Back to Alaska

To make the posts a little more manageable, I've broken them down by day. There will be nine posts in all.

We've almost always left before dawn on our flying trips, so our mid-day departure left Matt and I with too much time to spare in the morning. Couldn't have that happen now, could we? Time to squeeze in a run!

After eight miles on the Hammond Trail, where we had done all our long runs for the GB marathon, I could tell that the trail was a bad place for my IT band. It looks like I'll need a new long-run spot for road marathon training. We took quick showers at Alex's new pad, then went to the airport.

Just as we saw Alex's car pull away from the airport doors, we realized our flight was delayed two hours! No wonder all the locals drive to San Fran or Sacramento to catch flights. We just build our flight plan with a 4-5 hour layover in San Fran and it usually works out well since flights are seldom canceled, but regularly delayed by at least an hour. Sure beats a 6-7 hr drive to the other airports, with a hotel and paying for parking.

To pass the time until our flight, we ate our sandwiches and went for a couple mile walk. The sun came out. we picked and ate wild blackberries along the way. I almost debated staying home. Flying is awful.

When Matt's boss heard we were going back to Alaska for a backpacking trip, she asked, "Why not go to the Trinities (just an hour away from home)?" Anyone who has backpacked in Alaska knows why, but it's one of those explanations that you can't quite put into words. But that got me to thinking : Alaska is nearly all wilderness. If one doesn't go for the outdoor activities, what would they come to see? Really?

The flight from Seattle seemed to drag on forever. Then I realized that I had become one of those annoyingly excited visitors that leaves their reading light on the whole time, keeping the row buddies awake. The 3.5 hr flight, I watched the sun set over Puget Sound and it lasted two full hours as we moved north. The red sky glowed until just after we landed. Then it finally disappeared. Welcome back, Karen.