Alaska Part 1

 I'm back from a several week break. I spent ten days in Alaska and it has taken another ten days to recover. I probably picked up a mild case of CoVid, but I was still functioning, albeit a bit slower. 

The trip to Alaska was an eye opener as far as my fitness level stands now. I was discouraged by how difficult the hilly hikes were for me. Distance was never an issue, just the steeper inclines. We often walked 5-8 miles a day and I was fine with that distance. There were two hikes though that left me a bit winded. We attempted Mount Healy just after our arrival in Denali. It probably would have been better to have waited until the next day, but it fit into our schedule better on the first one. The weather was cool and damp, which felt nice, but it hid the mountain views we were hoping to see. we hiked not even halfway up when I decided it was probably best to just turnaround. I knew I wouldn't make the summit, and with the weather progressively getting worse, I just did not want to continue. I was so discouraged at how quickly I tired. The elevation was not an issue as the summit is under 4000 ft. It was just the incline

Alaska was beautiful in many of the areas we travelled (what we could see through the mist and low clouds). We just had some disappointments on the trip and due to timing missed out on seeing the wildlife we had hoped for. The trip to Lake Clark National Park accessed via float plane was cancelled due to low visibility that morning and high winds forecast for the afternoon. This was to be the highlight of our trip as we would've spent the day viewing brown bears feeding off the migrating salmon in Crescent Lake. We instead went and rented a car and spent the next two days exploring Anchorage and the northern part of the Kenai Peninsula including a visit the the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we did get to see brown bears close up and a few moose. We also on our final day caught a glimpse of Denali on our drive heading north back to Anchorage. The clouds broke up briefly, just long enough to get a few pics. Considering the mountain was 150 miles away at that point, well you can just imagine the size. It sits at just over 20,000 feet - 9000 less than Mount Everest. 

So the trip had it's up's and downs. I'll share more in the days ahead. It was an emotional roller coaster on several levels.  

                                            Moose at Alaska Wildlife Conservation

                                            Denali in the distance

Brown Bear at Alaska Wildlife Conservation

Me at the entrance to Earthquake Park and the Coastal Trail.