Part 9 - Anchorage: The Last Day

 

Anchorage: The Last Day

            My return flight out of Anchorage was at 11:45PM, so I had the whole day to kill. I had plans with a friend that I met on the train the week prior. Her name was Rose. She lived just north of Anchorage. We met up just before lunch. I didn’t have a car, so she picked me up. First item of business: lunch.

 

We stopped at a restaurant named the Moose’s Tooth Pub. It’s one of Anchorage’s best pizza places. When we were looking at the menu, both of us couldn’t agree on which one we wanted. We decided to do best of three in rock, paper, scissors for it. It’s only fair. If I won, we’d do he All-American pizza; if she won, we’d order the Fire House. 

 

With both of us ready, we went for it. Rock, paper, scissor, shoot: both of us did rock. Ok. That didn’t work. Round 2: both of us did paper. Ok. Refocus, pizza is on the line. “You got this. Round 3 is all yours,” I told myself. I knew what I was going to do: scissors. But she had the same idea. A three for three tie. I guess it wasn’t in the dice. We ordered both pizzas in small. I have to admit though, the Fire House pizza was better. She had the home field advantage after all.

 

After that we went to the Anchorage Museum. Alaska residents get in cheaper, so, for the time, I was an Alaskan resident. The museum was cool, but they had some odd exhibits. The first room was dedicated specifically to photography depicting Alaska. The strange thing, however, were the scenes of the photographs. There wasn’t much special about them. For example, one was a picture of an Alaskan park which doesn’t seem strange on the face. But the picture was through the metal chain-link fence. Like, can’t you go inside the park to take the picture? Weird perspective, but ok. Then there were other, even more questionable ones. A picture of a moose, which doesn’t seem weird in writing, but it was the taxidermied moose on display in the Anchorage airport. Literally anyone could take that picture, why put this on display? And to think, an entire room of about 30 pictures like this. The whole thing was odd. But it gave us something to talk about and we certainly won’t forget it.

 

Next, we went to the theater room. It was also scenes from Alaska, but it was even more questionable. We were the only two in there. The first video we saw was some lady walking slow and odd through the snow on a mountain. This lady was walking with a purpose other than the obvious purpose of walking: to get somewhere. It took literally five minutes for her to go twenty feet. One wonders what went through the director’s mind. He couldn’t have possibly thought that this was the shot, his calling card. Or could he? That was just one video, what could be next. The next was a scene of a snowy mountain from an aerial point of view. Everything was in black and white except for this bar that slowly made its way across the screen. The bar made its way about as fast as the lady from the previous film. And this video just ended, with credits and all. Then came another. This video started with horror-like screeching music, then came the subject of the film: trees. But not just any trees. Trees with scrapes all over them. Nothing like a film pan of trees and their scrapes. I think the video was entitled “Scrape” in fact. This was just weird. And for the last film. Picture it: a frozen lake. What could this one be about. Well, let’s add a person and a metal rod. What could he be doing? This video literally showed the man, metal stick in hand, dragging it, carving a line in the ice in a random, continuous pattern. This film was so uninteresting that even the cameraman at times forgot to pan the camera toward his subject. What the hell? Anyway, through the entire film series we had to create our own narratives to avoid the onset of sensory deprivation. Sometimes the boring is memorable.

 

We made our way through the other exhibits. There was a small case to show how the Northern Lights worked. On one end was metal ball that represented the Sun. One the other end was a smaller metal ball that represented Earth. Both were electrically charged and you could turn knobs to increase the current and make a small version of the Northern Lights appear on the Earth. You could also manipulate the angle of the small Earth to see how it affected the lights. In this example, electrons were shot at the charged Earth much like the photons that make contact with our atmosphere to create the green lights. At another exhibit was a seismograph. Alaska experiences quite a few earthquakes, so it’s only fitting. Basically, you could position yourself around this and jump to see how the lines are affected at each spot.

 

Eventually we went upstairs for an exhibit called “Sounds from Alaska.” There were various cubes you could stand in to hear various songs artists had crafted from recording these sounds. It was really cool. We had to listen to them all.

 

After that, we went north.  We were going to hike Hatcher’s Pass, but we were too tired and it was getting late. We ended up eating some Mexican food. At about 9PM, we made our way to the airport. Traffic was absolutely terrible because of construction. I unloaded my backpack and stuffed it into this large duffle bag I had. I thanked Rose for the nice day. I had a great time and was sad that it was over so soon. I ended up missing my flight though. The only other flight was one through Phoenix at 1:30AM. Luckily, I was able to get that one, otherwise I would have had to wait an entire day to get home.

 

All in all, this was the best trip I’ve ever done. Alaska fever is real.

Part 8 - Hitchhiking: The Redux

 

Hitchhiking: The Redux

 

            On Friday morning, I woke up and had a quick breakfast of cereal at my hostel. I showered, packed all of my things, told the host goodbye, and set off. I made a quick stop at the Post Office to ship out some of the souvenirs that I bought.  After that, I was off.

 

            My plan was to walk about a mile or so to the grocery store at the edge of town. Every tourist leaving town should see me as they leave Seward. Hopefully one would pick me up. I did not make a sign for this particular trip.

 

I sat my bag down and stuck out my thumb. No one was stopping. I thought this would have been the perfect spot. However, after some time a car did stop, just not the one I wanted to. It was the local policeman. He stopped in the turning lane, got out of his car, and walked over to me. He told me that you can’t hitchhike within city limits. Weird, but whatever. He told me that he could take me to the edge of town. He said that I could sit in the back of his cruiser. He did ask for my license though. He called it in to the station, supposedly so that he would have my name if I tried to do something. Again, weird. 

 

            The back of a police car is different. Most everything is a dull, gray plastic, I assume for ease of cleaning. When we stopped at the edge of town, I tried to open the door. An idiotic assumption on my part. Of course you couldn’t open the back door of a police car from the inside. Duh. The hole where the locking peg that you could pull up to unlock the door was also missing. The policeman walked over to the door and let me out.

 

From there, I walked about a half a mile to this small shopping area. There is a dentist office, a drive through coffee place, and a marijuana dispensary (surprisingly, weed is legal in Alaska FYI).

 

            This would’ve been a better spot. Literally everyone would pass by here to get out of town, and the people who are passing by are indeed leaving town. But I didn’t get a ride as fast as I’d have liked. And it began to lightly rain, that wouldn’t help. I waited about an hour before anyone picked me up. A guy named Jerry in his sixties eventually picked me up.

 

            Jerry was from Seattle. He picked me up partly because he used to hitchhike as well. He was visiting with his family. I can’t remember where he said they were at the moment, but they were off doing something else. He said that he could take me to the Y. That was about an hour’s drive. Jerry was retired from the Army. He told me that he was in the First and Second Gulf Wars.

 

            He told me that everyone that he knew from the First Gulf War thought that the Second would be over quickly too. With the power of hindsight, we know how that turned out. And, he told me, that everyone he was with at the time expected to be relieved by a second string of replacement soldiers; “We won’t be here that long anyway,” they said, “just a few months.” Oh, how reality can differ from expectations so.

 

Even though we both traveled this road before, it never ceased to be breathtaking. The mountain vistas are incredible. Sometimes it’s hard to concentrate on the conversation because you find yourself lost in a trance from the natural beauty.

 

            I really enjoyed talking to Jerry, but, unfortunately, we reached the Y where he had to turn around. There is a small parking lot for scenic views. I walked over and set my bag down to take some pictures. In the middle, there is a lake surrounded by mountains on either side. A good spot for views indeed. I poked around for maybe ten minutes then made my way to the road going north.

 

            I only waited about fifteen to twenty minutes before someone picked me up. This time, it was a guy named Tom. And, for the astute among us, you might notice some coincidence. Jerry and Tom, Jerry and Tom. Hmm. That rings some kind of bell. Anyway, back to the story.

 

            Tom was also in his sixties. He lived all over the US. He said that he grew up in Pennsylvania, lived for a short time in Japan, lived in Utah with a friend, lived on a ranch in New Mexico for a time, and now settled down in Alaska. He also served in the military, eventually becoming a contractor who worked on predator drones. He is retired now though. Mostly he just spends his time hunting and fishing. He told me that he brings friends or friends of friends or children of friends to come hunting, either for the first time in Alaska or the first time in general. He was heading to Anchorage to get supplies for his next hunting trip.

 

            He told me that he has a plane that he uses for hunting too. It drastically reduces the travel time to some of the hunting areas. Instead of an 8-hour drive, it’s a short flight, and not because it’s a particularly long distance. There just aren’t many roads in some places. He also told me that he has a boat and how he got stuck in bad weather for several days before anyone could rescue him. I asked if he was able to contact anyone when he got stuck. He said he could, but even emergency personnel couldn’t come to him at that point. It was too dangerous for them.

 

            As we approached Indian, Alaska where Austin dropped me off previously, I noticed that the inlet was totally barren of water. This was weird. It was full and beautiful with shimmering water a week ago. Tom told me that the tide change is over 30 feet, sometimes even being negative. It’s one of the largest tidal changes in the world. I asked him if anyone could walk out there. He said that you could, but it can be dangerous. The mud in many places will sink and when you try to pull your feet out, a vacuum forms making it hard to get out. He told me about this couple that took their Jeep out there and got stuck. The lady got out and she herself got stuck in the mud. Eventually a helicopter came and tried to get them out, but the tide had already changed so much that it was no use. The breathing tube wouldn’t reach that far down.

 

            Anyway, when we reached Anchorage, he took his exit and I got out there. I was starving. I ended up walking to a nearby Japanese restaurant. After that I took a taxi to my hotel for the night.

View at the Y

Me at the Y

Part 7 - Seward the Third

 

Seward: Part 3

 

            The last full day I had in Seward I did a boat tour. I initially didn’t book this tour, but the people in my hostel really recommended it. The day prior I tried to see if there were any tickets left but had no luck. They told me that I could come by in the morning and ask if there were any no shows. Fortunately, there was a spot.

 

            There are three lengths of boat ride: three-, six-, or nine-hour trips. Each travels around the bay and into the ocean to look at wildlife, nature, and glaciers. I did the six-hour trip. Our boat was named the Aialik, after one of the glaciers. We started off at 11AM.

 

            We cruised through the bay away from Seward and into the ocean. The boat made its way to some small, lush islands to see some animals. The first thing we saw were some bald eagles and their nests. Each time you see them, you forget how large they are. Just before we left the bald eagles, there were some otters floating on their backs to the island. To be as nonchalant and relaxed as an otter looks should be a goal.

 

            After this, we hopped over to another island. On this island there were tons of Harbor Seals sunning on the rocky shore. They were all huge and blubbery, but some were more huge and more blubbery than the rest. Two were competing for a spot on the highest perch. One would arch its head back and open its mouth wide, apparently screaming for control. Eventually they subsided.

 

            Next, we went really far out into the ocean where some other boats were stopped. Something interesting must’ve grabbed their attention. Then we saw it, or rather them. Orcas were breaching the surface, each time puffing a fine mist of water into the air, and diving back down to hunt for fish. I don’t how many we saw exactly, but there were quite a few. You could clearly see the large white marks on their faces and the rubbery texture of their skin. Some got extremely close to our boat. It was amazing being able to see them so close. It never got old, and each time they would surface people were awestruck.

 

            After watching the orcas for a while, the boat made its way into an inlet. We stopped just inside the opening of the inlet, between the mountainous, green walls. There were several humpback whales swimming around for food. Humpback whales can hold their breath for quite long time, so you would try to predict where they would breach next. I think that there were two swimming at this point, though it’s hard to tell. 

 

            At this point, I was getting a little cold and tired. The boat did have a drink and snack bar. I got a hot chocolate. We started making our way to the Aialik Glacier. As we got closer, it became hard to take our eyes off of it. We saw the icy blue wall grow larger and larger eventually stopping parallel to it. There were chunks of its ice floating in the bay. I think I saw some sea lions swimming around, but it’s hard to tell if they were sea lions or seals when only their heads poked out of the water. The glacier was amazing to look at, but more impressive was the cracking and sound of the glacier.

 

            Periodically, chunks of ice would fall off the glacier and hit the water. We would see the pieces fall and hit the water first. Then came the sound. It was like a small explosion going off. You hoped to catch a piece just before it hit the ground to see how much ice causes that sound, but you had to be lucky. We never did see any large pieces fall off, but we saw many moderately sized pieces. One could only imagine how loud it would be if a large piece came off. But, with each falling piece, a stark reminder of how far the glacier has receded in just a few years is placed into your mind. Some of the glaciers no longer exist unfortunately.

 

            After that we started heading back. I stayed outside for most of the trip, and, because it was slightly cold and a little bit rainy, I was wiped. I sat at a table inside with this couple that I was talking to earlier. They were from San Francisco and Jacksonville, FL. Soon after, the staff brought us all some chocolate chip cookies. I remember dozing off for a little bit. But who couldn’t, with the sway of the water and all?

An island view from the boat ride

Seals beached on the rocky coast

Approaching Aialik Glacier

Aialik Glacier

Part 6 - Seward the Second

 

Seward: Part 2

 

            On Monday, I had a kayaking tour. We had to show up at the store at 9AM so that a shuttle could take us to the launch site. It was about a 15-minute ride.

 

            There was a total of six of us. Two from Florida, a 50-something couple and their 16-year-old son from Virginia, and myself; all East Coasters, rare for Alaska. The kayaks were the 2-seater, tandem types. I was paired with the 16-year-old.

 

            Resurrection Bay, the bay that Seward is on, isn’t very violent, but it can have somewhat big waves. Our kayaks were the type that have the spray skirts that wrap around the hole where you sit. Our kayaks also had a rudder for steering. Steering is done by pressing foot pedals rather than using your paddles. Before we started off, our instructor and tour guide, Cara, told us how to use the kayaks, put the spray skirts on, and get back on the kayak if we happened to capsize. She did make a point in telling us that, “We won’t be capsizing though, right?” After that, we started off.

 

            For the most part we hugged the coastline. My partner and I, being younger than everyone else, were going much faster than everyone. At one point, Cara told us to slow down and let everyone catch up. We saw a couple of Harbor Seals while on our way. They would pop their heads out of the water and scan around looking at us. Then they would plunk their heads down and disappear into the water.

 

            We eventually stopped at a small beach to hike and eat lunch. Unfortunately, because the other kayakers were tired this would be the furthest that we would kayak. 

 

            When people think of Alaska, no one thinks of rainforests, but this particular area of Alaska is a rainforest. When we got out of our kayaks, we walked along the beach to a short hiking trail. We passed over a moderately sized creek into the forest. The forests are extremely lush and green, the trees are very tall and thick, and there is thick, green underbrush off the beaten path. It’s incredible.

 

            When we were making our way back to other side of the beach for lunch, there was a dog having the time of his life. He was running all over. I whistled to him and he came running up to me. Then he’d go run to some other thing that interested him. We made our way back across the creek. I threw a rock into the creek and the dog went crashing in. I don’t know if the owners appreciated that or not, but I’d throw another rock sending the dog crashing to another spot, confused as to where the splash went. The I’d do another. I had the dog zig zagging all up and down that creek.

 

            Cara went back to our kayaks to grab lunch. We had sandwiches, soup, chips, and a cookie. After that, we got back in our kayaks and made our way back. The weather was changing, as it does in Alaska, the sky grew darker, and it started to lightly rain. The waves were larger than when we started. It wasn’t terrible, but the steering would lag as you went up and over the waves and we got wetter as we crested over the waves. At least once or twice we collided with my partner’s parents. I blame it on their steering, not mine. Eventually we made it back to shore. We all were pretty wet and cold.

 

            The next day I would hike the Harding Icefield Trail via Exit Glacier. Harding Icefield is a huge icefield spanning over 700 square miles. Exit Glacier, true to its name, is named after the first crossing of Harding Icefield where the crossers, well, exited Harding Icefield. Clever, original, eccentric, lazy? You be the judge.

 

            The Harding Icefield Trail is located in the Kenai Fjords National Park and is just over eight miles round trip and climbs almost 4,000 feet. The shuttle bus dropped us off around 10AM. The bus would be back at 3PM, so I had to get going.

 

            The trail starts in lush rainforest, climbs up the snow-streaked mountains, and eventually plateaus to an overlook of Harding Icefield. I took almost everything out of my backpack except water and some snacks. I had my military surplus jacket on initially, but because of the steep elevation change I got hot very fast until I hit the snow. Actually, I was sweating pretty good at points.

 

            Along the way, there are several stops where you can see Exit Glacier from different points of view. Many people just go to these and turn around. I didn’t do that of course, even though my knee was hurting. I stopped maybe two-thirds of the way up for pictures and a snack break. I asked someone to take my picture. I got started again. Now was the hard part.

 

            The last third or so was on steep snow. The trail was marked with little orange flags. I put on snow cleats over my shoes, but they didn’t help much on the loosely packed snow that everyone was walking over. At points I would look up and think, “ok, that must be the top,” but I’d crest that peak and see tiny dots of people continuing up. It was pretty tough because of the slippery snow. In total, it took about three and a half hours to reach the top. 

 

            On a very clear day you would be able to see the streams of ice, but it was somewhat cloudy on the day I went. The ice and cloud sky blended into one. As I was coming down, it became much clearer and I got an excellent view of the glacier. My knee, however, was killing me, and I needed to catch my bus. I took a few pictures, but didn’t have much time to spare.

 

            I’d step aside plenty of times to let other people pass me going down. When I got down from the snow and onto the stepped rock, my knee was in excruciating pain. It was the shock of landing on my knee. I’m sure some people heard my occasional outburst. I made it to my bus exactly at 3PM, just in the nick of time. It took me exactly five hours to complete the trail.

 

            Later that day I went walking around the bay again. At one point I stopped at an RV to ask the guy a question. He invited me to have dinner with them. I had already eaten at this point, but I hung out with them and had a couple of drinks. It was a group of three friends and their families. I believe they all used to live in Anchorage, but two of them lived in Colorado now. They were in their late forties or early fifties. They were an extremely cool and down to Earth.  

 

            After they ate, they started a fire and we had smores. I talked with them from about 6PM to 1AM. One of their friends and his sons were participating in the Mount Marathon run the next day. More on that in a bit. I didn’t talk to them much, but, when they went inside to sleep, he came out a couple of times and asked us to keep it down. Nah, dude. You chose to camp out and knew the consequences. Go back inside and sleep, bro. We joked about it. “What, is someone feeling nervous?” “Aww, does someone have the butterflies?”

 

            The Mount Marathon race is a race that has existed since around 1915. It starts in the town and climbs up the race trail of Mount Marathon. The race trail has an average slope of 34 degrees, but parts of it are much, much steeper. People have gotten seriously injured and died doing it. When they reach the top, they make their way down and run towards the finish line. Impressively, it takes 40 or 50 minutes for the fastest runners to complete it. You can tell how excruciating it is by the grimaces of people’s faces as they near the finish line. All of them are covered in mud, some in blood, and many, I assume, in delirium. People of all ages do it. There are young teenagers all the way up to some people in their 80s. There are three events; men’s, women’s, and juniors. The men’s event starts the earliest, so I missed that one. But I did see the women finish. My knee was hurting for them.

 

            Typically, the race is held on the Fourth, but because of COVID last year, they moved it to the 7^th to spread out the crowds because of the dramatic increase of tourism this year. There were quite a few food trucks for the event. I ended up going to a hotdog truck and getting a kimchi hotdog. It had the red Korean chili. It was pretty good. You know what they say, “When in Alaska…eat the kimchi?” No, that can’t be right.

Picture inside the rainforest

Outside the rainforest

A view of the snow-streaked mountains on the Exit Glacier Trail to Harding Icefield

In front of Exit Glacier

Me at the top

A view from the plateau overlooking Harding Icefield

A better view of Exit Glacier as the weather cleared

Part 5 - Seward the First

 

Seward: Part 1

 

            Seward is a small town on a bay surrounded by mountains on all sides. It was established sometime in the 1850s as a port. It is also Mile Zero of the Iditarod trail.

 

            After eating lunch, I walked to my hostel. It is run by a Swiss lady and her family. This hostel used to be a house, but was slightly modified so that the owners had the other half of the house for their residence. There was a kitchen and dining area, a living room, multiple bathrooms with showers, and six or seven rooms. I’m not exactly sure how many people could stay there, but my room had three bunk beds.

 

            I got to Seward on July 3^rd. Fireworks for the Fourth of July aren’t a huge thing in Alaska because it never gets too dark, but they did do fireworks at midnight. It’s likely that I was one of the first people to see the fireworks this year, but who’s counting?

 

            Before this though, I went walking around the city. Seward is a very eclectic city. There are all kinds of little, interesting shops. My favorite was this place that sold Russian souvenirs. They had all kinds of USSR memorabilia. There were lots of Communist party pins with Lenin on them, propaganda posters in Cyrillic, Red Army Ushanka hats, matryoshka dolls, and various KGB items. I saw a KGB dress cap and a matryoshka doll and just had to buy them. The matryoska doll had Lenin on the outside layer followed by Stalin, Breshnev, Gorbachev, and – the crème de la crème – a little, tiny Putin. Who could pass that up?

 

            The city is just very scenic. You can walk along the shore and see the bay and the mountains. On the Seward side, the mountains are very lush and green. On the opposite side, they are a gray, black with streams of snow coming down. It never got old. There are a ton of places for RV parking and tent camping. It’s the most RVs I’ve ever seen.

 

            Around 6PM, I went to a bar to grab a drink to relax. It was a long day of traveling for me. I sat down at the bar and heard someone say, “Hey, Alex!” I was a little stunned because I wasn’t expecting anyone to know my name in this town. Anyway, it was Becca and Joel that I met in Denali. I got to know them really well. They are an adventurous, party animal type of couple. We had several drinks, and they bought two rounds of shots, and, well, who turns down shots, especially ones called Duck Fart? After this we walked right out of that bar, and right into another. But just before we walked in Joel yelled, “Seward!” This bar was great. There was a live band and some people were dancing.

 

            At one point I went to the bathroom, but when I came out Becca and Joel were gone. So long, I guess. Everyone went outside because the fireworks were about to start. I ended up talking to this group of locals about my age. No one was particularly interested in the fireworks, so everyone went back inside to talk, drink, and listen to music. This bar closed shortly after, so we went to another place called Pit Bar which closed at 5AM. 

 

            We hung out a while. At one point I took off my jacket and sat it down on a chair in the back. It was a nice, warm jacket that I got at a military surplus store and is perfect for hiking in colder weather. We were talking and having a great time and eventually ended up on the patio. I got somewhat cold and went to find my jacket but it was gone. Someone took it. Needless to say, I was pretty irritated. I decided to leave. I didn’t have a car, and didn’t think about a taxi, so I started walking. It was about 4AM and the place was three miles from my hostel, so it would’ve taken me an hour to walk back. But luckily a taxi van pulled up out of nowhere and picked me up. There were two funny drunk guys getting a ride back to their place. They kind of shouted out the window, “Let’s pick him up!” I got in. The driver let them off at their stop and took me to my place. I asked what I owed him, but he told me that the other guys paid for me. Drunk people can be awfully polite. Thank god for those drunk bros! The driver gave me his business card when I got out. I was exhausted and woke up about 10:30AM. I pretty much lounged around the rest of the day.

Seward

Looking across the bay

Part 4 - Hitchhiking in Triplicate

 

Hitchhiking in Triplicate

 

            I had a hotel in Anchorage for the night. The next morning I would get some breakfast and find a spot to hitchhike.

 

            Highway 1 that goes north through Anchorage to Denali also goes south towards Seward. My hotel was roughly in the center of Anchorage. I took a look at the maps to find what seemed to be a good on ramp south. The problem going south, though, is that there is no singular spot where everyone going south will see you. There are many more ways to get on Highway 1 going south.

 

            At 11:30 I walked to a ramp that I thought would be good, new cardboard sign in hand. This place wasn’t a great spot to catch a ride. There just isn’t a spot for someone to stop quickly and there was quite a bit of traffic. I waited about two hours before someone stopped. 

 

            A guy named Austin stopped to pick me up. He told me that he couldn’t take me all the way to Seward, but was going to Indian, Alaska which is about thirty minutes south. I was a little worried that I could be stranded if he took me there, so I asked if I would be able to get another ride around that area. He assured me that I would get a ride in ten minutes or less. He dropped me off on the shoulder of the road. It’s a very scenic spot overlooking the Turnagain Arm inlet. I set my stuff down on the shoulder and got a few very scenic pictures. When I was done, I picked up my sign and began flagging down cars. Sure enough, ten minutes later I had a ride.

 

            A lady and her 14-year-old daughter stopped to pick me up. They were also going to Seward. I didn’t catch the daughter’s name, but the mom’s name was Alexis. They were driving a 4-door Ford F-150. Alexis helped me load my bag into the bed of the truck. She was excited to pick up a hitchhiker, but her daughter was most certainly not. I went to the rear passenger door and pulled the handle. Just as I pulled it the daughter, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, locked the door on me. Alexis told me to come to the other side because there was more room. It was a little tight anyway, but it was a ride. They had two dogs. One was a smaller, fluffy mixed breed dog who alternated sitting on the daughter’s lap and center console. The other dog was a larger black lab. It was snuggling up to me the entire time. I was his buddy. This ride did not last long, however. 

 

            The daughter was obviously uncomfortable. Alexis tried telling her daughter that you can tell when someone is safe to pick up. If they have clean clothes and a nice bag, they just want to travel around to various places. She told me that her daughter was obviously uncomfortable, but it didn’t take a genius to feel the tension. They took me roughly 7 miles to Girdwood and let me off. There is a really big gas station there. I asked her to let me off on the shoulder on the opposite side of the road. Literally, as soon as I got my sign out a truck pulled over. 

 

            A guy named James, who was about 35 picked me up. He had his 3-year-old daughter in the back. Her name was Lilly. She was shy. Every time I looked back at her, she would either look away or put something in front of her face. They were going to visit some family in Kenai which is on the western side of the Kenai Peninsula, the opposite side as Seward. Initially he was going to dop me off at a place called the Y (the point where you either continue south or turn west), but Lilly was having a fit. It took a while to understand what she wanted, but eventually I made out that she wanted her mom. James and his wife had a 7-month-old so she stayed at home with the baby. He called her on the phone and let Lilly talk to her. She calmed down a little bit. Eventually we made it to Seward. We stopped at a grocery store. I needed some snacks and things so it was a good stop. I tried to give James some money for the ride, but he wouldn’t take it. I bought two Hershey’s candy bars and stuck them on his door handle when I came out.

            From there, I walked to grab some lunch. Then I headed to the place I would stay for my time in Seward: Moby Dick Hostel.

My backpack and sign

Scenic picture near Indian, AK

Part 3 - Alaska Railroad

 

Alaska Railroad

 

            At 12PM the next day I had the train back to Anchorage. I booked this a month earlier but the standard tickets were sold out, so I booked the Goldstar Service which is basically first class. Each Goldstar car is a double decker. The top is the seating area which has panoramic dome glass, and, more importantly, there is bar service at the back. The bottom is the dining area.

 

The train ride from Denali to Anchorage is almost eight hours, so two meals were served. Because I was a single passenger, I was seated with three other people. There was a tour group, and I was seated with two of the ladies and their tour guide. Their names were Anne, Angela, and Mike. We were chatting it up as if we were long-time friends. We talked almost the entire time, but it was hard to ignore the beautiful scenery passing by our window. After we were returned to our seats, the server who sat us earlier asked me if I knew the others. I told him that I didn’t. He was surprised because we just clicked so well.

 

            On the top of the train at the back of the car is a door that leads to an outdoor platform. I went there to take some pictures, feel the Alaskan wind, and smell the Alaskan air. Of course, it was windy. I almost lost my hat. It was very relaxing though.

 

            On the ride, we saw a bald eagle perched on the branch of a fallen tree on a little island in the middle of the river. At another point, we saw a moose running through the water away from train because it was startled by the noise. Because moose are so tall, it had no trouble traversing the water.

 

            The ride was just incredible. We passed through forests, meadows, marshes, and rivers. The mountains were always lying in the distance. 

 

            A very cool part about the Alaskan Railroad is that they will pick up riders who flag the train down in the remote areas. These riders are Alaskans who live in small cabins tucked away in the wilderness. They use it to go to the bigger cities for supplies. The train travels slowly through these areas so that it can stop easily to pick them up. I would love to travel by train in this manner, but it’s only in certain stretches that it does this so that it won’t continuously delay the train schedule.

 

            At some point on the train ride, I noticed some passengers getting a drink that looked like hot chocolate. That piqued my taste buds. I asked the bartender what that was and ordered one. It was called a Brown Bear. He asked for my ticket. I assumed they just marked it for something. Later I found out that they marked it for alcoholic drinks. I would never have known that the Brown Bear contained alcohol, which reminds me, I need to find out how to make one.

 

            Around dinner, they seated us again. I was hoping to have more conversations with people, but this time I was sat all to my lonesome. There were less people because they let out some other passengers at the previous stop.

 

            Around 8PM we finally reached Anchorage. The train ride was one of my favorite things about the trip. If you ever have the chance to go to Alaska, the train ride is a must.

Goldstar Seating Area

A view of the train

A view from the train

A view from the train