AK, USA

In late July I went to visit my brother and his lovely girlfriend in AK. I got there Wesdnesday afternoon (July 22), around 3pm or so, after a long day of flying (DC to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Anchorage). My flight was overrun with *ahem* old people who were going up to Alaska to go on boat cruises, guided bus tours, etc. It was fine, except when it came time to get off the plane. I don't think a collective group of people has ever moved slower in the history of moving slowly!

Anyway, after meeting my brother in the airport, he and I dropped my stuff off at their apartment and went on a walk. We walked just a short ways to this pretty trail that took us along a lake and ended in downtown Anchorage, right near Beth's office. We picked her up and walked back to their apartment along a shorter route. That evening, I was so tired that I don't even remember what we had for dinner. All I remember was knocking their kitchen timer off the oven when I tried to turn it off, and then doing it again seconds later when I was defending myself from (deserved) taunts... My life is so hard... After dinner some of Eric and Beth's friends came over, but I was so exhausted from traveling all day and the 4 hour time difference that I crashed soon after dinner.

Thursday was pretty relaxed day... Eric and I just hung out at their apartment for a little while and then in the afternoon we met Beth at her office and went out to lunch. For the rest of the afternoon Eric and I ran errands for the hiking/camping trip that we had planned for Friday through Sunday. That night's dinner I do remember - SPAGHETTI. Needless to say, it was awesome!

Friday morning we woke up, leisurely got all of our gear ready, had a big breakfast, and headed out on the quite scenic drive to the start of our hike. The trail is a little less than a 2 hour drive south of Anchorage, but it only took that long because we had to drive all the way around a large bay. As the crow flies, we couldn't have been more that 50 miles or so south of Anchorage.

The trail we hiked up was 9 miles to the cabin where we were staying. At the trailhead was a warning about a bear attack that had happened that very morning, so I was a little nervous at the start of the hike. But all three of us were wearing bear bells so as not to surprise any bears that might have been on or near the path. We also had bear spray in case we did run into any bears. I was still a little nervous, but the fact that I am writing this is a testament to the fact that we didn't actually happen across any bears. Although we probably did get closer to one than I care to think about...

Before the hike, I was imagining terrain that was going to be much rougher than how it actually was. I guess I've always imagined Alaskan wilderness as incredibly rugged, so I was expecting the worse. The hike we did was no easy feat, but it was certainly more manageable than the death-defying hike I thought was in store for me. The scenery around us as we hiked was GORGEOUS. There was this plant, fireweed, that was just in bloom as we were hiking. It's a plant that's about 5 feet tall with purple flowers that start blooming at the bottom of the plant and then, as the summer goes on, the buds on the top of the plant will bloom. According to Beth, it's a good way to measure Alaskan summers - when the fireweeds have purple blooms at the very top of them, summer is almost over! Anyway, the fireweed was everywhere, so all the mountains surrounding our hike had patches of bright purple! It was very beautiful.

We made it to the cabin after about 5 or 6 hours of hiking. It was a pretty nice cabin on a medium sized lake. My favorite part was that it came with a canoe! Eric and I traipsed about in the woods a little bit more (all the while talking loudly so we didn't surprise any bears) to gather firewood for our fire. Once we had a good enough amount, we all decided to go out in the canoe. The views from the lake were great too, and I ended up taking about a billion pictures of the same views. I couldn't help myself! After gallavanting out in the canoe we came back, made dinner, and sat by the fire a little bit. We were all a little tired, to say the least, from hiking 9 miles, so we went to bed pretty early. One downside of the cabin was that there were lots of windows without any curtains. Since the sun didn't completely set until around 11pm, it was a little hard to get to sleep in what was pretty much daylight. Or, I should say, it would have been hard had we not walked 9 miles that day. I think it too me all of about 30 seconds to fall asleep...

The next day the three of us went out fishing. Eric and Beth didn't catch anything, but I ended up catching a fish. I think the fish can tell that, even though I'm fishing, I don't actually want to catch anything so they all inevitably bite my line. I always feel really bad when I catch something, so I wasn't too happy that I caught one. Especially since I got this one through the eye. I felt so bad!!! Later on that afternoon I caught another one, and two fish was two fish too many, so after that one I quit fishing entirely. The rest of the day we just tooled around, hung out, chatted, ate lunch and dinner, etc. It was great just having a day to relax and enjoy ourselves! The next day we hiked back down the 9 miles to Beth's car. I think we made it out in about 3 - 4 hours (going downhill helps a lot!).

The next day was my last day in Anchorage before a red eye back to DC. It was another relaxing day just hanging out with my brother while Beth, sadly, had to work. All in all, it was a great trip, and I can now mark Alaska off my list of places that I have to visit. Can't wait to go back (maybe for Christmas????)!