60. A Long Drive

On my last day off, I took a drive from Denali to Paxson which is only 150 miles away. How could it be a long drive?

Well, my original plan was to drive to Paxson, taking pictures along the way and then hiking at Summit Lake in Paxson. After I drove this mostly unpaved 150 miles, in about 5 hours, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go back the same way. The scenery is beautiful along Denali Highway. However, not only the road is unpaved and windy, it is really very remote with no more than half a dozen houses along a 130 mile stretch. I was worried constantly about a flat tire. Even with an AAA membership, I doubt anyone would come to “rescue” me if I did have a flat tire.

So I decided to take a long way back: from Paxson to Delta Junction, to Fairbank, then to Denali. It is a little over 300 miles, double the distance if I drove back directly from Paxson. However, it took me less than 6 hours which would be similar amount of time I needed to drive directly.

Oh, I didn’t do much of hiking – the mosquitoes were terrible. With only a few steps and several minutes outside, they bit me a number of times! I heard that this year the mosquito is the worst in over 70 years! Not sure this is true. However, it is no doubt that they are terrible this year! It definitely took the fun of hiking away from me. And it is another reason I decided to drive longer than shorter. Seeing more scenery safely inside of the car, away from those terrifying mosquitos. 🙂

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html