Coddiwomple Stardate 180627

We arrived at our hotel about 10.30pm Sunday Night. There was light rain and still daylight. The hotel didn't have our reservation and not something you want to hear after a long day. They gave us a room and we left all the parties involved to sort it out.

Finally got to bed at 1.00am still with daylight.

Next morning still nothing sorted out about our reservation but we were allowed to stay in the room for that night also.

We bought an all day pass for the bus and took a few different routes during the day. Both Sharon & I expected a small town built of timber. It is just another city. Nothing interesting lots of cars but not a lot of crowds. When we returned to our room our key cards had been cancelled.

Monday night we met our tour leader Jeff for the next 9 days and given a run down on what we will see and do. Including Jeff there are 13 off us. After our meet & greet, most of us went into town and had dinner at Humpies. A nice gastro pub. We left at 10.30pm to a very bright night.

Tuesday morning we are on our way to our next venture. Still can't get over even up here we were on a dual carriage way for a good hour with much traffic driving into town.

A couple of hours out of Anchorage still quite a few cars but starting to see the random log cabins and small communities.

After 4 hrs we stopped at the Southern overlook of Mt Denali at 20310 ft. (6190m). It is the highest vertical mountain in the world. Mt Everest is highest by sea level. Unfortunately it is visible only 20% of the time. This was not one of those times. In the car park there are two toilet blocks. Two German cyclists had decided to set their tent up on the verandah of one of the toilet blocks stopping anyone from using them.

We made camp early afternoon. Had lunch then it was a visit to Denali NP to go for a hike around Horseshoe Lake. We were hoping to see some beavers unfortunately non showed. The beaver dams were so much larger than we ever expected. You could see many trees that had been cut down by the beavers. The size of the trees would have been up to 400mm diameter.

On the way back we saw a moose with it's calf. A moose can grow up to 1500lbs (680kg). A moose with a calf can be the most dangerous animal in Alaska. The cow will charge anyone who gets to close. There were plenty of people getting close to these animals unfortunately never saw any of them get chased.

That night (which is still daylight) we had a Moose & calf wander through our camp.

Wednesday morning we headed to the Visitors centre to catch a shuttle into Denali NP. It is a 66mile (106km) route that takes 4 hours one way. If wildlife is seen the driver will stop. We saw lots of caribou and dall sheep & a moose. They were only dots in the distance. It was a clear day and great views today over Mt Denali. We were almost to the 66 mile mark when we finally saw a grizzly with her 2 cubs. They were closer than the other wildlife we had seen but still a distance away.

Thursday we went back into Denali NP to see the working Alaskin Huskies. There were many dogs to pat before a demonstration with the huskies pulling a cart. Denali is the only NP in the USA that still uses huskies in the winter. They are being used to bring in and out heavy equipment, building material & people.  The reasons they are still used is because Denali has the highest environmental protection of any other NP in the US and mechanised equipment cannot be used once off the main road.

Next it was down the Denali Hwy heading east to Maclaren River. We had to wait a couple of hours before being picked up by a jetboat to take us down the Maclaren River for 10 miles (16km). We were dropped off on Tundra with views to the Maclaren Glacier. It was summer solstice that night and we went for a stroll just before midnight in full daylight towards the glacier. The 13 of us all slept in the one tent with me being the loudest snorer of the night.

Friday morning we had to paddle canoes back the 10 miles to Maclaren Lodge. We were told the current is swift and you can just drift back. That was not the correct advice. The river was swift but there were many channels from the glacier fed river. You had to navigate the correct channel by finding the most turbulent water which is the deepest. If you fail you beach yourself on the shallow rocks. I think everyone beached themselves at some point in the river. If you were stuck to hard it required you to get out into the 1 degree glacial water and find deeper water. Now I have always said I'm tough when it comes to extreme water temperatures. Of course they have always been a quick dip and out. This is the longest my feet have ever had to stay in such cold water. I can now tell you from experience it would not be a good way of drowning it is extremely painful. We all made it back safely and another great adventure was over.

The remainder of the day was all driving to get across to Wrangel-St Elias NP. This is the largest NP in USA. It is larger than Switzerland and also has higher mountains. We camped on one side of the Kennicott River.

On Saturday we had to walk over the foot bridge & get onto a shuttle to take us into Kennicott to start our days adventure. This is the only way public can get into this part of the NP. There use to be a road bride but was washed away years ago in a flood. A private bridge has since been built. The owner will sell you a key for $300 a year but only if he likes you.

Once in Kennicott the majority went ice climbing & 4 of us went on a half day glacier walk. Once fitted with crampons by our guide Merrit we were on our way. It took us about 1.5hrs to reach the glacier. We crossed a couple of fast flowing creeks and many stops so Merrit could talk about the flora and taste test a few plants and explain in great detail about glaciers. He was 29 & a very knowledgeable guy. Once we reached the glaciers we fitted our crampons and made our first accent. The crampons certainly make ice walking extremely easy.

We walked for about 45 mins then stopped for lunch on the glacier. Merrit made us all hot drinks with glacial water using his jetboil then it was more stunning ice formations to see.

Back on a shuttle to the town of McCarthy. This town consisted of 6 buildings. Main ones were the Golden Saloon, Hotel & Potato Head Restaurant. The road base is from the copper mine tailings & old rusting equipment everywhere. The NP has a mix of private property & business owners. Alaska NP are the only ones in USA that allows this by law. As you are travelling in the park you have to pass through private land that is completely filled with old decaying cars & other assortment of wrecked equipment. After visiting the Golden Saloon & Potato Head we walked back to our camp site. We had to cross a section of flooded road. Fortunately Sharon & I had our hiking sticks which made it easier to navigate the sparse rocks that had been placed over the crossing. The water was over the road because a beaver had built a dam there. The locals are waiting for hunting season so they can shoot the beaver & destroy the dam.

Sunday it was back over the foot bridge again onto another shuttle to take 7 off us back into Kennicott to see the old copper mill. Sharon didn't want to see this ( I wasn't the only one!) The mill started in 1902 & closed in 1938 due to low copper prices. The owners of the mill were worried about litigation after an independent person started having tours of the old mine site in the 1950’s. He had modified an old model T ford truck to run on the railway line & bring in tourists. The mine company decided to employ someone to destroy the town & burn it to the ground. The guy only removed what he could sell and left the town standing. Eventually the town was taken over by the NP and has been protecting it since.

After the tour we left our camp to head to Valdez. On the way we stopped a few times to look at canyons, Bald eagles, another glacier and waterfalls. The drive into Valdez would be one of the most beautiful parts of Alaska we have seen.

Monday we needed to get to Bear Paws by 8.00am to book into our 10 hr iceberg tour. It was a 2 hr water taxi cruise in the Prince William Sound to reach a small island surrounded by small icebergs from the Columbia Glacier. It was a very wet, foggy overcast day and extremely cold. Apparently it is like this 95% of the time. On the way to the island launch area we saw Sea Otters, Seals, some small glaciers and fantastic waterfalls. When we first started in the kayaks we felt reasonably warm with all our wet weather gear on gliding past all the icebergs. The icebergs were no where near as impressive as the ones Sharon & I saw in Greenland. In Greenland we never had the opportunity to kayak around them. We did see them close from a zodiac. This time in a kayak you could hear all the icebergs starting to crack because of the silence. We beached our kayaks and had lunch with it still raining lightly. When we finished lunch the wind had pickup and made small swells. More paddling around icebergs. By now after about 3 hrs in the rain and bitter cold Sharon had had enough and needed the toilet desperately. She had to push on for another hour until our water taxi could pick us up. When we finally got back in the taxi that use to be a school boat to take kids to school Sharon decided to wait until we got back to Valdez in 2 hrs. There were no toilets where we were and if you needed to go you had to squat behind an iceberg and removing your wet weather gear was a nightmare (I couldn’t feel my fingers and was worried about getting my pants up and down, decided it was too hard).  Sharon was complaining about the cold that much the staff sat her on top of the ships heater and she covered herself up in all the offered jackets. Half an hour latter we came across a small boat in distress. There were two people on board and the motor wouldn't start. They had no aux motor, no radio, no phone, no flares & no anchor and was drifting close to rocks. We towed them for an hour before someone else took over the tow. So our 2 hour trip turned into 3 hrs and Sharon was becoming very uncomfortable (I loved that they stopped to help but my bladder was saying some rather naughty words!!).

Tuesday and our last day of the tour. We stopped at a salmon farm that had a free self guided tour. It was a unique type of farm. When the salmon come back to spawn they are captured eggs and sperm are collected the salmon are then processed. The eggs are fertilized and grown to fingerlings then released back into the sound to mature and two years latter fully grown they come back to their place of berth at the salmon farm and the process starts again. By having human intervention there is a far greater success rate for the salmon to mature in the ocean.

On the way back to Anchorage it was a stunning drive along Glenn Hwy. There were glaciers, snow capped mountains, waterfalls, lakes & rivers.

Alaska hasn't given us that wow like all the desert areas we have been to. It does have it's own uniqueness & we have had great experiences & memories. Alaska would be about half the size of Australia. They class it as the last frontier. Most of the people we have met on our tour come from all the lower states. They only work in Alaska over their very short tourist season up here. It is only good for maybe 3 months then most leave. It is now summer and we have come across some harsh cold weather. We have not seen night for nearly 2 weeks. You really would have to be a unique person to want to live here all year. I couldn't imagine living here in winter with continual freezing weather and only a few hours of daylight a day and we were in the better part of their climate. It is a very costly place to tour but as I have mentioned it is a very short time frame for people to make money off of tourism. We are both glad we came it has been fun and the group we have been with all have been great companions. Once again with Sharon, her Facebook account is full with new friends. It is time to say goodbye.