Well, hit the trails I did. I hiked for several hours the other day. At first when I set out, I was a bit scared to be honest- I'm back in bear country- and I'm not gonna lie that sometimes it freaks me out. But I'm glad I kept on and didn't let the possibility of a bear encounter detour me...it was a fabulous day for hiking. I started out on some Nordic ski trail not really with a set plan when I ran into a couple forest service workers who asked where I was headed. When I replied with 'wherever the trails take me' they suggested I cut through to a different path and boy am I glad they did. As I hiked, I started to realize where it was taking me...to Girdwood's hand tram. I'd been there my first summer in Alaska with my friend Dan but had approached it from the other side. I finally reached the tram, but I wasn't strong enough to get the tram from the other side of the gorge over to me. I was kind of disappointed that I wouldn't be able to get across- but kind of thankful too- It would have been a bit scary to dangle over that glacial river all by myself- and what if I was only strong enough to get to the middle and not back to the other side? So after eating an apple while staring into the gushing river below, I gave up on the idea that maybe some other hiker's would pass through that I could ride with, and I headed back.
Most people don't realize that Alaska had rainforest...it does... and it's awesome.
Hikin' along
Big ol' Moose track (how on earth did that become a kind of ice cream?!)
The hand tram.
Back home something like this would have such high liability that it couldn't exist....it's a bit different in Alaska- a lot less rules.
Unfortunately I didn't have my actual camera and the iphone just couldn't capture how blue the glacial water is. Maybe I'll capture it better another day.
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