Pretzel accidentally cut-off Pachos when crossing onto a path causing Pachos to take a tumble. But trooper that she is Pachos re-mounted her bike and continued without further incident.

It turned out to be quite a tour taking in a part of the Anchorage coastline with magnificent views to Mount Denali. Another little surprise in the higher part of town was a frisbee golf course that boasted some of the most picturesque views you could possibly imagine. We watched a couple trying desperately to launch their discs in the strong winds but not having much success. The natural beauty of the frisbee golf course more than made up for it though.