Tuesday July 13

I hear reports from home that Central Mass is experiencing a king sized heat wave, maybe even the hottest July on record. Here the temp rarely moves out of the 50’s, and I must say, I’m loving it.

By some fluke, I had satellite radio reception for about an hour today. Managed some live Howard, which was an unexpected treat.

Wanted to drive back down the Denali Highway to the spot where I first noticed the flat tire on my truck and fish a stream that looked really good. Fish Creek was good. The grayling were rising to dry flies and you could pretty much catch one on every cast. It was cold out and by the time I’d arrived back at the truck my hands were frozen. They got that itchy feeling as I thawed them out on the trucks heating vents. I had the entire stream to myself and it was a blast.

After fishing in the morning, I headed back towards Anchorage for some supplies.

I need to tell you about “The Milepost”. The Milepost is a book that describes every detail of the Alaskan road system. Using the book, one gets a narrated tour of what’s alongside the road pretty much everywhere you go. Using actual mileposts, literally every roadside occurrence is described to the reader, from gas stations, restaurants, descriptions of abandoned shacks, scenic views, where to see specific types of wildlife…even useless stuff like this: “MP 336 Couch on bluff to the west has giant stuffed animals.” (sure enough, there it was). Armed with “The Milepost”, the reader gains a familiarity with Alaska greater than one they currently possess of their own home town. I can’t imagine the amount of hours spent gathering info to put this type of book together. The volume of info it contains is staggering.

Stopped back in Talkeetna to take a shower and spend the night…..bought one of those rotisserie chickens for dinner … it was divine. I recall that the first person to tell me how good those whole, cooked, chickens tasted was my grandmother.