Anchorage; no sleep ’till Brooklyn

I’m already in New York but I feel like this needs some sort of conclusion. My trip ended on Anchorage, a city that didn’t really impress me much.

But in its defense, I live in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, so I’m kind of hard to impress. Unlike NYC, Anchorage is hard to get lost in. Street A is followed by B, First Ave is followed by Second Ave and well, you get the idea.

There’s just a lack of character there. Oh, wait, Guggenheim?

Oh no, just a parking lot for JC Penney.

Aside from easy access to plentiful hiking, biking and other outdoor adventures, the city does have its own cultural jewel:

I spent most of my time looking at the Sydney Laurence collection. He’s an Alaskan-landscape legend.

Guess where Laurence was born? Brooklyn!

The museum has a fun interactive science exhibit, as well as plenty of Native American art and history. I really enjoyed it.

Like many places in Alaska, the museum also offers a student discount. Thanks UMass, for not putting an expiration date on our college IDs. I’m going to be a college student forever.

For my last meal on Alaskan soil, it’s only appropriate that I got fish. Blackened halibut, to be exact.

On one of my flights back to NYC, I sat next to an elderly couple from Texas. The wife told me all about their adventures in Alaska and then asked me where my traveling partner was. I told her I was traveling alone at which she raised her eyebrows and said “Well, you’re a wild creature, aren’t you?”

I think I did pretty well for a wild creature

I did have one spectacular meal in Anchorage but it was so good, it deserves to be featured on zzeee food blog, which you can find here.

Thank you for reading about my trip! Russia & Ukraine, summer 2012.

Anchorage –> Alaska State Fair

After the epic visit to Kodiak Island, I went back to Homer for a day, which was fairly uneventful. Miriam and I drank tea a bottle of wine out of mugs (alcohol isn’t allowed in this hostel) and got seafood pasta for dinner, which probably added 4 pounds to my body weight but was completely worth it.

The next day, we headed to Anchorage and soon went our separate ways. She went on to Yukon, while I checked into a hostel downtown, where I’d stay until flying back home.

Look at this and tell me this doesn’t look like a mental institution/prison cell/some other space designed for confinement:

This was my room at the hostel. Cozy, eh?

But it wasn’t all that bad, as I spent most of my time away from it. And for $25 a night, I shouldn’t really be complaining.

I spent one of my days in Palmer, at an event I was looking forward to for weeks:

I love fairs – all things fried, animals, arts & crafts, kids with food all over their faces and fun rides. Fairs are opportune people watching events where spending $6 on a roasted corn on the cob is completely acceptable.

And the Alaska State Fair is in a beautiful setting:

The day I went,  the weather cooperated too:

There was lots to see at the fair:

But I particularly enjoyed two events:

1.

2.

Those of you who know me know my sincere love for Top Chef and all things Food Network related. This was a food blogger’s dream come true. The Alaska Seafood Grillin’ Throwdown was like a challenge from Top Chef and I was one of those lucky people who got to taste the food and provide my input.

Two restaurants and a catering business presented their dishes.

Salmon lox crepe with with jicama cucumber slaw, foi gras & mascarpone spread and Alaska blueberries coulee. This was so good, I could’ve eaten three sushi rolls worth of it:

The private chef/catering service had a grilled salmon in white sauce:

And the third offered blackened salmon with jalapeno spread. I voted for this one! The crepe was good but I felt like the chefs there cheated a little. It was served cold, so they didn’t use the grill provided and didn’t really have to rush as the other chefs.

Can I get on Top Chef now?

The other event was a lumberjack show, which was so much fun. It’s a friendly competition among some lumberjacks. Who can chop wood faster? Who can knock whom into the water while balancing on a log? It was pretty entertaining.

The ride back to Anchorage on the railroad was about an hour and a half. Most of the kids were passed out by then and I kind of fell asleep too.

It was a good day and I was ready for my last one in Anchorage.

The sun came out on Kodiak

When I woke up that day in Kodiak, I actually couldn’t believe that it was sunny out. I even put a rain coat in my backpack as I headed out for the day…but luckily, I never needed to put it on.

The day was truly beautiful and eagles enjoyed it as much as I did:

To see more of the island, Miriam and I decided to rent a car. Here’s Miriam with our blue Chevy:

It cost $70 for the day, plus gas, which we were OK with spending. Miriam has an international license but hasn’t driven a car since like 2006. I feared for my life for the first 20 minutes while Miriam and the Chevy got acquainted. But we both survived, so it’s cool.

Gas on the island was at $4.55 a galon. Ridiculous but understandable.

Also, I’m pretty sure Alaska is the only state where Avis has to have this warning for its customers:

We picked a direction and drove down one end as far as we could.

We stopped in areas that looked particularly beautiful. But really, the whole island is amazing.

We then drove to the other end of the island so we could go on a hike. At the end of Monashka Road (Monashka means nun in Russian!), we came upon a bunch of trails in a spruce forest along the water.

We walked for a few hours. It was one of the most scenic hikes I’ve done in all of Alaska.

After our hike, we drove around for a while, in search for a bear in one of the many rivers on island. After about an hour, we got quite discouraged. We stopped at Russian River, mostly because I wanted to do this:

And this:

But then, we saw THIS:

He was a small one but still so cute:

I shot video of him snatching salmon out of the stream and eating it. Pretty incredible stuff.

All of my expectations for Kodiak were met! There was one more thing we had to do before leaving. Go here:

This is the Old Powerhouse Restaurant, a Japanese seafood restaurant. It used to be an old power plant but you’d never know it:

Of course, this is the THE place for the freshest sushi:

The best is the view from the window of the harbor, where boats carrying the fish that may be on your plate come in and out:

The only way this could have been more fresh is if I ripped out the salmon from a bear’s mouth.

At night, we headed to the B’n'B Bar, the oldest licensed bar in Alaska. It served its first beer in 1899. There were like 4 people in the bar, and one of them was our good friend Ben.

After Miriam and I sat down, the bartender said to us “This is great, we never get women in here!” This was a true fishermen kind of bar. Dirty, cramped, smelly and with lots of cheap liquor.

Good way to end the trip.

We left Kodiak the next afternoon on the ferry, completely happy with our experience.

I was sad to go back to “civilization” but all good things come to an end. As I was falling asleep on the ferry, I thought about how fortunate I was to have the chance to travel and come to a place as special as Kodiak.

It lived up to its name, the Emerald Isle of Alaska:

The Alaska I was looking for

Arriving to Kodiak Island by ferry is a beautiful thing. As the boat makes its way towards the pier, green, luscious hills begin to appear all around, with houses sprinkled throughout.

Then, a boat harbor full of fishing boats of every size and color comes into view. Such vessels are full of born and bred in Alaska fishermen and transplants who chose to make the island their home because of circumstance or just pure love for the natural bounty of the place.

There are also temporary visitors, mostly men in their 20s from former Soviet Union countries, working 16-hour shifts processing fish for $7.75 an hour, either in plants like this one or on boats:

Some are lucky to have food and lodging as perks of the demanding job. Others sleep where they can, like on the floor of a gift shop by day, boarding house by night.

Alaskans refer to the rest of the country as the “lower 48.” Kodiak residents refer to the rest of Alaska as the “mainland.” You know you’re far when you hear that.

Unlike most other places I’ve been to so far, Kodiak Island isn’t starving for tourists. Sure, folks willing to shell out $500 for a charted bear-seeing flight are nice but fishing supports the people of Kodiak. It’s the country’s largest fishing port.

The town of Kodiak itself only has about 14,000 people living in it but Kodiak Island is the country’s second largest island (Big Island of Hawaii is the first). Other residents of the island are the famous brown bears, the largest carnivores in the world.

Due to Kodiak’s abundant salmon streams, Kodiak bears can get as big as 1,500 pounds. About 3,000 of them live on the island. And like in most of Alaska, the state strives to protect and preserve the wildlife. The southern two-thirds of the island make up the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, where more than 2,000 bears roam freely without much human interference.

The biggest U.S. Coast Guard base is also housed on the island and there’s a rocket launch station in the northern part of Kodiak. Still, the mountains, countless rivers and streams and glistening blue waters that surround the island make it hard to focus on anything else.

While on the island, I wanted to see what fishing really meant to this place, explore the town and go as far as I could beyond it. Of course, I was also hoping to see a Kodiak bear, without having to exhaust my whole traveling budget.

And man, did I get lucky.

First of all, a bit about lodging. I decided a long time ago that I would stay in a bed & breakfast rather than a hostel at Kodiak because at this point, I’ve gone over two weeks sharing a room with multiple people. So I decided to splurge and get a small room downtown with a private bathroom & a kitchenette.

My fellow travelers Miriam and Javier made reservations at the only hostel in Kodiak, which didn’t have such a spectacular reputation to begin with. Well, it turns out the hostel got shut down by state officials literally a day before we got to Kodiak because it didn’t meet some codes. With nowhere else to go and the hostel owner strapped for cash, Miriam and Javier (along with about 10 seasonal workers), stayed in her place off the books. Miriam ended up sleeping in the hostel owner’s bed…I have no idea where Javier even slept. The place was a total mess and also, illegal. I was more than happy that I decided to stay at a bed & breakfast!

Second, it was really amusing to be in a place that’s really not used to forward, enthusiastic foreign tourists with a German and a Chilean.
After I informed Javier that tipping cab drivers is a given in the U.S., he gave the guy 60 cents. The look the cab driver gave him was priceless.

And almost every sentence I said, was followed by a “what?”

Me: So we’re going to meet at six.
Javier: …What?
Me: We will meet at six.
Javier: Ah, yes. We will meet at six.
Me: Ok, see you then.
Javier: …What?
Me: I’ll see you then!
Javier: Ok ok.

It’s like he’s deaf in one ear. And instead of saying “what” like Javier when he doesn’t completely understand something, Miriam would look at me like she just saw a ghost. I was like a shepherd leading my lost people.

After I settled in my room and my poor fellow travelers made due with sleeping in the now debunked hostel, we met up to go to one of the three bars in town.

On a Sunday night, the place had quite a crowd and we were clearly the only out-of-towners there. Almost immediately, a young guy pulled up a chair to our table and introduced himself as Ben, a commercial fisherman. When he was 20, he left his hometown in Colorado and hitchhiked to Alaska to work on a boat. He said he’s always wanted to be a fisherman here.

A few beers later, his colleague showed up to the bar with a sack of huge crabs. These things were huge but Ben told me these are pretty small by Alaskan standards.

After more beers, the four of us were walking down to the boat harbor for a tour of Ben’s fishing boat.

Javier and Miriam couldn’t care less but I was all about this boat! I wanted to know everything.

This shows them where the fish is:

This is functional but is used as a backup only:

This is the engine room:

And Ben’s hospitality didn’t end there. He quickly cooked up some fresh red salmon for us, as well as a piece of black tail deer he shot only a couple of days earlier.

Life on a commercial fishing vessel is nothing glamorous. The sleeping bunks are tiny and the work is hard. There are limits and state and federal regulations on the size and quantity of the catch, so there’s a lot of competition among the fishing vessels. They work for weeks and only get a couple of days off at a time. Those days are mostly filled with drinking beer and chain smoking in Kodiak bars.

But Ben obviously loves what he does. He proudly showed off his boat and explained how he spends his days out in the ocean with enthusiasm and lots of energy. I can see how this industry can be a sort of Fight Club for some – it provides ample opportunity to behave aggressively and exercise that testosterone, while also making some money.

We thanked Ben and I ended up walking Miriam and Javier back to their “hostel.” They were like two exhausted children who could barely keep their eyes open. I guess a German librarian doesn’t drink as much as I assume Germans do…and Javier, he’s just a lightweight!

The next day, I met up with a hungover and tired Miriam in the morning. I kind of had a feeling she wouldn’t last long that day, and right after breakfast, she said she must “make sleep” and headed to bed.

It rained hard in the afternoon, making it the perfect opportunity to explore the town.

I checked out the Holy Resurrection Church, which is the oldest Russian Orthodox parish in the New World. Beautiful onion domes!

I also went to the Baranov Museum, which is on the premises of the oldest Russian structure in Alaska. In the 1800s, the Russians used the structure to hold sea otter pelts.

It included lots of Russian heritage displays:

I hung out in the library for a bit and went to the supermarket to grab some food for lunch. Man, living on an island is expensive! A gallon of milk here is $6. I found some fresh multigrain bread and of course, some Alaskan smoked salmon, which was splendid.

The next day was Miriam’s birthday. And guess what? THE SUN CAME OUT!

Down & up in Homer

I planned to take a bus to Homer from Seward but I met a guy who was staying at the hostel and was heading towards Homer to fish. His name is Rob and he works in the hotel industry in Denver. He offered to give me a ride and after learning a bit about my heritage, even stopping at Ninilchik to see the Russian church there.

Riding in a comfortable SVU beat taking the bus, especially when I got to see more of Alaska.

Ninilchik’s population is 778 people. It’s one of the oldest communities in the Kenai Peninsula, which was settled in the 1820s by employees of the Russian-American Company. Some of the Ruskies still reside there. But this is it – it’s tiny:

The main attraction in Ninilchik is the Old Russian Church, which was built in 1901 (it’s gotten a facelift since then). We couldn’t go in but it looked pretty cool from the outside.

There was also a ton of high fireweed, an Alaskan wild flower I think is really pretty.

Rob brought me to the hostel in Homer by about 10 AM but check-in wasn’t until 5 PM. So I left my stuff at the hostel and wondered around town. As it has been for the rest of my trip, it was rainy and cold and I was soaked within an hour. I walked into a coffee shop and tried to sit the rain out but it didn’t stop. This was quite a low point in the trip. I’ve met solo travelers who warned me that this would happen – I’d suddenly find myself alone and the dreary weather would get to me. I got so sad that I was alone and that no matter how hard I tried to have a positive attitude, I couldn’t help but think that the universe was against me. What the hell was I doing here?

When I finally checked into the hostel, I instantly felt better. I could change into dry clothes! And as soon as I walked in, an older gentleman with a big smile greeted me. His name was Bernie and he’s been retired for about 18 years. He spent 11 of those years covering every U.S. state in a motor home. He’s also been everywhere else you could imagine. This was like his sixth trip to Alaska or something.

He currently lives in Dallas and came to Alaska “to escape the heat.” Obviously, this dude has some serious money saved up. Turns out he was in the computer business and said he got out of it at the right time in 1993. Since he’s divorced, he really had nothing keeping him to one place, so he’s been traveling for years. “Life is wonderful,” he kept saying. Yeah, I bet it is for this guy.

I asked him why he was staying in a hostel even though he clearly could afford to stay at the nicest hotel in town. He said that it depends on his mood and location. Sometimes he stays somewhere fancy, sometimes in a place like a hostel so he can meet and talk to other travelers. It was great to meet him and remember that I’m not really alone. It was a good reminder.

And the night got better. A few hours after me, a girl showed up and it turned out we had the same exact plans for the next couple of days. Her name is Miriam and she is a 33-year-old librarian from Germany. She speaks English fairly well, although with a thick accent. And she says things like “let’s make hitchhike” and “I quitted it.” It’s pretty amusing. Her favorite phrase by far though is “it is possible, why not?” That’s her response to everything and it’s great.

Later on, we met a Chilean named Javier, 24, who was also heading our way. He’s an engineering student who’s going to spend some time studying in Canada after his trip to Alaska. So now I had two companions for the next leg of the trip, which I appreciated given how in the dumps I felt earlier in the day.

The next day, Miriam and I walked about 15 miles to the end of the Homer Spit and all around town. Homer really reminds me of Amherst, Mass. but with a large fishing/tourism industry. It’s full of hippies who play instruments, natural foods  & products entrepreneurs and many people who live in a butterflies & rainbows bubble.

But fishing and making money off tourists who come here to fish seem to be the primary drivers of the economy.

Of course, I had to sample the goods myself and man, was it good. Delicious grilled halibut:

On the way to the Homer Spit, we walked by a place Javier later referred to as the “ship cemetery,” which I thought was a good way to describe it. Just a bunch of boats that I’m sure were big shots in the water in their young days:

Many people also own float planes:

And eagles are everywhere here, like squirrels in New York!

The following day, Miriam, Javier and I took a cab to the Homer Ferry Terminal, so we could get on this wonderful ship and begin our daylong trip to Kodiak Island.

It was a gorgeous day to be on the water:

The ferry trip was fine, and Javier even bonded with a Kodiak track team that was sharing our space on the ship.  Apparently, he’s a skilled musician:

I’ve traveled through Alaska by bus, car and the railroad, and was glad to add the Marine Highway to my list. Next up is Kodiak Island.

Seward & Kenai Fjords National Park

I can get used to a place like Seward.

There are beautiful views:

Local, fresh food:

Colorful neighbors:

Plenty of recreational activities:

And a fair share of crime:

And the town is the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park, which is only accessible by boat or air. While in Seward, I hopped on a boat to see the place and its inhabitants.

That day was cold and rainy (surprise, surprise…) And although we saw whales and sea lions and otters, I was really groggy from motion sickness meds and almost fell asleep on the ship.

Because a storm was coming in, our captain said we might not go out to the Aialik Glacier. But he turned out to be a bad ass and brought us face to face with a massive, icy beast.

There’s a commercial that comes to mind (I think it’s for a car or some other technology) that starts off with the question – what’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen in your life? Whenever it comes on, I think of what my answer would be to that question. And up to this point in my life, this would be it.

Even though the sun wasn’t out, I was squinting from the brightness of the glacier, a perfect icy blue.

There was a time when everyone on the boat stopped talking for a minute and just admired the glacier. That’s when we heard a loud noise, similar to thunder, and a huge chunk of the glacier broke off and fell into the water.

Because it was so huge, it looked like it was happening in slow motion. I think my jaw fell all the way to the floor.

It was just magnificent.

I also went to another glacier, called Exit Glacier, with some people I met at the hostel. This glacier was less majestic but still cool to look at and explore around.

Just to think that this is the culmination of years upon years of snow so strong that it changes the structure of the earth – so cool.

And I got to be around it!

And maybe try a little too hard to get a good photo…

I really enjoyed Seward and seeing a glacier that close was something else. Luckily on the day I was leaving, a gigantic cruise ship pulled up to the town. Wouldn’t want to deal with all of those people!

My next stop was Homer, which also served as a gateway town to something else…

All aboard: Alaska Railroad

To get to Seward from Anchorage last week, I got on the Alaska Railroad. That route is considered to be one of the most scenic stretches of the railroad and it didn’t disappoint.

I woke up at an ungodly hour of 5 AM to catch the train. Once passengers are allowed to board the train, an employee actually yells “all aboard!”

I got a “first class ticket” and to distinguish us from the rest of the folks on the train, we had to wear these silly pins. Of course, all the tourists in my car kept asking the conductor if they could keep them and wore them with pride. I thought it was kind of stupid!

But, the ticket included free coffee & tea, and the clear dome of the first class railroad car was perfect for nature viewing.

The back of this car also had windowless space outside for an unobstructed view. I spent most of the time there, enjoying the scenery:

Riding the Alaska Railroad just provided another way to see the beauty of the state. It was such a pleasant and beautiful ride! Little did I know, what was waiting for me in Seward would for the first time, amaze me.

Fine dining in Alaska

One of my favorite things to do while traveling is experience the culture of a place through food, and Alaska is no exception.

Before coming to the Denali area, I looked into 229 Parks. It’s a restaurant owned by a couple (the husband built it, the wife is the chef) that uses local, seasonal ingredients on its eclectic menu. And since it’s Alaska, you’re bound to find seafood on it.

I am not exaggerating when I say I dreamed of going to 229 Parks. But I was thoroughly disappointed to find out it was several miles from the hostel and I had no way of getting there.

One night, I walked over to a bar with a fellow hosteler to accomplish my mission of trying a local brew. I inevitably succeeded.

This hosteler introduced me to another hostler, a man in his 50s named Kim (yup, a dude named Kim). He’s from a small town in Pennsylvania, where he owns a construction business or something like that. We got to talking and turns out, he just went to dinner at 229 Parks and said he would love to go again.

Clearly, I was excited to hear this. Nevermind that he might be a semi-creepy dude from the redneck PA woods. The man had a car and wanted to go to this restaurant I was dying to get to…obstacle #2 was getting a table, which is kind of impossible to do for dinner the following night!

Well, turns out Kim has gotten friendly with the owner of the pub we were in, and this owner happens to be dating a waitress at 229 Parks. A phone call later, we had a reservation for dinner the next night. To make it less creepy, I also invited another hosteler to come with us, a tax lawyer from Holland.

And so, the next night we got into Kim’s truck and drove 229 Parks.

Right away, the cozy cabin-like feeling of the place makes you feel comfortable.

The menu may rival some fancy restaurants in New York but we still walked in here in our hiking boots and fleece zip up sweaters, with every intention of spending some serious cash on some amazing food, and were welcomed with menus.

Keep in mind that we’ve been hiking all day, so we were ready to devour whatever food came our way. Once we ordered, the waiter brought out some whole wheat, warm rolls, which were delicious.

And they came with lemon dill butter.

If they gave me a basket of those, I’d be happy. The rolls were chewy and soft and the butter was as refreshing as it sounds. It actually made the butter feel light, which is no small feat.

We ordered a bottle of dry Riesling for the table, as our PA bulldozer operator is apparently a big fan of this fine wine.

We all expected servings to be small, as restaurants of this caliber often do, so we ordered appetizers.

What stood out to me was the Apple, Beet, Bacon and Goat Cheese Salad:

Locally grown garden greens tossed with house made cider thyme vinaigrette, honey crisp apples, candied nuts, rosemary roasted beets, crispy dry aged bacon and creamy chevre.

You can never go wrong with bacon, cheese and apples but this certainly exceeded my expectations.

For my entree, I got the salmon.

Fresh Alaskan Troll Silver Salmon: Fresh, wild caught silver salmon, pan seared with herbs, served with haricots vert, fingerling potatoes, shaved egg, baisil aioli, nicoise olive tapenade, shaved fresh basil.

This was definitely some of the best salmon I’ve ever had. There were many ingredients on that plate but the fish alone with some herbs would be enough. Still, those potatoes didn’t hurt!

And dessert. Oh, the dessert:

Rustic Roasted Fruit Tart: slow roasted honey crisp apples, blueberries, raspberries and nectarines with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla folded into an all butter crust served with a scoop of house made vanilla bean ice cream.

What a way to complete a meal. It had that combo of warm and cold, plus the tart fruit with the sweet vanilla ice cream – too good to share.

Obviously, we rolled out of the restaurant. This was one glutenous detour that wasn’t exact thrifty but well worth it.

But what the hell, I’m on vacation, right? Plus, supporting local businesses is always a good thing.

Exploring Denali

So sorry it took me so long to provide an update but finding a reliable computer around here is a hassle.

But I’m currently sitting in a hostel in Anchorage, this far from home:

But let me backtrack a bit. I’ve spent the past four days exploring the wilderness of Denali National Park, an experience that left me with a renewed appreciation for the National Park Service.

Come on in and I’ll show you what I mean

Visitors can explore the park in several ways – by taking a shuttle bus a certain distance into the park and hope to spot some animals, by walking on designated trails, by hiking on their own or sign up for something called a Discovery Hike, which is led by an interpretative park ranger. Remember how I decided to stay at extra day? That’s because I wanted to do it all!

Wild life via shuttle bus

Over six million acres of Alaskan wilderness is a lot to maintain. To reduce the human impact on the natural habitat of the animals and vegetation, Denali only has one road in and out of the park. Aside from a handful of authorized cars, no other vehicles go into the park. You can’t drive into it.

Now, that one road stretches for about 96 miles into Denali. And visitors can get to any point along that road by hopping on one of these green shuttle buses:

If a passenger spots a bear or a caribou while on the bus, he or she can just yell STOP and the driver will pull over so everyone can look and maybe even get a picture if they’re lucky.

I took a bus to two different locations and saw some animals – moose, Dall sheep, lots of bears from afar. And up close, a caribou:

The scene I saw on my final trip on the bus was National Geographic worthy.

I really wanted to see a wolf while in the park because I think they’re such cool animals but I got a lot more than that.

I was a witness to a wolf trying to get a piece of an almost eaten caribou from a very greedy grizzly bear who was munching on it.

It was right down in the river creek, maybe two football fields from the road I was on. The wolf really wanted some meat but the bear was not willing to share.

The poor wolf then left to find his own food. It was really cool to see.

On the second day, I took the bus almost 70 miles into the park, which took about 8 hours roundtrip. It was one of the first clear, sunny days in Denali in WEEKS and I was spectacularly lucky to venture out that far on that day.

I got to see the biggest treasure of the park, the highest mountain in North America – Mt. McKinley.

It’s a rare occasion that a day is so clear here and I was in awe. The photos really don’t do it justice. Plus, the mountain is so big that it generates its own weather. Its peak gets quickly covered up with fog.

Every year, a bunch of people try to climb the mountain and some make it. More than a 100 people have died trying to make it to the top. But I was happy just to look at it in all its glory from about 30 miles away. It’s absolutely worth the trip.

Trail and wilderness hikes

There are a few pretty neat trails throughout the park and when I had an hour or so to kill before hopping on a bus, I walked along some trails.

 

Because of the high probability of running into bears in Denali, rangers encourage hikers to talk or sing while they walk through the park, to warn the animals you’re coming if they’re nearby. This seems a little silly if you’re alone but a precaution I’m willing to follow to avoid running into a pissed off grizzly bear.

So there I was, singing Fleet Foxes on a trail and suddenly, I saw some sort of animal walking towards me. It looked like a porcupine, just super sized. I froze for a minute and realized it hadn’t seen me yet. So I jumped off the trail and moved a bit into the forest while it passed.

It was so cute but when I showed my photos to a ranger she told me it was a wolverine! Wolverines apparently have been known to take on wolves and are pretty vicious, so she said I was smart for hiding from it. Glad I noticed it before it noticed me!

Another park ranger told me that people wait all of their lives to see a wolverine and that it’s a pretty rare thing.

Glad I got to see one!

Discovery Hike

The Discovery hike was definitely one of my most favorite things to do in Denali. To minimize the impact on the wilderness, no two hikes are the same or even in the same area. They are custom designed by the individual rangers.

My ranger was Caitlin, a super nice girl originally from New Jersey.

She led us through mountain ridges of Alaskan tundra, in the cold and continuous rain for a good part of a Saturday.

 

Along the way, she pointed out flowers and animal tracks to us…

 

… which honestly just gave us a chance to catch our breath.

It’s not even that we were walking fast, it’s just the terrain we were walking on – moss and other ground-crawl plants that sink deeply as you step on them, like an old mattress that doesn’t resist weight anymore.

There was also scree – slippery gravel-like rocks found near the top of mountains and bushes! Oh the bushes. We all got really good at bushwhacking, making our way through the dense vegetation in the relentless rain.

 

We had lunch on top of a hill and took in the views:

For dessert, we had berries, which are abundant through the park’s tundra.

There are blueberries:

Cranberries:

And crowberries, which I’ve never had before. (They weren’t that tasty.)

You know bears love berries, so we occasionally yelled out HEYYY BEEAAAARRRR as we hiked to make sure we didn’t accidentally sneak up on one.

My boots held up really well and even though I was cold, my feet stayed dry. It felt bad ass to conquer the tundra! Or at least 3 miles of it…I also looked like that kid in Christmas Story after his mom bundles him up.

After the hike, I was as muddy, cold and wet as I could be but the shuttle to my hostel – the pathway to a hot shower and a bed – wasn’t supposed to arrive for another hour and a half. But a mother and a son from Hudson Valley, who were also on the hike, offered to drive me to the hostel. I of course gladly accepted.

…And I couldn’t resist doing one more thing while at Denali – visiting the sled dogs. Denali is the only national park to employ dogs as means of park patrol in the winter months, when temperatures drop to -50F. The dogs have been in use since the park was created in 1917.

The best part of the visit is the fact that we can pet the Alaskan huskies and they enjoy all the love. They’re very friendly and cuddly.

The one thing you’re NOT allowed to do is run around the dogs. To them, running indicates getting strapped in and pulling a sled. They all bark and go insane! It’s like they’re trying to say “pick me, pick me!”

I know this because the rangers demonstrated how the dogs pull the sled in a brief run around a track. The dogs are extremely fast and very excited. They are stronger than they look.

I think it’s really cool that the park relies on the dogs and that they play such an important role in maintaining the sacredness of the wilderness in the established park grounds.

The only thing I can try to complain about is the rapid change in weather in Denali. One minute it’s beautiful and sunny…

…And literally two minutes later, it’s cold and rainy!

But really, I can’t complain. This experience was amazing. I would love to come back and get a much coveted  “backcountry” permit to camp inside the park. Sometime in the future.

You probably already noticed that I look like a hot mess all the time…

Still, can’t say I miss heels!

I am currently in Anchorage but I keep thinking back to Denali and how amazing I felt about being in the tundra and taiga of Alaska.

Even in complete isolation, I never felt alone or forgotten. I felt like I was a part of something. Something that both encompassed me and was beyond me.

Leaving Denali was hard but sweet because of this rainbow:

And this strawberry rhubarb coffee cake served with ice cream didn’t hurt either

I wish I could upload all the photos I took but it would take the whole night! And I have to get to bed early, I have a 6:45 AM train to catch tomorrow to Seward. It’s known as one of the most scenic stretches of the Alaska Railroad.

I’m having a great time so far and can’t wait for what’s next! Thanks for reading!

Denali: A walk on the wild side

After leaving Fairbanks, I arrived to the Denali area, eager to explore the third largest national park in the country.

Denali National Park is the size of Massachusetts and less than .5 percent of it is developed by humans. It’s truly one of the most magnificent places i’ve ever seen.

I am also staying at a spectacular hostel in a perfect location. There’s free organic local coffee and am efficient shuttle to and from the park. The only downside is the lack of access to a computer, thus the lack of photos in this post. I’ll share them once I’m in Anchorage though, not to worry.

I am having such an incredible time exploring the Alaskan taiga and tundra that I decided to stay here an extra day. I should be in Anchorage on Sunday.

I’m having a hard time putting what I’ve seen into words, I think I need some time to process it all. But highlights include seeing grizzly bears, caribou and moose in their natural habitat, dining in one of the finest restaurants in Denali and playing with sled dogs that patrol the park in the winter, when temperatures here drop to -50F. I’ve also met many people from different walks of life, as well as many women who are traveling alone.

I promise to update with details and photos once the iPod touch isn’t my only source of Internet access when I catch some wifi.

All I can say is, i’ve used the word “wow” as an adjective to describe everything around me in the past 48 hours. Paving my own path through the Alaskan wilderness is just unforgettable.

Be back here soon!