Alaska, Part 1

Prologue

It all started with a phone call from Lucy.  Over the winter she said she wanted to treat Mom to an Alaskan cruise, as Mom has always wanted to go on one.  Lucy asked if we were interested, as she knew Mom would like it if any of the kids that could make it would join them.  Sage and I talked it over, and there were plenty of pros and cons. The pros were obvious: we’ve always wanted to go to Alaska, and it would be a great treat for Mom.  The cons were obvious as well, at least to us: we’ve only been on one cruise before, a short 3-nighter in the Bahamas, and we really didn’t care for it.  After thinking it over, looking over some cruise options, and figuring out a time that worked for us and Lucy, we decided to do it.  The main thing for us was to take a cruise that stopped in port as many days as possible.  For a 7-night cruise, you basically have 6 days (as the 1st and last days don’t really count), and we found one that went from Seward, AK to Vancouver, and stopped for 4 of the 6 days. That was going to be the best we could get.  With the plan to go around Memorial Day, we also decided to go for a couple days early in Alaska to explore on our own as well.  One option was to go up to Denali, but we felt that would require more than a couple days, and the vacation time just wasn’t there for the extended stay.  And since the cruise went from a Friday-to-Friday, we also decided we’d fly back on Sunday and spend 2 days in Vancouver.

Packing for the trip was the first headache.  We had a lot of stops and starts in packing, mostly because we were unsure how many clothes we needed to bring.  How many different outfits would we need? Our plan was to go hiking almost every day, so we needed hiking clothes plus cruise wear for each day. And since we’d be traveling for 12 days, plus the fact that we needed a lot of warm weather and rainy weather clothes, we knew it was going to be a lot to bring.  One decision we made early on was that, unless Mom, Lucy and Steve (the entire group that was coming) really wanted to hit one or both of the formal nights that the cruise has to offer, we were going to skip those and save on the packing space.  (As it turned out, Lucy told me Mom was definitely not interested in formal night, so that worked for us.)  Even so, and even knowing we’d each have to wear each outfit that we brought at least twice, our regular 2 travel bags were not going to be enough room. (And we used those bags to travel around Europe for 2 weeks in 2006.)  As we scratched our head we found a large duffel-type travel bag that I had forgotten I had bought last year. (I ordered it online thinking it was a carry-on size, but it turned out to be HUGE – not even close to carry on size.)  But it turned out to be a perfect size for this trip.  We also carried on a smaller duffel that carried our hiking boots, as if we got to Alaska and hiking boots didn’t make it, that would really put a kink in our plans.  After 3 days and probably 6+ attempts, we finally got our pile of clothes down to 2 checked bags and 2 carry-ons.

Wednesday, May 22
The day started out cool and rainy in Boston, and about what I expected we'd find in Alaska while we would be there.  I made several comments to people that my biggest hope was that there would be just ONE day where it was mostly sunny.  Most I read said that the Alaska weather usually goes between really cloudy and rainy to mostly cloudy and drizzly, so we were prepared to get wet on this trip.  We boarded our United flight around 7:45 am for our first leg to Houston.  I know that sounds out of the way, but there weren’t great options from Boston to Anchorage; also, I decided to use some of my bonus money this year to upgrade the trip to Alaska to First Class.  And really, it comes down to me not thinking the whole plan through very clearly, which is why we ended up with a 4 ½ hour flight to Houston, a 3 hour layover, and then a 7 hour flight to Anchorage.  Close to 15 hours total, but when you’ve been on a 30+ hour journey (Kigali-Nairobi-London-Boston), 15 isn’t horrible anymore.  And First Class did make it much easier to stand.

Speaking of First Class, our breakfast options on the flight to Houston were a Cheese Omelet, with a broccoli strata and fruit, or cheerios with fruit.  Also hot pastries!  The flight was very bumpy, but we got to watch Argo on the seat back screen, and that made the time fly by.

After arriving around 11:30  we walked around the Houston terminal, which is HUGE.  We found a diner for lunch, walked around a bit more to kill time, and hung out by the gate. Right before boarding I went to the bathroom, and I hear a guy talking really loudly saying, “Anchorage is a tough town, man! Those Eskimos get drunk, they’ll #&%! You up!”  This man was apparently talking to a stranger he met in the bathroom at the urinal and found out he was heading to Anchorage.  But it got even better when he then said, “Haven’t you seen the Alaska State Troopers show?  Anchorage is crazy!  I’m from Norfolk, VA, and we got some crazy drunks there, but nothing like Anchorage!”  And then of course at the end of the conversation he got all serious and said to the man, “Hey, have a great time though man. Take it easy!”  Great stuff.

We boarded our flight to Anchorage around 2:30 and got some bad news:  the seats did NOT have individual TVs!  Sage was crushed…she was hoping the 7 hours would go by kind of fast with TV and movies, but now, not so much.  They did have overhead TVs spaced down the aisle, but they were only showing Oz the Great and Powerful, and that didn’t seem like a very inspired choice.  Dinner/Lunch (by this time it was really close to 12:30 Anchorage time…had to re-set the body clock) was a choice of steak or fish. I had the lasagna. (Actually it was a choice of chicken or pasta, which was cheese ravioli. Not horrible.)  Around 5 pm we started seeing the Canadian Rockies (or maybe the Alaska mountains…we had no idea where we were as there was no seat-back TV map), but it was gorgeous and clear skies as we flew right up the coast.  We saw glaciers, mountains, rocky beaches, and it was all snow-covered.  Pretty nice sights.

Coast of Canada or Alaska from the plane

Our flight landed at 7:15 pm, and with First Class we were supposed to get priority baggage handling, which meant our bags would be the first ones off the plane.  One of our bags was #5 coming off; the 2nd bag was more like #200.   Thanks United…you can’t even get First Class right.  We rented a car so we could head out on our own for the next 2 days, and it ended up being a Chevy Traverse, which is a MUCH bigger SUV than I’ve ever driven. Thankfully there were no issues maneuvering it, but I really don’t see how people like driving cars that big.  We headed south from Anchorage to Girdwood, AK, home of the Alyeska Resort.  We drove along Cook Inlet and the Turnagain Arm of the inlet.  The views of the inlet and the mountains all around it were amazing.  (Also, it was a tad drizzly on the drive down, which ended up being the ONLY rain we saw until the last day of our trip. Amazing.)  We got to our resort, which is primarily a ski resort but was between seasons at this time of the year and we got a cheap deal. We arrived around 8:30, checked in, and got a high room which gave us great views of the mountain that the resort was right next to.  After a long day, we didn’t do much else except try to sleep at 10 pm with tons of light still outside.

Thursday, May 23
We woke up around 6 am, our bodies still on East Coast time no doubt.  It was already really light out, and Sage mentioned that it didn’t even feel like the sun went down at all.  After showering we walked around the resort a bit to check it out, then grabbed a quick bite to eat in one of their cafes.  We asked about hiking at the resort, as we heard there were plenty of hiking trails that criss-crossed the ski resort.  Unfortunately we were told that the hiking trails on the mountain were still under snow, but she suggested 2 hikes in the Chugach State Park only about 10 miles up the road toward Anchorage.  She said those were already melted, as they face toward the south more.  The weather was cold but clear – low 40’s but beautiful sunny skies.  When we got to the trailhead we were the only car in the parking lot – my kind of hike!  The trailheads are right off the road we had taken the day before, and there’s basically mountains that head straight up from the water’s edge of the Cook Inlet.  The name of the trail was the Bird Ridge Trail, and it was about 3 miles or so, but it sounded like it simply peters out when it gets to the ridge.  We weren’t sure we wanted/could make it all the way, as the elevation gain was over 3,000 feet to the ridge, but we figured we’d hike up a ways, see how the views were and depending on how we felt, either cut the hike short and try somewhere else, or keep going.  We headed out right at 8 am, and almost immediately the trail went straight up.  And the trail wasn’t one of those nice ones with switchbacks that help you knees; this trail was more of the New Hampshire type of hiking, which goes straight up the mountain over granite and rocks. We ended up getting about 1.75 miles up the trail, which took us about 1:45 and we gained just over 2,000 feet.  The ridge was another mile and another 1,000 feet up, and for our first hike we just didn’t feel the need to keep going.  But the hike had AWESOME views of Cook Inlet and the mountains across the inlet.  Also interesting was that the hike went through 3 different “tree zones”, for lack of a better phrase.  In the lower part of the hike we went through groves of what looked like aspen trees; the middle part were plenty of pine trees – hemlock and spruce, I believe; and when we got above tree line there were lots of fascinating bushes and low shrubs.  The talus slopes above tree line were tricky going up, but MUCH trickier going down.  Thankfully we didn’t take any diggers and made it back to the car without any injuries.

Mountains across the Turnagain Arm from Bird Ridge Trail

Cook Inlet from Bird Ridge

Doug poses with the water/mountains

Sage heads back down the trail

With our knees screaming in pain, we decided against any more hikes for the day.  Sage had seen a mention in the hotel info book about a wildlife rehab center that was nearby.  It was about 20 miles south, so we drove down the Seward Highway toward the center.  On the way we stopped at an overlook and learned about the “Tidal Bore” – a wave that’s the leading edge of a tide coming into a bay or inlet.  Most bores they have in the inlet are measured in inches, but they have had them up to 6 feet high in the past.  Speaking of tides, when we had driven to Girdwood the day before, the water in the inlet was REALLY rough…lots of white caps and the like.  We noticed that when we started our hike this day the water was REALLY calm, and then as we came down from Bird Ridge we could see huge swaths of sand bars! We couldn’t believe it ever got that low, but turns out the inlet water level changes by as much as 30 feet with each tide.

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center houses Alaskan wildlife that was found injured or orphaned, and can’t be released back into the wild.  During our visit we saw:  Moose; Musk Ox; Black Bears; Brown Bears; Wood Bison; Elk; and Caribou/Reindeer (including Chuckles, a young caribou new to the Center and who was being taken around for a walk).  We had a great visit and saw some great animals.  The Brown Bears were impressive in that two of them spent a lot of time playing in the water before getting out and walking around really close to the fence, where we got fantastic views.  Also, they have huge herds of Wood Bison, which are native to Alaska/Canada but a different subspecies than the Plains Bison found in the lower 48.  They have a plan of releasing these herds back into the wilds of Alaska, although there seem to be a lot of political red tape they need to jump through before they can achieve that goal.

Musk Ox

Brown bears playing in the water

Brown bear

Wood bison posing in front of impressive scenery

After our visit we headed back to the resort to shower up and relax before game 4 of the Bruins/Rangers game at 3 pm.  We watched the 1st period in our room, then headed down to the resort lounge to watch the rest of the game there.  We spoke to an employee (who was off-duty and drinking at the bar) about the area, and I asked him how much snow they normally get in their town.  To put this in perspective, Boston on average gets 40” a year. Anything over 60” is considered high.  The most ever in one winter season (according to NOAA) is 107.6” in 1996-97.  But in Girdwood, AK, we were told the average was around 700” a year!  AND, he went on to say, 2 winters ago they got over 1,200” of snow.  I can’t figure out where they put it all.  (Note: I tried to verify this, but was having a hard time finding the weather data for Girdwood. But I did find a note that the Alyeska Resort had a record snowfall of 283” that fell in December 2006…so if they got 283” in one month, and winter lasts from September to May…I can see 1,200”.)  At the bar Sage had a glass of merlot in honor of the Merlot Line for the Bruins; unfortunately the good luck didn’t rub off on the B’s and they dropped the game in overtime. After the game we headed back to the room to organize for Friday and pack our bags.  I was EXHAUSTED by the time 7:30 rolled around and ended up asleep by 7:35. Sage said she made it to 8:00, but she was conked out as well.

Friday, May 24
Still on East Coast time, we were both up at 5:45 am. Considering when I went to bed the night before, that was much better than I thought it would be.  We organized our gear and checked out around 7 am.  We drove south toward Seward, our embarkation point for the cruise.  We stopped about an hour south of Girdwood in the Chugach National Forest at the Ptarmigan Creek Trailhead.  This was a great trail, going right along the Ptarmigan Creek, with the first mile pretty flat and then rising gently but steadily until it opens up into this beautiful valley.  There were great views all around us, and we would have loved to have had the time to do the entire hike all the way to Ptarmigan Lake, but we didn’t, so we turned around at the 2.5 mile mark.  On the way back, hiking along the creek, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over to the left, and there, on top of a dead tree about 40 feet in the air was a bald eagle. He/She sat there for about 30 seconds as we watched, then took off flying down the creek.  It was a great sight to see so close by.  Another bird that was almost more surprising to see was a hummingbird on the trail.  He/She kept buzzing us, so we might have been a bit too close to their home base for their liking, but we were both surprised to see one so far north.

Mountain view along the Ptarmigan Creek Trail

Bald eagle sitting on a tree

Bald eagle close up

We finished the hike and then headed toward Seward and our next stop, Kenai Fjords National Park.  But on the drive down Seward Highway, while looking at a pond off to the left I thought I saw something else.  Turned out to be a moose!  We found a safe place to pull off the road, quite a bit from her (we think it was a cow), and watched as she stood in the water eating.  After a bit we got back in the car and saw another moose by the road.  We both felt very lucky to see them, although they’re probably very common for the locals.  

There is a moose in this photo...

Here she is, zoomed in

We arrived at Kenai Fjords around Noon.  The road to the visitor’s center and parking lot had only opened a couple days before we arrived, but the visitor’s center was still closed.  Unfortunately the trails there were all very snow covered still, which creates very annoying hiking conditions.  We did the Exit Glacier hike, which is one of the few trails in Kenai Fjords National Park (most of the rest of the park is only reachable by boat or seaplane).  The hike had some good views, and we lucked out again on the weather as it was just a GORGEOUS day once again.  We didn’t spend long there, as the hiking trails just weren’t worth spending time there, and ended up leaving around 1 pm.

Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park

Sage enjoys the weather at Kenai Fjords

We drove down into Seward and walked around a bit, which took about 5 minutes in that town.  Pretty funny to see such a small town be a cruise ship terminus, but that’s the way it is.  We went to the Visitor’s Center in town which WAS open so that Sage could get a patch for Kenai Fjords NP to add to her collection.

Bust of Seward

Without much else to do, we dropped off our car at Hertz (thankfully only about a 5 minute walk to the cruise ship terminal, although dropping it off turned into a 20 minute headache), and headed over to the terminal to board the boat.

(Coming next blog:  We step on board our ship for the next 7 nights; meet up with the family, and head off into the Pacific Ocean!)