July 10th, 2006
Denali National Park, AK - Home!

Today - We returned home! Enjoy the journal!

July 9th, 2006

Talkeetna, AK - Denali National Park, AK

We awoke, in our makeshift parking lot campground, to blue skies - a first for mornings on our trip. After a week (and a whole winter for that matter) of overcast skies, it was sure a beautiful thing. Mount Foraker, Hunter and of course Denali stood out with authority and grandeur in a way I have yet to see them through my Alaskan travels.






Unfortunately my headache from last night lingered on, and my lack of sleep all week caught up to me. After a delicious pancake breakfast sponsored by the VFW (with strawberry - rhubarb jam that couldn't possibly be rivaled)we took a walk around town.




And then drove back up towards Denali.





I had a tough time keeping my eyes open for the rest of the day. I caught up on sleep in Riley Creek Campground, while Gregg got to enjoy the beautiful day around Denali National Park. It was nice to have quiet time, but I would have rather slept through one of the cloudy days instead. :(

In the evening a surprising turn of events occurred - a shower! It was my first for 10 days or so. How do you like me now!

July 8th, 2006

Seward, AK - Talkeetna, AK

We returned again to Kenai Fjords National Park, this time taking the easier hikes we had missed in our epic the previous day. T'was early in the day, and the masses hadn't flocked in yet - which enabled us to quietly escape off the main trail and walk directly to the Glacier itself.

Seeing the Glacier close enough to touch it and walk on it, was far superior to viewing it at a safe distance. Team Xtreme, huh. At no point did the Gregg or I feel we were in peril from falling glacial bits and pieces.






We left Seward after this, journeying to Talkeetna about 8 hours north. Gregg's friend Colin, or 'Rusty Nail', was up there with his band, Boone Webb playing at the Mountain High Pizza Pie in town.

We rolled into Talkeetna to find ourselves smack dab in the middle of the Moose Dropping Festival - whose genesis is unknown to me. I do know however, that everyone in town was wearing a small numbered piece of petrified poop on a safety pin, in hopes of winning some cash when a plane dropped poop from the sky later that day. Delicious!

The sun had come out and the shorts and flip flops had finally come on. The band (Boone Webb) played for hours on an outdoor patio, keeping me up until midnight - well past my bedtime nowadays.




By the time sleep finally came, I had an enormous headache, which was stay with me and plague my sleep all night long.

July 7th, 2006

Seward, AK

Gregg and I woke up and drove around Homer getting out final views in on the picturesque East End Road...



And then hit the Westernmost Highway point in America on our way out.


We left Homer with out showering, as we had planned to do - which meant this was going to be one trip with no showers the whole duration. Stink-a! Stink-a! We headed toward the Exit Glacier, within Kenai Fjords National Park in Seward (The glacier named because the early explorers found it a handy exit to the vast Harding Ice Field it extends from).





Your hero was expecting a leisurely 7 mile stroll, but in actuality, our little constitutional was more like 8 miles with a 3000 ft climb in elevation - the last 3/4 mile of that through sloshy snow. The end of the hike, I felt, had views that were far inferior to those in the beginning, nut my opinion seemed to in contrast to everyone else.


The beginning:
The punctuating view is the Harding Ice Field, which is a vast expanse of ice and snow - less visually interesting to me then the blue tinted layered crevasses we walked alongside on our climb up. (the coloring is because the glacier absorbs all colors except blue)

On the way up we saw a good number of mountain goats and marmots, which were a delight for me, but not nearly as fantastic as our encounter on the return.






Ahead of us on the trail, coming at us was a huge mommy bear and her three cubs. They continued to ascend toward us, though not necessarily at us for quite some time as we backtracked up the trail. Eventually the turned up away from us - allowing a nice sigh of relief. That was the first time I had seen bears in the wilderness, without the safety of my car nearby. Gregg had known exactly what to so, and stayed calm. High Five for Gregg.





The walk down was long and painful on my weak back and knees - though we were glad we had done it, and finally gotten out and explored a bit. We ate at the Salmon Bake, on the beginning of Exit Glacier Road - if anyone is ever in Seward, it is just as nice a place as any to check out.

July 6th, 2006
Homer, AK

Today Gregg was really excited about fishing, and it seemed to be a good boost in relations between us. Brian and Carl met us by the water taxi on the Homer Spit and equipped us with all kind of waterproof gear and shoes. Since I am not a huge fan of eating fish, or watching the slaughter of them, my main excitemet lay in the kayaking. We had planned a BBQ with friends tonight, and we were supposed to provide the Salmon - so Gregg had his work cut out for him!

The water taxi dropped us off at China Poot Bay - where Salmon jumped all around the boat, and seals popped up in the distance, increasing in number as we paddled on. Eagles were aplenty in Homer, later devouring the carcasses of of Gregg's catchings. We spent the day learning fishing technique (Gregg's favorite was the controversial 'snagging'.) As I suspected, I was more enchanted with the kayaking - so I turned my useless rod over to Brian, our guide, and just relaxed. Altogether Gregg caught 2 fish, and Brian caught one - 2 pink salmon and a Dolly (sea trout). As we headed back to the water taxi pickup - seals in greater number still yet grouped a bit aways.

When we disembarked our vessel, Brian taught Gregg how to clean and cut up the fish (this is fairly gross to watch)...which we brought to Wes's house for feasting.

We had a superbly wonderful time at dinner. We sat with Wes and his girlfriend Katie, and his brother Matt . We ate, then sat for many hours talking, as I so fondly remember doing here last time. Gregg and I never have an organized dinner anymore - so this was about as enjoyable and simple an evening as I could possibly imagine. I adore Homer, there is a huge sense of community here that I feel my life in Seattle is, for the most part, lacking. It is present in every facet of life here, and it endears me to Homer endlessly.

July 5th, 2006
Homer, AK

Gregg and I walked around an overcast Homer until it was time to head to Wes and Matt's rustic cabin for lunch. Homer is a good exmple of a city still with soul. Each building is unique, and independantly owned. Small business maked up probably 99 percent of the commercial market in Homer - though I think that is rapidly changing, as with everywhere else in the world.

Even since I have been here, three short years ago, the city has burgeoned. A huge commercial supermarket with a Starbucks has been put in, and now there is talk of a Fred Meyer.

However, the downtown still has the same look and feel it used to, with each store its own unique building with beautiful handcrafted wood carved signage. Even with Homer being the unique community that it is, disturbingly enough, there apparently has been talk of changing the name homer heaven. Matt claims if his happens, he will write a letter to the town and suggest they consider the name "everywhere" also.

I wish Seattle retained more of it's originality and flavor like Homer has. Developments are taking over the city, and prices are skyrocketing. Uniqueness is tossed aside for quick and inexpensive building - at the price of Seattle rapidly losing a lot of its flavor.

When we reached their rustic cabin, 10 miles outside the 'downtown' I was again awed by the simplicity in which they live. Small living spaces, a garden with vegetables and berries, outhouses, no electricity or running water, and nearly everything within their spaces homemade. They need it, they make it. It is so wonderfully simple.

I imagine many people from our home in CT, and in my current home in Washington would find it extraordinarily hard to live this kind of life. As i type on my computer, I was reminded again that I would be one of those people, though I was inspired. I thought about building my own cabin from scratch, and how satisfying it would be to have taken part in every aspect of creating your home. Gregg and I spent the evening with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn - with subtle reminders about the minor deficiencies of our relationship - but mostly just with a super bad movie.

We had spent the day looking for what we would do tomorrow - our designated "take a tour day" - We figured it would either be fishing tour, or a flight tour to bear watch. The latter was $600 - fishing it was! Brian Saunders, someone I had met and been fond of the first time around in Homer now had a guide company. We scheduled a kayak / fishing excursion for the following day.

Gregg and I seemed to be doing a lot of bickering on this trip - and not a whole lot of sleeping - it was beginning to wear me down. We spent the night talking, and I hoped tomorrow would be brighter.

July 4th, 2006
Homer, AK

Today is independance day. Whiippeee!
Even though the sky cleared up last night, offering high hopes for this morning, it was foggy again when we woke up. We continued heading south, heading for Homer. Today was mainly a driving day - though it also marked our first day with at least partially clear skies!!

I had forgotten both how beautiful, and how very long the road to Homer was. The overlook as you approach Homer was astonishing - reminding me again why this is one of my favorite corners of the earth.
Lupine and Cow Parsnip (flowers) framed the mountains - with quaint little cabins in the distance.

When I had been in Homer three years earlier, I had stayed with my friend from high school, Wes Phelps. This time around, Matt, Wes' little brother also lived out here. Gregg and I met up with them, and Matt's girlfriend on the spit (a thin strip of land caused by opposing currents in the water)...And had delicious pizza along the Kachemak bay - very much enjoying simple conversation with old friends.

We camped for free on the Bay - blissfully until some locals blasted fireworks, getting but a handslap from the po-lice. Luckily the police were kind enough to leave us alone in the process, alone in the no camping area that is. wink wink.

I am truly excited to be back in Homer, it feels every bit as good as I thought it would.

Ahh, Homer!

July 3rd, Denali

We awoke and hiked the Mc Kinley Bar Trail down to a river. The trail got us fairly wet, due to the rains remaining on the plats life brushing against our legs. Both of us had come unprepared, due to a hurried departure on the camper bus. We only had one pair of pants each. By the time we got to the river, 2 or 3 miles away - we were nearly insane from the horrendous swarms of mosquitos everywhere.

They were buzzing around our heads. We caught glimpse of the river and quickly returned to the main road to get away from the increased mosquito-age near the bog. Fog still obscured the best views in the park - those at Wonder Lake. We attempted to walk around the lake - but got pretty wet from dewy long grass, and were stopped by a wildlife protection area that but of the trail. with no view, incessant mosquitos and no hiking, all resulting in excessive boredom and downtime - we decided to catch the last bus out for the day and cut our losses and move on. We hopped on the last tourist bus - filled with stonefaced aged german tourists and a cougar lady that though she was very funny.


By the time our bus reached our car again, it was 10:15. We headed south on the main road toward Denali State Park, where we found a walk in campsite for the night - not arriving and going to sleep until around midnight.

We saw the sun set coloring the sky on the way down, but again, the sky never fully darkened after that, however, the clouds had cleared just enough to finally make parts of the Alaska Range visible. It is truly extraordinary how hard it is to see the biggest mountains in North America.

Quite the Mosquito Problem on the McKinley Bar Trail

Mosquito Nets. Hot.