I've decided to divide Krissy's trip into 2 posts. They are detailed and as such are fairly lengthy...so I apologize if anyones eyes tire. I've mixed in plenty of pictures to break up the monotony of my story telling.
Kris arrived to daylight at 1am full of excitement with her highlighted travel books and we devised a plan. We decided that we would head south first, to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. The following morning, before heading out Krissy decided to go for a little run to de-stress from the plane ride. I stayed at the house to start getting some gear together. Anchorage has an impressive multi-use trail system throughout town and I live about 2 blocks from a greenway that connects to that trail system. About 7 minutes after Krissy left I heard furious foot steps charging up my front porch steps. She throws the front door open and screams, "MOOSE!!" Apparently she was jogging and looking at the mountains breathing in a little Alaska morning air when she adjusted her gaze in front of her and almost ran straight into a cow moose on the trail. She demanded that I get the keys and the camera! Despite my promising to see more moose, she could not be persuaded...so we stalked the moose for pictures. By the time we got back to her, she had moved to behind a wildlife fence.
Once the excitement of her first moose sighting wore off we got showered up, went to the grocery, packed the cooler, and headed down to the Kenai.
The drive down from Anchorage is ranked one of National Geographic's Top 10 Drives in the World. The snow-capped Chugach Mountains are to your left, and Cook Inlet is to your right. We headed to Cooper Landing for sea kayaking on Kenai Lake, a 26 mile long glacier fed lake. We pulled up to Leah's house (our guide) and noticed the airplane in the drieway next to the house, a common mode of transportation in bush Alaska. We followed her down to the launch for what should have been a 90 minute kayak trip. She informed us that she generally brings hot chocolate and cheese and crackers and has a 15 minute break on one of the beaches across the lake. We jokingly asked if we could bring beer and she smiled and said, "Absolutely." So Kris, true to form, grabbed a large grocery bag and shoved beers and ice in it proudly proclaiming, "I always have a travel cooler!" Our kayak was phenomenal, I've never seen a body of water the color of Kenai Lake in my life.
We were out with Leah nearly 6 hours! Our 15 minute picnic turned into a 4 hour campfire gab session!
By the time we got back to the launch it was 10:20pm...and still bright as day!
Our ultimate destination for this leg of our trip was Seward for a planned hike of Exit Glacier, complete with crampons. We left the lake after many hugs with Leah and set up camp about 25 minutes down the road at the Ptarmigan Creek trailhead. After a near disaster with a fleece jacket and a Coleman grill that kept blowing up, we finally managed to grill some chicken sausages at midnight, and it was still light out. In a stroke of shear genius, I purchased a new tent just prior to Krissy's arrival. A bright orange tent. In Alaska, during the summer, there is virtually no darkness. Even when it's "dark" outside during June and July, it's really just more like dusk. Susequently, the orange tent was so bright it was like sleeping on the surface of the sun. Which was ironic as we were absolutely FREEZING!
After a chilly evening we met up with our guides, filled our camel backs and loaded up with trail mix. It was about a 15 minute drive to Exit Glacier. The glacier is so named as it is the most accessible part of the Harding Icefield which spans nearly 1100 square miles atop the Chugach Mountains. It is compromised of more than 40 glaciers! We hiked nearly 2 hours straight uphill to the glacier. Within the hike we had to cross rushing waterfalls, snow, ice, gravel trail, mud banks, and huge stones. We had to do sledding without sleds (ie on our bums) to access some parts of the trail.
At one point, we rounded a bend in the trail and there was a marmot right in front of us. According to our guides they spray acid when they feel treatened, so we felt it best to wait for him to tire of staring at us. Just before we hit the glacier we needed to add a few layers, crampons and put on helmets: safety first. And no, they didn't make ME wear one the entire trip. We geared up and headed onto the glacier, and there was an obvious drop of about 20 degrees once we were on the glacier. There are no words for how rad this was. We were basically playing on a giant ice cube! We saw crevases which form as the glacier shifts and melts. There were pools of the most amazing blue water you have ever seen. The pictures don't nearly do it justice.
After an exciting, and exhausting day we grabbed a quick dinner and some beers and we made the executive decision to get a hotel room. We really wanted to shower and not spend another brightly lit night at 40 degrees with wet hair. We found a reasonably priced (ie cheap) hotel with a "stuffed" animal (literally...stuffed animals) in every inch of available space in the lobby. The taxidermy zoo included: moose, polar bar, carbou, lynx, mountain goat, ptarmigan (kind of like a pheasant) dall sheep, and black bear. Creepy...thankfully there were none in our room to watch at us while we slept.
The next morning we woke and headed down to the beach on Resurrection Bay in Seward.
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