Alaska is now back-blogged

For those still following along (and at the persistence of a certain friend who I may have visited in Alaska), I've added the rest of my Alaska adventures. Scroll down to find the labels list and click on Alaska to find them. No, I didn't make things up after many months - I wrote all the text on the plane from Fairbanks to Minneapolis, and I just got lazy in posting the rest of the trip.

I miss Alaska

Clearwater and muddy bottoms - Alaska Day 10

Don’t think there could be a more perfect last hurrah to my trip. After a 2-hr drive east to Delta, a group of 8 adults, 2 toddlers, and 3 canoes paddled down the Clearwater River, to the Tanana, and ended up in a pretty lake. Clearwater River? Definitely clear and pretty. Views in the trees were nice, and we all enjoyed lunch on a muddy river bed, especially the littlest naked one!


Most of the group ended up at a drive-in in Delta for dinner, where I got a buffalo burger and blueberry milkshake.

Oh yeah, and I saw the pipeline too

A Nice Reward - Alaska Day 9

A hike and a soak in the hot springs in the end sounds like a good start to the Memorial Day weekend, no? Katie, Julie, Ashlee and her dog Mo and I hiked the 9-mile Angel Rocks to Chena Hot Springs trail. Weather ranged from sweaty, humid, sunny hot to cool and breezy to a bit of a downpour along the way. I got to stomp in the mud and puddles with my new favorite footwear, waterproof hiking boots. The rain lasted maybe about 10 minutes and then it was sunny and beautiful again.

Mo taking a break on a leftover snow pile

By ruining the shot, Mo actually makes it more awesome

Sky's a little dark back there...

We got to the hot springs and had some drinks (including an Aurora Borealis martini, pretty and tasty) and dinner, caesar salad topped with smoked salmon. Then we soaked in the hot springs for about an hour. It was a perfect temperature for a soak after the hike. It's a pretty touristy spot, so you're basically sharing a big pool with strangers, but it was still nice and relaxing.

Old and New Traditions - Alaska Day 8

Friday was another fairly low-key day. Julie and I slept in again, and then ran over to campus on the trails, and the more important stop on the run after that was Hot Licks, Fairbanks’ local ice cream shop. Tasty ice cream cone to start, finished with a good falafel down the road from The Pita Place. That’s not backwards, is it? Running, followed by ice cream, was a freshman year tradition for Julie and me.

70 degrees in Fairbanks? Oh yes.

Friday was to be the day we went flying with Julie’s colleague Martin, but he was called to fly in supplies to the villages flooded by the Yukon. Certainly a much worthier cause than my flightseeing. Instead, Julie tried to scrounge up some people for a world-famous booze cruise. Summer means a lot of people out of town, but we did manage to get her friend Ashlee to join us in the borrowed canoe. The Chena (CHEE-na) river runs through Fairbanks and there are several restaurants along its banks. We stopped first at the Boatel where we met up with Julie’s roommate Donald and two of his friends, and then floated down to Pike’s Landing, where I got what amounted to the Alaska seafood smorgasboard: halibut, salmon, rockfish, and shrimp. Also tasty. Again, another gorgeous day, mosquitos at bay (for the most part).

Me looking like a dork, and Ashlee peacin' out

Kickin' it in Denali - Alaska Days 5-7

Back north on the Parks Highway to Denali. We made it just in time to get suited up for our whitewater rafting trip down the Nenana River. Our guide, Bobski, guided us well on the 11-mile trip down river (which seemingly flows backward, from south to north). It was my first whitewater rafting trip, and I even thought it was fairly tame. We hit one big Class 3 rapid (which was the first one we hit and sent me flying backward off my seat into Bobski. Lesson learned: lean forward, not backward!), and the rest were Class 2. At the end we got to jump over the side to feel the water; wearing dry suits, of course. I clung to the raft for at least a half mile, while only Julie and one other brave soul dunked in and out. When else am I going to be able to float down a river in Alaska and not freeze to death?

After the rafting trip, I did my souvenir and postcard shopping in Glitter Gulch, the ultra-touristy area right outside the Denali National Park entrance. Then it was onward into the park!

After setting up our camp site at Savage River, we drove into mile 30 of the park road. During the summer, only park busses are allowed in past mile 15, but we caught the last day of driving in that far before the busses started. And we saw some wildlife, hooray! Arctic hare, caribou, moose. Close enough to pose for us for the camera.

Whatchu lookin at caribou?

Om nom nom

We had a lovely night of car camping with the rain fly off the tent.. have I mentioned how gorgeous the weather has been? After sleeping in till 11 (whoops!) we headed to Savage River for a hike. There were a bunch of sheep low on the mountain at the end of the trail; usually, all you see are white specks. We hiked a few miles over to hang out with some Dall’s sheep. Some of these dudes had pretty impressive horns… we made sure to keep our distance.

Caribou cruisin' along

You've got some learnin' to do, little lamb. We're not supposed to be above you!

Once we had our fill of watching the sheep and some rock scrambling, we headed back to get our backcountry permit for camping. Backcountry camping in Denali is free, but you do need a permit for certain areas. Normally, backcountry camping is a choose-your-own-adventure type thing... no trails, you make your way through the brush, ford rivers, etc. We chose one of the areas that had a trail, Triple Lakes. Established camp sites because it’s so often used, but still pretty remote. Since this was my first backpacking into the woods to sleep adventure, we took it. We hiked in about 2 miles to choose a campsite right along the second lake. Set up camp, hoped to not see bears (which we didn't), and enjoyed being out of sight and

9:30PM at the campsite

In the morning, we hiked back to the car, grabbed some lunch- reindeer sausage, yum- and stopped at Bison Gulch, a few miles up from the park entrance, for a steep, few mile hike. We watched (and heard) the thunderstorm in the distance (Julie’s first for the season). Enjoyed the view of Mount Healey, and then headed back up to Fairbanks. It rained on us for the first time during my trip: 5 min. rain shower while we were driving. Once in Fairbanks, it was decompressing from the hiking and driving. Plugging back in, cooking some tacos, enjoying a beer, relaxing, and the great picture and music swap.

Julie can jump over mountains

Good food, good people, and a snowman – Alaska Day 4

After dropping off Celine at the train station for her to get back for field work way north of Fairbanks, Julie and I headed into the the big city of Anchorage. We had lunch at Humpy's with 2 of Julie’s former NWS colleagues in Anchorage. I had my first "Alaska" meal: salad with delicious seasoned halibut on top, and some beer. Yum. After lunch we wandered round the NWS office visiting the rest of Julie's former colleagues, and then we took off to Girdwood. On the way, we drove through the Turnagain Arm- yes, I did get to see the ocean on my vacation! Girdwood is the home of Alaska’s biggest ski resort, Aleyska (which is also the name of the pipeline. We’ll get the pipeline in later). There are plenty of hikes in Girdwood, and we took to hiking up some of the ski slopes. Pretty sweet hiking in the snow while wearing shorts and a tshirt. Julie and I had some fun sliding down the mountain too.

From one of the slopes at Aleyska in Girdwood

My first May snowman

For dinner we headed back into Anchorage and met Julie’s friend Oceana for dinner at the Moose's Tooth Brewery. Excellent homemade pizza, beer and root beer brewed on site. Good pizza? In Alaska?? I know, and I’m kind of a pizza snob since I grew up in NY in a town without chain pizza.

We caught some of the loooooong sunset at Flattop Lookout, and headed back to Palmer for our last showers and sleep in a bed for a few days.

Climbing a Glacier – Alaska Day 3

This day turns out to be the highlight of the trip. Our party of 10 headed out to the Matanuska Glacier, an hour drive east of Palmer on the Glenn Highway. Not only were we going to hang out on the glacier all day, but we were going to ice climb it. Thanks to Dean and Carlene and their copious amounts of ice-climbing gear and expertise, we got geared up and climbing on the glacier by early afternoon. Helmet on, crampons strapped to my boots, I was ready to go.

Dean getting me ready to climb

Last climb of the day on the obstacle course

The glacier was beautiful, and the climbing was a ton of fun. Weather was beautiful yet again- I was hanging out in a tshirt for part of the day. While the others were climbing, Julie and I wandered around to get a look at the glacier. Gorgeous!


We wrapped up the day with dinner for 6 at the Lone Rifle Inn, a local place with a great view of the glacier.

Oh yes, these are real mountains - Alaska Day 2

On Saturday, Julie, her friend Celine, and I took off south down the Parks Highway. Beautiful sunny weather (you’ll see a trend here…) and the mountain was out the entire ride. The mountain? Denali to folks in Alaska, Mt. McKinley to folks elsewhere. I’ll take the opportunity to brush you up on your Denali trivia, ripped from Wikipedia: Mount McKinley has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest, although the summit of Everest is higher measured from sea level 29,028 feet (8,800 m). Everest's base sits on the Tibetan Plateau at about 17,000 feet (5,200 m), giving it a real vertical rise of a little more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The base of Mount McKinley is roughly a 2,000-foot (610 meter) plateau, giving it an actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m). Only the experienced hikers take on Denali, as it is snow covered and creates its own dangerous weather throughout the year. I heard 3 different statistics about how often one can see it clearly; 10, 25, or 60 percent of the time it comes out from behind the clouds or haze to show its beautiful face. Why do Alaska people call it Denali, while seemingly everyone else calls it McKinley? Denali was its native Athabaskan name long before the peak was named in honor of then-Senator McKinley in 1897. I’ll stop with the chatter and get on with the pictures.

Not Denali in the background. Outside the park entrance

Denali from the park

From the South Viewpoint

Blowing snow at the top of Denali

After getting our fill photo snapping, we continued southward toward Palmer, where Julie’s friends Nikole and Jeff were gracious enough to let us crash for a few nights. First though, we drove through what is currently Alaska’s most famous town: Wasilla. If you like box stores, you’ll like Wasilla. If you want to hang out in the meth capital of Alaska, Wasilla is it. If you like traffic lights after cruising for hours at 65 mph, you’ll like Wasilla.

As we arrived in Palmer, I saw my first live moose (my first moose was roadkill)

This lady did not stop to check in

We got into Palmer in the evening, just in time for Jeff to cook us up some delicious steaks and squash. Mmmm, every road trip should end with steaks. After digesting for a tiny bit, we headed up to the Butte, a 20 minute drive from Palmer. A nice hike at sunset (10PM-ish) with a view of the mountains and surrounding area.

Pioneer Peak from the butte

Sunset from the butte, 10:15PM

Hello, Alaska

I hopped off the plane in Fairbanks looking like a zombie after leaving the apartment in NJ 12 hrs earlier. I got to watch the sunset in Anchorage, and rise and set again on my way up to Fairbanks at 11PM, that was pretty neat. Julie picked me up and we headed out to her cabin. My first impression of Fairbanks? This looks an awful lot like my hometown. Fairbanks is mountainous by East coast standards—the rolling hills I’m used to seeing in NY and PA (and to some extent, NJ). 2 lane highways, lined with trees. For those familiar with it, a whole lot like Sullivan County, NY. Just different trees. Julie even has a driveway similar to the puddle-ridden driveway at my mom’s house; if you’ve been, you know what a treat that is.

Julie's driveway @ 11PM

Slept very well that first night, even with the start of 24-hr twilight that first day I arrived. Friday we ran around University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) and Fairbanks meeting people and setting up a yard sale for Julie’s Relay for Life team (which was pretty successful!) Julie gave me a refresher on driving stick (it had been 7 years since my mom’s lesson in the HS parking lot) on her Subaru, Suruba.

While Julie was taking a bear shotgun class (seriously), I hopped over on the trail behind her house to the Large Animal Research Station and said hi to the caribou and muskoxen. Beautiful sunshine streaming through the birch trees, too.


And, I’ll get it over with now… yes, Julie lives in a dry cabin. That means an outhouse and no running water. She picks up water from the water station (like a gas station) to do dishes, drink, etc. No shower, no toilet. Yep, I used her outhouse. Lucky for me the temperature didn’t get below freezing at any point during my trip.