Alsek River 2014

Day 4, Friday, June 27

Awoke to a few clouds and sun at 5:15 am. Started hustling right away, as we knew the guides wanted to get going soon. There was a very nice breakfast of French Toast, bacon and cantaloupe. Delightful. We were packed up and rolling soon thereafter in Thirsty’s raft. Roger B was our sole client companion. Picking the boat to go in was an interesting process. You want to go in different guides’ rafts, simply because each one was super but they all have different personalities and knowledge bases. And you also want to ride with different clients, just to get to know them better. On this morning, Susie complained that I was spending too much time chatting with Roger B and not enough time taking photos. Well, it was a nice morning with few clouds, but it is also nice to chat. We stopped for a bio-break before 11 am, also got a short talk on riding rapids. There were a couple of small ones later that morning. But most importantly, we pulled into our campsite across from Lowell Glacier just a bit before noon time. Originally, across from Lowell had been planned as a layover day, but the brutal winds on our first day on the river effectively stole that from us.

We set up our tents while the guides were making the usual great lunch. Given the sunshine, it was really nice not to be dressed up in 6 or 8 layers of clothing. Sam wore one of his Aloha Shirts. The area in which we were camped was both stark and dramatic. Being right across from the Lowell Glacier, one might imagine that there would not be a lot of vegetation around, and indeed, that was true. Sorta reminded me of a moonscape photo. But the glacier, flowing around a nunatak, with its long longitudinal layers of dark sediment and white ice, was pretty dramatic itself. At its head, one could easily see the twin peaks of Mt. Kennedy, and occasionally behind Kennedy, the summit of Mt. Hubbard, on the boundary between the US and Canada. (Lowell Peak itself is actually a few miles north of the glacier.) Our campsite was at 8V, 336044 E, 6687187 N.

After lunch, Sam indicated that he was ready to take whomever wanted to go on the hike up Goatherd Mountain. Susie and I had already discussed this, and decided that a 2000+ foot climb in a relatively short distance, given the fact that it was already after lunch, was not quite our cup of tea, given the fact that we wanted to get cleaned up and maybe do some laundry, something we had not done since the start of the trip. Sarah and Amalia also declined. We would hear later that TwoHikers.org seemed more like TwoBathers.org, which was pretty funny to me, but I think it bothered Susie. I guess it did not bother me because I figure I hike when I want to, and it is ok to take a break in the action. After pushing so hard since Monday morning (it was now Friday afternoon), I certainly needed one.

One thing I found interesting about this trip was, for me, a big difference in my dynamics, compared to most wilderness trips I have been on. I have thought about this a fair amount since the Alsek trip ended, and I think it has to do with not having to be “in charge.” I have done over 290 backpacking trips, all over North America. On all but a handful of them, I have either been the chief planner and organizer, and/or “leader.” Note that I use the term “leader” in quotes, because, frankly, no one can “lead” (eg: the herd of cats that I have often hiked with. ) Anyway, I am used to spending lots of time prior to or during a long trip working out logistics, figuring out water sources, campsites, etc. So the idea of letting someone else do all that felt a bit, well, unusual to me. I was just glad we had the option to hike or do something else.

Both Thirsty and Joe stayed in camp. We all spent some time watching thru binoculars a grizzly that was maybe 1/3 to ½ mile from camp, up against the wall of mountains immediately to our east. The bear seemed to be moving around a bit and would disappear behind vegetation and then re-appear. After the bear disappeared for some time, heading north (toward the route that the hikers had taken), Susie and I decided it was time to clean up. There was a pond just to the north of the mound of rock and sand where the guides had placed the groover, and Susie and I had decided to head for that pond. We got about half-way to the pond and looked over the east, and could see our furry friend was headed in our direction, and had likely closed the distance to about 400 meters. “Hmm, maybe we don’t need to use the pond north of camp, and can instead go to the pond just south of camp. Good idea, huh?” So we turned around, and the guides, along with Sarah and Amalia, could not stop laughing. I guess it was just another good example of why one has to be careful just wandering around.

At any rate, we in fact did our laundry in a bucket we had borrowed, while Joe took Amalia and Sarah on a stroll to the SE of camp. Later, Thirsty warmed up a bucket of water so that the ladies could wash their hair in something other than brain-freeze water. I recall, after all the clean up had been done, I was sitting on a stool, contemplating my navel or something, and saw the bucket of cooling warm water just sitting there, and decided a shave of my beard was in order. It turned out to be the only shave I had on the trip, but sitting in the sunshine, shaving, when I was all cleaned up, was a delight.

The remainder of the crew returned late afternoon, and reported to have seen mountain goats way up high, plus a bear popping right near where they were hiking. Startled the bear as much as it did them. But the bear ran off right away. Anyway, dinner of Jambalaya and salad was served at a luxuriously early 6:30 pm. Most of us spent the rest of the evening just enjoying the lighting on the peaks and looking at maps. A really neat place to have stopped.

Additional Photos and videos can be found here: The Alsek Days 1 - 4 album on our SmugMug Photo Album Site

You might enjoy reading a different perspective on this same trip: Sarah Boomer's Report on the Thermophile.org website

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