I spent a month "alone" in Alaska.
At times I experienced forms of being alone that I never thought existed. At other times, I felt that it was impossible to ever really be alone.

Alaskan View

I started off my Alaskan journey on the ferry system beginning from Vancouver Island. My first Alaskan port was a place that calls itself Ketchikan (map), "the city of rainbows". It also happened to be the first stop for all the cruise ships. So, despite the beautiful things that is offered the ugliness of the tourist traps overpowered me and sent me climbing further up the pan handle of Alaska (the Inside Passage).

I had previously talked to a couple of college students from Texas on the ferry. They were headed to a town called Petersburg. The guys were headed there to work at the fisheries. I was headed there to escape the tourists. Petersburg is accessible to boats no larger than ferries due to narrow waterways. The moment that I got there, I knew that the lack of cruise ship traffic had done the town a lot of good in the cultural sense. I am an American myself but Alaska is a new America and has a very definitive culture.

I walked into the ferry terminal and the rotund and jolly man boisterously welcomed me, "to the fine town of Petersburg!" I asked him to point me toward tent city. Instead, he drove me there as soon as he got off work. At that time, I did not realize that that type of treatment was normal in Alaska. I couldn't walk the mile and a half to town without having at least two cars pull over to offer me a lift. At that time I was still being cautious though so I only accepted when I was with the boys from Texas that I had met.

A week later, I made my way back to the ferry terminal with another free ride but this time it was from the owner of tent city. Then, I made my way to Juneau. When I boarded, I found my friend Todd waiting for me on board. He and I had met in Portland and had maintained similar routes for quite some time. So, we found our way through the steep hills of Juneau to our hostel on the 3rd of July. That night, at midnight, we watched the fireworks. Everywhere else in America, they have the fireworks on the 4th but it isn't dark on the Fourth until midnight which would actually be the Fifth then. So, the hostel broke their 10PM curfew rule and kept the doors open until everyone was in. Then, I crashed on the couch with many others around me due to lack of beds available.

Juneau is an odd city because although it is the capital of Alaska, there are no roads into it because it is surrounded by an ice field. I do not recommend that anyone bother getting a rental car when they come here as the public buses are quite sufficient. One bad thing about this city is that it does of course get a lot of cruise ship traffic. However, the cruise ship travelers are usually herded into particular corners of the city and are infrequently seen outside of the gift shops and museums.

A sure way to be away from them was to go to Mendenhall Glacier campground. As long as you stay away from the main visitors center and shy away from the guided treks, you are likely to be amazed at the beauty of the glacier. The campground has some great sites way in the back specifically for backpackers because they have a bear proof bin to keep your food in so that they won't be attracted to your camp site. There was a lot of people there and a lot of food and I had no problem with theft from people or animals.

Grizzly in Denali

I went on a hike with a woman who worked at the park and a fellow camper. It is advised that you don't hike alone around here because there are bears. However, despite her knowledge of the trails, we got lost. We had some spectacular views from some rock outcroppings that we had to scale. We soon realized that we couldn't possibly be on the right trail considering the amount of traffic that was seen ahead of us earlier and the demanding terrain that we had just climbed though. Suddenly I became dizzy and I turned back at their demands. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous going back on my own so I tried to sing to myself to make "human noises" as I had been instructed. But, I felt quite silly every time another hiker came around the corner. Nevertheless, my pace and noise level increased dramatically when I found a black tuft of coarse fur on a branch beside the trail.

Questions?
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