water water everywhere...

I have often wondered about the human fascination with moving water. Waterfalls, rapids, waves...all of these things seem to touch some deep trigger within our... collective psyche that cause us to stop and just....watch. Please allow me to wax metaphorical when I say that it might just be a subconscious observation of life itself and how it flows in an around us every day. Its like we are in a liquid environment....a constant and simultaneously ever-changing flow that we can never quite get to stop. Our options are to sit on the shore and watch, jump in and fight and thrash to stay in one place, or just literally go with the flow. One thing we cannot do is stop it. You can cup the water of life in your hands, but you can't keep it there for long. I have found that the practice of going with the flow works out the best, but, sometimes that water starts moving VERY quickly and its tough to navigate...and even tougher to hold on to. Every once in a while its nice to slip into an eddy or a protected cove and reflect. I guess that's probably my main reason for writing a blog...taking time to reflect and being able to come back and revisit my own musings in the future is an important way to immerse myself in the flow of life and appreciate every wave.

Electronic Medium Vs. Pen and Paper Plate

Electronic Medium Vs. Pen and Paper Plate

 

YEARS ago, on our very first sojourn into the relative unknown, I had a hankering (yeah….we were in Nebraska…so it WAS a hankering, not a “thought” or a “desire”) to record the events of our adventure in real time, so as to be able to revisit them in the future, and more adequately recognize the “feels,” as it were, of the situation when we originally experienced said scenario.

 

To where have I been delivered?  This is today’s burning question.  All those years ago…in a farm field mid-Corn-state…things were pretty simple.  And so was my means of recording…a paper plate was the closest thing within my reach after dinner, so it became the medium upon which I began to record.  Today, however, we have been dropped into the complexities of our 49^th state.  And, I am “writing” on an Android something-or-other that doesn’t autocorrect correctly…so we are somewhat at war with the device.  Interesting.  (Postscript – I lost the war…and rather than be able to simply save and transfer these musings digitally…I am now transcribing from one screen to another.  Joy.)

 

I’m fighting this device hard and I hope like hell my thoughts are somehow recorded via digitalization, to be retrieved and enhanced in the future. (I guess that’s what I’m doing now)

 

As of now, I sit outside our chosen bed and breakfast…kinda cold but not really cuz rum…looking out at the sea with mountains hiding behind clouds across the water.  Alaska.  Pretty sure I’ll be attacked by a bear on this one…but hoping like hell it doesn’t happen.  Either that, or death by small plane crash.  Vacation fun with Mike and Michelle.

 

We haven’t really done anything just yet…merely flown from the horrible everydayness of our common existence to the commonality of a community on the edge of what we would normally consider civilization.  Super nice airport, though.

 

We got here, hit the local grocery, then the local liquor store, then the local Trek dealer for a bike rental, and the local REI for bear spray…followed by Dankorage…the local dispensary…for some calm-me-down brownies.  Excellent.  I then proceeded to get mega-lost on the ride home from renting my steed…and despite encounters from sketchball locals and heavy traffic…managed to make it home to my rum and wife.  It’s beautiful here…further north than we’ve ever been…and we ordered pizza.  So…all in all…life is good.

 

IT’S big here.  Really, really big.  And uncooperative, as it were.  We blew out of Anchorage at our scheduled 7:30 am…and it was drizzling rain, same as the previous day.  I had collected our rental vehicle…a Chevy Trailblazer Michelle has named “Buddy,” through a not entirely smooth process involving an incorrect address for the rental car joint and a confused cabby…early in the AM…due largely to the wonder of the 3 hour time difference playing in our favor.

 

We were scheduled to go flight-seeing in Talkeetna…but the heavens were unkind, and, after a 2 hour sojourn, we were told that the tour we wanted to take was not an option due to the low cloud ceiling.  After much wailing and gnashing of teeth by Michelle, we decided to put it on the back burner and rescheduled for July 4.  Then, we did what all vacationers should do when confronted with difficulty, and sat downtown Talkeetna with a warm slice of homemade apple pie.  Then…it was off for Denali.

 

The road was long and scenic…but mostly just long.  I spied the first major wildlife of the trip with a roadside moose, but was soon evened up by a similar sighting by Michelle.  Other than that, it was an uneventful journey (with the notable exception of filling up at the dankiest gas station EVER).  We drove basically the length of the park on its eastern side, and were treated to some amazing vistas…although the namesake mountain of the park remained largely obscured by annoying clouds.

 

As a National Park, Denali is, so far, falling well below expectations in terms of logistical ease.  We visited one park office, only to be told we had to go to another park office, and then return to the original park office…and there was ZERO available parking.  After SOMEWHAT figuring out the bus system to access the park, and our game plan for tomorrow, we were ready for some adventure, so we donned our hiking gear and proceeded up the Mt. Healy Overlook Trail.  5 miles round-trip, with 1700 feet of vertical gain and subsequent loss on the way back…it provided some incredible views of the far-off mountains, and the tiny cove of humanity referred to as Glitter Gulch, which housed most of the hotels in the area just outside the park entrance.  It was well worth the effort, and best of all, Michelle survived the Attack of the Suicide Squirrel.

 

At the conclusion of our hike, we headed down to our home for the next couple days…McKinley Creekside Cabins.  We are in a cozy cabin alongside a swiftly running mountain stream…some beautiful music to fall asleep to.  Which is what I’m about to do.

 

Tomorrow…we are shooting for the bus trip out to Wonder Lake and hopefully the big mountain will be visible.  I’m going to ride some miles on the park road and hopefully remain bodily whole.  Good night.

 

AND…as usually occurs with documenting trips of this nature…I’ve missed a couple days due largely to lack of time and exhaustion.  So…let’s see…where were we?  Ah yes…Denali Day Two.  The big bus trip.  We had acquired our “green bus” tickets and a pass for my bike, which basically meant we had to meet our Wonder Lake shuttle at 7:15am for the long journey down the Park Road.  Our driver Anna informed us that we could disembark at any time and simply grab another green bus, but hers was heading to the last stop 86 miles away if we should choose to stay onboard.  In addition to driving the bus, she provided a rolling commentary about the park and its denizens, while at the same time, keeping a sharp eye out for those creatures.  I saw the south end of a northbound moose, but then it was a long while before we saw anything else of significance…and that turned out to be a momma grizzly and two bouncing baby cubs.  Along the way, we made several rest stops, and hashed out a plan for the bike.  I would jump off the bus at the Eilesen Visitor Center at mile 65, and snag another bus headed back towards the park entrance with the bike, and Michelle would continue on to Wonder Lake.  I would then hop off my bus at the Polychrome Overlook, at the 48 mile mark, and ride back to the entrance.

 

What ensued on my end was easily one of the more spectacular bike rides of my life.  The scenery here is simply amazing.  It’s like Jurassic Park for a northern clime.  The tree line is only at about 3500 feet, so my ride had me climbing out to vistas of endless tundra, then descending through thick stands of evergreens to a bottom formed by a couple of braided rivers running fast and flush with glacial silt.  This was NOT an easy ride…although the grades were not unmanageable, the heavy pig of a Trek Fuel EX wasn’t exactly the best tool for the job.  I was only worried a couple times, when there would be a 10 or 15 minute gap between vehicle sightings, and I was basically rolling snack food for Mr. Grizz…particularly on the uphills.  I made it out unscathed and damn near starving, something that was quickly rectified by a well-placed café at the Visitor’s Center that made a MOST-excellent grilled cheese.  I then waited for a bit over an hour for Michelle’s return.  Her day included two more grizzly sightings, two bull moose sightings, a number of caribou and Dall Sheep…and one very sore back and neck from being on a bus for 11 hours.  Dinner was conveniently located at the awesome restaurant right on the property at McKinley Creek…then it was off to bed.

 

WE were both up early again the next day, eager to embark upon the activity both of us were looking forward to the most in Denali…a Discovery Hike in the back country with a ranger.  Our bus driver Dale had been driving the Park Road for 24 years, and regaled us with some tales of his experiences, as well as imbuing us with a sense that there is a real community amongst those who choose to work in and around the park.  Our “express” bus ride still took about three hours to the point at which our ranger, Adonis, had us jumping ship.

 

The idea was to get out into the “wild” with someone who knew what they were doing, and not get killed or eaten.  Well…we got that, but we also got a few unwanted lessons in botany and a bunch of seemingly rhetorical questions that turned out to be some kind of inverted psychological test regarding our place as humans in this world.  Yeah…unexpected, more than a little weird, and kinda disappointing.  Our hike was only a bit over 2 miles (we wanted like 8-10!)…but we were off stomping across spongy tundra and glacial remnants…no trail…just the land as Mother Nature intended.  Denali is, unlike most National Parks, actually structured to PURPOSELY have no trails, and remain as pristine naturally as possible…rendering most of it inaccessible to all but the most intrepid of individuals.  We don’t quite qualify as such just yet, but have met some people that have inspired us to that end…like the girls I met on the bus yesterday before my ride that were spending EIGHT DAYS in the backcountry…awesome…and a little crazy, IMO.  Our hike ended at a cool waterfall fed by the melting ice of last winter, where we ate some lunch, took some pictures, then hiked back out to the road to catch the next green bus…which got us back to the car a scant 2-1/2 hours later.  Another late afternoon, followed by rum and another restaurant just across our home creek.  After days of running like mad, I proposed the next day be more relaxed, so we decided to forego our 7:15am bus tickets and sleep in a bit.

 

TODAY we relaxed in the morning per plan, and decided to drive over to the park for a hike in spite of drizzly, rainy, cool conditions.  Fortunately for us, the weather decided to cooperate, and the pouring rain at the cabin had dissipated to an occasional drizzle at the Savage River trailhead, which, at the 14.8 mile mark, is the furthest you are allowed to drive your personal vehicle on the Park Road.  Only busses are allowed to go further.

 

We hit the River Loop trail, only, instead of just using the prescribed route, we decided to test our new “back country” mettle and just follow an unmaintained “social” trail down the river valley.  We were rewarded with some truly unreal vistas as we scrambled around rock formations and twisted through gnarled limbs of dwarf willow, finally deciding to turn back after a bit over a mile.

 

This gave us time to head over to the Denali kennels to check out the Park Service’s only team of working sled dogs.  In the winter, these pups are still used to haul loads around and patrol even today, mostly because they will actually start and run when temps drop to -50.

 

We followed up with a grocery restocking trip and some souvenir-buying, and then back home EARLY for once…so I could write this, enjoy a cocktail on the deck, and listen to the water rushing by in the background.

 

Denali…we loved you.

 

ONWARD!  5:30am…an hour that seldom sees a wakened Michelle…and we are rolling back towards Talkeetna and our rescheduled flightseeing appointment.  The problem…as before…it is raining.  Bummer.  No flights going up.  Soooooo…we got on the road early for naught.  But…that gave us some free time, so we did a bit of sightseeing on the gravel road known as Hatcher Pass.  It’s only open two months out of the year, and MAN did it have some spectacular views…right up until we drove into a cloud.  Sadly, the cloud obscured the gold mine Michelle wanted to see, so our plans once again changed, and we happened upon a nice trail system for me to hit some singletrack in AK.  The Government Park system wasn’t huge, but it was perfect for our needs.  I rode and Michelle hiked for a bit over an hour…I was freaked out the whole time and really watching my speed due to copious amount of moose sign in the area…then we started rolling again to Glacier View, where we….wait for it…viewed the Mantanuska Glacier.

 

Being that we are never content with the “seeing” when there is a possibility of “doing”…we signed our lives away to the Nova Guide Service…and, having geared up with waterproof boots, crampons, a helmet, and a climbing harness…we were off to the glacier.  Funny thing…our fee included a “glacier access charge”…because some dude had the foresight to purchase the only land access to said glacier, so that everyone that wants to go there has to ante up and pay the toll to use the bridge he made over the runoff river.  Smart, and, I’d imagine, quite lucrative.

 

We stomped out onto the ice, put our crampons on, and trekked a bit more while one of our guides set a top rope on a ledge.  We then proceeded to learn how to ice climb, which, it turns out, is pretty damn cool.  After that, we explored the glacier some more, checking out fins, crevasses and the like, and learning proper techniques of glacial excursioning.  4 hours later, we found ourselves tired and hungry and had a decent meal and a far better view of the Chugash range at the Long Gun Saloon and Gas Station.

 

Right now, we are at what will likely be the most eclectic of the places we are staying on this trip.  The Cub Cabin has no running water, and Michelle has already made use of the outhouse AND the sponge bath we are provided with.  It’s super cozy, though…not really roughing it….as we DO have both WiFi and a microwave.  Tomorrow, we are Anchorage-bound again, and Michelle will take yet another crack at getting on a flightseeing tour, while my plan is to have a go at some more Alaska singletrack before we have to return both the bike and the car.

 

AAAAAAAAAND….yet another two days have passed, lol.  Our schedule seems to have everything planned out with the exception of REST and/or SLEEP…which is, in and of itself…totally appropriate for this particular endeavor, considering there IS no night.  Seriously…22 hours of daylight and THANK GOD for good shades!

 

We slept in and enjoyed a leisurely depart from the Cub Cabin, and meandered back towards Anchorage, Michelle’s flightseeing plans foremost on the list.  She managed to swing a spot on a 6pm flight, with the potential for her chicken husband joining her.  In the interim, we hit up Kincaid Park…popularly known as Alaska’s best mountain bike experience.  I rode, Michelle hiked, we had fun.  I could have spent MUCH more time at this trail system (even in spite of the numerous moose and bear warnings), because it was SUPER fun, but, alas, time was not on our side.  This damn state is TOO BIG!

 

We dropped the bike, then hit up 49^th State brewpub for an awesome meal (Michelle had YAK!) and some tasty beers, before finding out there WOULD be space for me on the evening flight.  I took the seat with reluctant apprehension, basically sweating bullets for 2 hours prior to our trip to the airport.

 

I’ll keep it simple when I say flightseeing Denali was among the best experiences I have ever had.  I was chosen to be in the co-pilot seat, and despite my trepidations, I found flying in a small plane (pilot and 6 passengers) to be pretty damn awesome.  The views, however, are what truly allayed my fears, as they were beyond words.  Seeing the vast untouched wilds of Alaska and, more particularly, the immediate Denali area, was simply unreal.  Total 10 out of 10.  I could write another blog solely on the flight.  Unreal.

 

That completed, we dumped our rental car and cabbed back to our hotel, the Anchorage Grand, and readied our luggage for the early morning departure on the morrow.

 

5:30 AM.  Again.  Michelle is decidedly unhappy, despite the fact that our train journey departs mere feet from the hotel.  I am totally stoked, having never really taken a train to a fixed destination.  We purchased the Gold Star package, which allowed us our own window-domed car and really good breakfast served while we rolled through the gorgeous Kenai Peninsula.  Again…spectacular.

 

We arrived in Seward about 4 hours later, and set about finding our hotel for the evening and grabbing a bite for lunch along with a couple brews.  Fortunately, our room was ready soon after said libations, and we snagged our bags and headed up to prepare for the afternoon adventure…standup paddleboarding by icebergs recently calved from Bear Glacier.

 

The group consisted of Michelle and I, along with our guide Piper (yeah…Alaska name), and 4 women from Hawaii in town for a wedding.  A 45 minute boat ride into some vicious oncoming waves ended in a serene bay, only to be capped by a wicked fun and fast rip through a glacial estuary whilst dodging chunks of ice.  WAY FUN, especially the last part, with twin BMW turbo diesel motors coupled with jet drives, the boat really ripped through the shallows.

 

Disembarking in the shallow water meant utilizing the dry suits had been issued…the water temp being a steady 40F.   Feet were cold, but not uncomfortable…we grabbed our boards and paddled off into the lagoon.

 

Moments here seem to always have a touch of the surreal…but this particular venture went in deep.  The next couple hours were spent paddling around a protected cove populated by recently-formed icebergs, ranging in size from a couple inches square to literal house-sized blocks.  The sounds of the area were almost more impressive than the visuals, as the ice cracked, popped, and thunderously boomed across the lagoon.  We watched as a block as large as our home broke apart and flipped over, exposing layers of ice tens of thousands of years old, now consigned to the depths of the Pacific.  And then, as if there needed to be more majesty added to the scene…a bald eagle sat perched upon on of the larger ‘bergs.  Alaska pretty much rules.

 

After a long (and exorbitantly expensive – but worth it) day, we settled back at our room at the Breeze Inn and took in the harbor view, whilst trying to kill off the remainder of our rum AND launder a week’s worth of dirty clothes.  We nearly missed dinner, but a nearby takeout joint set us up with an evening breaded-halibut meal.  Now its sleepytime, and we shall see what hike awaits us on the morrow…followed by meeting up with my family and embarking on the cruise portion of this expedition.

 

 

TODAY dawned with indecision, as we weren’t quite sure where we were going to hike on our final day pre-cruise.  Harding Ice Field by Exit Glacier, or Mount Marathon right here in town.  A bit of discussion led us to the conclusion that we had observed things icy for a number of days in a row, and rather than rely on a bus schedule to get us out to the former, we would just hit up the latter and take in the resultant views of Seward and the surrounding mountains and fjords.

 

We walked about ½ mile from our hotel to the trailhead (conveniently marked with a recent homemade sign detailing bear activity) and began our trek upwards.  The trail itself started wide, but basically degenerated to an overgrown singletrack…unmaintained, as described in the website Michelle had used.  After traversing much of the mountain, things took a hard left turn and went VERY vertical.  We didn’t encounter any wildlife, thankfully, but we did get caught and passed by the Mount Marathon Booger Man (the name says it all…it was gross and hanging a good ½” out of his nostril), who pointed us in the right direction.  The summit was attained only through much consternation and considerable effort…with no “real” trail to follow, we were largely left to blaze our way up sans traditional switchbacks, and it was tough.

 

From the top, the entire hike was immediately deemed worthwhile, as the views from Seward out to the Pacific Ocean left us gaping with disbelief.  It was cloudy, but they were just high enough to give us a view of all the mountain peaks in the area, right down to the waterfalls still rushing down from snowmelt.  Another amazing Alaskan panorama.

 

The trip down…well…let’s just say we all know the trip up is usually tougher.  Not today, said Mt. Marathon.  We decided to take the most direct route down, which happened to be part of the race course for an annual 5k that runs from the town to the summit and back (it had taken place only days prior).  The problem was, the ground itself was basically a huge glacial scree field.  Rocks.  Tons of small, loose rocks.  AND…a massive downhill angle…like disconcertingly steep.  Fall-off-the-mountain steep.  After figuring out that the deeper rock was better to tread in, we stomped, slid, scurried, ran and nearly fell down about a mile of scree…it was crazy.  But then…things got REALLY hard.  We basically walked down the semblance of a trail that was cleverly disguised as a waterfall.  Later on, we learned it was a triple-black diamond rated trail.  We wound up with another group of four hikers (who happened to be workers on the OTHER cruise ship in port), and we were DAMN happy to get to level ground…our legs shaking like jello.

 

After an exertion like that, we needed a stop at the Seward Brewery for some lunch and libations, and we still needed to kill an hour before boarding the ship, so Michelle hit up the Seward Sea Life museum to check out puffins and a baby walrus, and I continued upon the libation track, visiting the dankiest local bar I’ve been to in a long while.  It was excellent.

 

Then, it was a bus ride back to the hotel to grab our bags, and a quick jaunt by shuttle van over to the ship.  We are aboard now, and met up with the rest of the family after their Denali adventures.  Bedtime now…and we are cruising.

 

 

STILL figuring out this silly electronic medium…and…coincidently…the “cruise” thing as well.  So far, we have established the way to get around the whole drink package thing and make sure my unlimited drinks feed Michelle’s alcoholic desires as well.  After a couple days on the ship, it is pretty obvious that we are NOT “cruise” people…apologies to both Tom AND niece Meagan…it’s just not “us.”  Seeing my family and having big fun is a YUGE plus, however, so we are rolling with the positive and tolerating the people who are mostly here to sit back and enjoy unlimited food and limited activity.

 

Day One on the boat was pretty chaotic, as we were swept around on a rapid tour, I worked out on a stationary bike for a while, and then there was lots of eating and drinking and sucking at trivia with the family.  We also went to a formal dinner…Vans are still as formal as I get in a vacation setting.  We turned in relatively early in anticipation of a big hike on the morrow.

 

 

WHEN I awoke, we were not yet docked, so our anticipated 8AM departure was delayed, so we went and grabbed breakfast before returning to our room to gear up for THE HIKE.  I capitalize this, because this was one that was not just highly anticipated, but also potentially extremely dangerous and difficult….as in….from what we had read, the route was unmarked and fairly strenuous.

 

We grabbed a cab out of Juneau, and a $40 cab ride later, we were at the West Lake trailhead, hoping to find some indicator that would point us in the right direction.  Fortunately for us, that proved pretty simple, as there were plenty of signs basically saying DON’T DO IT.  So…away we went.

 

About 2 miles up an easy trail, we came to a split, with a small sign that said “Ice Cave Trail…Easiest Way.”  Only “Easiest” was crossed out, and someone had written “SHORTEST…NOT Easiest” in pen underneath.  Obviously, this is what we were looking for.

 

Several SUPER-slick slabs of granite and a twisting, gnarly, and puddle-filled trail led us along a lake shore, and, eventually to a vantage point where we could observe the ridge we would have to get over to reach the Mendenhall Glacier.  Turns out, all it took was 2+ hours of our time and scaling a slimy, wet granite face next to a waterfall, followed by a scramble across a glacial scree field to get to our destination…pockets of space BENEATH the glacier that exuded an unearthly blue glow.  Of all our Alaskan experiences thus far, this was the most surreal.  Touching the underside of the glacier was like touching time itself…I got a chill completely unrelated to the ice.  Phenomenal.

 

We ate our traditional trailside pb and j, then hiked around the debris field for a bit, before heading back.  We also learned that we PROBABLY shouldn’t have been in the particular cave we had explored, as a guide for one of the tours our there informed us that the ice above us was rotten and could at any time collapse in 2-3 TON chunks, lol.

 

Our biggest obstacle on the return was the descent of the waterfall we had climbed.  It was probably 30-40 feet of limited hand and footholds…I would have GLADLY used a rope and harness were it available.  I stayed in front of Michelle and was careful to brace myself before she descended each move…just in case she slipped we’d both have a chance.  Even practicing this level of extreme caution, the downclimb was scary enough that we both sighed with relief once we hit bottom…it was pretty apparent that THIS was the area that the signs at the beginning of the hike had warned about, as a catastrophic fall would likely have resulted in a heli-evac due to the remoteness and inaccessibility of the area.

 

5-1/2 hours after we started, we grabbed our return cab and had him drop us at the relatively authentic Red Dog Saloon for a celebratory beer.  Then, back to the boat for warm showers, dinner with the family, and a magic show before bed.  We are now underway and heading for Skagway, and another big day…hopefully on two wheels.

Well...we did Skagway the anti-tourist way.  Michelle and I were the ONLY people to take the "uphill" version of the bike-ride options available to us from the list of cruise excursions...which was GREAT.  We took the scenic White Pass railroad out of town and up into the Yukon, passing along a trail that was once upon a time full of laboring mules and wannabee gold miners heading for perceived riches.  We met our guide at the top, changed into our cycling gear, prepped our Specialized rental roadies...and were off on an INCREDIBLY scenic 30 mile ride...with our own support vehicle like the pros that we are.  It was chilly, a bit rainy...but absolutely worth it...especially with the massive tailwind we enjoyed.  We finished up, had some sammies on the way back down to Skagway, then toured the town a bit (and the local bike shop :) ) before heading back aboard our yacht.

From here...I have yet to upload my recollections...I should really do that someday.  Suffice to say...AK was a place I will DEFINITELY drag my ass back to in the future....