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...
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