Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jog!!!

We've arrived back to Austin two months after starting this awesome adventure. On our way back from Washington we stopped with friends and family in Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Houston.

We are thankful for the time we spent with old and new friends and the time we were able to just check out for a bit in the wilderness. We are excited to get started with a new school year and bring our new experiences into the classroom.

Until our next trip...

T&C

Petersburg

Our second to last stop on the Alaska Marine Highway took us to the small fishing town of Petersburg. Except for the fishermen, life seems to amble on at a slower pace here compared to many southeastern towns we've been to. No large cruises dock here and they have a well developed fishing, canning, and logging industry base so don't depend on tourism as heavily. Which means they don't cater to tourists as much which means we had a fun 4 days pretending to blend in with the locals. Our shoes always give us away though; if you're not wearing rubber boots here you're clearly an outsider. I can see the benefit of the rubber boots after 4 days of pretty constant rain.

Hello, Dolly! Dolly Varden trout (actually in the char family) is found all over Alaska in both fresh and salt water. Our first night in Petersburg at Ohmer Creek campsite we luckily happened upon Chris, a retired teacher, who had caught too many fish that day and was looking to give some of it away. So we fired up the campfire, rubbed some olive oil on those suckers, and feasted. Very similar in taste to salmon...mmmm!

The remnants of our Dolly dinner and an aptly named wheat beer to go with.

Petersburg is the "Little Norway" of Alaska and plays up their Norwegian heritage to distinguish themselves from the other southeastern coastal towns (Interesting fact: at the end of the 19th century there were significantly more Chinese residents in Petersburg than Norwegian). All over town there are Norwegian flags, rosemaling (the curly floral design common in Norway), and Norwegian sayings ("tussen tak" and "vilkommen" are all over the place). I couldn't stop thinking of Kristiane and an awesome trip we took to Norway together in high school. Good memories!

Ravens Roost cabin, our weekend getaway. We were really excited about Petersburg because we had reserved a United States Forest Service cabin for the weekend. The USFS maintains a bunch of cabins like this (that are mostly out of commission fire lookouts) and rents them out to people for $10-35 a night. Many of them are remote and only accessible by boat, plane, or a hike. Ours was a short 4.2 mile jaunt from town up a mountain. Although we started on a beautiful sunny day and got some great views of the Wrangell Narrows, clouds promptly blanketed our little hut and we didn't leave the cabin for the next 48 hours. Luckily, we were well stocked with an I-pod and travel speakers, wine, playing cards, plenty of food, and lots of reading material. The only negative was sharing the cabin with a family of mice that made lots of noise at night, leading to a few restless nights of sleep. Another highlight was Mike seeing two wolves right outside the cabin. I am still bitter because I was inside and they were gone by the time I came to the right window.

View from our cabin window of the muskeg ecosystem surrounding Petersburg and far away Wrangell Narrows.

We did a lot of stretching and yoga while reading.

Muskeg is unlike any environment I've seen before! It looks like something straight out of a Dr. Suess book. The best way I can describe it is an Arctic swamp, but it's unlike tundra (since there's no permafrost and lots of trees present). Very boggy, full of little ponds, gnarled stunted trees, and low broadleaf tropical vines and plants.

Old growth tropical forest on our way up the mountain to our cabin.

Petersburg docks. Petersburg is home to the largest home based halibut fishing fleet in Alaska. In all of the southeastern towns it has been absolutely fascinating to talk to and observe the fishermen/women. It's such a unique profession and attracts a very diverse and interesting group of workers. Such a neat subculture. This was the view from our much needed splurge night in a bed & breakfast. The bed and breakfast were both incredible.

Today, we woke up early to workout then milked the B&B for all it was worth before heading out on the town. It didn't take long to do that since there's basically two streets, so we decided to suck it up and fully embrace life like the locals on our last day in town. So we went fishing in the rain.

There are three hike-in lakes near Petersburg that are stocked with an outrigger boat for anyone to use. We hiked in, loaded up the boat, and started on our fishing adventure only to realize in a panic not two minutes later that we were quickly filling with water. So we anxiously paddled back ashore, put the plug in the boat (duh), and went out for round two.

Just a boy and a girl in a little canoe. No fish caught, but absolutely gorgeous environment to hang out in the rain with someone you love. And it was fun to embrace the local attitude of nonchalance regarding the constant barrage from above.

We're off to Ketchikan early tomorrow morning on the ferry...last stop in Alaska!

Juneau!

The Green Dragon (our two door, 16 year old, Easter-egg green Honda Civic with 220,000 miles on it) has been doing some good hard work. In honor of her service, in order to see southeast Alaska (accessible only by boat or plane), and so that we could take a different route home down the west coast, we booked tickets on the state run Alaska Marine Highway. Our first leg was Haines to Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Originally the plan was to go on a 4-5 day kayaking trip, but that was condensed due to weather. So we spent the few sunny days hiking and kayaking, and the rainy ones in the library writing curriculum for school, reading, and going to see Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part II (omg!).

We thought this sign posted on the ferry dock was pretty funny. "Everything is normal people...FREAK OUT!"

Juneau from above. Not a great view, but downtown Juneau is tiny and is basically built into the side of this mountain. A walk around town involves navigating steep little streets and staircases.

We finally saw spawning salmon in a creek! These salmon are King Salmon, one of the 5 types of salmon found in Alaska and the US northwest. If you aren't familiar with the life cycle of a salmon, here's the short version. Salmon are born in fresh water streams/creeks where they live for a year or more in the safer waters until large enough to venture out into the ocean to spend their adolescence. After 3-5 years of frolicking in the open ocean, they begin their death march back up the same exact stream that they were born in (in a high percentage of cases) to spawn. I say death march because as soon as they begin to venture back up the stream, they stop eating and their bodies undergo the most incredible body modifications ultimately ending in their death. The hormonal changes triggered during this stage cause them to change color (in many cases turn a bright, neon pink) and change shape (the males grow a hump on their back and their snout turns into a gnarled hook). The females lay their eggs in the gravel of the bed at various points along the stream, and protects them until she dies. The males vie with each other for fertilizing rights and then promptly die. The dead salmon fertilize the surrounding riparian ecosystem, the eggs hatch, and so begins anew the life cycle of the salmon. Scientists aren't sure how exactly the salmon know which stream to go back to, but the prevailing theory that we've come across in museums and literature is that it somehow involves the distinct smell of each stream. Salmon are amazing...and soooo tasty.

Mendenhall Glacier is about 10 miles from Juneau and visible from the "burbs" of Juneau. There is a lake at the bottom with floating chunks of ice. We heard it calve (break off) and it sounded like a loud gunshot and felt like an earthquake.

Cool reflection of the clouds and bergs in Mendenhall Lake.

We met a few girls in a hostel we stayed in the first night that made martinis with the floating ice chunks. I wonder how that giardia is treating them now?

Neat reflection picture of Mike in his explorer pose.

Nugget falls, a gigantic waterfall that leads into Mendenhall Lake. Those are people gathered at the bottom on a silt bar.

Seemingly divine omen of the good weather to come after 3 straight days of rain.

We rented kayaks and took them out into Mendenhall Lake to explore the icebergs and glacier up close. This top heavy iceberg was floating in front of Nugget Falls (in the background).

Mike at the foot of Mendenhall Glacier in the back of the two person kayak.

Can't get enough pictures of the icebergs. The different shades of blue and textures were mesmerizing.

Oh yeah!

We then took our kayaks out to Auke Bay to paddle around a few islands in search of wildlife. Our rudder broke on the way out though, so we spent a hilarious and frustrating 3 miles getting back on a zig zag course.

In between these adventures we ate the most amazing crab, camped in a semi-tropical rainforest, watched the US women's World Cup game (booo, but good for Japan), worked out, threw, and explored the city. It was a restful and productive 5 days. Next stop is Petersburg, where a mountain cabin and some unlucky Dolly Varden (trout) await our presence!

- Cara

Haines Makes You Happy!

Just 17 hours drive from Anchorage, backtracking on the Alcan, is the beautiful laid back coastal town of Haines, AK. This was one of the cities that came highly recommended before our trip. Thanks Matteo, it was awesome!

Its a small town where you can park anywhere and walk within the 10 block grid system to the local bakery, hippy grocery store, library, and bar. It has an extremely relaxed atmosphere. One thing that helps Haines keep its small town charm is that it receives less massive cruise ships, which means about 3000 less octogenarians sporting fanny packs and visors walking around the town at any given time. Many of the other cities along the southeast have several cruise ships dock daily, so you have to play the game of timing your trips into the town to avoid the slow walking, jewelry seeking, perfume drenched cruisers. Ok, we're being harsh, but it really does make the towns feel quite different. Don't get us wrong...we're anxiously awaiting cruising in our twilight years but sans fanny packs, visors, and perfume.

We stayed in a cabin being built by one of Luc's friends about 25 miles north of town. Luc is a new Achorage frisbee friend and nature/adventure junkie; this guy is hard core and either just finished or is currently still doing a ~130 mile trail run (check out his blog at thingstolucat.com if you want to feel lame). The mosquitoes were viscious, but thankfully it had a completed roof, floor, and windows with screens to keep them at bay.

After a long day of driving we woke up to the most beautiful blue skies. We took advantage of the gorgeous day and after buying a sandwich at the Mountain Market we headed to the Mt. Ripinsky trail. The following photos are from this hike. The trail was well defined and after two hours and four miles we reached the summit and gorgeous 360º views of the mountains, ice fields, and glaciers surrounding the city. The weather held and after eating our lunch we relaxed and napped before heading down.















A picture of Haines from above.
















Heading up the trail.















At the summit.















Alpine tundra makes a soft bed for napping.















The wildflowers are in bloom! Turns out Texas doesn't have sole claim over Lupines. These are Artic Lupines (part of the same genus, Lupinus, as bluebonnets which are Lupinus texensis), and they are bigger than Texas Bluebonnets. They are also everywhere! Along the road sides, trail sides, covering alpine meadows. Makes us feel at home.















This photo was taken while driving into town. We call it a lazy man's waterwheel fish catcher. No idea what they are really called, but these were used by the natives and are ingenious inventions. You anchor it in the river and the fish are scooped up and slide into buckets on the side. It's much more impressive in real time watching the arms slowly rotate with the force of the running water.

Our journey south on the ferry system begins. First stop is Juneau, then to Petersburg, and Ketchikan which is our last stop in Alaska.

Kenai Peninsula (pronounced "Key-nigh")

After the wilderness of Denali we were ready to enjoy the finer things of an urban environment: libraries (Cara worked on her curriculum for the fall, museums, and of course movie theatres to see Cars 2). It was a beautiful day in Anchorage and nice to hang out around the city. One day was enough, we were ready to head south for more outdoor adventure on Kenai Peninsula.

We arrived in Seward, AK and booked a one day ferry into Fjords National Park to see tidewater glaciers and A LOT of marine life. We camped at the Exit Glacier campsite and cruised the following day. On our six hour cruise we saw: humpback whales, dall porpoises, stellar sea lions, harbor seals, puffins, and a pod of killer whales!
















Within the first 30 minutes of setting out from the Seward harbor we came upon 4 hump back whales. You can see the dorsal fin of one of the whales on the right side of this photo. Their was a newborn who was taking lessons from mom on how to slap the surface of the water with it's fins to scare their food into easily eaten tight schools. We also saw a few breaches, which was amazing!














Ashley and I taking in the icebergs in Aialik Bay. All of these chunks of ice dislodged from Aialik glacier.
















Aialik Glacier. The scale is hard to tell in this photo, but it was about 0.7 of a mile wide and 300 ft. high where it flows into the water.

















After our cruise I had some energy to burn so I ran/hike the famous Mt. Marathon which overlooks the city. It is about 3,000 feet up to the summit in a little over a mile. So pretty much it is straight up. After reading the warning sings posted at the base of the mountain about the runner's trail I headed up. It was a beast, but well worth the effort for the great view and also the thrill of steep scree running on the way down.















Kenai Fjords NP is unique because most of the park is made up of the Harding Ice Field (the largest in North America) and the glaciers which flow down from it and is only accessible by one trail or by water. Amazingly, the whole park is free. There is no entrance fee and the one campsite at Exit Glacier is also free.















A view of the wild flowers and Exit Glacier on our way up to the Harding Ice Field. It was a 4-mile trail hike up to the ice field.















The Harding Ice Field. Can't tell the scale here either so here are some stats:

• Named after President Harding because after a visit to Seward he expressed his love for the area.
• Over six miles long and a mile deep in some areas
• Receives between 400 and 600 inches of snow per year
  

Team MMR loves ice fields!














Our next stop was Hope, AK. A small town just off the Seward Highway on the way back to Anchorage. From Hope we rafted 6mile Creek with a river guiding outfit. It was fun getting into some white water and the views from the canyon were amazing. Best of all, they had complimentary hot cocoa and a hot tub for us to use after. We justified the cost by thinking we paid $99 for a hot tub soak and received a free river trip.

After the river and hot tub we found this amazing campsite in the Chugach National Forest overlooking Turnagain Arm. Ashley built us a raging fire and we enjoyed our last night of camping together reflecting on our journey.















This is what 11:30 pm looks like in Alaska.















Huge thanks to Ashley "River Otter" Black for joining us on this part of our Alaska adventure. Her perfectly timed singing, jokes, hugs, and magic tricks made this a memorable journey. We sincerely look forward to our next adventure as Team MMR.

On to Haines to begin our journey down the southeast coast of Alaska and back to the contiguous.

-T

Mt. McKinley...

The only downside of our trip in Denali NP was that we never got a view of Mt. McKinley. It was always too cloudy and the peak never revealed itself, which is pretty typical. However, on our drive south back to Anchorage it was a beautiful day and the mountain was in full view...and it was huge! Here is a photo of the mountain as well as a few more from Denali which we didn't include in our first post.
















Mt. McKinley a.k.a. Denali! (20,320 ft.)
















Another shot of us on the biggest glacier we crossed during our hike.
















Just before crossing the ice bridge across the glacier stream/rapids. You can see the ice bridge we crossed in the background, back right.















After a night of hot showers, pizza, and beer we came back to the park to see the visitor center and attend a free sled dog show! We got to pet the dogs before the performance where they leashed up 5 dogs to pull a ranger around a dirt track. These dogs, Alaskan Huskies, are bred for long legs, big paws, thick coats, and friendly dispositions because they interact with all types of visitors. Brownie, not pictured was our favorite.




















A regal Alaskan Husky

















My favorite photo from the trip taken just after completing a pass.

More to come...

Denali National Park

In college I subscribed to Backpacker Magazine, and every year they would do a "best of" issue. Denali National Park was consistently on the top of these lists, and after a few years of thumbing through the pictures of wide valleys, raging rivers, and misty mountains it became a life goal to visit this motherland of all National Parks. The home of the tallest mountain in the U.S (Mt. McKinley, or Denali to the native Athabascans), Denali is like no park I've ever been to; Edward Abbey's vision of how a National Park should function is alive and well here. No personal cars are permitted in the park beyond mile 15 of 89. Instead, you park and ride buses in. The most obvious difference for us however was that in the backcountry there are no established or maintained trails. You get dropped off nonchalantly on the side of the road and you hike into the wilderness with a topo map, compass, a bear bin for your food, and your own common sense and determination. In the interest of managing the park to preserve the wilderness (and the perception of wilderness), the park is divided into districts; a maximum of 6 people can be within a district on any given day.

We talked to the backcountry rangers and came up with a plan. We started in district 8 and would make our way through miles of tundra, river valleys, up and over multiple mountain passes, over glaciers a mile across, through raging rivers, down steep scree slopes, over snow bridges and glacial rivers, and finally back to the road through district 12. Over 6 days and 5 nights we endured a lot of rain, some sleet, freezing temperatures, and not enough sun. It was AWESOME!

Total mileage: 28 miles
Total elevation gain: 7700 ft.
Total time hiking: 30 hrs.
Total time spent in the rain: 25 hrs.
Number of other people we saw: 0















We're going to have to increase the size of our parks board at home to make way for all of these awesome sign pics.















Yes, people are working. For example, at this point we were working on looking good, packing our bags for the backcountry trip, and drinking coffee. Suckers. =)















Usually we take a picture at the beginning and end of the trail, but since there was no trail, we just took a picture when we got dropped off. We started out hiking straight behind us over about 2 miles of tundra and into a valley to the right of us and out of sight in the picture.















Our first river valley up to Polychrome Glacier.















Mike hiking in the tundra. It might appear nice and solid, but tundra is not easy hiking. For the most part, you are knee to waist deep in thick stunted willows and boggy mosses while every high step you take you sink down to your calf before extracting your foot from the overly padded ground.















Our second night we camped in a Dall Sheep graveyard. We found 3 Dall Sheep (relative of the big horn, hence the curved horns) skeletons next to the place we decided to pitch our tent. Evidence of bear activity, but we didn't see any bears that night. On our first morning, we did however wake up to a caribou with a huge rack about 100 yards from our cooking area.


















Me on the precipice of one of our many mountain passes.














Our third day was tough. A few extreme mountain passes and then hours of slugging across a mile wide glacier, and navigating across a few glacial streams only to come to the relatively flat expanse on the topo map that we wanted to camp at and realize that it was on the glacier too. So, we camped right next to the glacier, which you can see in the far distance and then closer to the left of Mike (it's covered with scree, but it's a huge chunk of ice).















Preparing for one of our many river crossings. The water in these streams is a frigid 36 degrees, so we brought tennis shoes to cross in the interest of keeping our boots dry.















Crossing a stream with proper upstream and sidestep form. Ashley "River Otter" Black, our dear friend and travel companion, grew up frolicking in the rivers of the Sierra Nevada mountains and therefore was incredibly knowledgeable in river safety and helpful in finding good places to cross.





















One of the many scree slopes we trudged up. For every step you take, you lose about half that step to sliding rocks, so progress is slow and painful.



















One of the glacial streams we had to find our way over, leading up to the beautiful glacier in the background.















Ashley overlooking yet another incredible glacier.















Mike hiking up part of the glacier that was not covered in rock debris. The backcountry rangers were well aware that we did not have crampons and ice axes, but this was the only part of the hike that it would not have been a bad idea to have them for.















Soaking and freezing because the last two days were pretty much nonstop drizzle, we hiked out back to the road and took our "after" shot at the road.















No better way to celebrate America than explore its greatest natural wonders. Happy 4th of July everyone!















One of my life mantras and classroom mottos for World Cultures is "It's a wonderful world... explore!" So when I saw this sign at the Eielson Visitor Center (where we came up to the road), I was pretty stoked.

It was an epic backcountry trip. There were periods of exhaustion, sheer joy, borderline boredom (a day stuck in a cloud in the tents), and personal challenges. But the whole trip was permeated by a intense sense of awe at what an incredible planet we live on, as well as the amazing relationships we have with each other. I was so happy to achieve another life dream of hiking in Denali with Mike and Ashley. Ashley is an incredible friend and was pivotal to our safety and emotional well being on this trip with her constant singing and relentless jokes.

We're all safe and sound and plan on spending the day exploring the visitors center and viewing a dog sled exhibition in Denali before making our way back to Anchorage tonight to refuel before hitting up the Kenai Peninsula.