9 HOURS!10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. was the time frame of our hike in the Alaskan wilderness! And that's about the amount of time you'll need to devote to reading this LONG BLOG!
We weren't inform as to the caliber of hike this past Sunday would entail, and were under the impression it would be a semi-maintained trail-hike through to a touristy-type of glacier "fun-walk". After all, we were going for a fun, casual Sunday afternoon with our realtor friend and wife.
Regardless of his wife's hiking experience, we assumed it would be a leisurely calm time, whether it was lengthy or not, simply b/c his "wife" was going. So as to think it wasn't a man's man type of hike.
SO! It turns out his wife didn't join us, and it was our realtor Dustin, Tate, the 18 yr. old son of the head realtor friend of ours, Case, and moi.
It was a man’s man type of hike! So, if we knew this we would have brought water shoes, wore our taller Army-type waterproof boots, brought extra socks, pants, and more food and water.
To start off Dustin shuttled us one by one with a four wheeler for about 15 mins. Up through the worst of the mud. It saved “an hour and a half” of hiking, and was the best plan to get up to the highland so Dustin and Tate could hunt mountain sheep. An ulterior motive we didn’t know was attached for the day.
We had three rifles with us! The three guys carried them the whole trip, and Dustin let Casey shoot one across a ravine across a meadow. POW! KICK! That enthused the dudes in machoism!
This 4 wheeler excursion proved to be the toughest part of the day! Dustin flung us all over the trail, seemingly purposely ramping every pot hole available and continuing at speed of out of controlness! At first Casey tried to ride on front with me on the back seat, and Dustin driving! Case bruised his whole back up and down, and I got a blister from holding on so tight, and my arms were so sore. It was seemingly dangerous but an awesome ride for me! Casey begs to differ.
Picture pure thickets and thickets of Alder tree bushes, about 4 feet high, with abrasive 2-3 inch thick, mostly broken, branches that continually stab, swipe, poke, jab, trip, and fling all over the lower half of our bodies. I never quite bit it and fell completely on my face, but Casey did a couple times, (ha). But more so Dustin totally flopped all across the trail three to four times, almost simultaneously with Casey. It was hilarious to Tate and I, as we offered our obligatory, “Are you okay?” type of condolences.
All around us were huge jagged granite mountains Scotlandesque. The sun was intense all day, but we wouldn't have wanted rain. Our hike consisted of up, down, up, up, up, down, down, cross 50 freezing feet of raging, rocky creek, up, up, up, down, across, across, and turn around to head back.
At one point, we accidentally took the “game trail” as opposed to the nonexistent “human trail”. It was literally straight up the side of a mountain bluff, full of moose tracks, bear poop, and complimented by a trickling creek we had to weave through.
There was a problem for anyone over the weight of 150, called
Alaskan quicksand. It's a pure poop colored mud that looks somewhat solid enough to step on.
Then in a split second, you flop right into a 5 x 5 feet size of it up to your knee and sopping your boots deeper and deeper in suctioned mud. Needless to say, the guys kept falling in helplessly, and it was virtually unavoidable unless you climbed a tree or dangled like so from the trees branches on somewhat firmer ground.
Through the hike, we
smelled bear two uncomfortable times, but never saw one. It smells like a more intense wet dog smell, with some indescribable other unique smell. I don't think I could pick it out if they weren't pointing it out.
"Do you smell that? Did you guys smell that?" That's what our 2 Alaskan natives kept saying, very seriously, and actually getting nervous in their own minds.
To further our suspicion, we saw a deep purple,
blue poop. "Can you guess what animal's poop this is?"
I knew immediately but did not answer for a few seconds as it sank in and I heard Casey say, "whoa, that's fresh poop!" "Yes, fresh tart poop", said Tate. Before salmon scouring, bears take care of any and all blueberries up on the mountain side.
The last time we smelled bear it was more than a few strong wiffs and we all got a little too quiet thinking and sensing it was near. But that was broken up by Casey's, "Hey, shouldn't we be making louder noise to scare them off?" And so Dustin's insessent, yet enjoyable stories, continued.
All along the hike we ate fresh watermelon berries (taste watery and fun to grab and eat), and a few, random blueberries that were left by the bears. Also, there's something called fireweed that I tried, called this b/c it has some red shaded leaves. It's like fresh cucumber/spearmint, but more so when they are baby plants, otherwise this day it was quite bitter.
One other quick highlight is the creek we crossed halfway through the hike! We had to slowly get through this freezing water that was past my waist! The water was wild and raging like I have almost never seen before. The guys helped me wade through it slowly and I slipped a little but they braced me.
One split second later in the bracing, and I would have been heading down the creek probably 50 mph! OH MY! Needless to say, once we crossed it I felt relieved, and almost pissed that I couldn’t do it by myself. But thank God we made it through. It puts you in your place on earth, when sometimes we (I) think, “we human, hear us roar through your wilderness and slop through your land!”
Long blog of hiking details cut short now: all in all, IT WAS AWESOME! I loved it! The true Alaskan wilderness!
Last side dumb random note: “Tommy Lee Goes to College” is a hilarious blast from the past in how college classes and people are! HA!
