What A Week! That's all I can say about the week + that has passed since my last post. Last week was super busy as I (and three other folks) was tasked with taking a boat out to the remote Aialik Bay in order to get the coastal ranger station set up. Here's a brief run down of the three days I spent on that little mission:
Wed- Up and out super early to the docks in order to get the boats loaded with fuel, propane tanks, food, tents, and all the other supplies necessary for setting up the Aialik Bay Ranger Station. The ranger station is the part-time home of Josh and Sarah, our two coastal rangers, and it was our job to go shove snow, set up the shower/water system (more on that later) etc. The day was absolutely beautiful, and we were accompanied by a bunch of Dal's porpoise and a few humpbacks as we made our way out of Resurrection Bay in to the Gulf of Alaska...and then one of our motors failed. I mean epic fail, oil burning, smoking and whining fail. To be completely truthful most of the whining came from me, as I saw the realization of my lost at sea nightmares beginning to come to fruition. Luckily we has a second motor, so we began our trip back to the bay at a very leisurely pace. In the end the government (and you lovely tax payers) ended up paying me for a day on a boat in calm green water with whales and porpoise as my companions. Not too shabby!
Thurs-Friday- We pulled up to the beach marking the location of the Aialik Bay ranger station and I was absolutely spellbound. Across the bay were the Pederson and Aialik glaciers falling into the ocean. Behind the cabin the mountains rose sharply to the sky, and three waterfalls spilled down the cliffs onto beach. The setting was amazing, and I promise to post pictures of it ASAP. The two days spent setting up the cabin were pure delight. The cabin itself consisted of a one room building w/ a wood stove, a propane-fueled kitchen, and a sweet loft where we squeezed our cots and thermarests. Picture your dream cabin in the middle of nowhere..this was it. Our water came from a bunch of PVC piping that we ran up the hill to the large waterfall directly behind the cabin. I won't bore you with the details but we spent the evenings enjoying fine Alaskan IPA,gazing out at the two tidewater glaciers in the distance, and enjoying the endless sun (it doesn't get "dark" here until about 12 and even then it looks like twilight).
Now to the weekend! And what a memorial day weekend it was. I spent the better part of Friday hiking the 7.5 mile round trip to Ptarmigan Lake, seen in one of the photos above. The highlight of the weekend came on memorial day itself. On this day Chuck Lindsay, Mike T., Luke, and myself made the 7 hour round trip mission to the summit of Mt. Marathon..and then I died and went to heaven. At least that's what it felt like, as I spent the day kicking steps up STEEP snow, dodging small avalanche sloughs, and ultimately topping out on the peak after digging our way through the overhanging cornices that guarded the access to the summit. The peak itself is only ~ 4700' tall, but it rises to that height from sea level, and thus makes quite a long day. We basked in the sunlight (supposedly unusual for Seward..perhaps I've been lucky this past few weeks) on the summit for a while, then Chuck took off downhill on his telemark skis, pushing small avalanches off in front of him and clearing the path for us to glissade down the super steep snow slopes on our packs. What a great day.
That's the gist of the last 1.5 weeks. I'll try to do a better job of keeping this thing going in the near future, as it's hard to catch up on that much time without missing some of the finer details. Alaska is wonderful..but I must say, I miss NC. I miss Laura, I miss the best friends I've yet to make in this life, and I miss the warm embrace of the blue ridge mountains. That said, I will strive to make the most of my time here, and hope ya'll will continue to join me! I've posted a video, and links to more pictures below this post. Be well.
Cheers,
Mike
Pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=438798&id=572250523&l=82ad72363f
Video Below
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