When you walk, you notice more. Some of the old establishments are closed and for sale. The Sunset Strip and Fantasyland Video have both lost their niche market and are shuttered. We passed a few Baptist churches.
There is no trail to NP from Fairbanks, so we had to follow the Richardson Highway, staying mainly on access roads, but walking along 4 wheeler/snowmachine trail along the highway for about 2 of the miles. The first 3 miles out of Fairbanks bordered the Army artillery range where I qualified on a .45 handgun when I was in the Army. Stay Out! No trespassing! Rookies and misguided youth with deadly weapons.
At some point, we followed the dike parallel to the road. The mound hid a few little lakes and some prime moose browse, but we didn't see any mammals- just a few birds.
After not hiking for a few months, we missed it, but we were out of shape. The NP sign was welcome and we staggered into the Pagoda for some Chinese food before taking the bus back to Fairbanks. The bus had shaded windows, but we had the ambiance of the rowdy teenagers in back who were coming to town to get to Walmart.
The small sign on the fence says "Keep Out". We went into NP anyway.
Paul "Garageman" wanted to hike up a mountain and stay overnight in a tent. Maybe next time. We enjoyed the day out and the long walk, but the scenery wasn't that great and neither were the traffic sounds.
1 comment:
Hi Pat!
Just wanted to say, "Hello." Was looking through my bookmarks last night and had forgotten I had bookmarked your blog back in your AP trail days. :)
Had fun reading your posts last night. Stay well! Hope to see you around town one of these days.
- Carly
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