AK adventures

Miscellaneous

Jul 7

It took about 42 hours but I finally made it to Alaska late on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning Rose and I drove down to Seward for some camping, kayaking, and adventuring. The weather was damp and cool but we were still able to squeeze a fair amount of fun in around the 4th of July. First we went sea kayaking around Resurrection Bay where we were supposed to camp the night before my flight got delayed on Monday.

I was pretty happy to not have forgotten my rain jacket! (RB Photo)

Cold water and beautiful scenery (RB Photo)

Next to the waterfall was a small hydro plant to power the cabins on the island (RB Photo)

After spending the day kayaking and exploring Resurrection Bay we headed back to Seward to stake out a camping spot before 25,000+ people poured into the city for celebrations on the 4th of July.

In Seward they have the fireworks celebration the night of the 3rd for good reason. It doesn’t get very dark till early in the morning. Luckily it was overcast making it easier to see the midnight show! (RB Photo)

The next morning we woke up to watch Mt Marathon, the annual running race up and down a very very steep mountain (RB Photo)

This picture is from about half way up. The racers start from the end of Seward in the background (RB Photo)

To say the race is crazy is a complete understatement. Race winners summit in a little over 30 minutes, and manage the decent in around 10 minutes (RB Photo)

Erik Strabel, one of the APU coaches demolished the old record that stood since 1981 and did so with some impressive descending skills. My self preservation instinct is far too strong for this sort of an event! (Sadie Bjornsen Photo)

Perhaps more impressive than the absolute speed of the winners is the sheer number of people that decide to race. Of course no Mt Marathon is complete without Birdman- a local legend who safety pins his bib through his nipples and has participated in countless races. Crazy! (RB Photo)

After watching Mt Marathon on the 4th, our group headed back towards Anchorage for a day of fishing on the Russian River. Corey, one of the APU skiers boyfriends did an awesome job getting us geared up for Salmon fishing and dealing with my pretty pathetic Salmon fishing skills. It took me a couple of hours, and a fair amount of cussing, but I finally got the hang of it and landed some fish! I can only imagine what fishing during a run of 25,000 salmon must be like!