Until this point in my life, the furthest I had traveled was Ohio to Florida (flight) and Ohio to Texas (road trip). Technically, I had traveled internationally to Toronto, Canada as my first time leaving the US Border.
In February I received a modest tax return and decided to spend it on a round trip flight from CAK to ANC. This would require over 10+ hours of travel, including a 6-hour leg from Minnesota.
This trip represented an important step in my life, stepping way outside my comfort zone. All I knew of Alaska is that it was a large chunk of land, there were mountains, long summer days (aka midnight sun), it was colder than most places, and there would be grizzly bears. Why go there? For most of my life my father had spoken of wishing to visit Alaska some day….but he never committed to going. I decided to go for it and have the experience.
I did have one advantage on this trip. One of my long-time friends and mentors had moved to Eagle River and offered to show me the area. The plan was to ship my tent via UPS, rent a car, and camp my way around the Anchorage area.
How did it go?
My first lesson was that Alaskan mosquitos were large, aggressive, and like Ohioan blood. One twilight night I went to sleep and awoke a few hours later to discover I had let about 6-7 of these little beasts into my tent. They had all feasted upon me, but I got the last laugh as I smashed all of them (unfortunately, my tent kept the blood stains).
Next lesson? The 23 hour days are quite the experience. It does not mean you see the sun all day long…from about 10 pm to 3 am there is this sort of weird twilight. In the above photo of me by the river, it was 11 pm (ish). On some days you could actually see the sun briefly set behind Mt. McKinley (Denali National Park) and then rise on the other side of the mountains about 15 mins later. I got used to the light after a few days.
Finally, is Alaska cold? Yes, during the winter…but during June it is an amazing spring-like wonderland with temperatures Ranging from 50-70deg F (10-20C). This is my favorite! Most of my trip was spent in shorts and a coat/sweater.
