Alaska Adventure 2018: Intro

Alaska Adventure

Until now, the only U.S. state that Emilie had never been to (airports not included) was Alaska.   I had never been there either. It didn’t really take much discussion for us to determine that this summer’s adventure would be to Alaska, with a focus on visiting Denali National Park and doing a cruise to see some glaciers and whales. The past two summers were spent driving around the country visiting national parks and monuments, and everything in between. We didn’t plan too much around where and when we would be lodging. A lot of winging it.

As we researched Denali National Park we learned that this was a little different. It is much larger, more rugged, and wilder than other national parks. It did not appear to lend itself to the same casual spontaneity that Em and I typically employ. For example, there are very few marked trails in the park, and camping would be limited to back country camping within the park, and we are still fairly new to the camping world. We didn’t think we were ready to take on camping and hiking in Denali on our own. We also wanted to do a cruise somewhere. Packing and preparing for a self-guided camping/hiking trip as well as for a cruise on the same trip would be daunting.

We knew we wanted to join an organized hiking tour, and we knew we wanted to do a small ship cruise. But, there are many options, they needed to line up right, and we really wanted some keen insights to specific options. I had done some research and had some ideas in mind. Then I figured I’d see if there were any travel consultants who specialized in Alaska. Typically, we have found that travel agents add very little value to us for our kind of travel. But when we first spoke with Patty from Alaska and Beyond we knew we had somebody who knew what she was talking about and actually listened to us, and tried to really understand what we wanted to do and were capable of doing in terms of activity.

Long story short, Patty recommended two tours (both of which I had already considered as two of the top contenders). We settled on a hiking tour called “Alaska’s Prince William Sound To Majestic Denali” with Backroads; and “Alaska’s Glaciers and Whales” with Uncruise for the cruise. The 5-night hiking tour was first, and that started in Fairbanks, then to Denali, and down to Anchorage. We would then fly from Anchorage to Juneau to pick up the 7-night small ship cruise, which ended in Sitka. The cruise ship capacity was 86 passengers. The dates lined up, with a couple of days in between, which Patty filled for us with awesome adventures.

Emilie and I arranged the air travel to and from Alaska, but Patty arranged everything else (easily the most effective travel consultant we’ve ever worked with).

Alaska Adventure Gear and Preparation

As with our National Park Road Trips of 2016 and 2017 Emilie and I spent our oldest daughter’s wedding money on proper gear at REI (she probably won’t get married anyway).  As we were to be in Alaska in June/July, we needed to be prepared for hiking, boating, and tooling around in any potential weather and terrain: rain, cold, hot, windy, tundra, ice, snow, dirt, pavement, etc.  We also needed to be prepared to get wet on skiffs and kayaks, and be cold as we approached glaciers on a boat. Basically rainforests, towns, boats, glaciers, mud, etc.  We also needed to pack lightly since there were limits enforced by both the hiking trip and the cruise.

We planned and planned and planned on what we would take, and more importantly, how we would take it.  Preparation for lost luggage, too.  We decided we would just take one backpack to limit luggage, and one of us would be the pack mule for both of us as needed on hikes.  We checked just one medium sized bag for the two of us, I carried the full backpack on to the plane, and Emilie carried a packed duffle bag on to the plane.  If our checked bag got lost, we had enough essentials in the backpack and duffle bag to get by, with buying maybe a couple of things only as replacements.

Also, I bought new knee high boots for mud hiking as recommended by the cruise people, and our consultant.  I got them at Dick’s, and they were pretty heavy duty.  I ended up mailing them to our hotel in Juneau, and of course we put a few more items that we would need only for the cruise, which was the second half of the trip, in that box.

We also bought travel insurance, as this was a pretty expensive trip.

High level itinerary:

Fairbanks

Backroads Hiking Tour (Denali)

Backroads Hiking Tour (Talkeetna/Girdwood/Chugach)

Anchorage and Juneau

Juneau Excursions (Bear Viewing & Glacier Trekking)

Uncruise: Glaciers & Whales

Sitka

Next: Fairbanks