Mount Alice

6' of snow, epic views, and a few more photos of week 1 in Alaska.No news, these are just the promised pics from Friday eve. This was followed up w/ a fire, and a soft light in the sky as we drank Alaskan I.P.A, ate fire-roasted bananas (1 banana, marshmallows, a slit down the middle, some chocolate, a few strawberries and some foil) and parted ways to go to bed at 1:30. It never did quite get dark.

Cheers,

-Mike

No room for ego

Today I had my soul crushed, as I realized that I am not a naturally born tele skier.

At 5 o'clock Mike T, Dano, and myself headed up to race point, the (3,300' in 1.5 miles) peak behind my house. The thing is an absolute crusher and my thighs and heart were feeling this week's previous efforts. Our goal was to climb race point, then ski in the alpine bowl on its backside. No matter that I've never tele skied and we were going to be on terrain that would be challenging for me w/ alpine skis.Hiked up in shorts, took a few summit photos, changed and were ready to rock!

I don't want to go into too much detail except to say that the best photos weren't ever taken due to the conditions and the fact that I was often face first in the snow. The sights were sweet, the mountain commanded respect and The bowl was HUGE, steep, and scary. We made our way down one at a time, watching each other in case something happened. Luckily I was w/ two very experienced mountaineers/skiers, and we were careful to be safe.The video below shows Dano taking some turns.

I didn't learn how to tele ski (though I pulled off a few right turns) but I did learn some humility while feeling more inept than I EVER have before...all in a beautiful alpine environment w/ a trail head that is 4 blocks from my house. Good night lower 48.

Cheers,
Mike

Prepare to high boat carry

DISCLAIMER: MY WRITING IS POOR, AND I CONSIDER MYSELF TO BE MUCH FUNNIER THAN I ACTUALLY AM. THAT SAID, IF YOU WANT TO SKIP THE WORDS AND MOVE ON TO THE PICTURES THEN GO TO THIS LINK:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=434270&id=572250523&l=ee2161bff3

P.S. (it's okay to read this and still follow the link later)


UP BOAT!!! RRT boys and folks whose hobbies include recon Marine lingo will know that this refers to the action of lifting a zodiac above one's head (with the help of 5 others) in order to make said individual suffer. This suffering must take place in order to gain entry into the fraternity that is reconnaissance. It's actually better than a fraternity, because there are a million rules, you have to shave daily and cut your hair weekly, and there are no single women..... I digress.

The whole reason I bring this up is that a zodiac (the boat often used to torture young Marines) was the boat we took out today during the annual "Resurrection Conservation Alliance Beach Clean Up", which takes place in and around the bays of Seward, Alaska. I had seen the event publicized all over town and eagerly volunteered hoping to meet some folks and see more of my new home. And that is exactly what happened, as seen in the photos above. The weather was absolutely perfect, enabling us to land at 5 separate beaches in the area. Some of them are rarely visited as the surf is often too rough, so we were amped to be able to visit/clean/survey the beaches. The wildlife viewing was on point, as usual. I'm now 4 for 5 on bear sightings (more later), and we also saw orcas, seals, sea lions, and sea otters. The sea otters are the best, as they float on their back and are always just chillin' watching you roll by. The day was long (about 12 hours) but we managed to collect between 50-75 over-sized garbage bags worth of mostly plastic bottles and styrofoam. It was tough to roll on to a beach that might see less than 3 visitors a season, and have it completely covered in plastic bottles. Anyway, the cause was good, and we were able to enjoy a day that more than made up for puke-fest 2010 (last Sunday's maritime adventure w/ Dad).

So that wraps up today. Here's a quick recap of the last two days:

Thursday- Helped mark a trail to the 300 square mile (1,100 if you include its glaciers) Harding icefield which makes up the bulk of Kenai Fjords National Park. The hike was amazing, especially as it took the place of working in the office that day, thus I was paid to do it. The snow was 6-8' deep in most places, and we saw (drumroll please) a brown bear sow w/ her 2 year old cub (we watched them playing in the snow for almost 30 minutes), a black bear, two wolverines, and a number of mountain goats. (I won't even go in to the fact that there are as many bald eagles here as there are mullets at a monster truck rally.) I'll post photos from that day later, but the scenery on and around the glacier is out of this world.

Friday- Hiked about 1/3 of the way up Mount Alice, the tall, gorgeous peak that looms over Resurrection Bay and stares me in the face as I eat breakfast each morning. This hike too was awesome (I need to think of better ways to word these, lest ya'll stop reading my blog). The last 2 hours we were hiking up a steep snowfield past someone's ski tracks, which meant that the hike down was done on my butt, sledding w/ my rainjacket as my sled. Sweet.

I'm not feeling too creative, thus my writing is probably a bit dry tonight. I'll try better next time..perhaps some more sleep will help. Tomorrow evening I am going backcountry skiing in the alpine bowl behind my house..it's going to suck but my boss virtually insisted that I borrow his tele skis and learn how to "free the heel so I can free the mind." I don't want to make him angry during my first week, so I am going to humor him and make myself hike into the alpine and cruise down the 8' of snow that is lingering there. Man, life is so unfair sometimes. Oh, check this link for more photos of today: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=434270&id=572250523&l=ee2161bff3


Cheers!
-Mike

Bowl o' Butt

w







That's what I had for dinner. A bowl of butt..that's what they call the HUGE bowl of beer battered halibut chunks at Thorn's Showcase Lounge in Seward, my new home for the summer. Between all of the fish I've been eating and this fresh sea air I'm inhaling I might as well just grow fins, poke a hole at the base of my neck, and live the rest of my life in Resurrection Bay amongst the humpbacks..on second thought, that hole might be better place on my upper back, lest I suffocate myself with my own neck fat (a side effect of the beer battered fish.Vicious cycle but hey, that's nature).

So by now you've gathered that we've made it to Seward. Our last morning in Talkeetna proved excellent, as we ate at a "local" restaurant where everyone was seated at the same table, necessitating either awesome conversation or the sound of someone slurping their scrambled eggs amidst bouts of awkward silence. I DID awkwardly slurp my eggs, however we still had an amazing series of conversations with the folks to our right and left. To our right, a bunch of hippies working on some birch farm for the summer in exchange for some fresh moose turds that they used to cleanse their aura or something along those lines. Super nice though. To our left was this great family from Anchorage. The father, a native Talkeetnan, told us that he loved Anchorage because he was only "30 minutes from Alaska." This was in reference to the many Alaskans who camp out on their couches in the city rather than the great outdoors! Sounds like a lot of the folks at App State:) The town was mostly empty, though we were told that trains and tour buses would soon bring upwards of 400 tourists A DAY into the small one-lane town.We decided to head to Seward after a quick stop by the Talkeetna Ranger Station's climbing museum..

As we arrived in the Kenai Peninsula we had amazing views of the Chugach Range, which still boasted upwards of 10-15' of snow in places. As we pulled into Seward we saw two bald eagles, another moose (Bullwinkle's ugly sister), and then the gorgeous fjords of the Kenai Coastline. The contrast between 5,000' snowy peaks rising abruptly from sea level and the deep green ocean of Resurrection Bay is hard to describe. Our lodging for the last few evenings has been the Moby Dick Hostel and Lodging, where one can rent a private room for about 65 bucks a night. We've met a whole host of great people here from as far away as Sweden, Chile, France, etc. The living is simple and clean, with shared bathrooms (very clean) and a kitchen where everyone congregates to play cards and talk in the evenings.

Yesterday was quite eventful..Dad and I took a cruise out into through the Gulf of Alaska into Aialak Bay to view glaciers, wildlife, and people vomiting into the ocean. He was one of them, and it took all I had to hold it down. The seas heading into the open water of the Gulf of Alaska were pretty terrible, and reminded me why I haven't been on the open ocean in about 4 years. On the bright side we had amazing views of the Holgate and Bear Glaciers, and saw mountain goats, black bears, bald eagles, two humpback whales, a number of porpoises, sea lions, sea otters, etc. The cruise was spectacular, particularly as we were able to observe the amazing coastline in the company of many green-faced passengers.

Yesterday culminated in a night hike of ~ 1500' worth of the 3300' Mt. Marathon. The beauty of this, and many Alaskan adventures, was that we started our hike at 9 p.m. and finished at 11:45 just as it was getting "dark." I was accompanied on that journey by a UNC student, and a Swedish p.h.d candidate who remarked that our quest to get above treeline to the snow was," very much like American politics...every time you think you've seen the last bush, another one pops around the corner!" Classic.

This morning I started my first day at work amidst a group of wonderful people. My house is an awesome three bedroom fully furnished apartment with table side views of the harbor/mountains, and a basement full of toilet paper, laundry detergent, and soap (provided free to the staff). Cha-ching. I have plugged in with a number of folks who climb (including one mountain guide from Patagonia) and have been given the skinny on some low-key climbing areas, so I am sure many adventures will be had. The rest of the week will likely be the boring 9-5 computer stuff that most of you are experiencing at this very moment, as you sneak my blog in during your workday. Don't worry, I won't tell your boss. Saturday I've signed up for a Resurrection Bay cleanup with the Resurrection Bay Conservation Association, and that should yield some good photos.

Next week I'll head to Anchorage on Tuesday, before leaving on Wednesday for a three-day trip to the VERY remote coastline of Ailak Bay. I am going to monitor the coastline (length/important waypoints/etc) and do some gruntwork and in exchange I get to spend 2 nights sleeping in a tent on a beach that is about about 1.5 hours (by sea) from the nearest electricity. The photos above give an idea of the setting.Sweet.Dad heads off tomorrow, and it'll be sad to see him leave this father/son trip of a lifetime.Sorry for the wordy post. Until next time...

Cheers,
Mike

The Great One

Well our plans to hit up turnagain arm enroute to Seward fell through, as the forecast was calling for rain from Anchorage all the way through. So it was that we found ourselves heading north on Ak-1 towards Denali State Park in order to scope some pictures of the 20,032' peak known in Athabascan as "The Great One." And great it was...
Our first stop off was at the Denali viewpoint south pulloff, seen in the photo above where Dad is looking through the viewfinder. Needless to say, the photos do no justice to the beauty and majesty of the Alaska range. We thought we were looking at Denali's summit but we later realized that the peaks we were seeing were not even 1/3 of the way up Denali's massive flanks (which were obscured by clouds)! The Alaska Range is fantastically beautiful, and the beauty far surpasses anything I've seen thus far in my outdoor travels.( Take that Hawaii, Tetons, El Capitan, and Grand Canyon).

After a quick stop at a still-frozen Byer's Lake, followed by some tacos at a gas station in Trapper's Creek, we made our way to the famed town of Talkeetna. Talkeetna is the jumping off point for all moutaineers and climbers looking to catch rides into the Alaska Range via bush plane. The town is small, but it is chock full of interesting restaurants, people, and airplanes! We're spending the evening at the Talkeetna Motel Restaurant, a chill little spot down a dirt road. Dinner was another classic meal of fried halibut, sweet potato fries, and some IPA from Denali Brewing Company. Talkeetna is without a doubt an awesome glimpse into a sort of "real" Alaska, as few climbers have arrived at this time and it is mostly full of rather rough-looking (friendly) locals.

All in all, today was amazing. Between seeing Denali, Mt. Hunter, the Moose's Tooth (all peaks I've read about for years) and an actual female moose (she was HUGE) on the roadside, it's been amazing. Now I must head to bed, as the beer has me sleepy and I am going to try to run to the overlook of Denali first thing in the morning.

Cheers,
Mike

Bear Fight

Well, we made it! I am sitting down to write this post in hopes that it will help me to digest the massive halibut fish taco and beers I just consumed at Humpy's in downtown Anchorage.

Ahh so where to start...well, my Dad and I began our trip with a three hour delay in the airport, followed by one of the longest, most boring flights I've ever experienced (from Chicago to Anchorage). Highlights included nothing and...nothing.

We arrived in the airport at 10:30 p.m. AK time, to a sky that was still well-lit even at the late hour. I'm told that it gets dark around 11 this time of year, and that it will soon be light all day! After grabbing our bags we made our way to the enterprise kiosk, where the rental car guy hooked us up with a decked out Buick Enclave (back up camera, heated leather seats, and so on) for the price of a Corolla. We were psyched at his hospitality, and were feeling great ,albeit tired,as we drove to our hotel in downtown Anchorage( only after the obligatory cheeseball photo by the stuffed grizzly bear). For the record, I rescind my pledge to punch the first grizzly I see in the chest, as they're a tad bit larger than I expected.



7:30 a.m.- Quick 3-mile run per the "Fraley Family Reunion Marathon Training Program for Guaranteed Race Mastery " followed by a huge breakfast (reindeer sausage was on the menu, but I felt bad about eating it, as the reindeer were already forced to live their lives in some freaky 24/7 365 X-Mas fairly-tale land full of effeminate elves..being eaten would just add insult to injury, I think). Afterward Dad and I rented bikes and rode 13 miles on Anchorage's Coastal trail, which offered beautiful views of the Chugach Range behind downtown Anchorage. We had a great time and were ready to eat as we made our way to Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse for some fish tacos and well-deserved beers.The food was excellent, and the wait-staff continued a trend that we've noticed all day long...people in Alaska seem really friendly. I'm talking "best conversation you've ever had with some random person who noticed that you looked lost and complimented you on your nice haircut" friendly. That didn't actually happen to either of us, though I am fairly certain that ,had the topic of hair come up in a conversation today, someone would have complimented me on mine.



Tomorrow we are heading toward Seward, where I will be living all summer. We're planning on hiking the Turnagain Arm Trail enroute, before heading off to Moose Pass for some car camping, smores snacking, and bear wrestling. I'll post pictures and a brief trip report ASAP.

Cheers from Alaska,
Mike