Any grievances I had against the weather gods are completely forgiven after the past three days. Woke up this morning with not a cloud in the sky — the mountain stood out perfectly, and I grabbed a camera and headed out to grab some photos of Denali reflected from the lake. In the afternoon I did a bit of hiking down the McKinley Bar trail to the hugely braided river at the base of the Muldrow glacier. It was odd — having a trail actually somewhat lessens the nature experience since suddenly there is a path and a destination, and constantly stopping to pick out a route, and thus take in the surroundings, is no longer required.
Caught the last camper bus of the day and rode back with two of the individuals who had been on the bus out to Wonder Lake, and later we picked up a hiker who turned out to be the driver from the bus ride two days ago. The two guys on the bus had been volunteering in Juneau for the past year and filled me with tales of life in Juneau, salmon, kayaking, and other good things. Something to consider.
A last, rather random story, but a lot of older people at the campground were talking about seeing the northern lights last night. One fellow was saying “I got up at 11:00 but didn’t see them, but they were out at 1:00 and 3:30.” Another individual gave me a similar story, and then a third. I was amazed that so many people were getting up to check on the lights, and said so to the third individual, to which he replied “Shoot, I didn’t get up looking for the lights, it’s my bladder that gets me up every few hours.”