Rescue

So this “road” we were driving on to the foot of the glacier wasn't actually a road – but actually just a footpath we discovered. Help arrived in the form of a nearby pickup truck with a tow strap. The digging wasn't doing too much, so we decided to give up and just try to snatch the van from the rear (use the elasticity of the tow strap to apply a quick jerk of force). I got in and rolled up the windows - just in case it tips over in the process – I'm imagining it would be better not to have all that goo oozing into the van thru open windows. I wanted to put my seatbelt on (again, so I wouldn't fall out of the seat sideways), but leaned over that far, the pre-tensioner was locked so I couldn't. I gave just enough power in 4WD-low to almost spin the tires, and the truck yanked back. It was all over in an instant: Hallelujah, the van was extracted – and without damage. I almost dropped to my knees overwhelmed with gratitude! Mud was everywhere, so it took some time to clean everything up, but we were safe again - ahhhhhhhhhh. Few feelings in this world match the tremendous relief when snatched from the brink of disaster.

The van on solid ground again, we opened a special bottle of wine from a friend as we reclined in our seats to take in the view of the glacier. This was an amazing spot, and we had it all to ourselves. The wine was great – life is good!

The next morning, we walked over to the glacier and hiked around on it – with help from our hiking poles. Traction was tentative at times, so we avoided anything with significant exposure. Because we had spent the night there, we had the place to ourselves for much of the morning until the day-tourists started arriving. It was a very cool playground of ice.

We headed to Anchorage with a mile long list of things we needed : Oil change, electrical work on the van, REI, drugstore, car wash (to remove the muck still caked underneath the van). I thought it would be great to be back in the "civilized world" - restaurants, choices, etc. But we couldn't get out of there fast enough - traffic, crowds, ghettos, liquor stores – yuck. Until now, I'd occasionally dreamed about all the things I would enjoy when we get home. Now I wonder if I will be able to handle the frenetic pace of life there.

Fortunately, it was only fifteen minutes of driving south from Anchorage before no sign of the city was even present, and the natural beauty of the area shined. In fact, the road followed a narrow inlet with snow=patched mountains all around. But it was the white aliens we saw in the water next that was most memorable - Actually a pod of Beluga whales, but they are stunningly, unnaturally white and looked more like giant serpents. They lack dorsal fins like orcas or dolphins, so it is a very odd sight. They are larger than dolphins but smaller than orcas, and they only inhabit cold waters - I guess they are white to blend in with the snow and ice.

They swam along with the fast moving tidal current, which fortuitously coincided with our direction of travel. So we drove a few miles at a time and watched as they'd passed – we did this for about an hour and 15-20 miles. It was only the darkness that ended our show.

Having lived in the van for nearly two months, we decided to spread out in a hotel room for a couple of days – unlimited internet, TV for the olympics and Obama VP speech, full pressure hot water showers, and a king size bed. We chose the Aleyeska resort – a four diamond lodge at a ski resort forty minutes south of Anchorage. It was a very nice break. TV without TIVO is unbearable – all those commercials – I don't know how people can watch that way. We enjoyed sushi, massages, and a ride up the tram for views from high above. I wish I had my paraglider – they have a launch and landing zone all set up. Afterwards, returning to the van was not a chore at all – in fact it felt great to be “home” again in our cozy bed with all our stuff at hand.

The famous Portage Glacier is just down the road, so we visited the multi-million dollar visitors center. It's right on the edge of the lake, but the glaciers have been receding so fast that the Portage glacier has withdrawn around the bend and IS NO LONGER VISIBLE from the elaborate visitor's center anymore. They are a bit embarrassed about it – or should be. After driving thru a train tunnel (open to cars in one direction when the train isn't using it), we followed a trail up to a high point where the Portage glacier is still visible. It is really an amazing sight – I wonder if we'll ever tire of seeing glaciers (glacier-fatigue)?

Be sure to check out the next slide set of our most recent best pictures here.

More Adventures

We enjoyed a few days in Valdez - hard to leave the panoramic view from our oceanfront campsite. Kayaking the Valdez glacier lake gave us the opportunity to paddle to the INTERIOR of a glacier - stable ice caves permitted us this unique view. We didn't go into them all - just the safe ones! Pretty cool to be inside the deep blue ice looking back out at the world.

A lot more scary were the hikes and bike rides in the area. It rained on us, but we were well equiped with Gore-tex everything. Frequent reports of bear activity ensured that we carry the bear bell and pepper spray. We never saw a bear on this day, but the piles of berry-laden "scat" were everywhere. It got scary when we had to wade/crawl thru the dense brush on a less-used trail. We yelled out our presence to any potential bears. One trail was signed by the local police with bear activity today. The numerous bear trails running perpendicular to our hiking trail fed our imagination with bears just out of sight. Don't know what a bear trail looks like? Just imagine if you matted all the vegetation 3 feet wide down to the ground. The bears criss-cross the area in search of berries.

To get farther into Prince William Sound, we took a charter boat to the Columbia Glacier, were we were dropped off with our Kayaks for about 5 hours. This is the most active glacier (calving at the face) in North America, but we couldn't get within miles of the face because the inlet was so jam packed with icebergs. We were able to paddle around the giant floating blocks of ice. Sea otters where everywhere - they are curious little guys - a dozen of them jump off their ice block to follow along the charter boat for a bit. Perhaps the coolest thing was on our way to the secluded pickup site, we could hear the wild sounds of a wolf howling somewhere up in the hills above us. It is an erie sound - but very cool too. Did I mention it rained the entire day? We paddled in the rain, ate lunch in the rain, and waited for the pickup boat in the rain - Instead of sitting there in the rain like wet animals, we built a tiny shelter from the boat, paddles, and a tarp.

Our next destination was back into Wrangell-St Elias Nat'l Park - via the other gravel road - this one a bit rougher and 120 miles round trip. It was worth it to see the Root Glacier/Icefall, and the Kennicot mine. This picturesque mine was abandonned in 1938, but it was the richest copper mine of all times. We found it interesting that the founder and CEO was Stephen Birch - San Diegans should recognize that name - After getting things running smoothly, he retired to San Diego and must have been a wealthy philanthropist since the Aquarium where Eileen and I got married is named for him.

The next day, driving along a narrow dirt road through the moraine gravel toward the foot of the Matanuska glacier, we encounter a wet muddy section and... plop - the right front end drops TWO FEET into the muck - it just won't support the weight of the van. We were in 4WD, but that had no apparent benefit in this situation. I tried to back out, but any spin of the tires quickly took us deeper - and the van was already leaning so far to the right that it was uncomfortable to stay in the driver's seat - scary angle! I knew it wouldn't tip over (probably), but how would we get out of this muck. I dug frantically thru the mud hoping to create a gradual path out, but it was like quicksand clay and it just flowed back in. Would we ever get out? Would our precious "home" tip over into the pond of water just a foot out of the picture? Would we rip the van right off the stuck axle with a tow from another vehicle? How many nights would we have to sleep in our tent stranded here before help arrived? Tune in next time to find out...

Wild Kingdom - really!

As we drive into Wrangell-St Elias National Park, the weather is gray and we are unsure what to expect. It is the largest of all the National Parks, but is only accessed by two long dirt roads (40 miles or 60 miles). Since the clouds are low, I'm not optimistic that we'll see much of the park's beauty - the amazing snowcapped volcanic mountains. I remember that this park is supposed to have more wild animals than any other, and I remind Eileen that we'll have to keep our eyes open for them as we drive so at least we'll see something. Less than a minute farther down this lonely bumpy road, something amazing happened - suddenly a spinning mass of animals crosses the road right in front of us. It is so unexpected it takes a moment to decypher what we're looking at: A pack of wolves is taking down a moose and her calf as they stumble across the road. It's not a chase at this point - the wolves appear patient and calculating as they jog alongside, jumping up to bite at opportunistic times. Quickly they are into the woods again and we lose sight of them. We roll the windows down to listen, and we hear this horrible grunting and snorting sounds coming from the distraught moose from just inside the forest a few yards farther down the road. We reposition the van and stand up on top of it (8 feet up) for a better look. We can only partly see glimpses thru the trees, but they are less tha 50 feet from us. Branches are snapping and the trees are bending catastrophically as the group bashes into them haphazardly in the struggle. We can see at this point that the mother moose is not being attacked - it is just the calf they are nipping at, and the mother is helplessly trying to establish a perimemter around it. It is all so close and life and death real I have the unfocused feeling I should do something to help, but of course that doesn't make any sense. After only a few brief moments the battle appears over, as the moose quiets her grunting to just heavy breathing, steps away a few feet, and then walks away (grunting occasionally - in grief I guess). Fortunately, we cannot actually see the downed calf thru the trees, but the sounds are grotesque - I can only describe it as a splashing sound :-( I am desperate to go see, but getting close to the wolf pack with a fresh kill probably isn't a good idea, so when the noises stop we finally continue on our journey - moved and a little stunned by the experience.

And now we are enjoying the stunning setting of Valdez - Eileen and I agree that it is the most beautiful city we have seen so far - and the others are amazing. We have a campsite right on the water, with a 359 degree panorama of glaciated mountains! We'll kayak, hike, and bike in the area for awhile before heading toward Anchorage.

It struck me this afternoon, that we are still far from the halfway point of the drive - kind of scary to think that each hour we drive adds another hour on the way back - we are FAR from home and getting farther!

Okay, so here's our tally so far:

• 3700 miles (85 hours) of driving
• 42 days (38 sleeping in the van)
• 4 days of rain
• 7 national parks
• >1000 photographs
• 1 laptop died (2nd one still good so far - we brought two!)
• 1 broken hiking pole
• 1/2" of hair growth
• Grizzly, Black Bear, Moose, Beaver, Foxes, Wolves, Bald Eagles, Seals, Humpback Whales, Porpoises, Salmon, Sea Otters, Dahl mountain sheep.

Aurora Borealis - Check!

If one has a checklist of things to hope to see on a trip to Alaska, the "Northern Lights" is probably near the top. We'd contemplated an extra side-trip far north to the Artic circle along the graval Dalton highway mostly to increase our chances of seeing it. But at the end of a very long day in Haines Junction, Eileen stepped out of the van just after 1 am to go use the bathroom. Caught completely by surprise, the northern skyline was aglow with flickering aquamarine flames - drifting and morphing in a ghostly fashion - very surreal. We watched alone in the dark for half an hour until it seemed to weaken. (*Note: unlike every other picture you see here, we did not take this one - we couldn't photograph it, but I wanted you to get an idea of what it looks like)

In the morning we bought "Bear Assault" pepper spray ($50) and a hiking bell. Thank you for everyone's encouragement to make this a priority.

Another new experience is Permafrost - but how would we know when it is present? Turns out it is quite easy - the road undulates up and down making the drive quite uncomfortable. The permafrost actually begins to thaw in areas that no longer have the protective insulation of plantlife, and this causes the road to sink. Driving any faster than 45-50mph would get you airborne!

The next couple of days involved a lot of driving along the Alaskan Highway. Along the way, we saw a black bear, moose, and two foxes. Most of the landscape was very strange - entire forests of stunted pine trees of just four to ten feet tall. They were hundreds of years old but couldn't grow very well in the year-round frozen earth. Crooked and knarled, it looked like a Dr Suess landscape. A boardwalk hike thru the area took us to a beautiful lake where we saw three beavers. Other than their occasional splashing noise, the world was totally silent, no people, no cars, no planes overhead, no wind, no birds - an odd sensation.

The next night we hoped to see the Aurora Borealis again, but the orange glow of sunset was still strong on the horizon at midnight, so we went to bed. And now we are passing thru Tok, the coldest inhabited place in North America they say (sunny day, fortunately).

Hello Mr. Grizzly Bear

After a pleasant 5 hr ferry ride, we arrived in Haines, where the road north begins again. Only a few thousand people live here (half that in the winter). It feels like the Fjiords of Norway to us - a sliver of ocean penetrating up the steep walled valley. Fortunately for us, the Sockeye Salmon are running locally - this means there might be bears at the river fishing. Bear watching trips are a big business in Alaska, and the guided tours/lodges cost $500-$3000/pp. But here in Haines, the locals directed us to watch from the road along the Chilkoot river. We find the river full of fishermen, wading in up to their waists. Then... A Grizzly bear just walks out of the dark woods and into the river - Wow, he's big - his head is huge! At first we watch from the safety of the van, but eventually step outside for a closer look (still within a few paces of the door). He's only about thirty feet away, but he's thoroughly engaged in the pursuit of salmon. He swats at the water and comes up with a fish, which he then proceeds to tear apart and eat. He does this five or six times before making his way down the river and out of sight. We go back to this spot to watch a few times, and we've seen five or six grizzlies total, including one orphan cub still trying to figure out (by himself) how to get fish. It is remarkable how unperturbed they are by humans nearby. We'll pick up a canister of pepper spray to carry with us on hikes in the future just in case.

Before leaving Haines, we did an 11 mile paddle down the Chilkat river. This is a fast moving river (but no significant rapids). It was very wide, with lots of snaking channels running in and out around mud flat islands. While there were no significnat rapids, the colliding currents would swirl into each other, making the water boil in very strange ways. The scenery was stunning, jagged mountains with a patchwork of snow and glaciers. We shuttled ourselves by bicycle.
Everything here is about fish and catching fish.

The strangest new thing we've seen is a "fish Wheel." It is like a water wheel turning in the current of the river, but with each rotation, a giant basket next sweeps thru the water capturing whatever happens to be there at that moment. It lifts up with the water wheel and dumps it's contents into a receptacle for later collection. Amazing ingenuity - no power, no bait, just free fish at the end of the day.

Would you camp at a lake called "Mosquito lake?" We did, and won't ever again. Stepping out of the van, a swarm of hundreds of mosquitos descended upon us. Any exposed skin would be bitten right away. We weren't prepared for that so had to jump back in the van and get more clothing (hooded) on. It was no fun, so we stayed inside the van - thank god for screens. And left promptly the next morning. Skip this stop.

The drive thru Chilkat pass was spectacular (I'm running out of adjectives and we haven't even gotten to the interior yet) - endless jagged peaks all virtually every direction. By the way, almost every vehicle we see on the road is an RV, but they're few and far between. At "Chuck's Creek" we found a trail to mountain bike on. It climbed up into the high alpine (treeless) terrain - it was kind of surreal to be mountain biking in such a remote place high amongst the jagged peaks. Eventually we turned around when we encountered a lot of large bear prints in the muddy trail. The brush was head high at this point and we'd read that this area has the highest concentration of Grizzly in the entire Yukon territory. Since we hadn't gotten pepper spray yet, it seemed foolish to continue deeper into the thicket. Later in the next town (Haines Junction), we learned that there has been an unusual amount of bear-human encounters lately. Wise choice.

Welcome to Alaska

The US ferry ride has been just over 30 hours, but it includes a "State Room," which really means a bunk bed. Actually it was quite nice to have a place to put our things as we roam around the ship. It was no where near as nice as the Canadian Ferry, but we did have better weather. From the boat, we saw a mother and calf humpback whale, and several times we saw a group of something small surfacing (but always too quick to identify - too small to be dolphins, but that would have been my guess). This Ferry has made several stops along the way, and we can get off for an hour while in port - unfortunately there's not much to see within walking distance of the ferry terminal. Eileen and I played scrabble for the first time. It's probably been over twenty years since I've played - turns out it is surprisingly fun (as long as you have a book to read while waiting for your opponent).

We arrive in Juneau, Alaska - it feels kind of strange to be here. We were here thirteen years ago on a kayaking trip, but we arrived by plane - Now we're here again, but this time we drove the whole way north. Mendenhal Glacier is the primary landmark here - It dominates the horizon at times - A huge wall of blue ice filling the valley. We find the beautiful Mendenhal campground only half full - usually at capacity in years past - this is the first evidence that folks are staying home because of the high price of gasoline - good for us! One day we take a hike/bike to a spectacular spot overlooking the glacier and ice field behind it. It is so much more vast when you see it from above. The next day, we kayak on the lake (filled with icebergs) over to the face of the glacier. While tidewater glaciers are frequently calving violently down into the ocean, this lake glacier lacks the salt water and tidal forces so it is relatively stable. This means we could kayak right up to the massive blue walls. The scale is very hard to gauge, but it was breathtaking. Tonight we sleep at the ferry station for a 4:45am line up.

Next stop Haines...