Hi again! \u00a0We have been in the Portage, Alaska area for several days now. \u00a0Beautiful area – mountains and lots of glaciers, right off the Cook Inlet. \u00a0We’re about an hour south of Anchorage. \u00a0We got lucky on the campground site – we got an end site, with great views right out our door. \u00a0It’s windy here much of the time, something about the 2 mountain passes we are between and the weather patterns. \u00a0It’s also cloudy and gray most of the time, but we’ve had a sunny day here and there. \u00a0Not complaining!<\/p>\n
We delt with the flat tire while here as you’ve read about in the last post. \u00a0That took up a couple of days but was necessary. \u00a0Otherwise 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. \u00a0Whittier is a small village (too small to call a town) right on the waterfront of Prince William Sound. \u00a0Cruise ships stop here, and one was in the first day we went there. \u00a0There’s a handful of small gift shops and coffee shops, but more than anything this is where adventure tours go out of. \u00a0Sea kayaking, boat tours, helicopter tours, etc. \u00a0And the Alaska Marine Ferry system has a port here too. \u00a0I didn’t realize until we got here how much of the state’s transportation system is by ferry. \u00a0Many places, including Janeau, the capital, are only accessible by boat or plane. \u00a0Very few roads in this big state. \u00a0We (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. \u00a0BUT…dogs have to stay in the vehicle and cannot come up on deck. \u00a0Even the shortest route we considered, which was to Valdez, was 6 hours. \u00a0Gerry would never make that so we’ll stick to driving! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Anyhow, back to Whittier – you can only access it via a one lane tunnel, which is about 2.5 miles long through a mountain. \u00a0The tunnel is shared by the Alaska Railroad also. \u00a0So, 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. \u00a0You can get in or out once an hour. \u00a0The first day we went over it was very cloudy and foggy, couldn’t see much. \u00a0I included some of these pictures in the link. \u00a0We decided to wait until a better day to do the hike we wanted to do over there, which we did the following day.<\/p>\n
Also in the area is Portage Glacier. \u00a0It is about 5 minutes from our campground, but you can’t see the full glacier from the road. \u00a0So we did a boat tour that took us right up next to the glacier which was really cool. \u00a0And literally cool also – it was cold and windy and Gerry was freezing on the boat! \u00a0Fortunately I had his blanket with us and could wrap him up in it.<\/p>\n
We got another view of Portage Glacier when we went back to Whittier and did the Portage Pass hike. \u00a0It’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. \u00a0So we hiked to the lake, and had lunch looking out at the glacier then hiked back. \u00a0Since 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. \u00a0We saw 2 eagles sitting together in a tree at the beginning of the hike. \u00a0Got some pictures, they are included in the link.<\/p>\n
Another hike we did was in Alyeska – a small (very) village with a nice ski resort and hotel. \u00a0The hike was Winner Creek, about 5.5 miles and an easy hike. \u00a0Very little elevation change, but the trail ran along Winner Creek, through the forest. \u00a0There 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. \u00a0(Did I mention Steve is afraid of heights and hates cliff edges???) \u00a0So we turned around and went back. \u00a0A very nice day hike.<\/p>\n
We have been regular visitors to the Alpine Bakery I mentioned in the last post. \u00a0I can honestly report everything we have had from there is delicious! \u00a0We 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.<\/p>\n
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). \u00a0We enjoyed it one evening after the cold boat ride, and we enjoyed chatting with other folks who were enjoying the sauna as well.<\/p>\n
We leave tomorrow (Saturday) to a new spot near Seward. \u00a0We’ll be there 3 nights and then we’re off to Kasilof, where we’ll be for 2 weeks. \u00a0Seward and Kasilof are in the Kenai Penninsula, which seems to be where much of the tourist type things like fishing charters happen. \u00a0 We have lots of visitors coming in August, starting with my sister August 4th. \u00a0Can’t wait to see her and share some of this amazing place with her!<\/p>\n
Lots of pictures in this link, and I also posted (I think, fingers crossed!) 4 short videos of our hike on Portage Pass.<\/p>\n
Pictures: \u00a0https:\/\/1drv.ms\/a\/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkFN8xLPCcEozuScl<\/a><\/p>\n Videos: \u00a0https:\/\/1drv.ms\/f\/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkFz0qJsT7GXsDa9Z<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi again! \u00a0We have been in the Portage, Alaska area for several days now. \u00a0Beautiful area – mountains and lots of glaciers, right off the Cook Inlet. \u00a0We’re about an hour south of Anchorage. \u00a0We got lucky on the campground site – we got an end site, with great views right out our door. \u00a0It’s … Continue reading Portage and Whittier<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}