142 Bus

The best possible way to end my Alaskan adventure.

Crow Pass and Hatcher Pass

My mom surprised me this past week by coming up for five days on business! She had known for two weeks beforehand but kept it from me until she was 100% sure it would happen.

We had every kind of seafood imaginable and got some solid hiking done. First up was Crow Pass, a 21 mile pass over a mountain and through some rivers. We didn't finish the hike, but we got a good workout in. The next day we headed north through Palmer into Hatcher Pass. This was less strenuous but still a great hike. 

A stop by the musk ox farm on the way home ended our vacation. I was so glad to have her up here (again!) and I am looking forward to returning to Texas. I've just got one more thing to do up here...

Typical Day

6:45 wake up, get dressed (our dress code around the office is really casual) and hitch a ride with one of the other interns to work

7:30 get my engineering going.

Sometime between 7:30 and 4:30 I get ideas of what it is I want to do with the next weekend.

4:30 get off of work and make it back to my apartment.

4:45 put something together for dinner, and watch boxing or Suits.

11:00 hit the sack

Typical work day, but Alaska gives me some opportunities with the outdoors that are hard to find anywhere else.

Also, I went to see The Dark Knight Rises. Great movie! Highly recommended.

Iceberg Island

Epic 28 mile sea kayaking trip!

Me and four others left Whittier, Alaska on a water taxi out to Blackstone Bay this past Friday. We kayaked a very large amount over two days, and saw some truly incredible stuff.

"Longhorn Falls" (my own name)

Camping out on an island- we had it all to ourselves!

Right next to my camp site. The tide receded and left a bunch of ice.

One of the glacial caves we found!

Some deep blues

This guy knows how to relax.

Water was seriously like glass. Dodging the small ice chunks was a ton of fun.

This is what I woke up to! It was incredible.

He thinks I didn't see him...hah

These little ice chunks were heavy. Hexagonal patterns covered them, I don't know why!

Just awesome.

Second glacial cave.

My first sea kayaking trip turned out to be pretty good. 

Davis' Alaska

The whole family joined me for a week in Alaska!

We started off our excursion with a hike up Flattop Mountain. Everyone was happy to reach the top, but it wasn't easy! The winds at the peak were literally pushing me around!

The next day we headed south to Seward. This was new terrain for me, and it brought new experiences. We had my first bear sighting! A black bear was about twenty yards away from us outside our hotel room. A wildlife cruise in the rain took us out to some amazing islands and fjords. We saw multiple humpback whales, a bunch of speedy Dall's porpoises, seal, eagles, and puffins.

Heading north to Denali National Park took a while but was well worth it. We saw Mt. McKinley (third most prominent mountain in the world), more than 10 grizzly bears (a bunch of cubs too), caribou, and some of the most ridiculous views I've ever experienced. We went white water rafting Sunday morning down the Nenana River. Too much fun.

I'll miss my family until I get home mid-August. Until then, I'll try to live up to my favorite Fight Club quote..."We just had a near-life experience, fellas."

The Spit (Homer, AK)

Five hours, 221 miles, and limitless Alaskan scenes are all that separate Anchorage from Homer. We headed down to Homer this past Thursday evening, and I can say that it has to be one of the coolest towns in America.

A few notable wildlife encounters:

Tons of bald eagles- too many to count even- and probably six or seven moose, along with many otter rounded out the Alaskan safari for the weekend.

Once you get over the last big hill to the city you see the famous Homer spit, a sand and rock land bridge that goes out into the bay a few miles. Surrounding that is a large number of mountains and a dense forest. Over the freezing water stand a few giant volcanoes, islands, and more mountains. This place is truly amazing. 

 

 

We camped out on a beach and then on the spit itself. Staying on the spit was a cool experience- some drunk fishermen came over to our fire and told us crazy stories, competed in the 'spit olympics' (throwing rocks at beer bottles), bit chunks out of their beer cans with just their teeth, and talk about the best way to catch salmon and halibut. I didn't know until I got there, but Homer is home to the now-famous Time Bandit ship and crew. Meeting those guys was something I don't get to do every day. 

Friday we took a halibut charter out and caught 4 halibut, a bunch of rockfish, and I caught a giant Skate (basically a stingray) which was by far the biggest thing I've ever caught. The thing felt like an anchor reeling it in.

Homer was a great trip.

The Russian

This Saturday I went with three coworkers south two hours onto the famous Kenai Peninsula to fish the equally famous Russian River. People come from all over the world to 'combat' fish on the banks of this freezing cold river. Literally hundreds of fishermen flip their lines hoping to snag a Red Salmon. Our trip proved to be of bad timing- none of us even had a bite. hahah. But I felt less worse when I noticed that no one else on the river had any luck either. Sometimes you just miss the run! The experience was still amazing. It's such a huge event to be fishing here. On our way out we saw a big group of people who were about to start a wedding right on the bank of the river! That kind of speaks to the importance of what goes on at the Russian.