Ferry ride

Tyler is in heaven! He loves the ferry system in Alaska because they show movies every 3-4 hours, he has snack machines at his disposal and he can roam the ship to his heart’s content. Our 23 hour ferry ride was long, but uneventful. I managed to read a book, Chris and I played Scrabble and cards, and Phil even finished his book. We all liked the break from the rough and tumble van; in fact, we liked it so much that we checked into taking the ferry all the way to Bellingham, WA instead of backtracking our way through British Columbia. While there were berths available for the four of us, there was no room for the Van. It would have saved us a day in time and over 1000 miles… We’re sensing the end, and starting to feel the urge to go home.

7/17 We spent the night at Settler's Cove State Park just north of Ketchican. The park was really pretty, and had wild raspberry bushes growing all over the place. We had raspberry pancakes for breakfast. Our site overlooked the water, and we saw a couple of eagles this morning. The eagles are becoming so "common" that the kids don't even look up anymore when we spot them. We did a short hike today in another "hobbit-like" forest, with Sitka Spruce, hemlock and red cedar trees. Ketchikan is noted for it's totem poles, so we stoped at the Totel Bight totem park. Some are very interesting. I'll have to post those pictures in a couple of days.

Haines

Spent the night at Chilkoot State Park. Saw a Grizzly bear in the park, but not in campground. Lots of Eagles along the Chilkoot river, where the Sockeye salmon are beginning their run. Saw one eagle snag a salmon, but he couldn't carry it up to his nest. He fought with it on the ground for a while before just giving up.

We're on the ferry this morning headed to Juneau. Looking forward to our stateroom tonight with showers!

Cordova - Valdez - Wrangell Mtns.

On the 8th we hiked up Exit Glacier outside of Seward. We didn’t actually hike on the glacier, but on the mountain side next to it. The bottom 3rd of the trail was your standard forest trail, all up, up, up. Soon we hit the snow, at first patchy, then the entire mountain was covered. The trail was marked by little orange flags. There were rangers out on the trail, marking and clearing some of the damaged sections. We saw one bear in the distance, feeding on a patch of grass. Once we reached the cliffs section overlooking the glacier, we stopped for a much needed rest and lunch (I should say that it was a much needed rest for me, and not necessarily for the other three…). At this point we were two-thirds of the way up, but the rest of the trail was all snow. We decided to turn back, descending very slowly down the snow trail. I was certain I would fall, but the kids were the only ones to get their behinds wet. This was because they were attempting to ski down the trail instead of walking it. Half way down, the kids were far ahead of us when a black bear wandered on to the trail in front of Phil and I, about 30 feet or so. We stopped to see what she would do, but she just looked at us and continued up the hill. She was followed by a spring cub (so cute!). Phil was fumbling around with his camera to get a shot at the mama bear, and didn’t even see the little guy until he was into the brush again. We thought the kids had missed it all, but Tyler claims the bear was only a few feet away from him. Every time he tells the story the bear gets closer, kind of like those infamous fish stories. Anyway, it was very cool to see the bears up close and personal. The hike took 5.5 hours, 2.87 miles, 2100 feet elevation. We were all pretty tired.
On the 9th we drove to Whittier to catch a ferry over to Cordova. Whittier is a strange little town, where most of the 300 permanent inhabitants live in one 14-story building. Originally an Army post, the Army left in the 50’s and only a few people remained. The road into Whittier was not completed until about 8 years ago, so it was only accessible by rail and boat. Our Ferry ride was 3 hours across Prince William Sound. Saw some Humpback whales, lots of dall porpoise, but no Orca whales. Once in Cordova (only accessible by plane or boat), we ate at a taco restaurant – I had a red (sockeye) Salmon burrito, and Phil had the salmon tacos. Mine was great! We drove out to the Childs Glacier at the end of the Cooper River Road south of Cordova. There was a brand new campground out there, with only 4 sites taken, but this was the best camp site to date! The glacier was right there, across the river, and it was very active. We stayed up past midnight watching this think calve ice continuously. Even after we went to bed we heard these huge cracks and splashes. Some shook the ground, and they sounded like big thunder claps. We took lots of series pictures, and video, but will only put a couple of photos on the web album. Recently I’ve been having difficulty uploading my photos, so I won’t attempt to post a series of 15 shots of ice falling into the water.
The following day we spent the morning at the glacier, then proceeded back toward Cordova, stopping to hike in a couple of spots along the way. The Haystack trail was through a forest of spruce and hemlock trees, very mossy and green. We met a couple in Denali who did this trail, and said it was like a Hobbit forest. The name stuck, and we called it our Hobbit hike. We were supposed to be able to see swans and moose, but we struck out again with the wildlife viewing. Next was a wetlands hike. Again, we didn’t see any wildlife, but the wild blue iris growing throughout the marsh were beautiful.
Today (7/11) we got on the ferry early to go to Valdez. We saw MANY commercial salmon boats out in the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound, and saw where the Exxon Valdez ran aground. I’m on the ferry now, typing this, and will upload as soon as we stop for laundry and showers in Valdez. We really need showers.
(7/13) No internet in Valdez… We did our laundry, had showers, ate lunch in harbor, toured the local museum, and bought fresh fish from the commercial packing company on docks. King Salmon and Halibut are abundant in Valdez. We had the salmon that night, and it was fabulous! We camped at Blueberry Lake, 25 miles NE of Valdez. Our books proclaimed this to be the most beautiful campground in Alaska, surrounded by high, snowcapped peaks. If we could have seen all the peaks, we would probably concur. However, if I am able to upload all my pictures, you will see that we did get a glimpse of the peaks between the cloud cover. We stopped at the Worthington Glacier, where we were able to walk/climb right up to it. This glacier has been receding a lot in recent years, so no calving, only melting.
Driving up and down the Richardson Highway between Delta Junction and Valdez has been a feast for the eyes. In my opinion, this is the most beautiful stretch of road anywhere.
We headed east on the Glenn Highway, with it’s numerous frost heaves. I felt like we were on a roller coaster. This Highway boarders the north edge of the Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, and most of the Wrangells were under cloud cover. However, for a brief few minutes we did see the tallest peak, Mt. Sanford, come out of the clouds. These mountains are all old volcanoes. We drove into the park on the Nebesna Road, and camped about 25 miles in at Jack Creek. The road was washed out in a few places, and the volcano trail that Phil and Chris tried to hike was washed out. Tyler tried to fish, but only caught a tree branch. Extremely remote area here, since only 4x4’s can drive into the wash-outs.
We have big driving day today to get closer to Haines – have reservations on the ferry at 9:00 a.m. on the 15th. We’ll probably be somewhere in Canada tonight – hope to upload pictures in Tok this morning. Can’t believe we’ve been gone 4 weeks already; time is flying by so fast.

Homer a bust, but Seward is great

Our drive down to Homer had a lot of rain. I tried to make a bear viewing reservation, but everyone was full. We went to Homer anyway, only because we had campground reservations. The drive was long, but we stopped for a hike on the Bear Mountain Trail above Skilak Lake (no bears, but LOTS of scat). Most of our hikes seem to be up, up, up, and Mom gets left in the dust, which is a somewhat nervous experience with all the bears in the area. I find myself talking to myself to let the bears know I'm around. The Kenai Peninsula is supposed to be a moose habitat, but in the 3 days we've been here we have not seen one. So I took a picture of this carved moose instead. He seems quite happy. If you notice all the RV's in the background, they are all on the Homer Spit, a stretch of land over 4 miles long into the Bay. Our campground was at the end, and the entire spit is a series of RV parks. Our Park was at the end, and it was basically a dirt lot, with all the campers crammed together as close as possible... Phil was not happy. This was not the place he remembered from his youth! The entire spit had somewhat of a circus atmosphere. We did our laundry and left the next morning for Seward.

Since we could not view the bears, we booked a cruise at the Kenai Fjords National Park. We did this today. Saw sea otters, humpback whales, puffins, dall porpoise, harbor and stellar seals, and lots of birds. The big event was Aialik glacier, and the calving of the ice. Wow! We couldn't believe how big the face of the glacier was, and how loud the crashing sound was when the ice fell into the water. Very cool. We've discovered that Chris does not handle the open seas very well. He was a little green for most of the 6 hour trip, but at least he didn't get sick. Many others were carrying around their little white barf bags like precious cargo. Anyway, we loved the glacier.

We've had some excellent halibut, smoked salmon, and porcupine soup (rice and pork sausage). Phil and I are finding excuses to eat out, not only to sample the local cuisine, but to have beer and wine too. He's been cheating a lot with the caffinated coffee, by the way, but I, too, have cheated with the diet soda. We're weak.

Tomorrow we're going to attempt to hike up Exit Glacier outside of Seward. It's 3.5 steep miles up, then back down. Don't know if my knees can take this one. Stay tuned...