Boise was the closest airport to SLC that Alaska Air flew out of so after work on a Thursday I headed north. Along the way I pulled off the highway in the middle of nowhere and slept in the sage brush and cow pies. One of the best nights of star gazing and definitely the best smelling. The sage brush was wonderful. My flight didn't leave until the early evening so I found some fun single track for mountain biking in Boise. Very pleasant.
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| First night of adventure. Couldn't smell any cow pies. |
Rolled into Anchorage around 1 AM and walked to the car that my buddy had graciously allowed me to borrow for the weekend since he was heading out for a fishing trip. He also stuck a can of bear spray in the back seat so I didn't have to fork over $40 for peace of mind. More on this later. Mind you, for the last 9 years he has consistently been in the top three of the funniest people I know. He named is car Rudy.
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| Second night of adventure and getting familiar with Rudy. |
So I hung out with Rudy for four days. We got acquainted in the REI parking lot. I was woken by my friend calling to see if his car was stolen or if I had it. He thought I wasn't coming in until the next night. Disaster averted.
After getting some fuel and a new stove I headed for Penguin Ridge. I was excited to have a chance at it after reading it was the best day hike in the Chugach. Rudy and I headed south and I started up towards the ridge. It was pretty dreary. One hiker was headed down, saying they decided against making it up to Penguin Peak because of low visibility. Well, OK. I'll get as high as possible and head back down. Then the skies started to open up.
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| Heading up the ridge. |
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| Good views and decreasing clouds high up. |
And I could see a version of the relatively famous Turnagain Arm bore tide coming in.
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| The tide is good entertainment during snack breaks. |
And it was awesome. So I kept going.
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| From a false summit looking towards Penguin Peak. |
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| Looking back along Penguin Ridge toward Penguin Peak. |
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| Turnagain Arm |
I ended up chasing a goat along part of the ridge for about two hours. Game trails are incredible. Many of my favorite hiking memories are associated with trips requiring bushwhacking and following game trails. The contrast makes it a profound experience, I think.
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| Very skilled guide. |
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| More sun on the Turnagain Arm. |
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| Wasting time trying to look cool. |
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| The goat knew the best route down this little scramble. And it wasn't the one I would have chosen. Thanks goat. |
Eventually the clouds came in again and socked in the ridge. Thankfully I was able to perceive that I had gone far enough on the ridge that I could just take a right and flail on down to the highway. Tough to get down through the brush back to the road. I ended up thrashing down a water filled gully using alders as plant belays. Sometimes I forget that in Alaska it is not as simple as seeing where I want to go and heading that way. Or Utah for that matter.
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| Oh yeah, no problem. The road is right down there. |
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| Where I stumbled out of the woods onto the trail. |
I got to the road and stuck a thumb out in order to meet back up with Rudy. I ran for an hour or so until a friendly painter stopped and picked me up. He mentioned he had hitched plenty of times and wanted to pass along the kindness. He has a good approach, I think.
Rudy and I headed to the Lost Lake Trail in Seward and spent the night in the trailhead parking lot. In the morning I took off and found a pleasant place for lunch looking out over the frozen lake. I lingered there for a while, completely pleased with what I was seeing, and headed few miles back to a pleasant spot for dinner. After dinner I headed a few miles further down the trail to a very pleasant camp site with a little creek wandering by. I missed Julia, especially during this part. I don't think she would have been too keen on sleeping in a car in the parking lot but she definitely would have liked the Lost Lake Trail.
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| Lunch on the tundra. |
The next morning I met Rudy again and we headed for Seward. Exit Glacier Road is a great spot for adventure. Here I got to break out the packraft and float the Resurrection River. I am convinced that floating rivers is one of the best ways to see the world.
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| Put in along the Resurrection River Trail. |
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| The view of Exit Glacier from the butt boat. |
Lots of bears around here. As I portaged some sticks in the river I saw a set of bear prints in the mud that made me sing louder and not stop to take a picture. No sightings on the float. Lots of beautiful things to look at though.
I jumped out of the river and thumbed a ride back to Rudy. There are free campsites all along the Resurrection River and some friendly 20-somethings let me hop in the bed of their truck. When I jumped out I didn't realize that the bear spray had slipped off my unbuckled backpack waist belt. Thankfully I knew where the guys were staying and I quickly headed to their camp. Not only had they found the spray, but one of them was sitting in a lawn chair along the road drinking a beer and waiting for me to drive by so I could get my bear spray back. Alaskans are extraordinary people. More on that later.
The weather was beautiful but I was tired and I needed to wake up around 5 to get back to Anchorage to fly home. I wussed out and decided against hiking up to get a look at the Harding Icefield. Whatever. I am lazy. Mental note for when I am in a beautiful place: Get after it. But in the end, just getting up to Exit Glacier made for a wonderful evening.
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| Exit Glacier from a lookout. |
One of the pullouts along the road was empty so I set up camp and had a pleasant dinner along the river (not next to my tent).
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| The Resurrection River |
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| Rudy helping out with chores. |
Another tent was up in a nice spot in the same pull-off but it ended up being all ratty and torn apart with a ripped open 10 lb bag of Crusteaze pancake mix. Not ideal. Feeling pretty fatigued, I got ready for bed. As I walked toward the tent to get in the sack I heard a bear in the woods. When it broke through the brush near the dilapidated tent it revealed itself to be a relatively large grizzly. Not huge, but relatively large. Thanks to the bear spray I avoided messing my pants and we had a conversation about how it should leave. We were about 15 yards apart during this conversation and it made one move towards me that was particularly exciting. Then it ran off into the bushes.
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| Where it all went down. |
Seemed like sleeping around a large group would be a good idea so I went a mile down the road to the next site and introduced myself and mentioned that a bear was nearby. The old Alaskan retiree showed me the gun he had on his hip and said he wasn't worried. I mentioned that I would appreciate it if I could set up my tent in the little open space near their fire. He said it wasn't a problem. Again, Alaskans are extraordinary people.
Since I had been on the go for three days without a ton of sleep I don't think I was awake for more than 5 minutes and was out until the alarm. Thank goodness the bear didn't catch me after I got myself tucked in a sleeping bag. Don't know if I would have heard him. In the morning I headed back to Anchorage, went for a hike along the Kincaid trails, said goodbye to Rudy, and headed home. Julia was unimpressed with my next drivers license photo, mentioning something about looking like a slob. I thought it was awesome that I get to remember the trip whenever I need it.
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| At least my license lets me pretend to be as awesome as the Alaskans I met on the trip. |
Good use of a 4th of July weekend. I remember driving down the Alaska Highway headed to grad school wondering if I would ever get back to Alaska. A long weekend trip to the Kenai was tremendous. I forgot how much I enjoy the mountains and glaciers and rivers up there. Well, I didn't forget. I guess I am glad to be reminded of the degree to which I enjoy them.
And it turns out Alaska Air flies into SLC nowadays. I'll take it.
And it was a bluebird day flying out of Seattle on the way home.
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| What a world. |
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