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.

..............
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. :)

We made it!

I'm back from Alaska, and it is slowly sinking in how amazing last week was. During the trip, I was preoccupied by trying to avoid the following: getting lost, falling down cliffs, surprising a bear, and cow parsnip slaps to the face (AK's version of poison ivy). It turns out that hiking 4 out of 7 days without a trail in Alaska is difficult! But well worth it when you don't run into another person for four days. I was constantly in awe of the scenery but in an "oh, I should look up for a moment and appreciate how freaking awesome this is" kind of way, but rarely had time to just sit and take it all in. Occasionally my awe turned into, "what the crap, we're supposed to go over/through that??"
Now that I have had a few days to appreciate showers, dry clothes, and food, I wish we were still on the trail. Chris took 700 pictures, and we narrowed those down to 200 last night. One of my priorities in the next few days will be to post just a few of these and share some more of our adventures. So check back later!

Pre-Alaska backpack trip: T-5 days!

Wow, planning for this trip is a lot of work. Especially since so much of it is being done last minute. Saturday night we spent several hours grocery shopping. It was fun looking for foods with the most calories and fat. Our food will mostly consist of granola or oatmeal for breakfast; summer sausage and cheese for lunch; trail mix, dried fruit, and bars for snacks; and dehydrated dinners. Last night was the real challenge, we spent almost 5 hours getting together all of our gear and agonizing over how to fit all of our food into a ~100 cubic inch canister ("designed to carry 6-person days of food"). There were a couple of things that we kind of skimped on because of space. I think we have enough food but I don't think I will ever feel full. If you know me at all, you know I like to eat, so this will be a challenge. The bear vault is frustrating because normally I wouldn't mind at all carrying extra weight in food. But that's not an option unless you want to lug around another heavy, bulky canister that you won't even need after the first two days. You aren't required to use bear vaults in the Chugach, but it seems pretty necessary since I think treeline is pretty low up there.

Tonight we went to Jax and bought some mosquito netting, liner gloves, and bear bells. Actually the mosquito netting we bought is made for bee keepers. It is very stylish and I'm sure we'll have some great pictures.

Chris just stressed me out because he thinks we have less than 1700 calories per person per day. I am pretty sure this is how much I burn in a day when I sit on my ass. So I'm going to go and reanalyze this food situation.

According to: http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/Weight_Loss/Weight_Loss.html
Basal calories = 1392
+ Calories burned in 6 hours of backpacking: 3672
= 5064 calories.
Also apparently you burn 10% of the calories you consume just digesting it.
And if you burn 3500 more calories than you eat, you lose 1 pound. Usually I would be super excited to lose some weight, especially since it will probably be fat as we'll be building muscle as we hike. But ... 5000-1700 is almost 3500 calorie defecit each day. I could potentially lose 7 pounds in one week and this does not seem very conducive to my half ironman training/racing. That is why I am a little stressed about it. I've been trying really hard all summer to take care of myself, and this might negate some of it. Then again, coming back from Alaska leaner might make me faster. Who knows. All of this talk is making me hungry though, so I have to go eat.