like an olive in a martini

I forgot to write in the last post my favorite comment from our kayaking trip ... as we were paddling through some icebergs, Ross made the comment that now he knows what it feels like to be an olive in a martini.

This is our last full day here in Seward. We woke up this morning to bright blue, sunny skies (it's been overcast so far). Wow.

We're taking it easy today, looking around town and checking out the videos and displays on the Earthquake. Two days ago, we hiked Mount Marathon, home of the Mount Marathon trail run. This race is on the extreme end of trail running -- it is just 3.5 miles, but has an elevation gain of about 3000 feet. Coming down is scree in the good parts, but hardscrabble and cliffs (yes, truly cliffs) the majority of the time.

Yesterday, we met up with our new friends Helen and Matt to hike the Harding Ice Field. We met Helen and Matt in Denali when we had come out of the backcountry a bit early. Helen, Matt, and another woman, Marta also came out early and we all wound up sharing a campsite when we came back to find everything full (luckily the camp hosts had a site held back for such occassions). I took a ton of pictures, but there is no way that they can do justice to what we saw yesterday. At the top of the climb, you are on the top of a massive ice field (1,100 sq. miles) that feeds up to 40 glaciers. Ice and the tips of mountains stretch off to the horizon. Hiking down, we saw our first Alaskan black bear and were amused by the very outgoing marmots along the trail. Including one that led to my favorite question of the day, "What do you do if a marmot attacks?!?"

Tomorrow we are taking a bus back to Anchorage, then flying out on the red-eye. We'll be back in Oregon around 8:30 Sunday morning. I can't believe we've been gone for almost 3 weeks now! I have over 400 pictures on my camera -- when we get back, I'll put on them on the web, so you can get a better idea of what we've been talking about in these posts (if you'd like).

Where the mountains meet the sea

Imagine if the ocean came halfway up the Cascade mountains (apologies
to those not in Oregon). This might just barely give you an idea of
what it is like here. Right now, we are on a boat with the Gulf of
Alaska to our backs and on the other 3 sides, dramatic parks rise
right out of the water, one ridgeline after the next, topped in snow,
auth glaciers dripping down the valleys. We saw sea otteral orcas.
We kayakrd through ice bergs. We saw huge chunks of ice fun finally
joose their grip and tumble tens and hundreds of feet from the side of
Aialik Glacier into the ocean. So amazing.

Walking through a watercolor

Two days ago, we went on a long dayhike, with the intention of going up the Sanctuary River, over a pass below Double Mountain, then down the Teklanika River to the park road. While walking through the tundra (not easy -- imagine a wierd, lumpy waterbed, with shrubs planted on it, and your walking on it with nerf balls tied to your feet), Ross made the comment that it was like we were walking through a watercolor. ... he was right -- in front of us, tall, snow-covered peaks. To our left, a deep, gurgling river. The aspen in the stream beds and along the river were turning gold and all around us blueberries and other tundra shrubs and fireweed were turning crimson red (it is FALL here).

Everything closes down for the season around here on September 19. The colors have changed quite dramatically in the week and a half we've been here, and there is a new chill in the air.

Off to Seward...

HEY BEAR!

Please forgive Ross and I if in the first few days back, we suddenly
yell out, "hey bear!" this is the standard hikers call so you don't
surprise the bears, and it has become a bit of habit now. We were out
in the backcountry for 6 nights and are back in a campground near the
entrance now. We had mostly good weather, including 2 gorgeous days
with clear skies for most of the day and breathtaking views of all the
mountains, including Mt. McKinley. While hiking, we saw many caribou,
marmots, arctic ground squirrels, ptarmigan, a momma and baby moose,
and yes, grizzlies. We had 3 sitings, including 1 that came within
about 150 meters while we were packing up a few mornings ago. We also
had a fox walk within 10 feet of us after we'd been dropped off at the
start of our hike. From the buses, we saw all of the above plus some
very active beavers and a herd of Dall sheep.

Today we took it easy and checked out the visitor center and a
demonstration with the park's sled dogs. We plan on doing some more
hiking in the next few days.

This is a great park. We've been really impressed with how they've
maintained the wilderness qualities, the educational things (the
visitor center was awesome! Great ecological displays), and the bus
system (and keeping cars mostly off the road) makes for easy travel
without the traffic jams, etc. Like you see in Glacier and
Yellowstone.

to the backcountry!

We arrived in Denali today and managed to get a decent backcountry
permit already! We are heading out early tomorrow morning and will be
back out in about 10 days. Check back then for the stories!

--

Andrea S. Thorpe, Ph.D.
Director, Conservation Research Program
Institute for Applied Ecology
PO Box 2855
Corvallis, Oregon 97339-2855
www.appliedeco.org
ph: 541-753-3099
fax: 541-753-3098
______________________________________
The Institute for Applied Ecology is a non-profit
501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to
conserve native ecosystems through restoration,
research, and education.
______________________________________

We're here!

After an extra 30 hours in Tacoma, Ross and I had a smooth, uneventful flight into Anchorage, arriving at about 1:30 PM (Alaska Time). Special thanks to Janet and Peter Stanley for their hospitality the last few days! Flying into Anchorage was amazing -- there are huge, snowcapped mountains on three sides of the city, marshes and bays on the other. Absolutely gorgeous, wild landscape. Set within this landscape is one of the bleakest cities I've ever been to. I now totally know why the guidebook referred to this place as "Los Anchorage".


However, we've found a nice little hostel with private rooms for the night, purchased our gear we couldn't take on the plane (mainly bear spray and camping fuel), and had some yummy pizza and brewed-in-house beer at "the Moose's Tooth".

We're leaving for Denali National Park tomorrow morning around 7:15. We should be in the park by early afternoon.

I'll post again when I can!

Did you expect this trip to be stressful?

At about 8:30 PM, Ross and I were enjoying a nice evening in the Seattle airport, and he commented that the trip had been pretty easy so far. My response was to ask him if he expected this trip to be stressful. ... we should have knocked on wood.

A few minutes later we walked down to the gate and found out that our flight was 3 hours late because it got out of Houston late. Okay, disappointing, but we could deal. Then the announcement came ... our flight was cancelled due to volcanic ash from an eruption of Mt. Cleveland in the Aleutian Islands.

I won't go into the gory details about the next 2 hours, other than to say that my big lesson learned was if you don't like the first answer you get, hang-up or argue, try again, and you're likely to get a slightly better one.

We're now in Tacoma staying with Amanda's parents. Our new flight hopefully leaves Tuesday morning at 11:00 AM. Fingers ... and toes ... crossed. As long as this flight isn't cancelled, our plans won't have to change too much.