The flight to Anchorage was a treat in itself. We had clear blue skies, so could gaze down on mountain ranges, ice fields, both coastal and inland glaciers as well as stunning fjords.
Collecting our truck camper I tentatively drove it out the lot. It took a good hour to get the hang of driving it; in terms of its size and width, the noises it makes and its complete dislike of poor road services.
Stocking up with food we headed towards Seward, stopping within a few miles to walk the boardwalks at Potters Marsh coastal wildlife reserve, which frankly seemed quite devoid of bird life.
We were both quite tired, so 20 miles outside of Anchorage we pulled into an RV friendly motel which let us overnight for $10. Our RV induction had been pretty poor but after much head scratching we sussed out the water pump and water heater, how the furnace worked. We then discovered the disadvantage of a camper over an RV - no generator, which means no electrical hookup, therefore no air conditioning, microwave or working sockets. The first 2 are no issue, but no sockets means no charging of electrical s and more importantly no toaster or coffee machine ! At least the lights run off the backup battery.
Had a weird nights sleep, although we are only 500 (ish) miles further north, it now means only about 4 hours of dark a night which will take some getting used to. A quick breakfast and we were off, continuing our journey to Seward. It wasn't long before our first pit stop at ' bird point scenic overlook' which provided great views of Turnagain Arm, this is also a good place to watch the bore tide which we hope to catch towards the end of our trip.
Continuing on we reached the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we whiled away a couple of hours. I had to bite my tongue at the bear exhibit where a women said to the bear 'how do you fancy hanging on my wall', the temptation to mention that it would probably be the most intelligent thing in her house was barely suppressed.
We made a couple of other stops along the way, namely Jerome Lake and lily pad lake. Both were really picturesque. To be honest you could have stopped and started all day. The scenery was stunning all the way; initially you have Turnagain Arm on your right hand side, with snow capped mountains in the distance, then you progress inland with a constantly changing view - ponds and creeks, tree packed mountain slopes and wildflowers galore. The journey was certainly more than just about reaching a destination, all of which was aided by clear blue skies.
The final stopoff was at a place call Moose Pass; Jo was lured in by the sign for 'homemade fudge' and came back with a tasty chocolate habanero one for me. I was no better being suckered in by the Elk jerky roadside stand and ended up buying a 'hot and sweet' pack !
We headed for Exit Glacier, again the first view of the glacier just took your breath away. We took about a mile trail to its edge, enjoyed the views and the cold breeze coming over the ice.
Heading into Seward we went to the Alaska Sea life Centre which funnily enough focuses on the marine life of Alaska - birds, fish and mammals. the highlight were the puffins and newly hatched octopui.
We backtracked to our RV site - in our minds we saw secluded spots next to a wooded creek, the reality was a huge car park ! That said, draw the curtains and you had your privacy, plus power and water hookup; black and grey water disposal (an experience in itself); hot showers and wifi - all for $35 a night, so no real complaints.
The lack of darkness had no effect - lights out and sleep.
It was cool and overcast when we woke, we packed for a days hike to the Harding Ice Field, taking layers of clothing, waterproofs, bug spray, suntan lotion, food and plenty of water - basically we covered all the bases.
The rangers run a guided tour to the ice field every Saturday, its an 8.2 mile round trip, which takes 6-8 hours depending on your pace. We had decided to join it, there were 22 people in total accompanied by 2 rangers. To be honest I think there role is to give people the confidence to undertake the hike, it turned out that it was well posted and plenty of people were making there own way. After about a mile we left the group behind setting our own pace.
The route passed through really distinctive habitats; the first mile was wooded climbing a 1000ft, exiting the woodland we entered meadowland. Breaking above the cloud line we were rewarded with our first view of exit glacier. Leaving the meadow behind we climbed a steep slope smothered in wildflowers before reaching the scree covered snowline, where we encountered a Hoary Marmot on the trail. Looking back we could see mountain peaks raising above the cloud line, whilst off to our side was the most amazing sight - the Harding ice field, from where the glacier originates. Trekking through the snow we reached the end of the trail after about 3 hours, where we stopped to each lunch and admire the views.
In addition to the scenery we were fortunate to see mountain sheep grazing on the slopes.
We trekked down with 2 others guys we had chatted to on the way up, Pi and Davis, they were both traveling independently and made for good company. The journey down was like a whole new hike, the cloud had cleared, the sky was blue and the sun was out. This meant we could see everything that had been obscured by the cloud when we had been ascending.
We got back to the visitor centre at about 5pm and the 4 of us headed into Seward for pizza - i had an excellent smoked salmon pizza, washed down with a bottle of Beaver Tail Blonde Ale (Kassiks brewery, Kenai).
Sunday was diving day (well for me, Josie had more sense and was spending the day chilling in Seward). I met up with Scott, the owner of Dive Alaska (www.divealaska.net) at the small boat harbour in Seward and boarded 'Bottom Time'. There were 6 of us diving that day, I was the only non local. We headed out to Resurrection Bay, which was about 1.5 hours away; everyone was friendly and the weather was playing ball.
It was about 2 years since my last dry suit dive and at least 10 years since I had dived in any dry suit other then my own - I had forgotten how cumbersome kitting up for cold water diving can be, let alone the amount of weight you need. The first dive site was called Boulder City (max depth:70ft, dive time:47 mins) due to the number and size of boulders there ! Jumping in was a shock when the cold water hit my face (50F), a quick weight check and we were off. The visibility was no more than 30 feet but we were following the contours of the wall so there were no issues. There was lots of new cool stuff for me to see - kelp moving in the current, lots of colourful starfish, wonderfully camouflaged decorator crabs, numerous types of nudibranches, sea cucumbers, feeding giant barnacals and so on. The walls were highly decorated with cold water corals and tonnes of sponges. My feet got cold, other than that I fared pretty well.
A surface interval of hot chocolate and a warm stove in the cabin reminded me of the days of diving in Scapa Flow and brought back some great memories.
Our second dive was called 'Secret Treasure' (max depth:40ft, dive time: 52 mins), basically it was a 200ft long crack that extended back into the island. We went at a real slow pace, taking 40 mins to get to the back. There was so much to see on both the bottom and walls, including some large and incredibly colourful anemones and some very small but colourful sea fleas. The walls were smothered in corals and there was much more of what we'd seen on the first dive - once again i was reminded of how much i enjoy cold water diving. My bladder was making its feelings know to me, so a speedier exit and back on the boat.
A relaxing journey back brought a great days diving with friendly people to an end.
Met up with Josie and we drove out towards Exit Glacier, stopping when we had a good view so we could enjoy the scenery over a cup of tea.
An early start Monday as we met at Kayak Adventures (www.kayakak.com) at 7:15am. We had scheduled a full day kayak trip – bonus, there were only 4 of us plus the guide. We took a sea taxi out to where we were going to be kayaking, the journey took 2.5 hours and apart from the wonderful scenery we saw some great wildlife, including a bald eagle in its nest, resident orcas (fish eaters), dall porpoise (up close and personal - we even got splashed by their wake), puffins (horned and tufted) and a colony of basking stellar sea lions!
We were dropped off on a pebble beach and proceeded to kayak the 2.5 miles to Aialik Glacier, along the way we saw a black bear wandering along the shoreline. We could hear the glacier before we even saw it, the noise of huge chunks of ice breaking off the glacier (known as calving) as they hit the waters the sound was phenomenal. The locals called the noise 'white thunder'. Rounding a corner we were confronted with the glacier, at 1.5 miles wide and 600ft high it really was something to behold. We worked our way through the pack ice getting to within a third of a mile of the glacier (about the closet you can safely get). We ate lunch whilst watching the glacier actively calve in front of us. The larger chunks of ice cause swells that traveled out to us. If the glacier wasn t enough, we were also treated to harbour seals swimming around us.
On the way back to the beach we saw lots more puffins .
We ended up kayaking for about 3 hours and could have quite happily turned around and done it all again.
However, there was still more to come with humpbacks and even better our first sightings of sea otters.
Th icing on the cake was our guide - Dave, he was incredibly knowledgeable, easy going and very professional ( even Josie was impressed and that’s a serious accolade). A seriously hard day to top.
Ate great Thai food at 'Woodys'.
Tuesday was a slightly later start, that said we still had to be at Exit Glacier Guides at 8am for a day of ice climbing (www.exitglacierguides.com). There were 6 in the group, accompanied by 2 guides - Ryan and Kevin; again the guides were awesome, both in terms of knowledge, professionalism and approachability.
We were kitted out with boots, crampons, harness and helmet and set off for Exit glacier. The first part of the journey was a repeat of the walk to the Harding Ice Field, with us retracing the 1.5 miles to the meadows. Although only a couple of days had passed since we'd last been there, the number of wildflowers had seemed to proliferated.
Leaving the main trail we took a side trail down to the edge of the glacier. Reaching the edge of the glacier, the temperature dropped considerably, with the wind whipping off the glacier. I added a long sleeved top, fleece, windproof jacket, beanie hat and gloves to my existing layers before donning the boots and crampons, helmet and harness. Kevin talked through the art of walking on ice and then we stepped onto the glacier.
The first few steps felt very clumsy and you had to trust that the crampons would do their job, however very quickly it felt more natural. After a few minutes we were told how to traverse and walk down a glacier; we all had a practice then on we went again until we reached a gently sloping wall. Here we were shown the technique for climbing by digging the spikes at the front of the crampons into the ice at a 90 degree angle. It was really freaky walking up a wall, with only your boots (and body position) holding you in place. The final lesson was ice pick use and we proceeded over the glacier
These guys and Kayak Adventures partner each other and I can see why as they have the same ethos towards both the customer experience and the environment as a whole. They both offer far more than we were able to undertake whilst we were in Seward, I could easily see a trip to Alaska being arranged purely around what these two companies can offer - high praise indeed.
Being on the glacier was worth the money alone. Its difficult to describe, but its as if the glacier is alive ! There is water flowing just below the surface like blood running through veins, the sound of surface water is like the glacier breathing and you know there’s this slow movement as it progresses at a rate of 2ft per day, so its never the same twice. We stepped over crevasses, looking down the blue of the ice is a wonder; we looked down into vertical sinkholes where water plunged out of sight; we even drank water straight from a glacial stream. I never appreciated how much water runs on and through the glacier, waterways had been created all over the place.
Ropes, pulleys etc were set up at 3 different locations (crevasses) during our hours on the glacier. Each was progressively more difficult as we learn t the basics - each time we were lowered down, then climbed back up being coached and cajoled as we went. I absolutely loved it (probably my favourite activity of the time - wildlife aside), and got the grasp of it pretty quickly. Josie really didn't want to do it, but a mixture of bullying and encouragement she got up the nerve. There was a lot of swearing, but she plucked up the courage of being lowered over a vertical lip (the hardest part as you have to really trust your not going to fall as you step off and horizontally walk down the wall face). Her confidence grew and she did all 3 of he climbs and became the guides favorite guest of the day - the strange mix of swearing and singing Disney songs to distract herself swung it I think :)
It was another great day, topped off with some great seafood - razor clams and a local fisherman’s stew.
I had been worried that we had chosen to spend too much time in Seward when there is so much going on in Alaska, in the end both of us were sorry to be leaving and could happily spent our remaining 10 days there !
