Day 15- Denali

 June 26

We slept in today, kinda.  All this light kinda screws up a persons sleep rhythms.  Normally you start to get tired when it gets dark out.  But since it never does I feel wide awake at midnight.  I wake up about 8ish regardless.   The girls room came with black out curtains but mine are not.  They do a good job of blocking the light though.  But it takes a bit to fall asleep.

Today's agenda was whitewater rafting.  I had hoped to maybe do some fishing this morning but everyone was laying around and not moving.  Breakfast was smashed cinnamon rolls and pancakes.

We got to the place and got suited up.  We had to squeeze into dry suits.  It was about 80 today so it didn't take long to start sweating in it.   A quick bus ride got us to the drop point.  There was about 30 or so people for 3 rafts.  We got grouped with another family with 3 younger kids.  Everyone else was generally 20 years older than me.  

The section of river we were on was only had class I and II rapids.  We couldn't hit anything higher because we were not paddling.  All riders needed to be at least 13 to do the paddle ride.

We ended up being the lead boat because our captain thought the other two were ready to push off, but apparently they were taking longer to get situated than he thought.  We had a really great guy piloting our raft.  Summer didn't want to really get wet so her and I sat in the back.  Then it was Libby and Davan and the other family took the front two rows.  Unfortunately the front row gets wet the most so we didn't get a lot.  He did set the boat to hit some rapids broadside so we did get a little water on us.  At one point there was a section where we had a chance to jump overboard.  Everyone did except Summer.  The river is glacier fed so the water is around a constant 35 degrees.  It felt great on this hot day in those water tight suits.  

On the last section of rapids he turned the raft broadside to the side Summer was on.  I don't think he expected it to hit the rapid as hard as it did but it knocked her right off her seat.  Luckily she was all smiles and laughed about it.

After the ride we headed back to camp to have dinner.  We had smash burgers again.  So good!

After dinner Davan, Libby and I headed out to fish.  The campground owner told us of a small lake not far away.  I had grabbed the bear spray and what I thought was the bug spray.  Unfortunately I grabbed the sunscreen instead.  

The bugs were nasty out there.  Not just mosquitos but also these large gnats.  There was a pretty strong breeze and they had no problem hanging around us.   They would hover around our head and then all of a sudden in unison they would attack.

We had no luck fishing but we did see a family of swans.  They had a nest across the lake and had 4 young swans.  I also found something unexpected.  There was a large boulder jutting into the lake.  I walked down and stood on it.  Drilled and glued into the rock was a medallion.  It was from the US Coast & Geodetic Survey.  It's an Azimuth mark.  Stamped 1950.  There was also writing on what was either concrete or plaster of some kind.  It was half gone and hard to read.  I'm not sure what this is used for so I'll have to do some research when I have time later.  Still a pretty cool and unexpected find.

No concrete plans for tomorrow.  We might go to the Denali visitors center.  They have a dog sled team as well to visit.  Maybe try fishing again.  Hopefully I'll grab the bug spray can this time!