Summer Adventures- Post 2

The first activity on this adventure took us backpacking over Crow Pass in Chugach State Park. It's the third largest state park in the United States, weighing in at 495,204-acres. The park is located just east of Anchorage and had a variety of terrain. My backpacking group started at Crow Pass Trailhead, climbed steeply up to the pass. We were greeted by phenomenal views of Raven Glacier and the Eagle River we would be walking along over the next few days. After some semi-treacherous snow crossings, we made it down to the valley. Over the next few days, we hiked along the Eagle River, originally named Yukla-hina by the Dena'ina tribe. Throughout the backpack, we had saw grouse, dall sheep high on the mountains, mountain goats, and one group even saw grizzly bears!

The next activity took us to Prince William Sound for a five day sea kayak. Shortly after discovering that our kayak guide was going to be a old Mammoth friend that I had lost contact with for a couple years, we launched our kayaks from Whittier. Our group took a boat taxi about halfway to Blacksands Beach in order to separate our two kayak groups. The next two days were spent paddling up to the beach. Surrounding our camp was a culdesac of 3 calving tidewater glaciers and beautiful waterfalls. This was the highlight of my trip in Alaska! Perched on a large house-sized rock off blacksands beach, we had front row seats for a spectacular show of calving glaciers. At one point, I witnessed an approx. 800ft tower peal off the 1300ft face of Barry Glacier and slowly crash into the sea! Watching from about a couple miles away, the waves were probably close to 20ft, reducing to a 2 ft by the time they reached the beach.

Due to the constantly calving glaciers, the waters are choked with mini icebergs. During a lowering tide, the icebergs spread out and are relatively easy to navigate around. During a rising tide, the icebergs are forced together, creating a mass of floating ice. Some kayaks have become entrapped for up to six hours by ice locking around their boats. When we entered the bay, the tide way going out, and the students were able to carefully weave through the ice with their fragile fiberglass boats. On our way out a day later, the tide was coming in and the icebergs were beginning to build up. Corey, our guide and I were in durable plastic kayaks and used them to part the ice, making a path for the fiberglass boats to travel on. We were never in any real danger due to Corey's being on top of things, but I had a great time acting like one of those arctic ice boats that plows through ice! We saw an abundance of wildlife on the trip including sea otters, seals, bald eagles, and a pod of orcas! The other kayak pod even saw a humpback whale breach! Check out the interactive Google map below for our route. Click on the symbols for more info.


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Summer Adventures- Post 1

I have returned! This has been an adventurous summer with some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! My summer job with Adventure Treks made my dream of traveling to Alaska a reality. I got to spend about a month up in the largest and most beautiful outdoor playground I've experienced. I have been fortunate enough in my life to see many beautiful places, but Alaska takes the cake! It is the Last Frontier and man does it have some amazing recreational opportunities. During our group's last backpack in the Talkeetna Mountains, all I could think was "I could build my cabin there, or there, or there, etc." Alaska is a land of big mountains, open space, and no sense of time!


My journey started after nine days of staff orientation in Battleground, WA. My staff team of 5 and I packed up our home (aka U-Haul), popped it on the back of a brand new 15 passenger van, and began our four day drive up to Anchorage. We crossed the border into BC after stressing over an unfriendly patrol who cautioned us on entering without some of my co instructors having a passport. The laws have changed and they're being stern with travelers in preparation for the law going taking effect. We got across (thankfully Alaska let us back in a few days later) and continued a whirlwind of driving through BC. The farther North we traveled, the more beautiful the scenery became, and the later the sun stayed up. Before attacking HWY 37, notorious for pinballing rocks between the glass windows of our van and u-haul, we covered the weak spots with cardboard.

Next up came the beautiful Yukon Territory, home to Robert Service and solitude! A month later, we drove back via HWY 97 and saw an amazing amount of wildlife... countless caribou, mountain goats, a black bear, and bison! The bison took over the road, causing a bit of a road block! The drive back also proved to be a bit adventurous due to a breakdown in the middle of nowhere. We were aiming to get back to the continental U.S. quickly because a co instructor and I were both jumping on another trip with very little turn around time. My Alaska team and I were rotating drivers, stopping only for meals and bathroom breaks in hopes of gaining half a day to explore Seattle. About 3am, we discovered the u-haul had sprung a flat, but only after the tire shredded itself into confetti across the Yukon! With four tires on the u-haul, we never even felt the flat until it was too late. To top off the experience, we were almost out of gas, having passed up the last non-automated petrol station at midnight. A local drove by an hour later, informing us there was a small town (I would call it a village) with gas and a mechanic who might have a trailer tire in the following town. We lucked out on both and were back on the road a few hours later!

Once in Alaska, we set off to prepare for the students arrival. Part of the itinerary included scouting the trail heads the backpacking groups would be using. In Alaskan bear country it is recommended that you make noise so that you don't startle any bears that you might happen upon (in addition to having a can of bear spray). Some do this with bells, others sing, some just yell. Our staff team agreed on shouting "Hey Bear" or the phrase "I'm a salmon!" One of my co instructors, Billy, walked about 10 yards up the bushy Crow Pass Trail Head during a scouting mission and was inspecting some plants. The rest of the staff team was down in the parking lot. I heard him say "Hey Bear" and thought nothing of it. Then he exclaimed "Shoo Bear!" Instantly I realized this could mean only one thing. The rest of the staff team and I cautiously rushed up to Billy who was slowly backing away from a curious black bear. We grouped together (also protocol for interacting with black bear) and couldn't resist taking a few pictures before retreating further!


Just before started running shuttles from Eagle River Campground to Anchorage to pick up the students, I walked off to treeline to pee. Once I found my spot, I looked up and saw a big rock. I thought, "I don't remember a rock there." Upon looking closer... "That's a hairy rock." Light bulb flickers on... "Whoa... that's a moose! Retreat!" Moose have been proven to be more dangerous than grizzlies because of their unpredictability. Fortunately, this moose frequented the campground and was used to humans!

John meet Blog, Blog Meet John

Question from me:

What's a blog?

I was still asking myself this question last week, even though a few friends have suggested trying it out for a while now. I've known you can post your thoughts but this looks cool! It appears as though technology will allow me to post videos, pictures, and who knows what else! Hmmm... technology is cool.

Question from you:

Who is Sierra and what "Stuff" will Sierra post on his blog?

Well, think back to a time, many moons ago when I took a little walk in the woods... for five months. This was the trail name that I adopted and I could think of nothing better to call my blog. Fits eh?

Many of you have recieved massive e-mails from me during my journey along the Appalachian Trail and during my eight month trip to New Zealand. I've been trying to find an easier (and less annoying) way to keep you up to date on my whereabouts. With this blog, I hope to keep you interested and not flood your e-mail account with more megabytes of information that you can count on two hands! In addition, you can come pay me a virtual visit any time you want, and drop a note telling me how you've been doing! Who knows... maybe this blog will turn into something more. After all, we do have technolody on our side.

Conclusion:

So to keep this short, I have no idea how to work this website yet so I expect a lot of changes. In fact, none of you know I have a blog yet so I'm currently just writing to myself. I'm ok with this since its passing the time before I eat crab that my Dad and I caught today :)