Betsy M.: Into the Wild: En Route and Arrival

Finally, I made it. Finally, after no less than 30 hours of traveling, none of which involved sleep. Sorry family, I'm not coming home because I am never getting on a plane again. Or a bus, for that matter. The roads here are what they call "permafrost damaged." Most of the ground here is frozen year-round, so when roads are built the pavement attracts heat and the ground beneath it thaws leaving an unbelievably bumpy and uneven highway. In spite of my exhaustion, the nausea kept me awake for the entire shuttle ride from Anchorage to Denali. The upside? I got some cool pictures.

It is gorgeous here. Last night, Alex and I went on a walk around a five-mile loop by our homestead. The road leads up to an amazing lake and I saw my first moose. It was a ginormous female about 15 feet away.

This picture was taken at about midnight, and the days are still getting longer. We only have about two hours of dark now. On June 21st, the sun won't go down at all.

I found out that I live about 7 miles away from where Christopher McCandless, or "Alexander Supertramp" from Into the Wild, died. They organize hiking groups to hike up to his famous bus every few weeks, and there's a small shrine dedicated to him at "The 49th," a pub by the homestead.