Tyler and Emily in PNG

So what have we been doing for the past two weeks?

Two weeks ago, we had a road trip to interior Alaska for our attempt to see Mt. McKinley. Emily and I set out for a mid-week adventure 500 miles north to Denali National Park. Denali NP is home to North America’s tallest mountain at 20,300 feet. However, it is noted that the mountain shows its face 10 out of 30 days in an average month. The mountain is so great and so high that it actually makes its own weather. As we drove north that Wednesday we were able to catch a glimpse of the bottom half of the mountain but not the peak. The next two days were worse, with lots of big gray clouds. We camped two nights 75 miles south of the park and drove to the park entrance on Thursday for a day trip. We visited the park visitor center as well as a short hike for lunch at Horseshoe Lake.

We drove 14 miles on the park road before being stopped because private vehicles are not allowed past mile 14. If you want to go into the park further up to 80 more miles, you have to purchase a ticket to ride one of the park buses. However on the short 14 mile stretch, we did see a bull moose in the bush not to far off the road and a Caribou in the rocky Savage River stream.

On the way home, we stopped to get some fuel at $4.53/gal and a round of firewood. The mosquitoes were bad so a nice campfire was the ticket to chase them away. We enjoyed a nice campfire that night before crawling into our tent.

Last week, summer showed its face in Seward. For three miraculous days the sun was shiny bright and the sky was blue with no clouds. Temperature rose to upper 60s. A hot summer day so face this year in Seward. So last Wednesday, Emily and I set forth on a mountain climb to summit Mt. Marathon (3022 feet) here in Seward. It might not sound too difficult but when you start at sea level (0 feet), climbing 3000 feet is no small task.

The climb starts 45-50 degrees right from the start. Within 5 steps your heart rate doubles and you start to think the big breakfast you had was not a good idea. It didn’t take long before we were crossing snow patches from last years record snowfall. (Seward received over 200 inches of snow last winter.) We made it above tree line and turned around to see beautiful Resurrection Bay and the small harbor town of Seward below.

Once we climbed to the ridge, Emily asked, ‘where is the top?’ I said, ‘well you can’t see it from here but we have to go up along the ridge.’ I figured we were about half way there in elevation so the last hard push was ahead of us.

We finally made it to the top and had congratulatory high-fives along with an energy bar. We sat quietly to enjoy the majestic viewpoint that has made Seward famous.

Looking east to west from the summit of Mt Marathon (3022’). The town of Seward nestled on the Resurrection Bay.