Boyz Trip 7

Well, I dried off from the river, we had dinner (actually, that was my night to cook, too - Shrimp Curry!) and we continued on. Had quite a sing-along that night - "North to Alaska", "Big Iron", etc. Note: no more pictures until we got back to Whittier - I had to let the camera dry out, then it needed more batteries.

The next day, we paddled all the way back to our first campsite; at Applegate. It was a little less windy this night, and therefore much more buggy. Spent most of the night being chased by bugs, and turned in a bit earlier.

Our last day of paddling, we headed north up Culross Passage. Had to be a little careful of boat traffic up here; it was a well-traveled shortcut. We had a tailwind for most of the way, so Karl and I strung our rain jackets up with out paddles and made sails. When the others were paddling, we couldn't quite keep up with them, but if they stopped for a rest, we caught right up. it sprinkled a litte while we were on the water that day, too, but not much. Found our campsite/agreed upon pickup spot way at the north end of the passage. It was a little buggy, but the wind came back up and helped out. That was my dinner night, too - Chicken dumplings with broccoli and carrots. Nice to have veggies on the last night out.

Rained pretty hard on us that night, which made it hard to get up and meet our early shuttle boat. But we had camp almost completely broken down when they pulled up. Loaded up and headed back to Whittier. Shuttled gear and boats to the outfitters, sorted through our soggy stuff, and got packed up for the ride back to Anchorage. Had a little time to kill, so we walked down and had halibut sandwiches for lunch by the water. Eventually caught our shuttle back to Anchorage, checked into our motel, and headed out for dinner. After dinner we had the traditional settle-up session, where Karl does a bunch of confusing math and we figure out who owes who what. Worked out pretty well.

Great trip overall - Alaska sure is a different place. The sheer scale of it was hard to get used to, as was the daylight issue. Lots of fun, though. Would love to go back someday, maybe drive or motorcycle up there...