Basketball at Midnight

ALASKA

Yes, that’s right. I’ve made it to Alaska. And for those who are wondering, Deepani did too. We spent four days in the backcountry of Jasper National Park (Northwest of Cananda), near Bannf. Many of the views were extremely dramatic, although the 50 km stretch that we ended up hiking weren’t that intense. Instead, our life was really quite wet. It rained two of the three nights, and two of the four days. We survived, though, and then started driving about 5:00 pm from Jasper City. We ended driving at about 3:00 pm today (two days later, and 48 hours later). We stopped a few times for food, to sleep, but it was probably close to 34 or 35 hours of driving. In all cases, the drive, let me tell you, is pretty awesome. Great scenerey: rivers, mountains, elk, moose, carribou, mountain goats. Though some of the roads (especially the last 400 miles to the Alaska border) need some improvements. The roads on this side of the border are much better. I should be in Anchorage for a day or two recouping, and then go down south to some of the seaside towns, and then up to Denali National Park for some backpacking on my solo. Deepani is gone; she had a flight out at 8:00 pm, and now i’m just settling myself down to reality. It was pretty fortunate that nothing happened in the 48 hour drive… a few hours holdup, and, well…. . But we arrived, had a great dinner overlooking the sea, and sent her off to fly to New Jersey (to go to Sri Lanka with her parents).

Sorry for those who have been looking intently for an update the last 5 days. The backcountry doesn’t have internet sites! I should be around for the next couple days, and then will head up to Denali on the weekend. Don’t expect much from me next week. I’ll try to write before I take off home. I s till don’t really know what my plans are to get home. The Bird is still here and alive, now at 209,300 miles. We started at 205,080, so that’s 4,000 miles to Alaska. Not bad!