DAY 280 Sunday 15th JUNE 2008

Denali National Park, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28800)

Our stay in Anchorage is short – mercifully as I think on our first pass through we did as much as we had wanted to, bar one or two attraction. We are now heading north into the Alaskan interior, through the mighty Alaskan range. It is this range that separates the wet but relatively mild south from the drier but colder north. This range is home to the mighty Mount McKinley, which is known to native Athabaskan’s as Denali meaning the "The Great One" and is the highest mountain peak in North America, at a height of approximately 20,320 feet (6,194 m). Mount McKinley has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest. Even though the summit of Everest is about 9,000 feet (2,700 m) higher as measured from sea level, its base sits on the Tibetan Plateau at about 17,000 feet (5,200 m), giving it a real vertical rise of a little more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The base of Mount McKinley is roughly a 2,000-foot plateau, giving it an actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m).

The vagaries of the Alaskan weather means that Mount McKinley is often not visible due to cloud cover and as we left Anchorage the rain and low clouds look set in for the day. Perhaps we were not destined to see this icon of Alaska. Fortunately the drive up to Denali National Park (where Mount McKinley is the centre piece) is quite long so we pray for a break in the weather. As we pass closer to the park we see a whole load of car pulled in on the side of the road so being curious folks we pulled over too. Much to our delight on the side of the road was a black bear quite happily munching on some plants – we tentatively got out to take some photos. These animals can be aggressive but there were a large number of us and they are not known to attack groups and would be more likely to run off. So we snapped a few shots and moved on. As luck would have it almost at this point in time the cloud cover started to break-up and 20 minutes later the skies were relatively clear and we came across an ideal vantage point to see Mount McKinley, and we were so pleased that in the distance but prominent amongst all its neighbours stood the snow capped peaks of McKinley. We were so lucky – so much so that we stood for quite some time soaking it all in. Yet as always we still had a distance to go.

For two nights we are based in the Denali Lodge cabins. Although one might expect these to be quaint log cabins we would describe them more a the potting shed gentlemen of a certain age back home might have use to escape the prying eyes and sharp tongues of their spouses. Anyway we don’t plan to spend much time in them. The day is still warm and sunny – and these long days give you plenty of time to pack stuff in – so we headed off into the National Park to check out what programmes we being run the next day. Once this was completed we decided to drive 11 miles into the park – essentially as far as private vehicles are allowed to go. You can venture much deeper into the park but you have to take a tour bus – we decided to settle for a hike. Mum and dad wanted a gentle saunter down along the river – but Jack and Emil wanted to scale the hill so on this occasion the children had their choice. As we climbed higher we soon realised that it was much steeper than we had anticipated and very rugged terrain. Karen decided that she wanted to stop so Mark, Jack and Emily continued on alone. Not much further on Mark’s lack of fitness gave out so he stopped and let Emily and Jack press on thinking it was not much further to the top. When he lost sight of them and they didn’t return 10 minutes later he got worried and continued to the top and then could find them. Unbeknownst to him they had come down a different route and so he set off down yet another route. It was about 45 minutes later when we all managed to hook up again – with everyone angry with each other (this is how the concern was expressed). Mark had been worried about Jack and Emily, Karen about Mark etc etc. Having said all that it was a wonderful walk and the views across the tundra to the distant mountains was spectacular. We all slept well that night.

Today we were delighted with our choice to do the walk the previous day as it turned out to be a grotty day – wet and cold. So we decided to head for the Murie Science and Learning Center, named after Adolph Murie naturalist, author, and wildlife biologist who pioneered field research on wolves, bears, and other mammals and birds in Artic and sub-Arctic Alaska. This Centre is a collaboration between the National Park Service and other institutions, carrying on many areas of research into the geography, wildlife biology and the ecology of Denali and the wider reaches of the Alaskan wilderness. We spend a half an hour studying the wonderful exhibits on show before heading off to hear what turns out to be a fantastic talk by one of the researchers from the Centre on the glaciers in Denali National Park.

After this illuminating presentation we head back to the Park’s main Visitor Centre so Jack and Emily can extend their collection of Junior Ranger badges. This also gave us an opportunity to explore the exhibits. The weather was if anything getting worst outside, but being hardy souls we braved the conditions outside to join one of the Park Rangers on a short trail around the Visitor Centre. We simply love these Ranger programmes, and best of all today we were the only four people on the walk – our own personal Ranger. As always it was great to learn about the history and ecology of the area. We also discovered our Ranger was only here for the summer months in winter he led dog mushing tours into Denali park – often camping out there in temperatures around minus 30 or 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

One last planned activity for the day was to visit the sled dog kennels in the Park. Denali is the only National to have its own dog teams, which are used in the winter months to manage the park. The Park is open all year round and even in the frigid winters people want to enter the park to explore the wilderness. The kennels provide much better conditions for the dogs than we saw at the Seavey kennels in Seward. The dogs were extremely sociable and loved the attention and to be petted. Of course we were only too happy to do this. As well as the chance to walk around the kennels one of the Rangers gave a presentation on the history of the Denali dog sled teams and the roles they continue to play in managing the park to this date. As no motorised vehicles are allowed into the wilderness areas this is the only means of transport through the long winter months.

DAY 278 Friday 13th JUNE 2008

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28500)

Yesterday was our last day on the Kenai Peninsula and at last the sun poked out its much missed head from the cloudy skies. So we decided this would be good time to go and explore a place we had wanted to visit all week – the romantically named Exit Glacier. The glacier is actually a National Monument and as we approached the Visitor Centre on the entry road there are markers on the roadside with dates going back into last century. The markers show where the front face of this glacier was in that year. Exit Glacier is as it’s name suggests is exiting – retreating back up to the Harding Ice Field from whence it came, waiting for the next appearance of global cooling before starting its next march forward. The retreat is inextricable and scarily rapid – we’re just glad to be here to see Exit before it exits.

As always we go the Visitor Centre first to get the lay of the land and to check out the Junior Ranger programme. Emily as ever is enthusiastic to earn her badge, Jack more reticent – sees himself above being a “Junior” Ranger – but as always we bully him into it and as always he is happy to get the badge. We get into a bit of a debate why glaciers emit a cool blue light and the Ranger is a little miffed when we question his theories so we decided to allow him to wallow in his clouded delusion and take one of the trails.

Our route wiggles through the trees and brush and brings us to the cold, fast flowing river that is entirely the creation of water melting from the great glacier. The river is narrow in comparison to the flood plain which is covered with smooth, pebble like stones from a time when then river was much larger or indeed in a different place. We leave the trail to cross the river plane – after leaping over couple of tiny tributaries we are able to walk right to the face of Exit Glacier. Here you touch the glacier, observe the crystalline structure and hear the sounds of the glacier; cracking and creaking under the pressure of millions of tons of ice and waters melting into numerous streams that eventually congregate and join to form the river below. We are all stunned by this experience. From the glacier face we take another trail which brings us to side of the glacier where we can see the tortured structure of this frozen river – deep crevasses starting at the glaciers top surface and dropping down tens of feet. The sun light penetrates the outer shell of the glacier and is reflected back giving the glacier its steely blue ice colour. This is almost a spiritual experience.

Sadly it is time to leave Exit Glacier – we could stayed all day but it was also time to leave Seward and head back to Anchorage for one night. It is still a lovely day and the views are spectacular and we make a few stops for photos on the way back – including a few more moose shots. Never have to many of those – at least as far as Emily is concerned. Tonight we are stopping at the South Bluff B&B with the Goodmans. It is wonderful from the moment we meet their Burmese Mountain Dog to the stunning room and even more stunning view out onto the Sound. Even better for Jack and Emily there are children and garden toys to play with – they are so happy. Staying in a motor home makes you appreciate the luxury of space and comfortable beds – and our bed is totally sumptuous so we get a wonderful, much needed night of sleep. In the morning we are greeted with a splendid breakfast of fruit and delicious blueberry scones. Ten out of ten

DAY 276 Wednesday 11th JUNE 2008

Seward, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28350)

After spending Tuesday all at sea we decided to focus our last few days in Steward on terra firma. Since arriving in Alaska and Emily finding out about the existence of kennels for dog sledding huskies that were open to the public we had been pressurised into visiting one of these establishments. Luckily enough one such place existed close to Seward. Despite this being summer and the snow being long gone this tour also promised us a sled ride – how could we turn down this opportunity. So on Wednesday off we set to the “Iditaride” Dog Sled tour.

Dog sledding is a big winter sport here in Alaska and the blue riband event of the sledding world is the Iditarod, the largest sporting event in Alaska (which is not saying too much). The official website of this annual event best describes it:

“A race over 1,150 miles of the most extreme and beautiful terrain known to man: across mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline”

Today the event starts in Anchorage before heading off into the vast Alaskan interior and finally ends up in the remote North Western coastal town of Nome. Amazingly the current fastest winning time record was set in 2002 by Martin Buser with a time of 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, and 2 seconds. Wow!

The race is named after the town of Iditarod, which was an Athabaskan village before becoming the centre of the Inland Empire's Iditarod Mining District in 1910, and then turning into a ghost town at the end of the local gold rush. The name Iditarod may be derived from the Athabaskan haiditarod, meaning "far distant place". The event in part is a tribute to the 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the "Great Race of Mercy." A diphtheria epidemic threatened Nome, especially the Inuit children who had no immunity to the "white man's disease," and the nearest quantity of antitoxin was in Anchorage. Since the two available planes were both dismantled and had never been flown in the winter, Governor Scott Bone approved a safer route. The 20-pound (9 kg) cylinder of serum was sent by train 298 miles (480 km) from the southern port of Seward to Nenana, where it was passed just before midnight on January 27 to the first of twenty mushers and more than 100 dogs who relayed the package 674 miles (1,085 km) from Nenana to Nome. The dogs ran in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles (160 km).

Anyway back to our tour! The kennels is operated by the Seavey family and multi-generation dog mushing industry. In 2004 Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod and continues to participate along with his three sons. Our first stop on the tour is to see the dogs. They have some 90 huskies at this particular kennels, they are all chained to a stake just far enough apart from them not to reach each other. Their only shelter is a small plastic kennel which they can barely fit into. Karen and Emily are pretty shocked by these conditions, especially when you realise these dogs live out here even through the harsh Alaskan winters. We are told the dogs are friendly, although the sight of us has got them all of a quiver as they know our arrival means some will be going out on a run. These dogs do not like most people’s vision of a husky. They are skinny, wiry dogs of various shapes, colours and sizes; bred for racing. We are told the husky is a mutt – a mixture of dogs aimed at breeding the perfect sled pulling beast. After the initial shock of all this we go over and start petting and fussing some of the dogs and they are indeed friendly. Next up is the sled ride. Eight of us climb aboard what can best be described as a metal framed cart – with wheels instead of runners. We sit and watch as the handlers untie 14 of the dogs and hitch them to harnesses on the front of our cart. The back of the cart is tied to a large post to stop us being pulled away before our musher is ready. Our young guide/ musher unties the cart and after a couple of simple instructions off we head. The tour is around 20 minutes long but is punctuated by stops so the dogs don’t overheat – this balmy weather is too hot for these guys they prefer minus 40. Along route we get told about the basics of mushing. All too soon we are back.

Next stop on our tour is the breeding kennels where they have a litter of small puppies and some a few weeks older. We are introduced to Danny Seavey – one of Mitch Seavey’s sons. Emily is in her element as we are allowed to pick up and cuddle the smaller pups and go into the kennel and frolic with the older ones. Also here are a couple of Melamute’s. These dogs look more like the traditional image of huskies, hairy rounded faces, powerful features – real beasts of burden. Apparently these dogs are strong and great for pulling big loads but are too slow for racing. Our final stop is a lean to building where we are shown a video about dog sledding and our young musher friend shows us some of the essential equipment used in racing; from the sleds to clothing to food. This is a hands on demonstration so Jack and Emily are willing volunteers to dress up in clothing to preserve life at frigid temperatures at minus 40 and lower.

Despite being saddened but the apparent harsh conditions in which the dogs are kept (we are assured this is the norm) we had a wonderful time and learnt a lot about a sport about which we had no idea.

DAY 275 Tuesday 10th JUNE 2008

Seward, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28330)

Another Alaskan summer’s day – cold with a low dank mist covering the mountains. Today is an early start, and we wearily raise ourselves from our slumber, grab a quick breakfast from the provision we bought at the local store and hit the road. The plan is to take 9 ½ boat trip from Seward up the Northwestern Fjord some 70 odd miles down the coast. The overcast weather puts some doubt in our mind on this endeavour but we have already bought the tickets so we committed to doing this.

At around 9:00am our boat glides out onto the calm waters of Resurrection Bay, a deep water bay cut by glaciers. The bay is surrounded by steep mountains (so we believe as they are not visible today) which butt up right against these frigid waters. As we pull away we have our first wildlife sighting, a very cute sea otter contentedly floating on his back as we cruise past him. These wonderful and endangered creatures were nearly hunted into extinction but fortunately are now protected, but fishing and other man-made influences to their environment still put these otters at risk.

We leave our otter friend behind and travel further down the bay. Our captain for the day is handsome (this is Karen’s opinion not Marks!!) and dry-witted uses his eagle eyes to keep an eye out for any more wildlife. Occasionally the radio sputters into life and tour boat captains further up the bay radio in potential spottings. After one such call we head towards the shore. Here we find a pod of Orca (Killer Whales) serenely swimming and hunting in the bay for King Salmon. Almost immediately as we pull to a juvenile Orca breaches (jumps clear of the water) and crashes back down. We all see this except Karen – who always seems to miss these. Truly wonderful! Our captain explains more about the Orcas and how they can be identified individually by their markings and how the pod can be identified by their calls. Unfortunately we cannot hang around too long as there is much more to see so off we head further up the bay towards to the Bay of Alaska and the open ocean.

As we get closer to the open seas two things happen – the wave action gets more pronounced and secondly we start to see whales. These are not Orcas this time (which are actually not whales) but hump back whales. Back in March we had down a whale tour in Hawaii to observe the humpback whales that visit to breed in the warm waters of the pacific during the winter months before returning north to their feeding grounds. We wonder whether if any of these humpback we see now were the same individuals we saw thousands of miles south of here – a romantic but unlikely prospect. It is difficult to say how many humpbacks we saw during this trip but it was probably between 15 and 20 – most were distant sightings but we were treated to one or two visits by these 40 foot long magnificent mammals much closer, perhaps 75 to 100 feet from our boat.

Jack and Emily were enjoying the ride. Jack was determined to demonstrate his man hood by staying outside on the bow of the boat for the whole trip. Despite this technically being summer in Alaska it was a raw day and he got absolutely frozen, but was determined to take this adventure head on and spent about 90% of the journey outside. Although we had to thaw him out at the end of the day. Emily, who sensibly like her parents, spent more time inside only venturing out to see sights before returning to the warm, spent most of her time befriending everyone on the boat. She stuck up a relationship with two ladies travelling with one of their grandchildren. At the end of the tour these ladies said how wonderful Emily was and we think they would have happily adopted her. It is amazing how much better behaved our children are with other adults!

Eventually we pass through the rougher open waters of the Bay of Alaska, around the Kenai Peninsula into the calm waters of the Northwestern Fjord. Our main purpose of coming here is to see glaciers. On a clear day glaciers can be seen high up in the valley and circs of the mountains – but today we have come to look at tidewater glaciers. These glaciers are descending from the vast Harding Ice Field high up the mountains, drawn by gravity these rivers of ice cut their way through to the edge of the sea where they crumble into the icy waters. There are three of four tidewater glaciers in this Fjord but the one we have come to see closer up is the Northwestern Glacier. As we approach the glacier the captain has to drop the boat speed as there are huge blocks of ice floating in the water which have fallen from the glacier. We spot grey specs on top of numerous of these floating ice raft, as we draw closer we see that these are actually harbour seals happily resting on their own frozen craft. The captain stops the boat for 15 minutes which gives us time to stare in awe at the magnificent glacier, which even on this cloudy day shimmers a cold blue a few hundred feet from us. This was the real goal this tour for us. 90% of the glaciers in Alaska are retreating at the planet warms and we wanted to see this marvel of nature whilst we still could. Every so often ice would break from the face of the glacier, an phenomenon known as “Carving” and crash into the sea sending us water high into the air. Sadly we all too soon had to leave and return back to Seward.

The trip back was thankfully uneventful. The route was a little different taking in some of the small, uninhabited rock like islands more remote from the mainland. Here are the habitats of the endangered Stellar Sealion communities and sea bird breeding grounds. The cliff walls of these islands are teaming with birds; horned and tufted puffins, auklets and the penguin-like murres. Finally we pull back into dock after a wonderful day at sea (despite the weather)

DAY 274 Monday 9th JUNE 2008

Seward, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28320)

Today we left Anchorage and travelled south towards the Kenai Peninsula. One thing we have learned so far is the unpredictability of the Alaskan weather – today is one of the better days with partially clear skies. Sorry to continue on about the weather but it is a big thing here up in Alaska. In the southern coastal areas, south of the gigantic peaks of the Alaska Range of mountains, the weather is relatively temperate ( it is still cold by most people’s reckoning in the winter) and they get a lot of rain (and snow in the winter – the road side snow markers are about 12 feet high!!). No need to worry about snow today though! Our route takes us down the Seward Highway along a tidal estuary known as the Turnagain Arm. The views are amazing with steep, snow covered mountains of the Chugach Range on either side of the estuary and visible far into the distance. Absolutely stunning! About 40 miles south of Anchorage we pull over in a road side Visitor’s Centre to get our bearing and realise we are only a mile or two from the Alaskan Wildlife Conversation Center (at Mile Marker 79 on the Seward Highway). Of course with an animal mad girl with us stopping was compulsory. In fact it was great fun, with elk, musk oxen, caribou, brown & black bears and or course moose on display. The highlights for us were the brown bears and the moose.

The three brown bears were in a playful mood and when we reached them they were happily frolicking in the pond – despite their mock ferocious attacks its was plain to see they were simply enjoying each others company. We got some great shots as they splashed around for some 15 minutes or so. After that they disappeared into the undergrowth in their enclosure (which to be fair was large – not always making it easy to spot the animals). This would have been enough for us but by the main building of the Center were three very tame moose. Now Emily is a huge fan of moose, but had yet to get close enough to touch one – but these moose unlike their wild cousins were very amiable and sidled up to the fence where we were able to pet them and touch their antlers (commonly referred to as “paddles”). Some of the visitors, who claimed to be locals, were feeding these moose bananas and allowed Emily to have a try. Normally we would not approved of this as they obviously were not supposed to be doing this, but Emily does love her moose and may never get a chance again to feed one, so we turned a blind eye. We were all now very happy!!

A short distance from Wildlife Conservation Center is a turnoff from the Seward Highway which squeezes down a pass through the mountains to the port town of Whittier on Prince William Sound. We didn’t plan to go all this way but wanted to visit the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Lake. From here you get a great view across Portage Lake, which has been created by the melting waters of Portage Glacier, which is no longer visible from the Visitors Centre and requires a boat trip out onto the lake which we didn’t have time for today. Portage is also the site of the 1964 earthquake, which had a moment magnitude of 9.2 and was an 8.4 on the Richter scale. It was the most powerful recorded earthquake in U.S. and North American history, and the third most powerful ever measured by seismograph. 131 people died mostly in the tsunami waves which were created by the earthquake. There are some great exhibits in the Visitor Centre, covering the story of the glaciers in the area, impact of people on global warming, the earthquake and the wildlife in the valley. Life is pretty tough here, especially in the winters – although milder than interior Alaska they get feet and feet of snow here.

After Portage Lake we continue south to the town of Seward, where we will be staying for the next few days. We are staying in a small log cabin owned by Joe Allen.. The first person we meet is Joe’s son, TJ. Our quaint log cabin in the woods was small – a one room one bathroom affair with a queen bed and pull out sofa bed. TJ is desperate for company so immediately starts to tempt Jack and Emily to come and play in the woods – he shows them his bow and then his knife. This immediately gets their attention and ours – but a reassuring word from Joe means we relent our concerns and off they go to play, although when Joe tells us of the bears and moose sighted in the woods this does nothing to further allay our fears.