Hi again! We have been in the Portage, Alaska area for several days now. Beautiful area – mountains and lots of glaciers, right off the Cook Inlet. We’re about an hour south of Anchorage. We got lucky on the campground site – we got an end site, with great views right out our door. It’s windy here much of the time, something about the 2 mountain passes we are between and the weather patterns. It’s also cloudy and gray most of the time, but we’ve had a sunny day here and there. Not complaining!
We delt with the flat tire while here as you’ve read about in the last post. That took up a couple of days but was necessary. Otherwise we’ve been on 2 great hikes in the area, gone on an hour long boat tour to Portage glacier (Gerry was allowed onboard!) and gone over to Whittier twice. Whittier is a small village (too small to call a town) right on the waterfront of Prince William Sound. Cruise ships stop here, and one was in the first day we went there. There’s a handful of small gift shops and coffee shops, but more than anything this is where adventure tours go out of. Sea kayaking, boat tours, helicopter tours, etc. And the Alaska Marine Ferry system has a port here too. I didn’t realize until we got here how much of the state’s transportation system is by ferry. Many places, including Janeau, the capital, are only accessible by boat or plane. Very few roads in this big state. We (briefly) considered using the ferry for part of our trip later in the summer, as they hold large RVs as well as trucks and cars. BUT…dogs have to stay in the vehicle and cannot come up on deck. Even the shortest route we considered, which was to Valdez, was 6 hours. Gerry would never make that so we’ll stick to driving! 🙂
Anyhow, back to Whittier – you can only access it via a one lane tunnel, which is about 2.5 miles long through a mountain. The tunnel is shared by the Alaska Railroad also. So, there’s a schedule of when the tunnel is available for car traffic, depending on the direction you are heading – into or out of Whittier. You can get in or out once an hour. The first day we went over it was very cloudy and foggy, couldn’t see much. I included some of these pictures in the link. We decided to wait until a better day to do the hike we wanted to do over there, which we did the following day.
Also in the area is Portage Glacier. It is about 5 minutes from our campground, but you can’t see the full glacier from the road. So we did a boat tour that took us right up next to the glacier which was really cool. And literally cool also – it was cold and windy and Gerry was freezing on the boat! Fortunately I had his blanket with us and could wrap him up in it.
We got another view of Portage Glacier when we went back to Whittier and did the Portage Pass hike. It’s about 6 miles altogether – up to the top of the pass, then down the other side to the Portage Lake, with the glacier on the far side of the lake. So we hiked to the lake, and had lunch looking out at the glacier then hiked back. Since this was an up to the top, down and then back up to the top and down again hike it was truly uphill both ways – we were all tired by the end. We saw 2 eagles sitting together in a tree at the beginning of the hike. Got some pictures, they are included in the link.
Another hike we did was in Alyeska – a small (very) village with a nice ski resort and hotel. The hike was Winner Creek, about 5.5 miles and an easy hike. Very little elevation change, but the trail ran along Winner Creek, through the forest. There was a hand tram you could use to cross the creek and continue to another trail, but we didn’t think taking Gerry on the rope and bucket type tram that you pulled yourself over the creek (way high up above the creek) with was a good idea. (Did I mention Steve is afraid of heights and hates cliff edges???) So we turned around and went back. A very nice day hike.
We have been regular visitors to the Alpine Bakery I mentioned in the last post. I can honestly report everything we have had from there is delicious! We also discovered a local ice cream shop in the same center – we are currently enjoying Black Cherry and Alaskan Berry ice cream at home in the to go containers we got yesterday.
The campground has a nice sauna – it looks like a shed on the outside, has a wood stove inside and the walls are lined with a wood that smells really good (pine, I think). We enjoyed it one evening after the cold boat ride, and we enjoyed chatting with other folks who were enjoying the sauna as well.
We leave tomorrow (Saturday) to a new spot near Seward. We’ll be there 3 nights and then we’re off to Kasilof, where we’ll be for 2 weeks. Seward and Kasilof are in the Kenai Penninsula, which seems to be where much of the tourist type things like fishing charters happen. We have lots of visitors coming in August, starting with my sister August 4th. Can’t wait to see her and share some of this amazing place with her!
Lots of pictures in this link, and I also posted (I think, fingers crossed!) 4 short videos of our hike on Portage Pass.
Pictures: https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkFN8xLPCcEozuScl
Videos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkFz0qJsT7GXsDa9Z