I arrived back in Denali on April 3 this year. I’m hoping to do a better job of blogging the summer this year; I finally gave up last year after struggling with the Internet service. The good news is that my Internet connection is working MUCH better this year.
We drove up from Anchorage on a beautiful sunny day in the 40s, and The Mountain (Denali) was out in all her glory. So I was thinking, “Great! Breakup is upon us and Spring is here!” Wrong. The next day it started snowing and continued for a couple of days, with the temperature dipping into the -20s every night. Yesterday we woke to no water and no heat, but that was fixed very quickly. The first day I worked in my office it was 55 degrees in the room, but fortunately Maintenance found a space heater for me and that made it very comfortable. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in weather this cold, and I’m starting to relearn some things I forgot: ALWAYS wear your hat and gloves, don’t bother with earrings because they’re pretty cold in subzero weather, walk carefully because there’s ice under that snow.
It’s a small crew up here getting ready for the season, but it’s growing almost every day. We’re all stuffed into the Stampede housing until they open up the other building, so it’s starting to get a bit crowded. We have a great group of people working together here, so I’m really looking forward to the season.
My only wildlife sighting so far has been a huge eagle feasting on a baby moose carcass. The biggest eagle I’ve ever seen! There were several ravens standing by, but none of them seemed interested in challenging the eagle for a meal.
This is the scene behind the main lodge of the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. It looks a lot different now than what our guests will be seeing this summer.
Travels with Billie 
Hey Billie,
You know we are living vicariously through you, so keep those blogs coming! I was just over in L.A. with an old friend and we had a great time doing all the Hollywood things and just hanging out. We saw Hayden a couple of times and Lee and Rich kept each other out of trouble during my absence.
Glad you are enjoying being there.
Lesley
looks great….but soon that will change and people will be everywhere.