After arriving in Anchorage, Theresa and I spent 1 night at the 26th street hostel, a very random but well priced hostel. My friend Mike, a couch surfer I met at Orange Acres in Montana had just arrived in Anchorage with his friend Chris and was staying here too. We managed to meetup with Rose and her CS host Kirby. It was cool to see so many familiar faces in such a far away place. After a pretty wild evening with at the famous Chilakoot Charlie’s we met up with my good friend Lisa. Lisa had been on a cruise to Alaska with her Mom who was visiting from Australia. After Lisa’s Mom left for home, Lisa stayed for a couple more weeks to explore Alaska. We made plans to head to Seward for some Kayaking, she had received info from a friend that completed an amazing trip the previous year and we wanted to do the same. I picked her up in Anchorage. She had just completed a backpacking trip and was eager to start our next adventure.
Theresa, Lisa and I drove the 3 ½ hours down to Seward, a small port town where the cruise ships dock. We headed to Miller’s Landing and a inquired about making arrangements to rent the gear we needed, and get a water taxi to and from our destination. We were informed that we would have to complete a quick splash course for them to rent us our gear. The splash course involved paddling out in resurrection bay and then flipping our own kayak into the 45F water. Once in the water we had to crawl back inside the kayak and pump it out. We were only given a wetsuit to wear so it was still very, very cold! We were all successful though and were then set to head out on our trip.
The water taxi was not going until Sunday morning, so we had an extra day to check out Seward and do some hiking at Lowell Point State Park. We camped at Miller’s Landing for a couple nights.
Sunday morning we were on board our water Taxi by 6AM. The 2 hour ride out to our drop off point, Tooth Cove was fun, we saw humpback whales, sea otters, puffins and seals on the way. When we arrived, we were unloaded on the beach and then left, on our own for 4 days and 3 nights. After loading up our kayaks with all our gear we setoff first landing near the ranger station for lunch and then headed off for Abra Cove our first camp site. That night while sitting on the beach and enjoying the views across the bay of Aialik Glacier, we heard what we initially thought was thunder. We quickly realized that it was not thunder but sections of the glacier breaking off and crashing into the ocean. It was very cool and continued throughout the night. The next day we paddled through basketball sized ice bergs floating in the water, pushing them out of our way with our kayaks across the bay to the beach adjacent Aialik glacier. We saw several seals en route and the would generally pop there heads out of the water watch us for a bit then duck back below the surface. We even saw one just casually lying on an iceberg as we paddled by. When we arrived we stayed on the beach for several hours, eating lunch, watching the glacier hiking right up to the glacier, and just enjoying one of the most awe inspiring sites ever. Later that afternoon we paddled to Pederson point to make camp. Along the way we saw an Orca way jump completely out of the water and then dive back in. Of course none of us had our cameras ready. Then before we could recover from the shock of what we just saw it happened again! This is a relatively rare site even in Alaska, it was truly amazing. Each day we paddled an average of 4 hrs, and visited 2 more tidal glaciers, Pederson and Holgate, each was unique it’s own way. We filtered water from waterfalls coming down the side of the mountains, since bay water was ocean water. We camped at Pederson Point and Holgate beach the next two nights. Holgate beach was also our pickup point.
We were picked up by our water taxi as planned without incident at 4:30PM on our 4th day and returned to miller’s landing to a well deserved shower, and meal. We spent the night at the Moby Dick Hostel in Seward as we had been camping for 5 nights in a row and it was going to rain again. A warm dry bed was much appreciated,
While at the hostel that evening I met James. James is about my age and a fellow runner, we found our we were both running the marathon in Anchorage on Saturday June 18th, and we made plans to go for a run the next morning. Like me, James has taken a yearlong sabbatical from his Environmental Attorney’s job in Sidney to travel a bit, and do some volunteer work too. He spent the winter as a snow board instructor on Lake Tahoe, and then came to Alaska for a month or so to train for the Leadville Marathon in Colorado in July. He’s also has a background in science (PhD) and was planning to do some volunteer scuba dive work in the Caribbean over the summer after his race. He’s a very disciplined runner, and has cut out most carbs and alcohol from his diet. We made plans to meetup in Anchorage at the starting line and run together, because his plan was to run a 3:30 and so was mine. Theresa, Lisa and I left later that morning to head back to Anchorage. Lisa was flying back to Vancouver the next day and Theresa and I were going to couchsurf in Anchorage for the weekend, so I could run the marathon Saturday and we could enjoy the solstice festivities Saturday night.
Complete Album Here: FTF Day 111-114
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