Denali National Park, Post 1: Aramark and the Park Service

It's 1:45am on Thursday. We've been home long enough to get most stuff out of the van. I was in the back seat from Talkeetna to Anchorage and after a nap I pulled out the computer and began notes for the Denali trip.

I'm not sure how much of this I'll get written in the end. Probably just short notes in passing.

• There was the big rain last night at Denali that caused a number of rock slides and slowdown of the buses, but things were cleared up pretty quickly.
  
• There's the finicky weather and the luck of the draw as we drove up in rain on Monday afternoon, had some beautiful clear views of the Mountain yesterday when our Wonder Lake bus ride was scheduled, and then it rained again last night and was cloudy and rainy much of our time in the park. Enough so that we came home early because Doug's sleeping back was wet and the forecast was for more rain.
  
• And then there's the sense I felt here and there of the lack of communication and coordination between Aramark and the Park Service.
  
• And finally, the bus drivers are frustrated and hopeful that Aramark will settle in their favor and they won't have to go out on strike. It's got to happen while the tourists are still here if will have any impact.

But before posting I looked at my email where I get copies of the comments that people posted on the blog. So, Steve Heimel, it was your comment that alerted me to the fact that while I was doing important things at Denali, and consumed by weather and mountains, animals and bus schedules, cooking over coals, and doing lots of catching up with Doug, you all had such mundane things as political indictments. It all seems so boring in comparison. So, here's the first post.

Note: The photos in the next posts will be from my Canon. I grabbed my old Pentax for the trip because I wasn't sure where my battery charger was and my battery was low. It turned up in the car. A major reason why I've become addicted to the digital camera: I still have pictures to take on the roll in my camera, but the digital pics are already on the computer and ready to go. BTW, there are outlets at Eilson where one can stick a battery charger between buses.



We got out of the house before 9am Monday. It was cloudy and cool. The view from mile 135 was of clouds obscuring even the foot hills. You could see the river. Within an hour it was raining hard. Aramark employee at the WAC (Wilderness Access Center) gave us a handwritten note to put on our dashboard to show we had reservations at Teklanika (and so could drive to the campground) and a printed paper to put up at the campground.

Reservations for Discovery Hikes had to be made at the Visitors’ Center (Park Service, not contract Aramark employees.) There was only one place left on the Wednesday hike (Tuesday we were scheduled on the Wonder Lake bus) so we signed up Doug. We were given a paper that confirmed the booking and were told we had to go back to the WAC to pay. What? After some questioning back and forth, the young man serving us asked someone else, who quickly ascertained that we already had TEK passes and didn’t need to do anything more.

If you camp at Teklanika Campground (mile 30 of the road in the park) you have to reserve for three nights. You can get a one day bus pass for the park with a reservation for a specific bus on your first full day. After that you can use the pass on a space available basis anywhere after mile 30. They call this special bus pass a Tek pass. When we made the reservation, I understood the person to say it was good for the next two days. But when we got there our campground host said, no, only for the second day. Since we left on the second day, we didn't test it. The drivers really didn't ask to see the passes inside the park.

At mile 12 at the end of the paved road at Savage River. you get to the stop where you can’t go any further in a car unless you have a campground reservation at Teklanika. The ranger there looked at the handwritten note in our windshield and asked if we had a green card. No, that was what they gave us. Do you have the campground paper? That we had, so the ranger took the windshiled note into the little booth and soon came back with a green printed card to put into our windshield with our dates. The Aramark employees at the WAC were supposed to give us the green card.

This was our first sign of conflict between the contractors - Aramark and Doyon - and the Park Service employees. When we left today, a day early, I told the campground hosts we were leaving early so they could notify the reservations people that there would be an extra campground available at Teklanika. When we got to the ranger at Savage River where you exit the permit needed area, the ranger there said we should stop at the WAC and let them know. I said I told the campground hosts. The answer: Yes, but they are Park Service and reservations is Aramark. I'm supposed to go the short road to the WAC, park the car, walk to the building, wait in line because the Park Service and the private contractor can't communicate? Some people want to help out by notifying Park people that they are leaving early, but when they have to give up precious vacation time to do, I suspect most people won't.