Alaska - The Great Adventure

I actually started this post before I even left for the trip...

The thought for this trip came out of a few things for me, first of all was the community that I'm surrounded with at Roads Rivers and Trailswhere we constantly push each other to go further and second was probably a want to do something I have never done before.  For me the obvious choice of somewhere new to go was Alaska...  Since I took my first big trip west over three years ago I've covered 47 of 50 states (all by car), the only ones I'm missing are Hawaii, Washington and Alaska.  The initial idea started as a chatter, "Hey, let’s go to Alaska", we would say to each other and when Joe came around the shop he would jokingly ask “When are we going to Alaska?”  So, in the fall of 2018 we sat down for the first time and discussed the possibility of our journey.  The original group consisted of 11 people that wanted to go on two different trips, one going to Lake Clark and the other going to Gates of the Arctic National Park. We talked and talked for several months, we planned and planned and along the way we lost people and widdled down our group and our trip.  In the end, we wound up with 6 people agreeing on 6 days of backpacking in Lake Clark with 3 days of sea kayaking in Kenai Fjords National Park and all sorts of other adventures sprinkled in there.

We bought plane tickets that December and began a 7 month process of building an amazing journey.  Between booking float planes, guides and hotels as well as looking over all the routes and making sure everything we wanted to do would fit I probably obsessed over this trip for way too long.  It didn’t kick in that I was even going on this trip until I sat down in the float plane at 11AM and took off from Lake Hood Sea Plane Base in Anchorage.

The Trip
Lake Clark National Park

We left Cincinnati early on a Tuesday and flew to Seattle for a short layover before arriving in Anchorage around noon.  We spent that first day gathering supplies, resting at the hotel and going over gear, that first day was also full of mishaps…  Before we left Cincinnati Joe had been stung by a yellow jacket and had a lump the size of a baseball, Mason was covered in dots which were supposedly poison ivy and Emma spilled hot chocolate all over her hiking clothes making herself the perfect bear bait.  We undoubtedly were off to a great start, but luckily everyone pulled through which would happen many times along this trip.
 
By 11AM on Wednesday we had met the pilot, loaded up the plane and taken off for Lake Clark National Park. We were quickly flying over the Cook Inlet, on our way deep into the Alaskan bush.  We flew over alpine glaciers and alongside mountain peaks deep into the Alaska Range.  The peaks were impossibly jagged and every valley would just lead on to a dozen more. The mountains seemed to go on endlessly in every direction.

We came out low over Telaquana Lake and its bright blue water excited me for our final destination. The plane banked to the south and flew over the highlands before coming upon Turquoise Lake, our drop off point. You could see the water approach as we went down to land and soon enough, a small bump and a rush of water on the floats slowed us down to a stop near the east shore.  The glacial beach in front of us stretched on for almost a mile in each direction and the peaks behind it perfectly framed the scene.  We setup camp as our pilot took off, once he was off the lake he was gone in the blink of an eye and we were alone.  For the rest of the day we walked back miles and miles along the glacial river that formed the basin we were camped in.  We crept closer and closer to the great glacier hiding back in the mountains.  After several hours of hiking, a few wet boots, and a first day filled with blueberries and laughs we reached the moraine and could barely see the glacier still a mile off.  We decided to turn back because of how late in the day it was, this wasn’t to be our glacier.  In the evening, as we ate, we talked about how surreal our new surroundings were. We enjoyed an evening with good weather, decent food and great company.

The next day we awoke to a light rain that quickly tapered off.  This was our day for day hiking in the valley, but the peaks were socked in and we had already bailed on the glacier once.  Today was a camp day.  Will and Olivia climbed up to the highest towers they could above camp while the rest of us lounged around in the on and off rain.  After a few hours though, the rain subsided and we broke out the packrafts for a little afternoon paddle.  Being on that lake in a boat was an out of this world feeling…  Joe and I paddled up the shore and around a small fraction of the lake before returning and letting the others get a chance to get out.  It was a fun and lazy afternoon topped off with a nice fire on the beach before we all crawled into bed.  It was a good day but I was getting ancy to move.

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​On Friday we finally had our first day of backpacking.  The goal was to go a nice easy 4 miles to the west end of Turquoise Lake to get ourselves situated for a long day pushing up and over the highlands to another valley and yet another beautiful lake.  Joe, Will, Emma and Olivia began the hike up and along the rocky, bushy shore and Mason and I paddled in our Kokopellis on the lake below them.  We were all crushing the miles, although, packrafting was admittedly much easier than hiking and bushwhacking…  Mason and I continued paddling west along Turquoise Lake until about a mile from where we were planning on camping when the wind picked up and started throwing whitecaps into the boats.  There wasn’t much we could do at that point besides pack up the boats, link up with our friends and get to walking just like them.

As we approached where we wanted to camp, we realized a group had already beaten us there and was taking up the entire beach.  Some colorful words and ideas may have gone around the group when we realized we might need a new plan.  Eventually, after hiking through fields of blueberries, willows over your head, hidden streams, tussocks and a ton of mosquitos we found our way onto the next beach. Luckily, being the resourceful and smart people we are, we found a nice spot for the tents and the kitchen just to the other side of our guided friends.  The rest of the day was spent exploring the beach and relaxing after a long day of moving, little did we know what the next day had in store for us.

​On our fourth day we awoke to calm skies and a clear view down the lake to where we had come from the day before. We quickly packed up and were looking at the climb in front of us.  We had to go from the surface of the lake up 1,500’ to the top of the ridge before entering the highlands and starting the “easy” part of our day.  With fresh legs we quickly covered the distance, as we neared the top Mason, Will and I pulled ahead of the rest of the group before arriving at our marker for a rest.  As we sat there we took in the views of the lake and watched a plane fly in and out picking up the others who had camped on the beach.  I stared down at the bright blue water before hearing Will say as calmly as possible “Hey look, a bear”.  I looked down into the valley and off into the distance not seeing it before noticing that he was pointing to the ridge we were on and the young grizzly was about 100 yards out…  I dropped a few f-bombs for sure before the three of us grabbed our packs and grouped together with the bear spray ready to go.  We made some noise to let the bear know we were there and not to mess with us, but he continued to approach.  He was downhill from us, so we had the high ground luckily, but he had the route to get between us and the others…  We continued to make noise to try and scare him off but he was still curious with us as he ran up to about 50’ away.  He was about to get between our two groups.  We started to move sideways with him, not giving any ground and not getting any closer all while going towards Emma, Joe and Olivia just down the ridge. Suddenly, he stood up, looked around one more time and bolted down towards the lake, covering what took us a half hour to do in about a minute.  That was definitely the most never racking bit of the trip, but it wouldn’t be our last bear of the day.  We all regrouped on the top of the ridge, got a drink and a snack then continued up into the highlands together.

​The rest of the day we spent as a group.  Joe and I worked the route and everyone else supplied endless laughter, singing and stories. About halfway across as we were charting our next marker we spotted two more bears, a mama and cub.  They were a quarter mile off and enjoying some berries on the ridge.  We debated routes and decided it would be best to give mama bear a wide berth and go a little off course to avoid her.  As we crossed two rivers, we lost sight of the bears but spotted a group of hikers off in that direction and began to think they had scared her off our way. We quickly got our boots back on after the crossings and quickly worked our way to the high ground.  There was no bear to be seen once we reached the next flat meadow.  We continued on, spotting several “rock bears” along the way.  As we go closer and closer to Lower Twin Lake I could feel myself getting tired and ready to make camp. Eventually we made our way to the final crest overlooking the lake, there were still miles between us and the water.  I sat on the ridge looking off into the distance, looking for flat land to camp or the best route straight to the lake.  The quickest route was straight down a scree filled slope, so that’s the way we went, sliding down the side of the mountain towards a small lake.  As we reached the unnamed lake, I began to think about how nice of a campsite it would make tucked up into the mountains right as Emma called out three more bears on the ridge above us…

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The group was a mama and two cubs, we sat and stared at them for a long while as they lay on the mountainside. They didn’t seem to want to move at the end of the day, much like me.  We walked slowly as a group towards them and down the mountain but they began to move around the cliffs across from us.  We slowly kept our path down, thinking the pine forest would provide protection and they wouldn’t follow us into there.  I watched them as we continued to move lower towards the tree line. All of a sudden, someone called out a fourth bear, and sure enough here comes papa running up the mountainside towards them…  Luckily we were a quarter mile off and continued on our path towards Lower Twin. We stopped for a quick water break and spotted two Moose moving down into the forest, another animal to worry about…

We picked a bearing and entered the woods, dropping down into a ravine before making it to the dense forest and working out way south.  Every once in a while I would call out a course correction to Joe as he led us through the brush but we moved quickly, trying to avoid the mosquitos. After over 8 miles bushwhacking, avoiding bears, crossing rivers and sliding down the side of mountains we finally made it to the north shore of Lower Twin Lake and setup camp.  Everyone went for a much needed swim in the crystal clear water, we enjoyed cards on the beach and took our time to think about the journey so far as we neared our last two days in Lake Clark.

I thought about how traveling with these guys was like traveling with a big happy family.  I enjoyed how we bounced jokes off each other, laughed at each other’s struggles and supported each other when we needed to. Some days, like this day, were long and hard and filled with bears while other days were short “strolls” along beautiful scenery.  

I thought about how the peaks weren’t as rugged and towering as The Winds in Wyoming, The Colorado Rockies or the Sawtooths in Idaho but they were packed in tighter than any of those ranges.  The terrain was more unforgiving but it was breathtakingly beautiful and seemed as if every inch of it had something living there.  I’ve been a lot of places and in many mountains but I can honestly say I’ve never experienced a landscape so vast.  The amount of wildlife also amazed me, in one day we saw 7 grizzly bears, 2 moose, swans, ptarmigans, sheep, ground squirrels and an abundance of birds and bugs all surviving in this harsh landscape.  It was a beautiful place to end a long day.

On the fifth day we awoke to rain, something we expected a lot more than we got on this trip.  All of us laid hesitantly in our tents, hoping it would stop before giving up and crawling out for breakfast.  As the morning went out and we packed up camp the rain tapered off and we got ready to cross the lake on our Kokopellis.  The mouth of the Lower Twin Lake empties into the Chilikadrotna River and the water is cold, waste deep and moving fast so we planned to use our packrafts to shuttle people and gear across the gap.  As the Will and I made our way across the lake, the rain stopped.  Slowly but surely, after a lot of back and forth, we all made it across the lake and were on our way to our first stop, the ranger cabin on the south shore.  Joe and I continued along in the packrafts while the others hiked along the shore.  To him and I this was like a beach vacation, to everyone on the shore, not so much.  After about a mile and a half we made it to the ranger cabin for lunch and a bathroom break on a real toilet seat.  There was no ranger at home, but we made ourselves cozy outside on the porch for a bit. Eventually we packed up and continued along the shore of the lake, taking turns paddling and walking.  After several hours of up and down as well as walking on rocks and snacking on blueberries we finally made it to the connector between Upper and Lower Twin Lakes.  We called our bush pilot on the SAT phone and let them know that we would be there and waiting in the morning.  For tonight though, we enjoyed floating down the river between the two lakes, playing Flux and eating the last of our food, knowing pickup was a few hours away.  As we drifted to sleep that night, the first bits of Alaskan night finally hit.

In the morning we slowly made breakfast and packed up, getting tricked by a few different planes into thinking they were ours.  Eventually our guy showed up, loaded us up and we were flying above the lake, covering what had taken us hours the day before in a matter of minutes.  We were on our way to Anchorage, leaving the backcountry behind for now.

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Kenai Fjords National Park

After another bush plane flight we found ourselves sitting in the parking lot of Trail Ridge Air waiting for the rental cars, trying to decide what to do with the rest of our day and the thing on most peoples’ mind was food.  We drove to downtown Anchorage to 49thState Brewing and sat down for drinks and sandwiches and more food than most people probably wanted to eat. Then, after stuffing ourselves we began the two hour drive down the beautiful Kenai Peninsula to Seward and Miller’s Landing were we were going to stay for the next two days.

Miller’s Landing was our first chance at a shower in about a week and to my surprise, everyone but me passed on the opportunity.  They missed out because a shower was great…  The next day we got up, grabbed a grocery store breakfast and headed out to Exit Glacier for a climb up the mountain to the Harding Ice Field.  The group had gotten a little too cozy in the past 24 hours being out of the backcountry, but I was prepared to crush this thing and get them back in the groove.  Joe had told us it would take 8 hours and I could sense everyone was dreading that haul, so I did what I do best and started down the trail as fast as I could.  Everyone followed suit (for the most part) and we quickly shook off the morning haze and were moving our way up along the glacier.  After just under 4 hours we arrived at the top of the Exit Glacier Trail and looked out over the Harding Ice Field.  It was massive.  The sheet of ice stretched on for miles and had whole mountains buried in its icy belly. We relaxed and enjoyed the view before all beginning to get the feeling it was time to start heading down.  As quick as we went up, we went down, back to the car and back to camp to get our gear ready for sea kayaking in the national park for the next three days.  Everyone worried about being cold, about the rain and other things and didn’t know what to pack.  For me, I was more worried that the guide wouldn’t bring enough food and I would be hungry…

​We awoke the next morning at 5:30AM and walked to the dock.  We watched the captains load their boats and the guides haul out kayaks for their groups. Eventually a rather lanky and interesting character named Dritz came over and introduced himself as our guide for the next few days.  We were stoked, he seemed just like us, a kid wanting to have some fun.  Before we knew it we were on our water taxi scooting out along the ocean to the Northwest Fjord.  We arrived after about 2 hours of watching seals and puffins outside the boat and quickly setup camp, I as eager to get on the water.  We grouped up in tandems and started off with our goal for the day being to paddle to the Northwest Glacier that formed the bay.  After about two miles of paddling, a crazy strong head wind stopped us in our tracks and we returned to camp not wanting to push forward in such poor conditions.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on sleep, playing cards and going on a short paddle and hike to Southwest Glacier near our camp.  After all that we got lucky and one of the fishing boats decided be nice and dropped off two huge salmon flays and a flay of rockfish.  Dinner that night was good…

​The next day we got up early and paddled out towards the ocean, our goal was to get on the moraine formed by Northwest Glacier at its greatest extent in the 1900s.  It was a slightly tricky thing to do, you could walk on much of the moraine even in high tide but we wanted to hit it right at the lowest tide when the top would be exposed.  So we slowly meandered up the coastline, watching seals pop in and out of the water and keeping our eyes open for more creatures.  We arrived on beach a little after 1PM and low tide wasn’t till 2:30…  We took some time to play in the sand, eat lunch and enjoy a beautiful view before going for a walk down the moraine.  The rocks on it were covered in muscles, there were little tidal pools full of life everywhere and once you reached the end of the rocks, you could truly feel how large the glacier really was at its biggest.  Eventually we walked back to the boats and headed back to camp, stopping to pick berries along the way.  We spent that evening doing a lot of talking, we all wanted to know more about our guide Dritz.  He was a wanderer for a while, and a musician, and just in general a good person. The guy knew almost everything about the area we were in and he smoked like a chimney.  He seemed to see the world around him in a different way and somehow at 24 had everything figured out.  It was an interesting evening.

The final morning in Kenai we woke up to another beautiful day, quickly packed up camp and paddled hard out the Northwest Glacier.  Our pickup boat would be back at the Southwest Beach at 4:30PM so we couldn’t be late. The Glacier seemed small once we got to it until I saw a tour boat in front of it and you could actually see how massive this ice behemoth really was.  We sat for a while as the wind from the glacier blew our boats around with ease and watched the ice bergs float by.  Eventually we landed on Redstone Beach near the glacier and had lunch while we soaked up the views.  We lazily made our way back to Southwest Beach since we had plenty of time left in the day and lounged for a while before spotting a pod of orcas hunting just off shore.  It was an awesome thing to watch as they came out of the water, a last little bit of icing on the cake.

The water taxi to take us back to Seward arrived right on time, full of fishermen…  We got loaded up, snagged some seats and began the two hour ride back to town.  Sea Kayaking in Kenai felt like a completely separate trip, just days before we had been whacking our way through the bush in Lake Clark and now we were in a completely new place, with new challenges, new laughs and new adventures already leaving it behind.  Dritz made the journey even more amazing, he had a life story twice his age, knew so much about the world around him and seemed to love every minute of his life.  We tipped him very nicely…  (Always tip your guides kids)

After we arrived back to Seward from our paddling journey we found ourselves tucked away in a cozy sea side retreat, surprised by Joe’s gracious upgrade from where we planned to stay.  We sat on the balcony overlooking Resurrection Bay, laughing, eating and drinking trying not to remember that the end of this grand journey was just a few days away from us.

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On Saturday we drove north into the Chugach National Forest working our way back towards Anchorage. I don’t think any of us wanted to leave that bungalow but we found a nice cheap campsite managed by the Forest Service.  For one last time, we setup camp, hoped back in the cars and drove north to Crow Pass to hike up to one more glacier.  After days in boats our legs had become sore and tightened up again, the first mile was rough.  Eventually most of us fell into a stride and worked our way up the pass to its alpine lake and Crow Glacier.  We sat enjoying our last moments in the Alaskan backcountry for a while before dark clouds of to the west on the other side of the mountains made us think twice about begin up there.  We quickly made our way down below treeline, helping an older woman with a fear of heights down along the way (kudos to Olivia).  We arrived near the car just as it started to rain the hardest and heading back towards the campground.  In the evening we had one last camp meal, went for a little hike, saw another moose 50’ away, and watched schools of salmon float in the river nearby.  It was a nice last night out…

​Sunday we returned to Anchorage to enjoy a nice hotel with a pool, and showers, and a complimentary breakfast buffet.  We had dinner downtown, I feasted on Cod and Crab Legs and bought way too much booze and we all celebrated a trip well done and even better friends made.
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On Monday, I went for a run while all the lazies slept in, we had breakfast, watched some New Girl and left for the airport.  The trip had ended just days ago but already felt like a lifetime away.  I found places I can’t wait to revisit, I grew some awesome friendships, I saw breathtaking views, I made jokes and laughed and enjoyed the hell out of a trip that’s been a long way coming.  To have been able to do what we got so lucky with was an amazing thing and it will keep me dreaming for a long time about the trips to come.

The fall came just as we left

"To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world."
-John Muir