WInITWtPr E'EWI~lt A2UUTI6 ;1989Ã.PAGE; 7 PAGE-SE YEN M i k MOUNTAIN MEMORJES There was a brief news item a couple of weeks ago that the latest geological survey had trimmed fourteen feet off the height of Mt. McKinley. At two thousand feet higher than anything else in N. America, fourteen feet will hardly be missed, but the item took nme back almost exactly twenty years to my footloose days of youth when I was there. Unlike my colleagues who did the European tour as part of their post u niversity rites, I decided to see my own country first. (I stili haven't been to Europe.) Now I know Mt. McKinley isnWt in Canada, but when youtre 5,000 miles from home on the Alaska-Yukon border and the tallest mountain in N. America is only another 500 miles away ... well, who wouldn't. Besides any true blooded Canadian knows Alaska should have been part of Canada. The fact that I was driving a Land Rover should have been a plus, but the fact its generator wasn't working (and the closest one that was was in Vancouver) and I had ta stop each night close ta a garage that could recharge my battery, was a definite minus - especially with garages two or three hundred miles apart. But such are the adventures of youth. At the time Mt. McKinley Park was well -off the beaten track because the N-S highway between Fairbanks and Anchorage was still being built. Nevertheless, knowing full well that there were perhaps two garages in -a five hundred mile radius, I set off ta see "the" mountain. The weather had not been good and when I got ta McKinley Park Station, the "village" at the park entrance, I was tald that no one had seen Mt. McKinley for over a month because of the clouds ...and that the weather was supposed ta stay that way for some turne to corne ... and besides you couldn't see the mountain from there even in good weather. The best view (in good weather) was frorn the caxnpground at Wonder Lake, 80 miles farther west. 'Was there a garage?" "No, there's nothing there, not even a telephone. And watch out for the grizzly bears." Recause of its height, the top of Mt. McKinley is usually in the clouds and hence only occasionally seen ...but they don't t îl you that until you get there - and then they seli you postcards of the magnificent view you di dn't see. I shoffld point D'ut that in spite of the distances, Alaska is far from'a lonely place. There are plenty of tourists, virtually ail Arnericans. Alaska is the last great pilgrimage that every American feels he bas to make - they pack their campers with the kitchen sink and head north to relive the pioneering spirit of their forebears in the wilderness of the midnight sun. Even though the road north is called the Alaska Highway, most of the trip is through Canada, a part of it that precious few of us Canadians have ever seéin - a hauntingly beautiful land that more should visit. I wasn't in any danger of getting stranded in Alaska but I sure didn't want to have ta, pay a tawing bill for two hundred miles. Weighing the remote possibility of actually seeing Mt. McKinley vs. the real possibility of that towing bill, I set off westward. "Recause itfs there" ... somewhere behind alI those clouds. The road to Wonder Lake is, inmtald, no longer open ta, the public. In stretches it resernbled those mountain roads that only exist in movies - carved out of sheerrockfaces, one lane wide, deep valleys 200 feet below you (straight down, no guard rails), ... and incredible views if you've got the time to look at them. And, yes, there are grizzly bears. I arrived at Wonder Lake at dusk. No matter what the weather, I would have ta head back the next morming. twas so socked in the next day that it was close to 9 before enough light filtered through ta wake me up. t was drizzling and the fog was so thick I could barely see the next caznpsite. I had a soggy breakfast that went well with my dampened spirit. I worried about getting the Rover started and about having to use the windshield wipers in the rain which would drain the battery even more. As I was packing up ta go, things began ta brighten; a patch of blue opened up. With almost miraculous speed, the skies opened. In fifteen minutes the sky cleared completely and there on the southern horizon was the massive bulk of Mt. McKinley, its pistine whiteness etched against a brillant blue sky with juat a thin wisp of blowing snow at its peak. The tundra at its base was painted crimson with the hue of late summer bearberry shrubs. I was in heaven. The magnificence of Mt. McKinley is its location. Quite apart from its height of 20,300 ft., it and a few lesser peaks i WHJTBY HORSE SHOW COM-TEE AUGUST 1914 These gentlemen were in charge of Whitby's second annual horse show, held atthe town park, (now Centennial Park) from Aug. 12 to 14, 1914. Members included E.D. Warren, Mayor J.E. Willis, George WVhitelaw, Albert W. Jackson, A.T. Lawler, Thomas Cussion, James Rutledge and Fred Hatch. The First- World War ended further horse shows in Whitby. The horse show's founder was Thomas Cussion, a groom for Sir Henry Pellatt, of Casa Loma fane, who had a farm west of Whitby where Pîcov Downs mn now. Whltby Archives photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, August 15, 1979 edition of the WHiTBY FREE PRESS e W.C. Town Funeral Chapel bas sold its ambulance service after serving Whitby for 48 yrs. a Kathy Harris, representative of the Brooklin Spring Fair Association, will compete in the Miss ONE Sweetheart of the Fair Pageant. a The Brooklin Redmen lbat the first two of their playoff gaines in the Ontario Lacrosse Association Major series. 25 YEARS AGO fromn the Thursday, August 13, 1964 edition of the WHITBY WEEIKLY NEWS e There was no paper today. The staff were on holidays. 75 YEARS ADO froin the Thursday, August 13, 1914 edition of the WIBY GAZETTE AND CH[RONICLE e The Whitby Horse Show, in its second day today, is attracting large crowds from out of town with a demonstration by Sir Clifford Sifton's hunters. a Whitby ladies are holding fund-raising teas for the European war which began last week. e Mrs. John B. Laidlaw, of Toronto, who bas a summer home in Whitby, is askIng for funding for a hospital ship. a Dr. Charles F. McGillivray of Whitby is president of the Ontario Medical Association.