Alaskan Kayaking

So how about that Sarah Palin?? You just can't get away from Alaska in the news, can you?

And I'm going to give you more Alaskan things to think about because you're going to have to listen to the story of my week. Sorry for not answering emails or responding to comments, I was too busy having THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE!!

I should start by saying I've never been a huge camping fan. I've always had a hard time with that whole cold, dirty, bug-infested part. But last week I accompanied 11 teenage girls on a kayaking expedition and if I were to tell you all the wonderful things about the trip you'd be reading pages and pages till you dropped from exhaustion.

We had originally planned on going to Valdez and kayaking on the ocean but when it came down to it the people who were training us worried that the girls would be fighting the dangerous ocean currents and notoriously touchy weather on Prince William Sound so at the last minute we switched to the Kenai Peninsula so we could instead go kayaking on lakes and stay safer.

I was a little disappointed at first but boy was I wrong because we had the most fabulous weather you'll ever see in southcentral Alaska. Our temperatures were around 80 for most of the week (the picture looks rather hazy because of the forest fires burning around the state but it really was very sunny) and instead of using all the layers I packed we spent the week in swim suits and t-shirts, trying fun things to keep ourselves cool.

We camped in the Ptarmigan Creek campground which is about 20 minutes north of Seward. The fee is $14 a night but it's well worth it because the area sits alongside the Ptarmigan Creek where there's a trail that leads from the campground for about 3 1/2 miles along the river up to Ptarmigan Lake. We hiked the trail first thing when we got there (even before setting up camp) and it's very much like the Winner Creek trail back in Girdwood in terms of terrain and difficulty.

At first I was a bit nervous because of all the signs that said things like: "Bear Country: Beware!" and "For the safety of all, do not leave any food, cosmetics, toiletries or anything with an odor in your camp!" The other leader that was with us handed me a can of bear spray and suggested I go first along the trail.

"You just pull this strap here and the trigger unlocks. Then you spray the bear. Just be careful that you're not more than 30 feet from him because it won't work at that distance--you'll just get a cloud of spray that blows away. You need to be able to get him good in the face and the can only has enough spray for about two or three seconds which means it's really just there to give him a distraction so that you can run away."

"So let me get this straight? I see a bear coming at me. The bear wants to eat me. [we've already proven how good I am with wildlife relations after my earlier moose episode] I'm supposed to 'wait until I see the whites of his eyes'? I'm supposed to let him get a good, tasty whiff of me and offer myself as a morsel then get close enough to really make him mad so the rest of you can have time to run away?"

"Pretty much."

"Okay. Just so we're clear here."

So at first I was a bit nervous and did a lot of shouting along the lines of "If there are any bears out there you better back off because I'm armed. With bear spray!" until the temperatures rose and we were all a pack of dripping sweat balls and I pretty much didn't care if there were any bears out there anyway because becoming an h'ors d'oeuvre couldn't be worse that the flies that were attracted by my most pleasant fragrance.

But sweatiness aside it was a great hike. Forget-me-nots and orange wild columbine dotted the forest trail with dogwood and cow parsnip underfoot as we hiked beside the opaquely-green river. It was about as beautiful as you can imagine.

The next few days were all about kayaking. We shuttled our nine kayaks up the road about five miles to the turn off for Upper and Lower Trail Lakes where we packed up and put in.

Grace and I were both in single-man crafts while most of the girls were in doubles. The singles are a bit more unstable but the water was just like you see it here--perfect glass.

We paddled for five miles and the girls did great--even with a sticky rudder and a broken cable to cause some problems they really were amazing and it was one of those perfect days where the weather is perfect, your surroundings are perfect, you're just perfectly content, hoping it all doesn't end.

There were float planes occasionally taking off or touching down on the lake as we made our way across, there were dolly varden and rainbow trout jumping here and there to break the surface and surprise us but the highlight of the trip was when, on our return, we passed directly beneath two large spruce trees where two bald eagles sat perched on the very tops. They were screeching in their distinct way and were watching us as we drifted by then they flew on ahead a bit to two new trees where they watched us catch up only to fly on ahead of us again, screeching and talking.

I would have had pictures of them but it's hard to pull out your camera from the back of a kayak. We ate our snacks and lunches right there on the water, floating along, because there were no places to put out--it was nothing but mountains and spruce trees right down to the water line.

When we finally got off the water it was so warm and lovely the girls all jumped back in the water right there at the lake. Even back at camp it was warm enough that every afternoon we could tramp down to the river and bathe so we could feel more human and evenings were all about sitting around the fire and playing long games of Five Card Mow (rhymes with cow) which will probably warrant a post in itself it was so fun.

On Wednesday Andrew brought the kids down to wish me a happy birthday and I took the kids out on Kenai Lake which is the picture you see here--they all loved it and the only bad news now is that we're thinking that we may have to do it as a family next summer. Maybe by then David will be big enough to reach the rudder pedals and won't have to mope about how he wants to go out in a kayak by himself and why does he have to have a partner?

I think after this trip I can definitively say to Andrew that I am not the outdoor whimp that he thought he'd married afterall. And the girls had as much fun as I did--I kept hearing that it was "the best experience of my WHOLE life!" which must mean that it wasn't too bad of a week.

Who says I'm not an outdoor person? At least as long as I've got my sun.

Sponsored by Wedding Paper Divas for wedding invitations.