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.