July 3-July 7 North Pole, Alaska
Have you ever been to North Pole? Well we have! AND we met Santa Claus and rode on his Independence Day parade float! North Pole is a cute town where the light poles are striped like candy canes, they have a reindeer petting zoo and a fellow actually changed his name to Santa Claus.
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| A warm welcome to Alaska |
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hand check, Santa!
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My cousin Heidi has lived out here for the last 23 years (?) with her husband and 6 children. We were fortunate enough to stay at their house and soak in all the comforts of having a real home including but not limited to electricity and laundry. Heidi also made sure all of our food cravings were fulfilled, one of mine being purple skittles.
What an interesting life out here. The saying is you will sleep when you’re tired, which turns out to be true. I’m not sure we went to bed before 2am any night we stayed there. There is so much to cram into a day and when the sun doesn’t go down, it makes it a lot easier.
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| The Alaskan Pipeline! |
A list of some of the things done in North Pole: celebrated July 4th, celebrated a birthday, went gold panning till 2am, toured North Pole, sat on Santa’s lap, hung out with reindeer, hiked Angel Rocks, bought a canoe and so much more!
Heidi’s oldest son, Andrew, is getting married July 21. As much as we would love to make it back there to partake in the festivities I just don’t think we’ll be done with Alaska by then. It’s such a big state!
Thank you Bostic Family for your hospitality! And a special thanks to Andrew for the Moose steaks! They were enjoyed by many! Wish we had a larger freezer!
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| Angel Rocks Chena Hot Springs Road |
July 8 & 9 Stampede Trail Healy, AK
Have you read Into the Wild or seen the movie? In this very true story, Christopher McCandless aka Alexander Supertamp ventured across the country and ultimately “into the wild” in Alaska. The journey led him out the Stampede Trail across the formidable Tetlanika River and to what he describes as the “Magic Bus” in the early 1990s. After a period of time alone in the wild, Chris realizes “Happiness only real when shared.” Unfortunately when he tried to cross back over the river, it was too strong and wide to cross. Alex perished alone at the bus from starvation. The bus has become a popular place for hikers, though many have died attempting to reach it.
We decided to give it a try, but kept our wits about us. We arrived at the end of Stampede Road (and the beginning of Stampede Trail) exhausted from being up until early morning while in North Pole. Our original plan had been to hike in to the Tetlanika when we arrived at the trailhead, but on second thought had decided to spend the night and begin the trek early the next morning. While, later, you’ll find out that this decision was to work in our favor, on this particular night it seemed like a huge mistake.
Apparently Stampede Road is a place where locals will drive out to to get piss drunk and fire .45 rounds through all hours of the night. When the gunfire finally stopped at 4am, we were able to get a few hours sleep. 5.5 hours to be exact, which turned our early morning departure into a joke. When we finally did leave the parking area, we noticed another young man with an absolutely ENORMOUS pack preparing behind us.
The trail was essentially an ATV trail through tundra and thick spruce forest, with knee deep puddles for miles and miles. Our first river crossing was the Savage river, which was thigh deep, freezing cold, and rushing from the previous day’s inch of rainfall. All in all, we, even Cooper, did just fine. After another couple of miles (10 total), our plan was to cross the Tetlanika and make our way to the bus to camp our first night. Plans always change. The Tetlanika was surging with fresh muddy glacial melt from the warms days and rain. I (Ryan) made a pack-less attempt at crossing to ‘test the waters’ but, at halfway, nearly waste deep in surging water, was forced to turn back. Maybe possible with no gear and especially no dog, this river was absolutely dangerous and possibly suicidal with the aforementioned.
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| Our "Trail" |
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| Savage River Crossing |
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| The swollen Teklanika River, which kept Christopher McCandless stranded in the wild and kept us stranded out of the wild |
We dropped our shit, and set up a little dinner area on the river bank with some freeze dried just-add-boiling-water meals (actually quite tasty), and some fine Bota Box Malbec (the Deckers would be so proud!). Full belly, empty what?
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| Wine and dine on the river. |
Well, have a glass of wine and see if you feel like hiking 10 miles. We set up camp in a clearly popular spot over the river, made evident by the amount of trash left behind. We’re talking empty propane canisters, books, tin cans, broken glass, tarps, a broken moose call, half of a tent…. OH, and a (still wrapped) condom… yeah, trusting that would be like eating indian food and apples for 3 days and trusting a fart.
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| Trashy campsite |
Giant backpack guy came up and, oh, and his name is Tom Smartest23yearoldintheworld Braine. Yeah, Brain(e). Tom was looking for a campsite in the area, so we absolutely invited him to stay in the same site as us- plenty of room! Tom was taking a summer to travel before going back to school for a doctorate in Physics (correct me if I’m wrong, Tom). By chance, he was making the pilgrimage toward Alexander Supertramp’s final resting place at the same time as us! He, however, came slightly more prepared. Let me explain the giant pack: homeboy brought a packable raft. Like, not some Walmart rubber toy, but a legitimate, rapid-worthy raft. After talking with Tom around the fire, a storm of epic proportions rolled in, and blew our dreams of crossing the river the next morning to pieces (rivers in this area are often lower in the AM when glaciers have slowed melting overnight). When I say storm I mean instant wet, wall of water, ferocious thunder and lightning, you get it. Luckily, our tents were ready to go, and we stayed relatively dry throughout the 4-hour storm. The tarp left behind by others at least came in handy to store packs under.
Morning came quickly, though it was 24-hour light at this point…. I don’t think we actually got up until close to 9. Tom had already scouted the river upstream and downstream, and didn’t think it wise to attempt a crossing, even with a raft. The river had risen about a foot, and the eddies had shrunken significantly.
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| The Teklanika in the morning |
Feeling somewhat defeated, we all began getting our things packed up for the hike out, when, BAM, strange-sounding hairy beasts sprang from the forest! Enter Matt and Dane, 2 Canalians (Dane’s word for a “poorly dressed Australian living in Canada).
The five us of hemmed and hawed about wether we could make it across the river but decided better safe than sorry….or dead. We all hiked out together (I think mostly because the Aussies were hitch hiking and needed a ride somewhere). We knew we’d all get along when we each hauled out a bit of trash from the campsite. We all politely chatted the 10 miles back to the cars and then grabbed dinner at a local brewery.
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| Wet. Wet. Wet. |
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| Dane with an extra pack filled with trash. WHATTA GUY! |
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| FRESH Grizz Track - look at those claw marks! |
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| Killer view of Denali on the hike out. |
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| A replica bus at 49th State Brewing Company |
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| Some very sobering artifacts from Chris McCandless |
Why split apart already? We made camp at a random freecampsites.net pick, just a mile from the brewery…. SCORE! Early in the evening, out of nowhere, a random Asian man walked right up to the fire as if he wanted to join the party but didn’t speak a lick of english. This is when we knew we could hang with Tom, Dane and Matt for more than just a day because shit got funny real quick. Apparently Tom speaks some Mandarin (wtf?). The Asian man kept pointing at Emily and I and using the verb “to do” so basically asking Tom if we were “doing it”. And sooner or later, 2am came.
July 10-14 Seward, Alaska
Since we were all interested in going south, we became a 5some. Because Tom is awesome and brilliant, he happened to have a walkie-talkie so we could talk with each other on the 6 hour drive to Seward (I have a Garmin Rino which is a GPS/walkie combo). The drive was full of dirty jokes and Fred Meyers, the classy Walmart of the West.
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| Beautiful views en route to Seward |
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| talkie on the walkie |
Emily had the lowdown on an absolutely sick campsite 5 minutes outside of Seward, which is, in my opinion, the epitome of a quaint Alaskan city. Mountains and Glaciers surrounding, with a nice little downtown, and amazing Salmon fishing. The campsite was a nice little spot on the river on Old Exit Glacier Road, just a few minutes away from Exit Glacier. The river made for a convenient, albeit cold, bathing spot for our non-rv friends (inside joke) and a great source of drift firewood.
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| boots totally useless |
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| Snag-hooking Salmon in Seward |
Recipe for a good time:
-3 Hilarious and kind new friends
-endless firewood
-a river
-moose meat and fresh salmon
-100 Keystone Lights
-daylight until 2am
-best fishing in North America
Mix ingredients and wait
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| Dane at Exit Glacier |
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| Exit Glacier, with a sign showing how much it has receded since '05 |
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| Harding Ice Field hike |
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| Harding Ice Field extending as far as the eye can see |
Matt’s razor sharp wit, Dane’s passionate excitement about everything good, and Tom’s vast knowledge of anything we asked him made for unforgettable, laugh-filled evenings around the campfire. Throw in two incredible musicians from the neighboring campsite, Scotlynd and Riley, and you’re asking for good times into the morning hours. It’s amazing how a couple of random fateful days can forge friendships that should last forever. Corny, but true.
Ah hell, maybe they only liked us for our moose meat and pancakes.
"Happiness only real when shared." - Alexander Supertramp, 1992
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| Our crew |
