Today is a rest day in Talkeetna. I stayed in bed until 9 but didn't sleep well because the restaurant below was very noisy starting at 7 AM. A large crowd arrived by bus and will leave later in the morning on the train.
I had a late breakfast burrito at the Roadhouse, and a piece of quiche from the bakery for lunch.
I stayed in town all day. The bike stayed locked in the barn in back. I leisurely explored the historic district and the trails around town. Probably never went more than half a mile from the Roadhouse.
The only boarded up log cabin on the main street. Note the dado joints.
I walked a trail leading north of town and discovered the railroad bridge that I didn't find yesterday. The bridge crosses the Talkeetna river, a large tributary of the Susitna river. A narrow pathway on one side of the bridge is shared by pedestrians and ATV's. The village of Chase is 5 miles across the river, accessible only by this trail, by boat, or float plane.
From the bridge I had a good view of the boat landing area for Mahay's Jet Boat tours. I planned to do a 3 hour tour today but the weather forecast called for afternoon thunderstorms. I didn't do the tour, but the afternoon weather actually turned out to be very nice. I should have done the boat tour.
I took a short afternoon nap and spent some time just sitting in my room watching the tourists walk by below. Still interesting to see how they mostly come and go in waves. Speaking English, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese.
I wasn't bored, though. Walking the forested trails was very interesting. Nice to see the plants up close. Most of the plants are unfamiliar to me. One signature characteristic of sub-arctic plants is extremely large leaves.
Some plants in Alaska have extremely large leaves.
Dinner was at the Pizza/Brewery Company across the street from the roadhouse. Reindeer sausage pizza and a couple of Alaskan Icy Bay IPA's (top quality beer from Alaskan brewing company in Juneau). The pizza place seems to be the most popular watering hole for the younger crowd.
Pizza restaurant and brewery across the street from my roadhouse.
The weather was mostly sunny from 3 to 7 PM. The clouds got high enough to faintly see a few mountains, but not high enough to see the really big mountains.
A partial view of the Alaska range looking across the Susitna river. Still no Denali. Yesterday I saw no mountains.
The path to the river was dry yesterday, but the big storm last night caused one swale to be full of water today. So today it's necessary to boulder-hop part of the trail from town to the river. The weather was delightful from 9-10 PM. Everybody was out enjoying the final golden rays of sun.
Enjoying the final rays of sun on the river shore.
