Talkeetna

Here’s a town that doesn’t take itself too seriously! It is a cute little place, with lots of funky shops, bars, and restaurants. It’s a bit rainy when we arrive, but rain is something that you learn to just take in stride, as it rains here a lot… doesn’t seem to bother anyone all that much.

  

  

We grab some great Salmon fish and chips at the West Rib bar and grill, and then head over to the Denali brewing company for some beer tasting.

  

  

I find a great spot right on the river and set up camp.

  

The next morning, Jim, Kim and I head down the Talkeetna spur road to check out a floatplane bush pilot service that we spotted on the way in. All along I have wanted to take a ride on a floatplane, and go land on a lake somewhere. I wanted it to be a small plane, not a big tourist job, and this is just what I was looking for. http://www.alaskafloatplane.com/ 

We go in and meet Nancy, who is super nice, and gets us on a flight within the hour! They have a great patio deck where you can watch the planes come and go. Look, here comes our plane now!

  

  

We meet Elbert, our pilot (and the owner of the business!) and squeeze into the plane, a 4 place Cessna. This is a true bush pilot service: in addition to doing tours, they ferry local residents back and forth from cabins and homesteads on the many lakes in the region. For most of these folks, a float plane is the only way to get on or off their property.. there are no roads!

There’s nothing like a small plane to really see the countryside! This is a land of many waters. Everywhere you look there are lakes, rivers and ponds. We fly over some moose, so Kim is happy.

  

  

The plane is equipped with excellent noise-cancelling headsets, so we can converse with our pilot and each other. Elbert is a relaxed pilot, with 49 years of flight experience, and man, does he know these lakes and waters. He gives us an excellent running commentary on the areas we are flying over.

  

We line up on this lake and I get my floatplane landing! Very neat, and very smooth. Wow, that’s a big runway! We taxi on the pristine water, tie up the plane and walk out to a viewpoint overlooking the lake. Wouldn’t it be great to live here?

  

  

We take off and fly back to the base. Fun, fun, fun!

We hit town, it’s a beautiful day, so we wander around the shops a while. Talkeetna is famous as the only city to elect a cat as mayor. LOL! 

•  http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/us/alaska-cat-mayor/  
• http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/17/cat-marks-15-years-as-mayor-of-alaska-town/  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stubbs_(cat)

  

  

Now that we’ve worked up an appetite, it’s off to West Rib for their famous Seward’s Folly, a seriously tall burger suitable for the town that is called the “Gateway to Denali”.

  

Read this!

Yes! Topping the scales at well over 5 pounds, with an Alaskan flag crowning it, this is a burger masterpiece! Everyone in the restaurant is taking pictures of it when it is brought to our table.

  

It eats pretty darn well, too! Great seasoning and flavors, and the pound of bacon and jalapeno-laced “fat ass sauce” doesn’t hurt anything either. We aren’t able to finish it, but we definitely make a dent! Thanks to Gaylord for the tip, and thanks to West Rib for being crazy enough to actually cook something like this and serve it to anyone brave enough to order it.

We wind down the day on the patio deck at the floatplane docks, glass of wine, cool evening breeze, buurrp… oh, damn, Seward’s folly again. Just another “typical” day in Alaska!