Our First Trip to Talkeetna

Talkeetna is a little town of about 2,000 people about 2 hours north of Anchorage.  We drove up there Saturday morning in time for lunch, and after bowls of chowder and a little local beer (Denali Brewing Co), we meandered over to the Meandering Moose Lodge, about 1 1/2 out of town.  You can also stay right in the "historic downtown Talkeetna" which is about 4 restaurant/bars, a general store/liquor store, a couple of gift shops, and a bead store - and must be a small hotel?  There are also suites above the Wildflower Cafe, where we had dinner Saturday night.  Great halibut, my favorite fish!  We had the suite at the Meandering Moose which is a queen-size bed in the upstairs of a house with a couch and chair, large private bath, nice views out the windows, and sled dog serenades from the kennels next door at feeding times and when they're getting selected for the day's training!  Seriously, Brian didn't even hear them, and they were far enough away that they sounded pretty distant!  They do run the Iditarod, and you can visit the kennels if you wish to. 

We weren't sure how much snow there would be, and on Saturday we didn't have a klister wax with us and just hiked for a couple of hours, but we went back the next day with the right wax and had one of the nicest skis of the season.  We were at Talkeetna Lakes Park, and the only ones there, so for two hours we were just skiing through woods, then popping out on a small frozen lake, then back through some more woods, out on another lake, about 4 times or so and then in reverse for about a 2 hour ski.  Nice trails through the woods that you could skate sometimes, the skis were good! 

We would go back and back to the Meandering Moose too.  They have cabins too, so maybe we'll try that the next time.  We think we've had our last ski of the season, but who knows?!  Time to move on?  Hiking might fill in the spaces til biking gets better.  Happy Trails!