July 18, 2009

As Mike and I were packing up to continue on our adventure, Garrett and I were looking up at the hills trying to find a waterfall that was on his map. As I peered up I saw a HUGE black bear grazing in the hills. We all sat down and enjoyed our breakfast of oatmeal while looking through Garrett's binoculars watching this amazing beast enjoy his feast of berries, rest, and continue up higher and higher into the mountains. (Hint-if you click on the pictures of our blog they will appear full sized.) We finished up and said our goodbyes. I think the bear heard us because he darted away full speed into the fores t. We continued on our hike. Mileage was our goal today, and we did accomplish it. We hiked 14.5 miles from mountains to valleys. We did reach the highest point to Resurrection Pass at 2600 feet. We were spent. This is a new record for our backpacking days!

July 17, 2009

"Kelly, Kelly wake up. Something big went by and now there's something huge in the water!" That was my wake up call today. Mike slowly grabbed his bear spray and went out of the tent. 15 yards outside our tent in Trout Lake was a beautiful cow moose munching grass and drinking water. If the picture seems fuzzy, it is because we were quite startled not knowing what could be out there at first. What a great way to start the day. However, things took a turn for the worst. After we hiked almost 2 miles from our campsite and loaded up on bug juice, Mike realized his wallet was missing. We searched our packs from top to bottom. No wallet. He left me alone in bear country and ran back to our site to search with absolutely no luck. We continued on for 9.5 miles. It was a strenuous uphill alpine hike. Wow, we were exhausted. After we set up, we were joined by a great guy named Garrett. He was a seismologist and visiting his girlfriend who was working in Alaska for the summer. We hung out together, sipped cider, had a campfire, and read ghost stories. An excellent end to a stressful day.

July 16, 2009

Steve and his uncle George drove us to Cooper's Landing today so we could start our trek on the Resurrection Pass Trail. It is a 39 mile path that travels through the mountains up to 2600 elevation and then descends downward to Hope where Amber is parked. We hiked 4 miles in and saw Juneau Falls. Then we hiked another 3 miles to Trout Lake. We found a great campsite and set up. After that, we got ready for dinner and some drinks. That is when Mike realized our water filter was not working. From now on Mike and I had to boil all water and then put our bottles in the lake to cool down. Minor set back, we know how to overcome obstacles out here. We ended our night by sipping whiskey by the fire and reading Alaskan ghost stories. (Lindsay-you will like this book when we are done!)

July 15, 2009

Sea Kayaking here we come! To get to Whittier we had to drive through a long tunnel that has been blasted through the bottom of a mountain. It was quite a site! We headed here to go sea kayaking in Prince William Sound. Our guide was a wonderful man named Drew. He helped us suit up, gave us a few sea kayaking tips, and away we went. The weather was cool with a light mist, but at least the water was still. We kayaked for six hours around the sound. We saw waterfalls, a glacier in the distance, and numerous eagles. We ate a lunch of salmon and pasta along the beach and then hiked up to waterfall accessible by foot. Afterwards, we headed back to the harbor and joined our kayak buddies Kim and Ryan for dinner. It was an experience that could not be missed in Alaska!

July 14, 2009

Today we headed to Whittier to go sea kayaking in Prince William Sound. We got about half way there and finally got cell phone reception. There was a message from the Alaskan Sea Kayaking manager Pete that it was way to windy to go out to sea. We will try again tomorrow. Mike and I decided to spend the day packing for our backpacking trip instead. After that it was picture time. Jason (owner of Amber's prettier twin) who is a professional photographer (http://www.jasonsheaphotography.com/) suggested that we take pictures of all of our vans lined up next to each other, great idea! After a picture shoot with the Westy's, Adam had to leave to go home and tackle a nasty case of carpenter ants. Jason stayed and his wife Liz and their beautiful baby girl joined him for the night. We all got together and had a little barbeque. Mike grilled steaks on the fire, wood grilled steaks are the best. As we were eating our feast we found out Michael Jackson died! I honestly think we were the last in the country to find out. I know he got a little wierd in the end but for us Gen Xers he was like our Elvis, kinda sad. After dinner we hung out around the campfire and Jason brought out his guitar and played some songs (we really liked the love song he wrote for his wife). Later on Steve joined us and played some songs as well. It was another great night. We retired early this night, around 2am.

July 13, 2009

We woke up today feeling much better. Mike and I reorganized the Vanagon so we no longer had to do the "Westy shuffle" so often. Then we went for a 10 mile bike ride. This was true mountain biking. Every way you turned was like a postcard. When we returned, Mike set up 5 star accommodations so we could could take a solar shower. It was spectacular! Then we set up the dutch oven and made chicken wings. As we were eating dinner, we saw 2 vehicles driving up the gravel road that had a very familiar profile: 2 Westy's!!! We couldn't believe our eyes! And to make it even cooler one was the same exact color Amber was (Assuran Brown). Mike was so excited that he couldn't finish his dinner and ran to their campsite and chatted Vanagon for an hour then invited them over to our site for more VW talk. Their names were Adam and Jason and they were from Anchorage and were going camping for a couple days. We were out of beer from our binge the previous night so they brought their cooler and supplied the beer and we supplied the campfire and whiskey, what great people we are meeting on this trip. We didn't get to bed until 3 am...again.

July 12, 2009

Today we got horrible news from my mom. Elvis, our beloved cat of almost 15 years had to be put to sleep. Diabetes, keytosis, and old age finally got the better of him. We shared many highs and lows of our lives with him. He was a great companion to both of us and we will miss him forever. The worst part of it all was that we were not able to be with him at the end. Thank you Mom Koeferl for holding his paw for us through the last minutes of his life. Rest in peace our "Little Buddy". After shedding many tears, we headed south of Whittier to Granite Creek Campground. We got a beautiful site surrounded with mountain views. After we set up, Mike crossed the creek and explored. Then we set up a campfire on the rocky shore of the creek. We made good friends with Steve the campground host. He came over and we drank a few beers, roasted hotdogs, and chatted until 3:00 in the morning. This was the first time we had seen the moon and a few stars in Alaska! We have never been awake long enough for darkness to fall on this equisite northern wilderness.