Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 02
Traveling to Talkeetna
I'm back at the airport - the group's designated meeting place. I'm going to be hanging out here for the next four hours. Joy. I have a rubik's cube, a computer science book and an iPod. I'm guessing I probably won't touch the book. I didn't bother to load any movies onto my iPod before leaving. Sucks.
I haven't spotted any other climbers yet. There's a guy sleeping near me. He has a lot of stuff, but based on his pudginess, I'm guessing that he isn't part of the group.
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Just finished talking to the guy who was sleeping near me. Although he wasn't sleeping when I spoke with him. He saw all of my stuff and came over and asked if I was, going to McKinley as well. I very enthusiastically said that I was. Turns out that he meant the town of McKinley, or something like that. He is doing the same thing Mark is doing (Princess Tours) and is going to be a cook/maintenance guy.
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There's this guy here at baggage claim with a big duffel bag. He tried to get one of those baggage cart things that cost $3. First he went to the wrong end and pulled unsuccessfully for a while. Then he went to the correct end and again pulled unsuccessfully for a while. Then I think he realized that you're supposed to pay. I suspect he is part of my group.
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My week+ of facial hair growth is coming along well. My face should be nicely protected from the harsh cold. It's like a natural balaclava.
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We're on the road to Talkeetna. We all met up at baggage claim as planned. We're going to stop at some grocery store called Carr's. I'm thinking about getting tortillas, cheese and salami. And maybe some lunch - all I've had is airplane food and bad pizza for the past two days.
It's cloudy off in the distance, so while we can see the low peaks of the front range, we can't see any of the high peaks. We'll be able to see the highest of the peaks, up close, real soon, so I'm not too disappointed.
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So, Talkeetna is small. We got checked in at the Tee Pee (the hotel), and the remainder of the evening is ours. We're supposed to meet up at 07:30 at the Roadhouse for breakfast and introductions and then we'll get to gear checks after breakfast.
The guides and all of the other clients seem very cool. This should be a good trip. The plan is to fly out to the Kahiltna glacier (where base camp is) on Thursday morning.
It's surprising to note that I have excellent AT&T service. And then I saw the cell phone tower across the street from the hotel. I wasn't expecting any cell phone service. Also, the hotel has free wifi, which I find even more surprising. The TV in my room gets two stations, and poorly at that. That's more along the lines of what I expected.
