Kenai peninsula...the frozen north begins

Following our bear adventures at Katmai we arrive back to Anchorage to pick up our 4WD to drive to our log cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilds. The mountains and bays surrounding Anchorage are breathtaking - indeed, this is true of all of Alaska we've seen so far. Driving along the bay as we're leaving the city boundaries there are Beluga whales gently swimming close to the shores.

The closest town to our cabin is 15 minutes up the road, Moose Pass, population 200. There is a small store (cash only) and a tavern. The latter does great burgers we discovered on our first night and has a typical Alaskan country feel, complete with stuffed bear on the ledge next to where we dined and a sign that tells us to leave all sidearms with bar staff.

"Log cabin" is underselling where were staying, it's extremely well appointed and spacious. It's a pleasant change to be somewhere so quite and private having just come from Brooks Lodge where the paper thin walls allow for intimate knowledge about the neighboring guests - we were there for the bears not the accommodations. In contrast "Chalet in the Pass" is a cozy, welcoming hand-built sanctuary. Impossible to describe it properly, but it exudes the love and care poured into it by Gregor, our host.

Alaskan summer is a balmy 10-14oC during the day at the moment and a bit of light drizzle much of the time. Not that it stops us doing anything. Our first morning we head to Exit Glacier or should we say Exiting Glacier, it is receding significantly every year and they have markers along the trail to show where the glacier had once reached. This becomes a recurrent story during our stay, very sobering.

We had planned to do a second walk in the afternoon however succumbed to the call of the quiet cabin with the well appointed kitchen.  We forage for supplies for our seafood chowder.  What we are extremely surprised by is how difficult it is to find fresh seafood, given we're shopping in Seward, a larger fishing town 45 minutes from our cabin.  We appear to have the choice of buying 5kgs of fish minimum, buying frozen or shopping at the Safeway supermarket where supplies of local produce are minimal.  Regardless the seafood chowder was delicious (featuring sockeye salmon, scallops, tarragon, Thai chillis) and a much more relaxed afternoon than we'd had for a while.

Early to bed as the next day we had to be up by 5:30am to get to our boat. Today we were heading to Northwestern Glacier(s), a three hour boat trip into the fjords where we were to kayak. We had originally booked a much shorter trip to kayak Bear Glacier, unfortunately a rare natural event occurred the week prior, resulting in it being too dangerous to kayak.  This was our second rare natural event we'd just missed, the first being Hurricane Lane. How rare are these things?

Northwest Glacier was certainly not second prize. The boat trip was fairly rough until we arrived in the calm bays where we would be kayaking.  Breathtaking is understating it, everywhere we look is another glacier and we can hear the thunderous roar of avalanches through the bay as ancient glaciers are slowly melted away.  There is a little apprehension climbing into a small kayak when you are dwarfed by the mountains and glaciers that surround.  We are kitted up with kayak skirts, rain pants and a life-jacket before we are pushed out into the grey-blue yonder. The glaciers felt massive from the comforts of our larger boat, from a small kayak it is daunting.  We paddle up to the edge of our first glacier that has the appearance of the jagged gates of an ice world.  We then kayak further along the fjord where the floating icebergs (technically "growlers" unless they're the size of a 1 story building but we'll call them icebergs for affect) grow denser.  The water is littered with ice that our kayak/captain dodges between. There are harbour seals surrounding us, staying at a distance but watching us out of curiosity. 

Now all of this sounds fabulous, yes? And it is - the trick is that we got to do it in a very persistent drizzle, sometimes rain and, once or twice, hinting at sleet. This is an extra degree of difficulty we'd not expected......cameras become even more protected than ever, the chill threatens to set in..... There is an upside though: as we've been told, if the rain or wind stops, the bugs come out. And they're pretty determined bugs here, what with having such a short summer to feast in. Andrew's already missing half a leg from a solid gnawing he copped at Katmai, and discretion prevents discussion of Tracey's savagings.

Puffins!!

The Frozen North indeed this was. Icebergs buffeting the kayak, glaciers dead ahead (and to both port and starboard), and so few other people around to disturb the hush that is periodically interrupted by the thunder of glacial avalanches. The ~10km we paddled will live longer in memory than the fatigue in arms and shoulders.

Sleepy sea otter @ Seward

Mountain unicorn goat