Alaska Up Close

Canada and Northlands

The USA

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.

I made it home, after 3200 miles of solid driving. Crazy, but I have a plane to catch in 2 hours to the wedding. The quick parts of it: Backcountry Denali shattered me, I picked up Lisa in Valdez on the way back and drove her to the lower part of Alaska, and then went 3200 miles in between 10:30 am Monday and 11:59 pm Wednesday. I may be able to update this again in the next few days.

In a bit, I’m off for the scenic route to Denali, and then will do a bit of a trek into the backcountry, I expect. Talking with some other folks, it seems they have no trails and no specific camping sites. The backcountry there is pure backcountry: map and compass backcountry. kit looks like the weather will even break for me for the three days.

Yesterday, we cooked up a roast for the hostel and I made a fresh raspberry pie (Meghan picked the berries), and this morning at 7, a few guys and I went clamming on the beach and are going to cook up a chowder and a scampi for dinner. Oh right, and Halibut tacos. We w ere inspired by a tourist trap sign advertising them. There’s an off chance I’ll be going to a small island with a few folks tomorrow, but otherwise I’ll be headed north again soon.

I also went out to a townie bar and sat with the old Alaskan natives. Quite a bunch of characters would pack a bar at 2:00 pm. The guy I ended up sitting next to went to Wash U in 76-78 for a masters in fine arts/ sculpture. Back then, the masters labs were out in Tyson, about 40 miles west of the city. He moved up in ‘83 to do construction here. As he said, “I guess I don’t use my degree much… well…. maybe a little bit in carpentry, but really…. not much.”
Until next time!

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!