Made it back into town around noon today after 9 hours of flights. Coming back was a lot easier than going; it being a Wednesday didn’t hurt any. It turns out that the reason we were having so much trouble getting up there was that the salmon were apparently running. Once the fishermen heard about that, they all booked up the flights overnight.

Continuing where I left off from earlier…

We got up Tuesday morning in Fairbanks to Stephanie cooking us breakfast. She really was an incredible host! Stephanie if you read this email me – I need to send you some music. Anyway, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed south to Denali National Park, and into the rain once again. We looked around the Denail visitor’s center and drove through what we could of the park, spotting moose and caribou along the way. We opted out of the bus tour through the park – partly because of the rain and partly because it was pretty late once we got there. With high hopes of returning one day, we started south once more.

On the road outside Denali, we saw Missie, the road worker that stopped us in the first place just a couple of days before and caused us to meet Stephanie. We said hi as we drove by and continued on. A few hours later we had made it to Anchorage, where we stopped by REI for some much needed rain gear.

With the continued rain and our plans to head south on the Kenai penensula, we didn’t want a repeat of our soaking experience in the Arctic. There is a small outdoor gear outlet right beside REI, and we were lucky enough to find some really good rain pants for $50. With that and some pack-covers to keep the gear dry, we headed southeast along the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. The country in the south was beautiful, with the snow-capped and glacier laden peaks meeting the ocean all around.

The small town of Seward was our goal, and we made it into town running on fumes at around dusk. We were looking for gas and a place to camp, and expecting the dusk to last for around an hour just as it did in the rest of the state. However, the cloudy conditions along with the mountains and the fact that we were as far south as we had been the whole trip made for a true night in Seward. We realized that the place we had wanted to camp required a 1.5 mile hike along 100ft cliffs above the ocean, something we didn’t want to chance in the dark. At the 1.5 mile point was a place where we could camp, but was also a place the signs in the area pointed out was frequented by bears during the spawing season of the salmon. Another chance we didnt want to take. So we said our goodbyes to the Fjords of the south and headed north out of town looking for a place to camp.

We found that place half an hour out of Seward near a river, in the first developed campground of the trip. We actually had to pay to camp. And to think just a couple of days earlier in the tundra we had our pick of spots for free as far as the eye could see.

Wednesday we slept in until 9am and headed north to the Portage Glacier. The weather was nothing less than miserable, at 56 degrees, moderate rain, and wind gusts up to 40mph. Nevertheless, we decided to hike up to the only foot-accessable glacier (portage glacier is only accessable by taking a boat ride across the lake of the same name). We dawned the rain gear and smart-wool and headed out. Up at the glacier, we got to stand in the mouths of ice caves and hike all the way to the foot of the glacier. Having the time of our lives, we headed back, damp but in high spirits.

We made it back to Anchorage and set ourselves on the task of cleaning the car, inside and our. Four days of rain and road construction had left its mark, and I think we spent about $15 in quarters getting the car back to great shape. We also went about the monumetal task of packing and throwing away a lot of the junk we had accumulated along the way. The rental car was dropped off with half an hour to spare and the guy was nice enough to take us to the airport, saving us the taxi fare.

Overall, the trip was amazing. I want to go back, both in the winter and summer. The glimps of the aurora that we got left us thirsty for more, and the small part of Alaska, and most notably the tundra, that we got to explore will entice us until we return.