Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Seward - Take 2

I decided to give myself a few days to play in Alaska after I finished work and school. I finished (thank goodness!) and decided to play in Seward for two reasons: (1) I love it there; and (2) It is super easy to get around without a car. When I was planning the trip I had big dreams to do 3 things - hike Mount Marathon, go behind the scenes at the SeaLife Center, and take a kayaking trip. I was successful! I managed to do all of them safely and I couldn't have asked for a better trip!

Lodging: I attempted to save myself some money by staying at a hostel. That was the biggest mistake of the trip. The people were very odd and I was completely uncomfortable with the clean-factor. Since I made the reservation I figured that I owed them a night and I stayed for the first night, but I called Soo, the owner of the B&B Amanda and I stayed in, and she gave me a room for the next night. I resigned myself to the extra cost of the B&B knowing that it would be a luxurious night. As with the whole trip though, luck was on my side. Soo knocked on my door at 9:30 and told me that she made a mistake - she forgot to write down a reservation so I was kicked out of my room! She put me up in the loft, which was amazing, and told me that my stay was free! If anyone makes it to Seward please visit Soo, she is one of the true gems I found on my Alaskan adventure.

Mount Marathon: A 3.1 mile hike with an elevation gain of 3022 feet, Mount Marathon is a difficult trek that is also a race every 4th of July weekend. Last year's winner did it in about 43 minutes. I was up on the Mountain for about 4 hours and I made it to the top of the lower patch of snow decided not to go any further. Thanks Mom -I heard you say "be safe" and I made the right decision! The first part of the hike was through forested area over a muddy path, above the tree line the terrain was all loose shale. The view from the top was absolutely amazing and I'm proud to say that I did it.

I started the hike with 3 other groups of hikers. The first group was a Mother and her Son, the Mom quit after the first rock scramble and her Son went ahead with an older German gentleman who appeared from what seemed like thin air. The second group consisted of 3 guys from South Carolina who grew up together and 2 of them were up visiting the third who was stationed at the Anchorage military base. I traveled down the Mountain with Chad, one of the Carolina boys and the German gentleman, who again, appeared out of nowhere. The descent was much faster than the ascent because we slid down loose shale most of the way, and I really could have used my rock shoes (and maybe a harness?) at a few points, but we made it down in one piece. The third group I started the hike with was a guy and a girl, I couldn't quite tell what their relationship was, but they seemed nice enough.
The girl from the third group was really struggling up the Mountain. She had a walking stick and was taking a ton of breaks. I buzzed up ahead on my own, and they caught up to me at the point where I decided to turn around. They decided to go on (she said something about "Woman vs. Wild"), but I could see that it was going to be a tough journey for them - I was right. After I had gotten off the Mountain and showered, I called Josh from the porch of the hostel which has a great view of Mt. Marathon. As we were chatting, a rescue helicopter came over the Mountain and tried landing near the top. As it turned out, the girl had taken the wrong path back and had slipped down a very steep incline of loose shale. She wasn't injured but she was stuck, and the helicopter had to rescue her. When I found out who was stuck on the Mountain, I was pretty shaken up. It took about four hours for the rescuers to get her down, and aside from being very cold the girl was alright. I had a blast up on Mt. Marathon but it was a very sobering experience.

SeaLife Center: Seward is home to a facility that conducts research and rehabilitation, and has a zoo for Marine animals. I knew that I wanted to visit the Center and I had this crazy thought that I could get behind the scenes by calling the rehab department, telling them I used to volunteer for Sarvey Wildlife, and asking. It worked! They let me in the Center free of charge and they gave me a private tour in the quarantine area where they rehabilitate the rescued animals. As I told Josh, "It's like Sarvey, with money". It was super neat to see how marine mammals are cared for, and to see how a facility can operate with proper funding. The director of the Center was great, he took the time to show me around and he answered all of my questions - and he gave me a t-shirt.

Kayaking: I had such a fantastic time with Kayak Adventures Worldwide last time, that I decided to go again. I had a great kayaking partner, we motored along and we did everything that the guide could think of on Resurrection Bay. We hiked to the fort and had lunch, visited the waterfall, and stopped at a river with a salmon run. Beautiful scenery, great company, and an amazing sport - what else could a girl ask for?
Homeward Bound: At this point I am packing up to head home. I had a fantastic trip and I can't wait to come back!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Josh in AK!

Over the 4th of July weekend, Josh came to visit. It was his first time in Alaska and I was pretty excited to see him and to be able to show him around. We had a fantastic weekend and I wish that he could come back!

The Car: We rented ourselves a car for the weekend. But not just any car - a GOLD Ford Focus. It was essentially the best thing ever. It was a stick so Josh had a blast driving it and most importantly, we were mobile! Anchorage is a completely different city when you have a car and personally, I believe that Mobile-Anchorage is the best Anchorage. By the end of the trip we were both a little attached to our Focus - dents, dog hair, and squeaky back doors - we were sad to have to give her up.

The Location: We spent most of our time in Homer where I found us a great little B&B. We had our own room with a view of the water. There was a wood-fired hot tub, which we went in both nights; I'm pretty sure that only in Alaska will you sit in non-electric hot tub, have a view of Cook Inlet, and watch bald eagles. The town of Homer was pretty neat too - we made it into the famous Salty Dawg and had fresh fish every night.
The Hike: We wanted to spend 1 day out hiking. We didn't have a plan we just knew that we wanted to go "over there" which meant across Cook Inlet, and to do that we needed a water taxi. We packed up our gear and went down on the Homer Spit to find a water taxi - we had a bunch to choose from and our final selection criteria was the best looking sign (advertising at work!) and we ended up at Mako's. Mako himself took us across the inlet and dropped us off on a beach with the instructions that we were to find the trail head marked by an orange triangle, follow the signs to the glacier and then take the saddle trail to our pick up spot, which was not the same as the drop off spot. 45 minutes after we parked the car, Josh and I found ourselves alone on a beach on the other side of the Cook Inlet knowing that we had to catch the boat at "a staircase" at 4:30 pm, with our only way to tell the time being a digital camera with a low-battery camera.

We managed to get ourselves to the trail head and we successfully followed the signs and the rock-piles to the glacier trail. The lake was amazing. The glacier was huge and there were a bunch of calved pieces floating in the gorgeous blue water. We took our pictures (doing our best to conserve the battery) and noticed we had some extra time. We decided to walk along the shore edge and explore. We found a dried up mudflat with Momma and Baby Moose prints. In the process we must have gotten to close to the nest of a group of Arctic Terns because one of them started circling us, making horrible noises, and swooping down at Josh; we quickly left the Tern behind and did some more exploring. On our way back to the trail we took a slightly different path to stay out of the Tern's way. We screwed that up big time.
We must have gotten closer to the nest because instead of 1 Tern there were at least 3 all circling, screaming, and dive-bombing us! I thought it was pretty funny but I was still shielding my head as we tried to get away. At some point the Terns got very serious and they had Josh and I running away while trying to protect our heads. As we were running, Josh fell down and about 5 seconds later one of the Terns hit me on the head! We finally got out of their territory and they left us alone - thank goodness. But I think the Terns won that battle. I had a lump on my head, I was dizzy and Josh wished he had thrown more rocks to hit the darn things. Overall, we both had a hard time believing that we just had our asses handed to us by 3 four ounce birds.
The rest of our hike was pretty uneventful - in a good way. We met a ptarmigan and her babies, she was very nice. So nice, that we had to shoo them off the trail so we wouldn't trample the them. We saw some great views of the other side of the Cook Inlet, we found the staircase and we met our pick-up boat just fine.

Whittier: A former top-secret military base, Whittier is literally enclosed on all sides by Mountains and water. On land, the only way or out is through a single 3-mile long tunnel that is wide enough for one lane of traffic or a train. The tunnel runs on a schedule; you have the ability to travel to or from Whittier between 7am and 11pm, one direction of travel for about 20 minutes designated every hour. I'm happy that we went - it was certainly an experience, but holy cow - I have never felt so claustrophobic! 80% or more of the population lives in a single building; this building houses apartments, privately owned condos, and hotels. I was terrified to be there, worried I might get stuck there, and Josh was happy to get us out of there as soon as possible - as soon as the tunnel schedule allowed it!

Around Anchorage: Even with all that, Josh and I found time to have coffee and breakfast in Barnes and Noble twice, play tourist in Anchorage, go to Humpy's, take a nap, and visit the University Lake Beaver. My only regret about the weekend is that Josh didn't get to see a Moose. There is always next time!