[ninefivezero]

So I finally got around to making the post from my Alaska trip, just about three weeks after getting home

Anyways, when school got out in mid-June, I headed off to Alaska for two weeks of fun before heading back to work full time, here is how it all went.



Flying north from Seattle to Anchorage, you know you are heading to somewhere cool when you look out the window and find mountains as far as the eye can see.



This is my sister Holly and her fiancé Robs place in Anchorage, It was our base-camp of sorts between the different short trips.



Rob, my dad and I went on a short day hike up a valley up to some lakes.



The view from our turn around point, I forget the name of the valley though .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3DVUcnVN_Y

A little 360 video action from our destination.



The valley is very wide and full of rock left behind from receding glaciers.



This is heading out for our next trip, a short but somewhat intense 1-night hike. There are so many mountains in Alaska it seems like every road has views like this.



The 4 of us at the trail head: Me, my dad, sister and Rob.



The first 8 or 9 miles of the trail, which started at the Russian River trailhead, was fairly easy walking up a valley. We got a late start and didn’t leave till 4:30, hiked the first 8 or 9 miles by 8, and stopped to cook dinner.



Then we turned off the trail for 2.5 miles of bushwhacking. And it was pretty rough.



Being bear-country, we carried bear-spray at all times in case we came upon one in the woods.



At this point we had to cross a river on downed trees which were about 10 feet above the water. Then scramble up a cliff to the top



Me holding an antler from a moose.



Yah, in some places the mosquito’s were pretty bad… And while this picture makes it look dark, it surly was not. It was only a few days after the summer solstice, so we were working with around 20 hours of daylight. We actually bushwhacked for two and a half hours, until something like 12:30 or 1am that night because we had light the entire time. We then woke up at around 5 or 6am to finish the off-trail section and get to the river.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZGdl5CqlqM

The final push in the morning was the nastiest section of trail. Literally walking on logs like balance beams like 5 and 10 feet above the ground.



We made it! This is the Skilak glacier in the distance and the bed of the Skilak river which we were going to run out to the lake at the end.



Time to inflate the rafts. These are Alpaca packrafts, they weigh just over 4-pounds, cost $800 and fit inside a backpack. The way you inflate them is with an ‘inflation bag’ which weighs just 3 ounces, you pretty much trap air in the bag and squeeze it. Neat stuff!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UBvjDG1eXc

My dad beginning to inflate his raft, and realizing I’m getting a video



Starting down the river. It was mostly wide, but could get fairly swift in places, especially on corners. One thing that sucks about them, is since they have to be so light the base of the boat is just a thin layer of rubber, so not only is your but in near-direct contact with freezing cold glacier water, you also bump along rocks because the river gets so shallow in places.



An eagle sitting where the river enters the lake.



The bones from fish eaten by birds left on the shore. Its fun to watch them dive into the water trying to catch the fish.



Cruise ships, how most people see Alaska



Eating breakfast at a pullout before heading off on a hike to the top of the Exit Glacier onto the Harding Ice field.



And let me tell you, we get some strange looks when we show up in a parking lot of fat tourists there to look at the glacier, when we are dressed like this and have skis on our backs. One guy from Texas even took a picture of us. “The guys back home will never believe me!!!”



On the way up we saw this mother bear with three cubs traversing the snow.



Sadly, the weather sucked that day and visibility was limited. But hey, we are skiing in shorts, in June!



Well, I guess I had pants on, but still….


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QWzJqdVQh0

The view up top, snow for miles and miles, glaciers in every direction. 300 square miles to be exact.



The view down the Exit Glacier to where we started our hike up.



And car camping on the river again at a great little pull-off.

[ninefivezero]

Haha, it gave me this error when I tried to post:

1. The text that you have entered is too long (16305 characters). Please shorten it to 14000 characters long.

Our next stop was Seward, home to the Mount Marathon Race. Holly was going to be running it next week. It is composed of starting in town, running up the 3,022 foot summit, back down, back into town and across the finish line. The trail goes through those trees pretty much straight up, and then you can see the trail up the rock. On the way down, you head down the snow patch to the right of the beaten trail, then cross left to the lower snow patch.



Some ½” tall alpine flowers on the seemingly barren slopes. And there is a burly eagle in the sky too!



Three mountain goats.



The view of Seward from the top.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi0IxQDb_ak

Here, take a look around. Dorky narration included at no cost.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZrYKqGYqmo

That is me doing a standing glacade, one way to get down the snow section.



This picture isn’t from me, but it shows how tough the course is. Holly ended up getting 2nd in the women’s race, with a time of 55:29. (The Men’s winner was 44:03)



Then back home, preparing for the next trip. A 3-night out of Whittier, in to the Blackstone Bay, a part of Price Williams Sound. At the end of the bay are the Beliot and Blackstone Glacier.



It wasn’t always this smooth you know!



Along the sides were hundreds of waterfalls bringing snowmelt into the bay.



This is the base of the Blackstone Glacier. If you look very closely, you can find two large ‘glacier tour’ boats to give you an idea of scale here. We saw a few chunks come off, mostly consisting of sort-of avalanches spilling over that rocky section, and let me tell you it is a rumbling sound like thunder.



This is just to the right of the Blackstone, here is my dad with a huge waterfall in the background.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6LkXIl79yA

See, like that.



Here is one of our camps for the night, on the beach between the two glaciers. That tarp came in handy when we woke up to some pretty hard rain.



Curious seals were everywhere, poking up and floating on their backs watching us, and then disappearing.



This is the Beloit Glacier, just left of our campsite.



Another nice waterfall.



My dad and I really liked the terrain in one section, so we got out of the kayaks for 45 minutes to climb around and take pictures of the flowers, trees and water features.



Another picturesque bald eagle photo , taken at the end of the trip from my kayak.



This is the beginning of our last little trip, a 15 or so mile day hike up a valley and back. On the way up, I ran ahead to get a picture and heard something running away through the woods, I stopped to look, and saw this female moose.



The cold, rocky and barren looking end of the valley.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3R5L0DJ2IE

This view is from the beginning of the ridge on the left side of the picture, looking down at still frozen lakes and back towards sea-level.



And there is me on the ridgeline we followed back to the trailhead.



Even up here tiny alpine flowers grow everywhere, and make a beautiful groundcover.



My dad doing a little bit of scrambling to stay on the top of the ridgeline.



The next day, was the city of Anchorages celebration of the 50th year of Alaskan statehood. Part of the celebration was the touring Firefighter Combat Challenge, a multi-event race for firefighters. It begins with running up 5 flights of stairs with a 42 pound hose bag on your shoulder, at the top pulling up another bundle on a rope, running back down, hitting a weighted sled with a sledge, running between some cones, dragging a charged hose, hitting a target, then dragging a 175 pound dummy like 100 feet across the finish line, all on oxygen. Being a firefighter, Rob entered and got 9th overall, and best rookie time.



And finally flying home, looking down at a cruise ship heading up.

Overall it was a great trip; we got to do a number of different things, skiing, river rafting, kayaking, hiking and so on. Already talking about another big trip in two years or something, hopefully a big mountaineering adventure, up some big peaks.

Whew, that was long, hope you enjoyed it.

[mistawiskas]

Sun of a biatch Fiddy!!!!
That was a world class pic/vid post!!!
National Geographic stuff right there.

You're the man!

[MovingTarget]

DAMN!!!!

That's some of the coolest shiznit I have ever seen. I hate all the stuff on TV that only show what they think you want to see....you just dumped it all out there.... I would love to do stuff like that....but I am a fat slob.....working on getting thinner......but I'll never be able to do that stuff..... You ARE da man!

[Wedge_]

Really, really nice pictures. I'd love to visit that part of the world sometime.

[Justin3]

Man that looks like a load of fun, I can't believe Alaska is part of the united states and is still so beautiful after all these years. If gas wasn't $4.33 a gallon and I had a drivers license I wouldn't mind taking a drive across the country and up to Alaska it would be a kick ass trip.
Great Thread

[-Sevendust-]

Your picture from seward is pretty nice. In that same area where you took that picture I go snowmachining.

Next time message me and well go get a beer

[smirnoff]

Great pics of a great looking trip man. Thanks for putting all that together, I really enjoyed it. Those inflatable rafts, what a great idea! That's going on my wishlist.

[Coleman]

Thats the coolest vacation ever. Looks like quite an adventure!

Oh and your dad is a damn machine! Mine can barely get around the golf course without a cart!

[Chair]

reminds me of living out west. nice work :P

[demonizeZ]

alaska32.jpg such a nice picture. Awesome Vacation place man. the only time i seen Alaska up close was in like survivor man or man vs wild kind of stuff.
to think the predictions are that there wont be any ice left in that part of world in future .

[WoodButcher]

Thanks 950, beautiful.

[PencilWntGtU2TheMoon]

You carried "bear spray" in case of bears? You're insane and reckless. Especially in that part of the word where carrying firearms is normal.

That is the nicest pic of an eagle I have ever seen taken by somebody I actually know. I have seen them many places in the country, including Alaska, but never seen one that close and stationary. I would frame that pic and put it on my wall.

I hope you got hit by Devil's Club. Not that I wish you harm, but some things are a right of passage

[ninefivezero]

Thanks for the compliments, that post took me a few hours to make

Originally Posted by Coleman

Oh and your dad is a damn machine! Mine can barely get around the golf course without a cart!

Yah, my dad has been doing this kind of thing all his life, where do you think I get it from He is actually in the middle of taking 5 whole months off work so he can do this full time. He got to Alaska two weeks before I did, so he spent a whole month up there. Now he is back in Seattle, so is doing trips in the Cascades.

[MSP]

A+ post. Absolutely amazing.

[GOG427]

Dude i'm crying right now. That's my home I miss it so much! great pictures and vids.

[Jishory]

awesome thread, im planning on moving to anchorage eventually but i need to visit it a few times first, how does your sister like it up there?

[ninefivezero]