travel day down to the kenai peninsula

Tuesday was a travel day from talkeetna, back down through anchorage and onto the kenai peninsula. we did a little grocery shopping to restock our supplies. 

stopped back in girdwood for lunch at the chair 5 brewpub. I've definitely been enjoying the brews of Alaska! there are so many. a little sad I can't bring any back on the plane. oh well, enjoy them while I'm here. 

back to talkeetna

from the trailhead, we headed back to talkeetna... directly to the Denali brewery for a late lunch and celebratory beers. sooooo good! 

after lunch, we checked into the meandering moose cabin, dumped out all our gear, did laundry, and took much needed showers. gorgeous backpacking trip, body achy but satisfied! 

went back into town for dinner, and tried to go elsewhere, but ended up back at the brewery. ha. go with what works. thought we might go out for a little nightlife, but turns out there was not much going on in town on a Sunday night... fine with me, happy to sleep in a bed with a pillow!! 

...as if it could get more beautiful...

we woke up in the morning to not a single cloud in the sky... stumbled out of the tent with cameras in hand. the day was warm and clear as can be. the amazing and warm weather took us all by surprise a little. not quite what we had pictured for Alaska, we have been totally lucky!! 

the maps had been a pretty poor gauge for time and distance in the trail, so we kinda gave up on them, and just hiked. the trail down was an hour farther than we expected... but super clearly marked when we finally got to it. so gorgeous, there were a good amount of photo stops along the way. 

down wasn't too brutally steep, but as with the end of any hike, the anticipation of being done makes every ache worse. below tree line, we crossed a swamp full of mosquitoes, and we just hauled. poor heather had to speed walk to keep up with our pace determined to be done. ha.

 

made it down to the car by mid-afternoon... and we're stoked to drop packs, and change into flip flops!!! 

evening sun that goes on and on...

by evening time, we were done with dinner, cleanup, and water filtering... and the bugs came back so we retreated to the tent to wait out the sun high sun. heather somehow had cell service, so she was able to touch base with her boys back home. 

the sun eventually won. we finally settled in and read ourselves to sleep. I kept waking up in the night, and was curious to see if it ever got dark. by 2am, there was still glow if light behind the mountains (way lighter than the picture shows), and I gave up. turns out that our headlamps were our most useless piece of gear on the hike. ha. 

lazy afternoon of r&r&h

we had planned to stop just shy of the trail down for the night, but by mid-afternoon, we were achey, and decided to call it. found another awesome little spot to pull out for the night, and we busted out the wine and snacks.... and chilled for hours in the sunshine, reading, napping and chatting. by then we had just enough wind and distance from water that the bugs were gone for a bit. :)

 

warm & clear afternoon hiking

the fog cleared out by noon, and we walked along the ridge line gaping at the Denali range. it was also super still, however, so we has to pull our head nets out for the first time for a very quick lunch stop! 

along the ridgeline

woke up the next morning to a bank of fog hanging over the valley in front of us, covering all the mountains. it was cool and peaceful. nice way to start the morning. knowing we had tons of daylight, and only 8-10 miles to hike, we took our time that am. 

the trail along the ridge line was rolling and a pleasant walk. pretty much what I expected of the hike. we wove from front to back and front of the ridge, over rolling hills. 

midnight sunset

our first night we enjoyed a yummy Mac and cheese with peas dinner, topped off with wine (in "real" camp wine glasses!). the breeze kept up, so we had almost no problem with mosquitoes. 

we turned in to the tent to wind down around 9pm with sun still up and full daylight. there were a few clouds on the mountains, but generally a great view. 

the girls passed out in no time, but I was a little antsy to see the sunset. I crawled out of the tent around 10:30pm to a clear view of Denali, and the sun just starting to tuck behind the mountain range. 

I hung out watching the sunset for over 45 minutes... the sun went behind the range, but it never did get dark. ha. amazing beautiful and peaceful. finally went to bed when my toes got cold. ;)

up up to the ridge line

it took us a couple of hours to drive to the trailheads and leave the car at the end trail. we were all geared up, and on the trail around 3pm. we really lucked out, it was a breezy day, so the mosquitoes were minimal as we made our way up through the trees. we had some maps and trail descriptions with us, but they were all a bit misleading on the distance and elevation gain to the ridge line. first day with a 40+ lb pack on is always slow, but we slogged on. the first half of the ascent was pretty moderate, and as we got above the tree line, it went up at a steeper grade. not a lot if switchbacks in AK... just up. 

we stopped at a river crossing at what we thought was the ridge line to fill water.  through the next saddle, turned out we had more up to go. ha. 

all the efforts paid off, however, because we scored and amazing place to camp on a little plateau overlooking the entire Denali range. 

north to talkeetna and Denali

up and out if the hostel early, we drove north on a drizzly morning towards Denali. uneventful drive, and the weather was clearing up as we drove into talkeetna around 11am. heather had arranged for us to leave all our extra gear and food at the lodge we were staying in after the hike, and a taxi service to help us shuttle our car to the end trailhead of our hike. 

our shuttle driver was running a bit late, so we walked the entire 3 blocks of downtown talkeetna, and rounded out at the Denali brewery for pre-hike tasters. yum. gave us something to look forward to after the hike, fo sho. 

the birthday girl arrived in ak

rachel and I got all our gear sorted and packed Thursday evening, then hit another brewery for pizza and beer (mooses tooth) while waiting for heather to arrive. we picked heather up at the airport around 11:30pm, and our traveling crew was finally complete! :) 

blast from the past

met up with an old friend from elementary school in anchorage, lisa mills. haven't seen her in 20+ years since high school. it was really cool to do the hour+ recap of life in the last 20 years. lisa is still super down to earth, and was super excited to give us some tips and loan us bear spray for our adventures. 

 I'm not a huge Facebook user, but I am thankful that it allows us done of these long lost connections. nice to see a familiar face in far away places. :)

day 1 day hike

the morning of our second day, we took care of all our errands renting gear and grocery shopping for our backpacking trip, then decided to do a little hike in the anchorage area. 

we headed to the south corner of anchorage and up to flat top mountain lookout. we thought it was a 2-mile loop... but turns out it was 3 miles each way to the peak. we had lunch and plenty if water in our packs, so hiked up. good little training hike for us, and beautiful lookout 360° around anchorage from the top. :) 

bird point bore wave

making our way back along the turnagain arm, we pulled out at bird point to snap a few pics. the tide was super low, and the inlet was practically drained. 

there were a bunch of people hanging at the scenic point. at first we couldn't figure out why, and it was awkwardly quiet. on the way back to the car, we read a plaque, and realized that everyone was collected waiting for a bore wave to pass the point. the few days around the full moon, the tide changes are so drastic in the arm, that a standing wave travels up the arm as the tide changes, and we just happened to be there at the exact time if month and day. some waves can be up to 6'+... but this one was probation only about 1'. still pretty cool to see! I'll have to post pics from my camera with the zoom lense when I get home. 

glaciers!

after Whittier, we wandered out around the portage glacier loop and stopped to walk out to Byron glacier (1 mile stroll). it was unbelievable how sunny and warm it was out. 

after the glacier, we continued back in the direction of anchorage, and took a little side road up to girwood (at the base if the ski mountain) for lunch at chair 5. yummy beer and pub food. 

Whittier, Alaska

the road out to Whittier cuts through a long (several miles) one-way tunnel under the mountain, that is shared with the railroad. we lucked out, and drive through within 5 minutes of rolling up. each direction gets 15-minute windows. 

Whittier is just a little dot on the map at the end if the road when it hits the prince William sound. fishing town that hosts large cruise ships. we walked around for all of 10 minutes, and had mostly seen everything. 

we missed a crossing window back to the other side, so killed a little time over a beer, chatting with a "local". the day was so stunning beautiful, we had to ask if this was "normal" for summer. apparently, the area is having a VERY unusual warm and clear summer. we were quite lucky to be there that day, as last summer they only had 3 sunny days the entire summer. 

lucky indeed! 

our first day in the land of the midnight sun

the hostel we are staying at is a little less than impressive, but after a long day of traveling, and a few beers to settle in... rachel and I had no problem crashing out. 

the sun comes up by 5am, but we managed to "sleep in" till about 8. without a plan for the day, we headed into downtown to grab breakfast, and decided to drive out towards Whittier and the prince William sound for the day. there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we stocked our day packs for exploring. 

the drive along the shore of the turnagain inlet was gorgeous. we went long first, and headed all the way out to Whittier, stopping a few times along the way at viewpoints. such a sucker for mountains, rivers, and glaciers! 

the day was so calm and clear, the water was a perfect mirror on the mountains. 

girls adventure in Alaska!!

for her 40th birthday last year, Bjorn conspired with Rachel and I to send her on an adventure vacation with her girls.... and the best part was, we got to decide where we should go. ;) we went round and round for a few months, and finally settled on Alaska. 

it has been over a year and a half in the planning... and we are finally here. rachel and I flew in Tuesday night, a few days ahead of heather to get our bearings and geared up. 

as always, it was a run to the finish line getting prepared for the trip, and making it to the airport... but the second I checked my bags, it was vacation on!! 

I dozed off for the last little bit of the flight, and woke up just in time to see the snow / glacier covered mountains coming into anchorage. my heart did little leaps for joy, and I knew we chose the right destination. :) 

my flight was a hour ahead of rachel, giving me just enough to rent the car before she got here. we threw our bags in the car, and headed towards town. on our way out of the airport, it was after 11pm... the sun was just going down, and we saw the most spectacular full moon rise over the mountains. quite a grand welcome!