Alaska Trip Overview

I brought paper and pencil on our hike but rarely had time to write. But here are some thoughts from the night after we emerged from the mountains (Friday July 24).

The trip is over and we survived! I am happy and sad that we're done. It was very rough - mainly bushwhacking for 4 days wears you down! It is constant work and can be so slow. Even beyond the physical work is the constant searching for trails/routes and being as aware as possible of potential bear or moose around. So this was not like the usual backpacking trip when I have lots of time for reflection or good conversation with my fellow hikers. The brain and body were either completely engaged or shut down. We slept about 10 hours a night, if that is any indication of how exhausted we were!

Today we were on a trial that was mostly easy, and I had some time to think about why I like backpacking so much when it is so hard?! I decided the main reason has to do with accessing places you can't see from a car. And not only that, it's experiencing the landscape instead of just viewing it. Now I know a little bit about what the Alaskan wilderness (or at least this small part of it) is really about. It is rough and tough and wild! It tried it's best to beat us down, and sometimes it succeeded.

Another spectacular thing about backpacking is getting lost ... lost in the routine of just living, day to day, hiking, eating, sleeping, gawking, joking about summer sausage. Life might be harder but in many ways it is also simpler in the backcountry.

We saw 5 black bear, 4 moose, 32 ptarmigan, 1 dall sheep or mtn goat, seagulls (strange), and 1 unidentified gray ferret looking creature that made whistling noises (plus we heard the whistling a few other times). We also saw grizzly fur on an island between Raven Creek and Eagle River, and a lot of poop (everywhere), so we named it Grizzly Island and were very noisy as we walked across it! Chris and Eric even had their hands on their bear spray like gunslingers, ready to fire should anything brown and large cross our path.

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The rest of the trip was spent exploring the Kenai Peninsula and eating. I have never been so hungry before - we ate HUGE meals and then were ravenous a few hours later. This continued until Sunday when Chris and I ate 25 wings and a 1+ pound salad. :)