Today is train day. I’m riding the Aurora Winter Train for the 12-hour trip from Fairbanks to Anchorage.
My traveling companion has also joined me. We’ve found our seats, and I watch the other passengers board.
“Have you seen any bears?” a woman asks a couple sitting a few rows ahead of and across the aisle from me.
The couple laughs, shakes their heads, perfectly synchronized as if they were one body with two heads.
“We only saw a badger or something like that,” the questioner chuckles before continuing down the aisle to her seat.
(Unbeknownst to her, we’d see a bear later in our journey. I have no pictures of the bears, moose, caribou, bald eagles, and other wildlife we saw because they were so quick to leave as the train rumbled by.)
A few minutes ago, we pulled out of the station in Fairbanks. So much to see! Don’t want to look away for even a minute. 12 hours? Will I really watch for that long?
(Yes, yes I will!)
Running moose. Snowy Alaskan Range. Rivers. Bridges. So much to see; I can’t write about it all. I must watch out the window!
Quick stop in Denali brought longing and disappointment that I hadn’t worked it into my stay. “Would’ve, should’ve, could’ve” filled my head. But I chose. I chose to forego Denali in part because most of it was still closed, and I was heeding the call of the fjords.
So much to see! I have to stop writing to look up periodically. South of Denali now. Low gray clouds cover peaks. About half snow, half dark gray brown.
Intermittent anxiety today. First about getting on the train. What if I got motion sickness? Now about I don’t know what. The train is comfortable; much more so than I’d expected. It’s peaceful, at least half empty.
I’m enjoying myself, just watching out the window. I can simply be. Watch. Wonder.
What’s it like up on the expanse of white at the top of that peak? Could someone be up there? How steep would it look?
What’s out there in those trees? I know there are bears. Where are they? Are they camouflaged? Questions. Imagination. Each piece of landscape different from the last.
After a quick stop in Talkeetna, we’re called to the dining car for dinner. Monkey suggests that I order the Caesar salad, so that’s what I do. The woman in white sitting in front of me orders a meat dish, and the woman across from us with dreads orders the curry. We chat over dinner. The woman in white is from Florida, and she’s also traveling alone. The woman with dreads is from Pennsylvania and has been visiting a friend who works in Denali for a week. I enjoy our conversations about traveling alone, previous and future travel plans, and the beauty of Alaska.
During dinner, the train’s been getting ever closer to to Anchorage. I realize that I’ve forgotten to look close, on the ground. The vast expanse of sky, clouds, hills, and mountains have pulled my attention to the far away. I’ve forgotten to look right outside the window.
Arriving in Anchorage, I walk to the Copper Whale Inn, my home for the night. The women who own the place greet me as I walk in the door, and inform me that they’ve upgraded my room because no one else is there tonight. I head up the stairs and unlock the door to this beautiful view of Cook Inlet. “Perfect,” I think. (Note that I took this picture at about 8:30pm. See how light it is?)
I take a deep breath and settle in for a good sleep before continuing my adventures tomorrow.