The morning came quick, but always being loathe to actually get my ass out of bed, I laid in the camper until the very last minute. So much so that Dave, who had hitched it up the night before to save time in the morning, decided to drive it to the next site with me still in it. A first. I got to experience our squeaking suspension first hand.
We made a quick stop at a store in Girdwood to grab some snacks for the day. Dave: apple, banana, cheese. Me: peanut m&m’s, cheesy popcorn.
Yeah, yeah, I WISH a banana sounded good. But it doesn’t.
We met our guide and headed to the airfield and signed our lives away before heading out to the helicopter. Dave has done a few heli-ski trips before, so it wasn’t that big a deal for him, but I’ve never been in one. I wasn’t really nervous, but I didn’t know what to expect. Taking off is wild. You just go straight up. Super slowly. Very unnatural — as if any type of flying is NATURAL.
Very quickly I was wishing she’d go faster and do some sick banking and dives. But she didn’t. She drove in a slow, straight, safe line. All the way to the glacier where she dropped us off. Then she drove out of there like a mad-woman, having all the fun without us. We did get to see a huge bull moose on the flight out, so that was pretty cool.
Our guide had prepared us that there would be some “bushwacking” on the 1.5 mile hike from the glacier to the end of the lake where we would get into kayaks. We told him “no problem”, we are EXPERT bushwackers. He left us a few times to “scout routes” for us and then led us through “the bush”, consisting of some overgrown alders on a nice gravel path. He was “astonished” at our “abilities.”
I forget sometimes that we are 60 and that 60 is considered really old if you are in your 20s.
Still, as we got to the camp and John said “I’ll get your lunches” and it was only 10:30 I was a little surprised. When another guide asked us if we had “run” the trail, I was even more confused.
We were, apparently, the fastest “hikers” they had had all season. I can’t help wonder just how low that bar has been set? It left us more time to kayak the lake and around all the huge icebergs. Very cool.
I should mention that, while we had definitely proved our hiking mettle, they didn’t trust us enough to give us our own kayaks. We were in a tandem. Which I do totally understand. I’ve been in our kayak in Hayward on the windy side of the lake wishing for a partner before. And it afforded me lots of opportunities to coast, while Dave propelled us.
After our kayaking (again, winning the award for most paddling of anyone for the season…), we opted to walk to the train station vs taking the bus. We got there just in time and hopped on for a scenic ride to Grandview.
Once there, we turned around and headed back to Girdwood, picking people up along the way. John (our guide) got on at the glacier and we chatted with him for the rest of the return trip.
We opted to eat out again since Girdwood had so many options. We really haven’t been all that tempted to eat out because of that. Two of the ones that looked interesting were closed, though, so we picked the one next to Spoonline where we had eaten two nights ago.
Three steps into the restaurant we looked at each other with the same expression: FRIED FOOD: OH NO!
At home, we frequent certain spots where we know we are going to come out stinking. We dress strategically and plan on showering. But CAMPING? I mean: showers are a luxury and we had just done our laundry. WHAT TO DO? They were already making a spot for us. We felt bad just turning around and walking out. So we sat at the bar. Ordered one beer and literally slammed it.
We call that Minnesota Nice.
We paid, and walked next door to Spoonline. Sitting inside because it was misty and cold out.
At our previous visit we had wished they offered a side of linguini to eat with the clams we ordered. They gave you bread to sop up the yummy juice, but there was still so much left over! So Dave ordered the clams and the only pasta they had: fusilli, while I had a sort of Korean lettuce wrap appetizer. We saw a carrot cake go by and decided to partake — not because we really wanted the carrot cake, but because we wanted to sit inside the restaurant longer so that by the time we got back to our camper we could legitimately just go to bed. (Which we did.)
There was a loud, raucous group of two families from California at the table next to us who ALSO looked interested in OUR carrot cake. When we held up the half we didn’t eat and asked if they wanted it, the 14 year old boy in the group nearly vaulted the table in his quest to nab it.
It was awesome. No waste!
Michele Peacock says
What a spectacular day!