Basketball at Midnight

Ok. This will likely be the last post of the trip. I’m out in Connecticut to see JT and Beth get married, have been staying with my cousins Gloria and Bob, and will be seeing my Aunt Lois and Uncle Monroe before I head back. Then… it’s back to work and the house and piecing it all together.

As per the trip, here are the final stats for the numbers fans:

As I said before, the backcountry shattered me. There are no trails, and so I was expecting high grasses, rough terrain, but not what I found. Thick, heavy cover of bush-trees, where the ’stems’ were about two inches thick and couldn’t easily be pushed aside. It made it quite difficult to travel, and very frustrating. The marshy tundra (wet, spongy grassland) was reasonable enough, but after my 10 miles of trekking, I was pretty exhausted and pretty frustrated.

Earlier in the day, I had run across what I thought was a dog. By the time I realized it was a grizzly bear cub (about 20 yards away from me), the monther stood up, looked at me, and let out a huff. The two cubs started to scamper away, and I did exactly what all the silly safety videos they require me to watch before I go into the backcountry told me: I backed away slowly, facing the bear with my hands down, speaking in a low, calm voice. I think I said, “Ok. Back away, bear. We’re okay, and you can move on.” It went down onto its four paws and ran back about 50 yards, stopped, stood up and looked at me again, huffed, went back another 20 yards, stopped and looked again, and kept this up until it went over a hill. I decided that, as I couldn’t see where the bears went, I should go back to the lowest pont in the river I had seen so far, and forged across… getting my feet a little wet with the freezing water (which was mostly from glaciers). As I continued on the opposite bank, I got stuck in mud. I think it had been a river that dried up (or a landslide), and it was all very soft mud. I started to sink, and as I tried to pull one leg out, the other went in further and deeper. By the time I was in down to my thighs, I figured it was a useless battle, and gave up to allow the mud to take me. Well, no. I unbuckled my pack, tossed it on the side, and then pulled myself out and backward to harder ground. I then went back over and re-forded the river to the other side (getting more wet). When I left the riverbed, I had to deal with more of the annoying bush-trees, and then the icy rains started. Ick. At one point I considered that I now knew why people are beaten down so much that they decide to give in to the elements. When, late in the day, I finally got to the ridge that I figured would make a good campground, I saw that the road out was only about a mile and a half away(I thought it was at least 3). I checked my clock and bus schedule and realized that if I could get there in 50 minutes, I could catch the bus back to the park, get a shower, and ensure clean, dry clothes to sleep in. So I motored on, and ended with a steep climb up a hill face before getting to the pass the road was built over.

Then I went out, camped in the front of the park, and early the next morning, began driving back to Valdez (to pick up Lisa), then down to the Skagway (in the lower part of the state, to drop off Lisa), and then the three day, 3200 mile trek back home. It was a great three days, and my first opportunity for a long, solo drive. Crazy as I am, that is a big part of why I travel by car- the solo marathon drives… It was nice driving with people, and all, but… I needed my alone time before I can face the world again . And I think that’s all I have. Thanks to those who keep up! I’ll put a map up eventually.