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from worldwidewandering
Alaska/Yukon Territory, USA/Canada - border (August 29, 1997) - After five months, I finally made it to Alaska.... Here on the "Alaska Highway"!...(#137) back | next
In 1997 I rode a bicycle from Florida to Alaska. I'm posting the story here on flickr.
I only went about 35 miles today to Beaver Creek. It is only about 20 miles to Alaska now but I’ll save it for tomorrow so I can make it to Deadman Lake and then Tok the next day so I can catch a Salmon Bake. I wrote a song in my head called Horsehead Nebulon but I can’t remember it now. Something about “my baby’s a Horsehead Nebulon…’ or something.
There was still daylight at 10-11 o’clock tonight here at the campground in Beaver Creek. I am feeling pretty skippy because I know I’ll be in Alaska tomorrow. It is hard to believe at this point how far I’ve come.
This morning I got up and left and met this red haired girl hitch hiking on the highway. I talked to her and she gave me three cinnamon rolls someone had given her. I made it the little 20-mile stretch to the Alaska border this Friday afternoon, August 29th. It couldn’t be a nicer day. Bright and sunny and nothing to complain about. I stop for a while at the borders to take pictures and stuff. The world has been trimmed along the US - Canadian border leaving a 20 something foot wide trench of treeless space as far as you could see in either direction. It was like being on gigantic map (actual size). I didn’t have much time to be too happy-skippy about making it to Alaska though. It seems like as soon as I crossed the border the road inclined steeply and it took forever to get to the official border crossing station. At the station they asked the usual questions: do you have any guns or weapons, over $10,000 in cash. I started laughing at the last question. I never answered. He let me through...read the whole story.
• Florida to Alaska on a Bicycle Set •
Originally posted 72 months ago.
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worldwidewandering edited this topic 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Nine): The road to Eielson was closed at the 63 mile marker while Mt. McKinley looms in the distance. That didn't stop a green shuttle bus with a student driver from heading further down the road to learn the ropes. The bus was empty and kept heading on. I would have liked to have volunteered to be the student passenger.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Two): Exit Creek carries away runoff from Exit Glacier creating almost silver silt filled water. Day started out very overcast and cloudy.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
View across the valley at Polychrome pass.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Ten): Ruth Glacier as it emerges from the Great Gorge and spreads out south of Denali.
Granite cliffs tower 5,000 feet above the glacier’s surface. The depth of the ice within the gorge is more than 3,800 feet deep (better pictures from within the gorge coming at the end of our flight). Combined, the depth of the glacier and the height of the towering cliffs create an abyss that is deeper than the Grand Canyon. The glacier moves at 3.3 feet per day. At this rate, 4 million pounds of ice may flow into and out of the gorge daily.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Ten): Closeup view of Ruth Glacier from a small plane tour around Denali. Small lakes are visible on the surface of the glacier.
The upper Ruth Glacier, which is almost 3 vertical miles below the summit of Mount McKinley, catches all of the snow that falls on the southeast side of the mountain. The snow and ice that accumulate in this area are squeezed through the one-mile-wide bottleneck of the Great Gorge. Through this gorge, the glacier drops nearly 2,000 feet over ten miles and is raked with crevasses.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Ten): The plane we were on circled the peak of McKinley and got fairly close. Tight shot here of the summit to see how rocky and jagged the peak is. Can't be an easy climb.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Ten): Large rock walls create a serious challenge for climbers at the Mooses's Tooth. This formation is at an elevation over 10,000 feet, but mostly buried under snow, ice and glacier. Note the lake at the foot of the formation on the left side. Our plane landed on the glacier on the far side of this. It was about this time that the altitude sickness kicked in (tingling feet and fingers) because the pilot went up to get above the turbulance so I put the camera away until we landed on the glacier.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Ten): Looking down on some of the lakes that were scattered across the top of Ruth Glacier. The water was incredibly blue.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Ten): Our flight passed over a group of climbers and their camp. They had apparently been dropped off earlier in the week and were preparing to climb.
Posted 72 months ago.
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from gbaku
Archaeological excavations at Kukak Bay
Posted 71 months ago.
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from NiccollsDP
South Eastern Alaska, near the LeConte Glacier
Posted 71 months ago.
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from NiccollsDP
South Eastern Alaska.
Flying over the LeConte Glacier in a REALLY small plane. At the top of the frame you can see all the ice that had calved off earlier in the day. Not to be an alarmist, but the locals all commented about how they glaciers are calving more and earlier every day.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from gbaku
Kukak Bay
Posted 71 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Thirteen): We spent about 45 minutes slowly approaching this bear, moving up a few feet at a time. We finally got to about 40-50 feet away. The bear was unconcerned with us. It looked up once in awhile, but was more interested in the grass.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Thirteen): A brown bear with its head down against a serious rain storm searches out more grass to eat.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Thirteen): The beach and meadow were in the middle of Katmai National Park. Not only were the bears spectacular to look at, but the surroundings were as well. It was a rainy day, but still beautiful location.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Thirteen): Brown bear looks up from a meal of clams (with clam juice on his nose) to make sure I don't want any.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Thirteen): Profile of a brown bear digging clams.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from gbaku
Red Fox at Kukak Bay, Alaska, 1965
Posted 71 months ago.
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from FrogMiller
ncredibly cold. This picture was taken from the port deck of our Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship, the Monarch of the Seas. What you see behind me is a giant glacier pushing into the sea, creating icebergs one enormously loud crack at a time. This really was one of the highlights of the entire trip -- one of those things that is so impressive you have to see it in person to appreciate the enormity of the experience.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from gbaku
A Kodiak Airways plane taking off from Kukak Bay, Alaska, with most of the crew and artifacts at the end of the 1964 University of Oregon archaeological excavations.
Posted 71 months ago.
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from gbaku
Lunch break during University of Oregon archaeological excavations at Kukak Bay, Alaska, 1964
Posted 69 months ago.
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from hoodwinks
Alaska (Day Thirteen): A final word about getting close to these guys. When we arrived on the beach, we had to walk in a very tight group. There were 9 of us and we stayed in a very tight knot and kept very quiet. This was so we didn't appear that big and so that then, the bear did not see us as a threat. We also wandered around in this tight knot for a few hours before even coming close to a bear. We were instructed to be very careful with food and not even drop a crumb.
During that time, our guide spotted about a dozen bears out on the meadow that she was familiar with and knew enough about each of them and their behavior that she selected the ones she knew we could safely approach. When we approached them, it was slow, and still in this big knot. The longer we took, the more used to our presence they became and the less threatened they were by us.
Our guide was really good asking us if we felt safe and as long as we all felt safe, we kept moving up closer and closer until we got maybe 40-50 feet away. When we got that close, I actually laid down in the wet sand totally prone and was taking pictures.
Never really felt scared, but did get a lot more respect for how to act around an animal this big.
Posted 69 months ago.
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from gbaku
Luther Cressman on a visit to the Kukak Bay, Alaska, prehistoric site, 1964
Posted 69 months ago.
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from gbaku
Flying between Kodiak and Kukak Bay, Alaska, 1965
Posted 68 months ago.
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from Ruth L
The fog rolls in - "downtown" Juneau
Posted 67 months ago.
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White Pass Scenic Railway from Skagway
Posted 65 months ago.
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White Pass Scenic Railway - looking down to the port at Skagway
Posted 65 months ago.
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Glacier Bay National Park
Posted 65 months ago.
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Glacier Bay National Park
Posted 65 months ago.
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"Chief Shakes Longhouse" by thefishiologist [?]
Chief Shakes Longhouse, Wrangell, Alaska
Posted 64 months ago.
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from chrisbest
The essentials of life for a Brit in Alaska!
Posted 61 months ago.
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Glacier Bay
Posted 22 months ago.
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