Coastal Alaska in August, whose idea was that??

Arriving in Haines we drove up the Chilkoot River and noticed a bunch of cars stopped along the road.  The Alaskan Game and Fish department had set up a fish weir to count the returning salmon and some local brown bears were taking advantage of it.  We spent two days in Haines waiting for our ferry to Juneau.  We camped at Chilkoot Lake and enjoyed watching the returning chum and pink salmon and all the people catching them at the lake entrance.  People were catching fish every couple of minutes but most of the fish were snagged, that is not caught by the mouth, and so were unceremoniously de-hooked on the gravel and returned to the river via boot toe.  We got a bit of a taste of local Haines life hanging out at the Fogcutter bar having a beer and walking around town.  The constant rain meant that we looked for activities that were indoors; spending the day outside in the rain only to return to the back of a pickup doesn't have a whole lot of appeal.

          

The ferry ride to Juneau was nice, not a lot of views other than the fog but we had a great time none-the-less.  Juneau has been a bit soggy to say the least.  Our campground on Mendenhall Lake experienced a Jokulhlaup (glacial outburst flood for you non-geologists) just before our arrival and, because of the amount of rainfall, is still partially flooded.  The upside of this is that the lake is loaded with icebergs calved off of the glacier.  Seeing an opportunity to save some money on ice I lassoed one of the small bergs and used our axe to fill up our cooler with free ice, never mind that it took half an hour in the rain and I looked like a mass murderer with the axe! 

We spent the better part of the day checking out the Alaska State Museum and were particularly impressed with the art and ingenious clothing and tools made by the natives in the area.  The parka pictured below is made from seal gut and is sewed so that it is completely watertight.  They also made spruce root baskets that were woven so tight that they would actually cook in them by filling them with food and water and then dropping in heated stones.  It was humbling to see the kayaks that they would use to hunt seals, walruses, and whales from.  I can't imagine being out to sea with only a short wood and bone spear in a hide and wood boat chasing down some of these animals.



Back at our camp we enjoyed the fine Alaskan weather and had a gourmet meal of pasta noodles.  Today we're off to check out the Mendenhall Glacier visitor center (indoors!!) and maybe can a bunch of cranberry relish (we picked a several quarts of low bush cranberries a couple of days ago and now need our cooler space back).  Tomorrow it’s off to Petersburg for a couple of days wandering the 55 miles of road they have on the island!

Re-Wrangell

We headed toward Denali National Park after first stopping in Anchorage for supplies planning on doing a 4-5 day backpack in the area.  Once at the park we noticed the crowds and the clouds covering the mountains.  This combined with the fact that you have to take an expensive bus to any backpacking after sitting though an hour orientation made us head for the hills, hills not in the park.  We quickly decided to head back to the Wrangell - St Elias which, although a national park, was way more laid back.  We took the Denail Highway and saw a lot of hunters and a lot of nervous Caribou on the ridges.  We stopped along the way for a paddle in Tangle lakes and enjoyed views of the Alaska Range.

                                         

                    

After a bit of trouble with a flat tire (amazingly our first in 30,000 miles-700+ on gravel) we found a camp site near a beaver pond; we had a great view and were right next to a blueberry patch.  We made some blueberry syrup and then went to bed not really considering that we were between a berry patch and a salmon rearing pond...  Alexis woke up several hours later to the sound of water splashing and woke me up saying "I think there is a moose right next to us!" well it was as big as a moose but had much sorter legs!  We watched what we now knew to be a large grizzly fishing in our pretty little beaver pond by moon light.  After a bit we could tell by the ripples the bear was making that he had moved a bit farther away, we quickly moved to the cab of the truck with our bear spray in tow.  Almost an hour later the bear had enough fishing and crashed through the brush in back of our truck and detoured around us back to the road.  On his way out we heard him shake the water off like a really big dog.  Back to bed just in time for the local beaver resident to slap his tail a bunch, and then for a real moose to wade through the pond.  Not much sleep that night, beaver ponds are active places!  In the morning we went in to the Ranger station to check out some bear cans (BRFCs).  The ranger on duty handed us the cans and said "have a great time", and we were out the door. 

The drive to our trail head was great, the clouds had lifted once again and we had views Mt. Wrangell, Sanford, and Blackburn.  Enjoying the fine weather we packed up and headed up Trail Creek, which despite its name does not have a trail.  It took us several hours of bushwhacking to make it to tree line and then several more of walking over tundra to our camp for the next two nights.  We ran into a family of hunters trying their luck at Dall Sheep on our way in, these turned out to be the only people we saw in five days.  We did see hundreds of Dall Sheep (looks pretty much like a big horn to me) during our hike.

The next morning the weather had turned back to typical Alaskan, that is overcast and wet.  We awoke with the snow line only a couple hundred feet above us and spent the day touring around the high country, enjoying the views, and investigating the many rock glaciers and ice glaciers in the area. 

We then packed up camp and headed over the pass into the Lost Creek drainage where we set up camp for two more nights.  Our first day in the area was mostly spent sitting in the tent waiting for the weather to change.  We didn't really plan ahead for being tent bound and so got to read the map over and over again, I looked at the map so much I began to proof-read it and found numerous errors.  The following day we decided that we couldn't take it anymore and hiked around the area despite the rain/snow mixture coming down.  Cold and wet we had a quick Top Ramen dinner and went into the tent to listen to the sound of rain change to the sound of snow.  Luck for us, we were right on the snow line and didn't wake up to much on the ground.  We packed up and headed out, Alexis had her rather large souvenir strapped to her pack.   Back in the truck we headed towards Haines to catch the ferry to Juneau, along the way we were almost busted for speeding but luckily the cop’s radar gun only worked in two of the three dimensions!!

The Illiad

After cleaning up from our canoe trip we headed into Homer to visit with an old friend of mine Chuck and his fiancée Stephanie.  We had a great drive into Homer with views of several volcanoes across the Cook Inlet.  After some home cooked pizza and local beer we settled in to their "guest house" and had a great night sleep.  They have been remodeling the house and have spent a lot of time on it; their house has great views across the bay (they said every house in Homer has a great view, but theirs seemed especially good). 

The next morning they checked the marine forecast and decided that the seas would be calm enough to cross over to Halibut Cove in their boat "pancake" and check out The Saltry where they are going to get married next month.  We boated across Kachema Bay where my dad spent many summers back in the 70s doing research.  We had a great time exploring around Halibut Cove and they even received a bit of pre-marital counseling from Clem the patriarch of the area!  Heading back to Homer we decided to try our hand at fishing but only managed to catch a herring head before the wind picked up. The ride back was pretty wet with the wind blowing the wave tops into our faces but it was great to be out on the water.  Back at their place to dry out Alexis made a great strawberry rhubarb pie (thanks for the recipe Betsy!) from strawberris and rhubarb fresh our of their garden and Chuck grilled up some halibut.  Some guys Chuck knows from work came over and we had a time eating pie, talking, and watching the sun go down. 

The following morning the clouds seemed to be lifting so Alexis called around to find a flightseeing tour, the price of which my parents had generously heavily subsidized.  She found a company with float planes and booked us an hour flight.  Before the flight I went out on a bike ride with Chuck and Stephanie, I got to try out Chucks bike with huge 3.7" tires.  Going down hill through swamp was like riding an ATV, you just rolled over everything.  They use the fat tire bikes to ride on the beaches and on the snowmobile trails in the winter.

 

As you can see from the photos, we had a great time on our flight.  We got to fly over an ice field and saw a ton of glaciers, lakes, mountain goats, ect ect ect.  I got to sit up front next to the pilot and noticed that except for a short hop over the bay the GPS unit flashed "Terrain Hazard" for our entire flight.  Needless to say we had a fantastic time, neither of us had ever been on a float plane before and it was an experience to take off and land on a lake.  The landing was especially exciting as we didn't really know that float planes slow down much faster than normal planes!  It seemed like we were a bit close to the end of the lake when we touched down but the pilot definitely knew what he was doing.  We're now headed off to Denali and Wrangell-St Elias.

   

Aren't you supposed to paddle a canoe?

From Anchorage we headed south with Homer as our ultimate destination. Crossing over onto the Kenai Peninsula we saw the tide rushing out and were very happy not to be in a canoe out there. There were tons of fishermen with huge boats and nets mostly heading back north but some still fishing at the streams and rivers. We found a cute campground tucked into the lush green mountains and Ron made me brownies to celebrate our four year wedding anniversary. Very delicious.



The following day we headed for the Swan Lake Canoe Circuit. Allegedly it is one of two wilderness canoe circuits in the US with the other being the Boundary Waters. As we were driving to the beginning of the trail we saw a black bear bound out of the brush and jog across the road in front of us. There was only one group parked at the trail head and they were finishing their trip as we were getting ready. On our first day the weather was great and we paddled across 6 lakes with 6 portages (two of which were the best kind – water portage!). Ron was super tough and carried the canoe solo. The lakes were short and filled with lily pads, loons, and swans. The terrain was slightly undulating with enough elevation change to support spruce, birch, and some really large aspen trees.



Our second day in we paddled 5 lakes with 4 portages (1 water) in the rain. We did get a nice surprise and ended up pretty close to some peaks. Since paddling the Bowron Lakes we have pondered the Canadian tarp-over-the-tent system. Lucky for us, we decided to try it out and even though it rained, our tent and gear stayed relatively dry. We decided to keep our camp at the same location and explore Swan Lake and the Moose River. The Moose River was a bust with no moose, bears, or fish so we spent the day paddling around Swan Lake. There were even swans to chase around and a bald eagle who kept an eye on us.



The next two days we looped back to the trail head. I carried the canoe solo for 3 portages and Ron was pretty excited to get a break. Wildlife sightings include two moose, countless loons, and swans with cygnets. The weather was beautiful on the way out and we were even able to dry all our gear. From here we head to Homer.