Portage Pass

August 5, 2017August 26, 2017Leave a comment

While the tiny town of Whittier, Alaska is only 60ish miles from downtown Anchorage, it requires a paid pass through the longest highway tunnel in North America. The 2.5 mile tunnel is a one way tunnel and shares its time with the Alaska Railroad, meaning traffic only flows one way at a time and is occasionally paused for the train to use the space as well.

I’ve not spent much time in this town, only having really explored it once a few years ago, Brian & I set out with Kratos to complete a short hike through Portage Pass that we’d been hearing so much about.
After having trekked (and down and up and down again) this short trail, I can’t believe we haven’t spent more time on it’s dirt pathway to heaven. Hopefully we can make a trip up here again after the snow has fallen for another unique view, although I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the lake completely freezes over and we can walk straight up to Portage Glacier before we depart Alaska.

Final Farewell

July 25, 2017August 24, 20171 Comment

It’s been a revolving door of friends and family the past few years but now that Heather & Chris are safely on a plane headed back to the lower 48 I can [with great sadness] say I’ve said my final farewell to my Alaskan visitors.

Even though I’ve tried to remember, I can’t honestly tell you the last time I saw my cousin Heather. One of us was probably in high school – although with us being 4 years apart I’m not sure which one of us that was.

The weather seemed to hold out for the most part (a rarity this time of year in Alaska and something that seemed to be even more rare this summer in particular) and I think it’s safe to say they had a pretty good trip and got to experience a good chunk of Alaska. They slept in a different bed almost every night, traveled several hundred miles and still managed to squeeze in some quality time with Brian & I, not to mention an impromptu camping trip. We’ll be stopping in to visit ya’ll in PA soon enough! xoxo.

Dip Netting

July 4, 2017August 18, 2017Leave a comment

According to my calculations I’ve been a transient in Alaska for exactly 3 years and 25 days. It’s always been a known fact that my time here was (most likely) going to be cut off at some point or another, so I’ve tried my best to experience Alaska to the best of my ability. Despite all my adventures here it was this weekend that I firmly believe I became a tried and true Alaskan after dip netting the Copper River. (Don’t worry Montana, you’ll always have this girls heart) To fish this river one usually employs a boat to avoid having to navigate the steep cliffs and raging current, but wanting a true Alaskan experience, we chose a different route.

Brian’s Army buddy Scott flew in to town to visit his brother who was stationed at JBER just two days before. Brian is not known to be the most outright adventurous person, there is one person – other than myself – who can talk him into crazy adventures, it’s Scott. So when I learned that Scott was coming into town I knew to expect an adventure and got excited for his arrival.

The four of us took off for the little town of Chitina (pronounced Chit·na by Alaskans) where we parked our vehicles, loaded up our gear onto our backs and took off down an old mining trail for our destination. About 5 rough and tumble miles down river Scott took us down an even gnarlier path through the tree to the cliffs directly above the river. Here we set up shop for the night and got to fishing.

The boys made quick work of it and by morning we were already packing up and heading back down the trail; except this time we have about 70 lbs of fresh salmon fillets to add to the weight on our backs.

We had strategically taken two vehicles so that the boys could return to Anchorage and I could set out to explore one of the few unexplored (to me) , drive-able sections of Alaska. I made a quick trek into Wrangell – St. Elias National Park as well as explored the town of Valdez.

Ketchican Bird Fest

May 7, 2017June 6, 2017Leave a comment

Every year hundreds of thousands of birds from all over North & South America migrate to Alaska for various reasons during the late spring and summer months. Their migration is almost like clockwork and every years birders from all over the country gather in Homer, Alaska for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. Having no previous plans that weekend I took off for Homer as soon as I was out of work on Friday night. In true Homer fashion, it rained most of the weekend, but it was impossible to not have a great time. Birding is not a particular hobby of mine, but I love watching just about any animal interacting in and with their natural habitat.
On my drive home on Sunday afternoon I stopped in the village of Ninilchik as well as Kenai city to visit their Russian Orthodox churches. While I have no religious affiliation with that particular church, I find their architecture stunningly beautiful and always drawn to it.

First Day of Spring

March 20, 2017April 12, 2017Leave a comment

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Happy first day of spring ya’ll! In Alaska’s defense, this photo was technically taken yesterday which was also the last day of winter. Our caravan of adventure seekers was turned away from our original destination by whiteout conditions &
gross amounts of fresh snow near (but not near enough) the trailhead.

Denali Sunset

February 21, 2017February 21, 20172 Comments

After the loss of the Packers and my beloved Steelers two weeks before *my* dreams of another Super Bowl ring were dashed and I no longer cared about the outcome of the Super Bowl. When the local meteorologists began promising bluebird days for that weekend it became clear to me that a drive north was a better option than staying in to watch a football game I had nothing vested in. So when the rest of the country was settling down in front of the tv with a cold beer and a plate of hot wings I was standing on a cliff and heating up a JetBoil full of Ivar’s clam chowder, staring across a frozen river to see the alpenglow of sunset to hit North America’s tallest mountain just right.
Movements below would periodically caught my eye. A lone wolf crossing the frozen river took his time a he meandered across. Some time later a solitary moose appeared out of the brush. He seemed to check out the area then disappeared back the way he came. Hours later two bull moose appeared from the same brush, but these two slowly made their way across the same way the wolf had earlier.

I kept warm and passed the hours by breaking trail in the thigh deep snow in the nearby woods and throwing snow for Kratos to attack mid air. The hours ticked by with few visitors other than my occasional furry friends crossing the frozen river below.
Finally the golden hour arrived and although it was not the alpenglow I had planned and hoped for, I would never complain about watching the sun set over Denali in all her glory.

Byron Ice Caves

January 2, 2017February 11, 20174 Comments

I have been jonesing to get to the Byron Glacier ice caves at the bottom of the glacier since I learned of their existence. However, a massive boulder field stands between the end of the definitive trail and the caves themselves, which makes for very slow progress during the thawed months. I’ve set out twice for the caves in warmer weather but was turned around each time by inclement weather / lack of preparedness for such conditions. Each time I was traveling solo and after some situational awareness retreated for my vehicle.

Winter conditions create a vastly different playing field. Avalanches in the valley smooth out the boulder field and create the ability to walk on top of and over much of the difficulties presented at other points of the year. This does however present its own set of unique problems like deep pitfalls, slick conditions, and the danger of avalanches themselves crashing down on you from above with no real place to escape to. But what’s the fun in adventures if not for a little bit of a risk factor? Especially when the reward is so great…

Thankful

November 24, 2016November 27, 2016Leave a comment

Field of Dreams

October 9, 2016November 21, 2016Leave a comment

The last two nights of aurora forecasts were at Kp of 6 – which by Kp-index standards is a high probability of seeing a show by the green lady. The skies were crystal clear and although the moon was nearly full, the conditions were otherwise pristine. Armed with my Nikon I headed out both Friday and Saturday nights in search of the lights.

On Friday, my friend Cally & I were out til a little after 3 am before calling it a night. I went to bed with only one shot on my camera.After a quick nap Saturday afternoon I was back in the Jeep Saturday night on the hunt for the aurora. There was a faint glimmer of hope as my friend Ray & I stepped out of the car near the top of Hatcher Pass.

Once again, not much was happening in way of auroras so we decided to play around with our cameras a bit. Looking forward to making it back up here for some more night shooting again soon.

Swan Lake

September 25, 2016November 9, 20162 Comments

The ground was disgusting and soggy but the rain continued to fall. Thankfully, Kratos is still limited to fairly short hikes so our time out in the typical fall in Alaska elements was limited to only a couple hours. swanlake-1 swanlake-5 swanlake-6 swanlake-13 swanlake-17 swanlake-23 swanlake-21

My pawtner in crime was snoring like a buzzsaw as soon as the Jeep started moving back down the highway towards home. The sun was just reaching the golden hour as we drove alongside Potter’s Marsh. A duo of swans – who are on their migratory route back to the lower 48 – feeding in the water caught my attention. I swerved into the first available pull-out and grabbed the Nikon from my pack.
swanlake-25 swanlake-27 swanlake-28 After spending some time at the shores of their current residence I bid them farewell and was on my way back to my own abode. This was probably my last chance to visit with these majestic creatures this season, as the temperatures are quickly dropping in soon the snow will be falling. I look forward to seeing you in warmer temperatures.
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TheyCallMeHolly

(This is) the story of a girl

Tag: Hiking