Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 29
Flight-Seeing Tour & Talkeetna to Anchorage to New York
That was a very nice night's sleep. Except that someone in New York (212 area code) decided to call me at 6am. I guess that's noon their time. It only figures that my first night back in civilization (and somehow Talkeetna qualifies as civilization after a month on the mountain), that I'd be woken up early in the morning by a phone call. Naturally, I ignored the call, and the subsequent voicemail and went back to sleep.
I called Delta and arranged to upgrade my return tickets to first class. If I can sleep the whole way home, I'll be a very happy and well-rested person when I arrive - instead of just being in pain and grumpy.
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I met up with Jerry and the Roadhouse for breakfast. I expected to see some of the others there as well. The orange juice I had was amazing. And so was breakfast, of course. I still stuck with a "half standard" breakfast. I don't think I could eat a full. Eric arrived as I was leaving. I've got to pack up my stuff and get ready for the flight-seeing tour. They're going to pick me up from the Teepee (otherwise I had no idea how I was going to get all of my stuff from the Teepee over to the airfield).
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The Talkeetna Aero van pulled up at the Teepee right as I was walking out of my room. That was rather convenient. They took me right to their office at the airfield and I was able to store my stuff (one heavy-duty black garbage bag which I instructed them not to open under any circumstances) and register for the flight. This is going to be great. Unless we break down somewhere on the mountain and I have to walk back. That'd suck.
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The flight was awesome. The plane isn't pressurized so they have these oxygen masks at every seat. I didn't wear mine because we're only going as high as the summit (or maybe slightly higher) and I was just at that altitude while carrying gear and walking up-hill - and while we're on this flight, I'm sitting. So, oxygen wasn't going to be a problem. The pilot informed me afterwards that I was the first person he'd ever seen do that. I guess most of the hikers don't take the flight-seeing tours. Their loss. It was really cool.
We flew right over 14k camp and 17k camp. I saw our igloo at 14k camp and where we had dug into the side of the hill at 17k camp. It was surreal flying over this area in minutes - that took us days to traverse on foot.
The van ride back to Anchorage hasn't left yet, so I'm going to catch a ride. I figured that I would miss it and have to take the train, so, this worked out rather conveniently.
My feet still hurt a lot though. And I'm still walking on the outside edges of them. Seriously limping going on. I'm sure traversing four airports for three connecting flights is going to be tons of fun.
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First class from Anchorage to Salt Lake City. Time to get some complimentary alcohol and go to sleep. Good night.