Mosquitoes and the Midnight Sun

Greetings from Anchorage, Alaska! Tonight we’re staying at the Qupqugiac Inn, which means “ten-legged Polar Bear”, an animal believed to have once existed, apparently. We were slated to stay at an RV park in town, but since it was two blocks from a homeless shelter and an RV park in a city, we decided to stay elsewhere. We got here in time for the BBQ (cookout) and chatted with a few people who work for the oil industry and have recently moved up here. It was a pretty good decision. So last time I didn’t get caught up to where we were. It was eleven o’clock and we had to get up to back on the ferry at 5 in the morning. I hope you all understand. Unfortunately the internet is really slow, so I probably only have the patience to upload one or two pictures.

Alicia and I got in line for the ferry in Prince Rupert, BC at 10:30 for our 2pm departure and by 2pm they really mean 3pm because even though the ferry terminal is Canada, it is leased by the US, so they were on Alaska-time. We got on the boat only to realize that the berth we thought we booked online didn’t go through because we booked it online (they’ve been having issues apparently). Fortunately they still had berths available and fortunately we would be able to get it cheaper if waited until we got to Ketchican instead of booking it Prince Rupert. So we put our stuff in a locker, mixed some rum and cokes and settled in in the Recliner Room (not real recliners) and watched Frozen and Captain Phillips (an interesting choice for a boat on the treacherous Canadian waters) with a bunch of high schoolers. After the movies we joined the high schoolers in the microwave line and made some mac n cheese. At about 7:30 we arrived in Ketchican for a three hour docking. As the ferry was pulling into port a bald eagle soared overhead. It was very majestic! We got off and ate dinner, then got our berth. It had no windows, which helped us sleep for twelve hours. It wasn’t completely uninterrupted sleep, because for some reason they thought we were getting off in Wrangell. The purser knocked on our door a few times, starting at 5am, until we had regained enough consciousness to let them know we were not in fact getting off in Wrangell.

The ferry wasn’t a bad experience overall, but it definitely wasn’t a cruise ship. It was too cold and windy to spend much time outdoors and while the shoreline was rugged and beautiful, it looked exactly the same for the entire voyage. We were under the impression that there would be bears bringing down moose on the shoreline, elk grazing in clearings, and wolves howling at the moo…midnight sun, but sadly there were just trees. We did see a few whale tales and blow holes, which was cool. About 6pm on Wednesday we arrived in Juneau. We drove past the Mendenhall Glacier into town and found our hotel, the Alaskan Inn, an old hotel from the early 20^th century. It was very rustic, but nice. The hotel was in the downtown area, right where they dock the behemoth cruise ships. We ate a King Crab leg at a local shack. The leg was the size of an infant’s arm and as a delicious as a lobster. After eating microwavable crap for two days it was a much needed break. After dinner we drove back to the Mendenhall Glacier to take pictures, viewed eagles from the wildlife refuge along the highway and then returned to the hotel.

Sunsets and Icebergs at the Mendenhall Glacier (not pictured)

Thursday we got up early to catch our ferry was Juneau to Haines. The scenery was better on this leg of the trip. Glaciers slowly eroded mountains and the captain made the following announcement: Attention passengers, Killer Whales have been sighted nearby. And they’re jumping. I of course jumped up and was able to get a picture of said jumping Killer Whales. At around noon we arrived in Haines, got back to the car, drove the forty miles to the Canadian border and returned to America’s half-sibling. The funny thing about borders is that they sometimes seem to drawn randomly, but when you notice that the terrain changes almost exactly at that line, then it makes since. Once into Canada, the trees disappeared and we were in the tundra. We ate Chicken Penne and a Chicken Pot Pie at a bakery in Haines Junction, Yukon Territory and then drove by Kluane National Park which had snowcapped mountains and super blue lakes. We drove on and on. The roads turned sketchy and finally we were at our end destination for the day, Beaver Creek, YT, the western-most community in Canada. We were instantly greeted by swarms of mosquitos. We set up our tent, ordered a pizza from Buckshot Betty’s and did some laundry. There were no mosquitos in the laundromat. The laundry was done at 11pm and the sun was still shining. Still shining like it was 6pm in North Carolina, so we put on our eye masks and fell asleep. I woke up at some time in the middle of the night to pee and it was darkish, like it was 8:30 or so at home.

Friday we got up and drove the thirty miles to the Alaska border. Once they found out we didn’t have any Canadian citrus we were essentially waved across. It was by far the easiest border crossing yet. We drove on to Tok, ate breakfast at Fast Eddies and then headed towards Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest National Park in the US – six times larger than Yellowstone, which itself is larger than the state of Rhode Island, which is the only US license plate we haven’t seen yet. On the way we saw a porcupine crossing the road. Wrangell-St. Elias may the largest park, but it’s barely accessible by car. Sixty miles and two hours later we were at the end of the dirt road and greeted by more mosquitoes than thought to be humanly possible. Even with mosquito suits and bug spray that’s 98% deet, the mosquitoes still swarmed. We ate dinner in the car, but of course the mosquitos had gotten in, so we spent half the meal squashing them. So at the end of the road there’s just a foot bridge, no car bridge available to the general public. Half a mile from the bridge is the town of McCarthy. We walked around but not much was going on - mostly rustic but run down looking buildings. We went back to the campground, fought through the mosquitos and retreated into the safety of the tent.

Alicia on the Root Glacier

Saturday we got up, ate oatmeal in the car, then walked back across the foot bridge and caught a shuttle bus to the town of Kennicot, five more miles up the road. Kennicot was the site of the formerly most profitable mine in the world, specializing in copper. The NPS is working on the red mine and mill buildings. The buildings were cool and all, but to top it all off, the Root Glacier was only a mile and a half hike a way. A real life glacier from the ice age was within walking distance. Alicia and I made the hike and got to walk on a freaking glacier. For a huge piece of ice it had good traction. We saw crevices forming and heard ice breaking. The ice was an intense blue –  and oh so beautiful! We hiked back and ate some pizza made on a bus, listened to a ranger talk about wilderness and then decided to hike the five miles back to the campsite while fighting off mosquitos and dealing with rain. Needless to say my calves hurt today.

And finally today. We woke up, drove the 60 miles back to the paved road, then drove a few hundred more miles towards Anchorage. We saw amazing vistas of the Chugach Mountains, complete with glaciers and ice fields. We came to the town of Palmer, passed a sign that said there had been zero moose hit on the highway since July 1^st, then passed a dead moose in the medium and smashed up car on the side of the road. I assume that sign has already been changed. We arrived in Anchorage, said no to the RV park and found Qupqugiac Inn. It’s now about 12:30 and only kind of sort of dark.