More of Alaska

More about Alaska~

Anchorage was miserable. It rained for the most part the whole time we were there. There was a short reprieve on Tuesday and I did get to go downtown and explore. I walked downtown and ended up covering six and a half miles. I can’t say that I saw much, but I did get to shop at an REI store where I purchased a rain cover for my daypack. Then I tentatively made plans to rent a bicycle and ride along the coastal trail on Wednesday, but alas it rained all day. Bummer! I never did make it to Denali; that will have to wait until next time. We did get to eat at some nice restaurants in Anchorage; our favorite was The Moose’s Tooth. They have awesome pizza, great beer that they brew themselves and terrific service. We ate there on Monday night and again on Thursday right before we left town. We made sure we over ordered and had leftovers for Friday.

After dinner on Thursday we left Anchorage and headed for Seward. On the way we took a detour to a little town called Hope. That’s where we camped for the night at a really nice spot along the Turnagain Arm. We got some great pictures of a beautiful sunset and listened to the water lapping against the shore as we fell asleep. The sun doesn’t set until about 10:30 here and it doesn’t really get dark until 11:30. It only rained a little during the night and we slept in until almost 8:00. After a stop for breakfast at a local inn, we continued our drive south. We explored a bit along the Kenai River hoping to see some salmon running. We only saw one in a little creek.

We finally got to Seward around 12:30 and it was 1:00 before we started hiking. It didn’t really matter though getting a late start because it stays light so long! And it wasn’t raining!! We hiked the Harding Ice fields Trail in Kenai Fjords National Park. It was awesome! We could see Exit Glacier at several points along the way. Glaciers are amazing things, and half of all the world’s glaciers are in Alaska! There was a lot of snow along the trail as we got closer to the Ice field. We got rained on a little bit and it was cold at the top, but oh, sooooo beautiful! I got some good pictures, but you have to see it in person to really appreciate the vastness of it. The hike was almost 8 miles round trip and quite difficult; we were both exhausted at the end. After our hike we showered at the Holiday Inn, ate our leftover pizza with a little leftover wine and then crashed! Today we are heading back to Calgary. Our flight leaves Anchorage at 12:30 PM and we get to Calgary at 11:00. It’s a bummer traveling east because you lose time; in this case we lose two hours! Tomorrow we’re having dinner with our friends, Janice and Boris and their daughters, Brooke and Mandy in Calgary. Then Monday I’m off on my journey again!

I would definitely like to come back and explore some more of Alaska some day.