The first surprising thing I thought about Alaska when I arrived in Anchorage was "it's hot." Based on the not-so-accurate weather predictions of yahoo, I had anticipated that the weather would be quite a bit cooler. So there I was, in a taxi on the way to the Spenard Hostel, sweating and baking in the sun, and thinking about all the fleeces and wool socks I brought with me, but no sandals! Upon arrival at the hostel around 3pm, I discovered that the desk reception was closed until 7pm. There were others waiting to check in, so I hung outside in the yard chatting with other travelers, many of them also departing with me on the Green Tortoise trip the next morning.

Later that evening I experienced the second surprising thing about Alaska - the "white nights." Of course, I was aware this is the "land of the midnight sun" and that the sun would set much later than in San Francisco, or most other places I've been, but this was the first time I had truly experienced it. It's just strange to be outside at 11pm and have it feel like it's 5pm. The sun never seemed to set. It would dim around midnight and never got totally dark. Once I woke up at 2am and the sky was still light. It appeared that it was twilight for a few hours and then the sun would rise again. Amazingly, two weeks later, at the end of my trip, this had changed and there were some hours of 'real' darkness to be had. But I missed the white nights - I found it rather intriguing.

I had taken a trip on the Green Tortoise a few months earlier, to Baja, a 9-day trip that left San Francisco and ferried its passengers to a secluded beach - "Playa Escondido" - about 2/3 down the Baja peninsula on the Sea of Cortez (south of Loredo). I really enjoyed that trip and was convinced by some fellow passengers to try another Green Tortoise trip to Alaska in July.

First, let me explain a bit about the Green Tortoise bus trips. The buses are very different from your average Greyhound bus. There are no true bus seats, but the back half of the bus is one big platform covered with cushions. Going forward you have two tables with four seats, facing each other, and at the front, benches facing the center of the bus. Overhead you have bunks, which hang from the ceiling, which are for storing your daypack and sleeping bag or for taking naps during the day. At night, when you need to sleep on the bus, it is converted to a sleeping bus, which the Green Tortoise people refer to as "The Miracle." Some people who have ridden the Green Tortoise have suggested that this name should be changed to "The Misery." How does the miracle work? Basically, the daypacks are stored, everyone gets out their sleeping bags, the tables are converted to bunkbeds and the front is converted to a platform like the one in the back. People sleep on the bunks up above, in the bunkbeds or on the platforms alternating head to toe in a 'zipper fashion." In theory, this could work, but in reality it often degrades into chaos. On the Green Tortoise website, the Alaska trip is said to be limited to 30 people because it's a smaller bus than most other trips. Well, we had 33 and it was too many, in my opinion (and my opinion was shared by many others). I think, because of the extra gear you need for Alaska, and the fact of the bus being smaller, you need to limit the passengers to less than 30.

All that said, I did in fact have a great time in Alaska on the Green Tortoise, despite some of the uncomfortable moments on the overnight trips (fortunately limited to 3 nights). I met many interesting and friendly people and got to do many diverse activities.

So we embarked on our bus trip the next morning - 33 passengers and 2 drivers. The bus rumbled down the winding road, climbing into the mountains until we reached our first destination: Matanuska Glacier, which is the largest glacier in Alaska accessible by car. The glacier was massive, jagged, chunks of blue and white ice, ending in a moraine of gray stones. Several of us went to hike to the glacier, first on a dirt path, leading to the moraine and then as we continued on, the ground turned into frozen moraine and then to white ice. We needed to move slowly on the ice in order to not slip. The terrain was surreal, interspersed with small glacial streams, sometimes pouring into seemingly bottomless crevasses. On the way back, I slipped once and cut my hand. There was blood dripping from the wound, so I dipped my hand in a small stream to rinse it and my whole hand became numb! That was some cold water!

We camped just a 5-minute drive from the glacier. It was a beautiful meadow surrounded by pine trees and snow-capped peaks. After a salmon barbecue and listing to Bill (one of our drivers), play the guitar around the fire, I went to sleep. During the night, I heard periodic rain, just a few droplets and then it would stop. Around 5am, it started to pour and I went back to sleep, hoping it would stop. It didn't. Finally at 7:30am, I knew I needed to get up as breakfast would be served soon and we were leaving for Valdez soon afterwards. Well, the rain never stopped and we had to take down our tents, so for the first time in my life, I packed my sopping wet tent into its stuff sack and put my stuff on the bus. Being on the bus wasn't very pleasant with everyone's dripping wet raingear strewn about.

But the uncomfortable sloppiness of the bus was forgotten as we ambled down the road to Valdez, stopping here and there along the way to photograph waterfalls and beautiful mountain scenery with fireweed in the foreground. When we arrived at our campground in Valdez, I was happy to see that there were cabins there for rent. A bunch of us decided to rent some cabins rather than sleep in our wet tents or on the bus.

Valdez appeared to be a small fishing town. That night we went to a local bar to have some drinks and play pool. I spoke with a few locals, including some bearded old fisherman. They all originally came from some other place than Alaska (somewhere in the lower 48 states). They all had traveled to Alaska and just fell in love with it. One guys said, "If you stay here just one year, you'll keep coming back." This phrase was repeated by several locals I spoke to over the course of my trip. Alaska seems to attract adventurous, free-spirited people. It also attracts a fair amount of people who are rather eccentric, I noticed. There's a saying by the women in Alaska concerning the fact that there are statistically many more men in Alaska than women: "Yes, the odds are good, but the goods are odd!"

We stayed a brief one day and a half in Valedez, which, in my opinion, was too short. After our one night there, most of us went on a boat tour of Prince William Sound the following day. I was thinking of going on a glacier kayak tour, which promised kayaking through the icebergs, but since there was a threat of rain, I decided the boat tour was a better bet. Although it didnšt rain, it was quite misty and foggy, which blocked our view of the high, craggy, glaciated mountains, which surround Valdez. On the other hand, this foggy atmosphere lent an ethereal and mysterious feeling to our boat trip in the Sound, especially upon arrival at the Columbia Glacier, surrounded by icebergs and mist, it was just gorgeous. Along the way, we saw nesting eagles, puffins and other seabirds, sea lions and a whale. It was amazing how much colder it got as we approached the glacier, and the water near the glacier, filled with icebergs, was glassy and smooth, on the verge of freezing.

We left Valdez after dinner and headed northwest toward Denali. We had our first overnight on the bus and arrived in Denali in the next morning at the visitoršs center at the entrance of the park. Everyone set about planning what they were doing over the next 3 days. Some decided to backpack, others went to a tent-only campground, and the rest of us decided to stay with the bus at the Savage River Campground, which is the 13 miles into the park and the last campground that is accessible by your own vehicle. After that, you need to ride the shuttle buses provided by the park in order to go further into the park (either that or walk). The road extends 90 miles into the park, terminating at Wonder Lake, which is an 11-hour roundtrip from the visitoršs center. I teamed up with 3 other women (Jo, Roslyn and Charlotte) on the trip to plan the next few days. That morning we went to the sled dog demonstration by the Park Service and did a hike from the visitoršs center to Healy Overlook. After this hike, we went on to Horseshoe Lake (very close to the visitoršs center) and ran into some moose! On the trail, we rounded a bend and there about 30 feet away was a female moose with two baby moose. Wow! We backed away from the trail, to the side and took some pics and went on our way. A few minutes later, we were at the lake and there was a young male moose in the lake for us to photograph and watch at a safer distance.

The next day, we planned to take the park bus to Eilson, which is an 8-hour roundtrip. The bus will stop along the way when someone sees some wildlife, giving us a chance for photos, although not one can get off the bus at those stops. We ended up at Eilson 4 hours later and decided to go on the return trip right away and stop at Highway Pass to hike a bit. The way the bus system works, is that you make a reservation for the trip out and on the way back, you can get off anytime to hike and get back on another bus later. So Jo, Rosyln and I stopped to hike at Highway Pass for a few hours. The area was beautiful with multi-colored mountains known as the Polychrome Mountains. Near the road, the terrain was rolling green hills of tundra. We hiked on the tundra, including flat stony areas, mossy bogs (very springy to walk on!) and tussocks (we called them "humps"). They looked like grassy humps with tuffs of long grass on top of them ­ like furry, green moguls! They were fun and we enjoyed hiking along the tops of them. I took a photo of Jo curled up among the humps, and we joked and laughed about writing a book called "A guide to hump walking in Alaska." Jo and I kept stopping to take photos of the tundra flora and landscape. We stopped one too many times and Roslyn, tired of waiting for us, said she wanted to go off on her own, hike back towards the road. So she left us and later we heard her story of how a big bull moose charged her. She ran and ran, and finally ran into some other humans, a couple who were running from a bear! So they hiked together after that. Perhaps it was because she was alone, but Roslyn said that she kept seeing so many animals everywhere, which frightened her after the experience with the moose. She said she felt like she was in a zoo without cages. Well, Jo and I didnšt experience so many animal contacts ­ just one lone caribou (which seemed to be 'molting'), a long-tailed jaeger (a type of bird) and an arctic ground squirrel. We actually saw more animals from the bus, including caribou, a red fox, dall sheep and even grizzly bears (not at close range).

The bus trip was nice to see a lot of the park, but I felt sometimes frustrated when I would have liked to stop and get out of the bus to take photos. But, with 40 people on the bus, you certainly canšt have all of them get out of the bus, as this would most likely scare away any wildlife nearby and would take forever. I think the bus system is a good idea though, so as not to have so many cars in a beautiful wilderness area. The park also has no hiking trails except near visitor centers. So you hike right on the tundra and if youšre straying too far from the road a compass and topography map is a necessity.

For our last day, Jo, Roslyn, Charlotte and I signed up for a ranger-led discovery hike. After being convinced by a guy working at the visitoršs center, we decided to do the strenuous hike. There were 10 of us, including 2 rangers. After a one-hour bus ride, we arrived at the area where the hike would begin. We gained a lot of elevation, first bush-wacking through the dwarf willows and then climbing up steep hills of tundra, then mountains of scree to the top of a peak about 7,000 feet. At the top of a hill, we stopped for lunch and there were 3 caribou grazing nearby. I approached them a little closer to take some photographs, although not closer than 75 feet. I started walking back to the group to eat and when I turned around, I saw the caribou were now walking towards us! They kept approaching and I snapped photo after photo. When they got within 30 feet, this was a bit alarming, but the rangers said not to worry and true enough, they walked right by us (within 15-20 feet) and kept going. On the way down from the top peak, we saw two grizzly bears, a mother and a yearling cub which were eating berries. We were on one ridge and they were on another, separated by a ravine. They still werenšt close enough to get a good photo, even with my 400mm lens. When we were almost back to the road, I heard a strange and comical noise. It was a troupe of ptarmigan marching by. These creatures seem very similar to quail and turn completely white in the winter. They were still in their summer plumage of brown speckles.

The time we spent in Denali was a big highlight of the trip. The windswept tundra, surrounded by craggy peaks, the huge abundance of wildlife. It was just amazing. This was how the world used to be. We did catch a glimpse of the elusive grand mountain ­ Denali (Mt. McKinley). It is often covered by clouds, but it peeked out just a bit the day of our discovery hike, glowing starkly white in its snow-capped glory.

So we left Denali at midnight for an overnight drive to Chena Hot Springs, northwest of Fairbanks. I was so tired after hiking for 3 days that I had no problem sleeping on the bus (which is unusual for me). We arrived at Chena the next morning in the pouring rain, which the camping meadow nothing less than a pond. Needless to say, no one camped. People either slept on the bus, rented yurts or lodge rooms. I was one who rented a lodge room to share with two others. The luxury of a bed and a shower! We went to the hot springs, which were very comfortable in the cool rain. What a perfect place for it to rain! When we weren't in the hot springs, we were in the bar in the lodge. It was a lovely rustic bar with many dead, furry animals decorating the place (in the grand Alaska style). They had caribou skins for sale in the lobby and I couldnšt resist buying one after petting them for quite a while. It now adorns the bottom of my bed. It comes in handy when it's chilly in my apartment.

In the Chena bar, we met Jim, a local frequenter of the bar. Hešs 67 years old and has lived in Alaska for 40 years. Hešs been a miner, a fisherman, a carpenter, a hunter and who knows what else. He also stated hešs been through 4 wives, and he was apparently looking for another one. He hit on every girl in our group within a 5 foot radius of him, including me. I knew what I was getting into, as I was warned, but he seemed like an interesting character, so I chatted with him a bit. He was persistent but quite harmless (at least in a public setting). We humored him and he got to pose with a bunch of girls (Išm sure he was in heaven). He wanted me to move up there and live with him, but I politely declined. I later introduced Jo to him and their interaction was quite funny. He asked Jo what she did and she replied that she took care of old people (she works as a caretaker in a nursing home). Jim said, "well Išm old." Jo said, "you look like you can wipe your own butt." He laughed and said "well, you can come over and change my diaper anytime!" So Jim provided us with quite a bit of entertainment.

We left the next day after breakfast, after just one day in Chena. We headed towards Fairbanks and stopped in the cheesy town of "Northpole" which is famous in its name and big Santa Claus house of ultimate cheesiness. Well, I got to pose with a stuffed fake polarbear there, so it was worth it.

We meandered (and I say that because it took damn forever) again towards Fairbanks, not arriving before 4pm. We were dropped off near the ice museum which turned out to be not that exciting, with just one small room of ice sculptures and a long film during which I fell asleep. After an hour we returned to the bus, only to be driven to a strip mall for dinner. Yuck. That was one complaint of mine during this trip ­ that we stopped at too many strip malls to eat dinner when we werenšt eating dinner at our campsites.

Then we made a mistake of staying too late at a bar in Fairbanks too long and got such a late start (1am). The road back to Anchorage was in bad shape, with construction and potholes and sometimes we were driving only 10 miles per hour. Sometimes the bus was shaking so much I put my hands on the ceiling above me to prevent myself from falling off the sleeping bunk. Needless to say, we arrived in Anchorage quite late and after eating at Denny's and heading towards downtown, it was 2pm. We had just 2 hours to spend in downtown Anchorage before departing for Homer. Downtown Anchorage had a bit of a 'frontier town' feel to it. There were many flowers in hanging baskets, lining the streets. That's one thing I noticed about Alaska, there were millions of flowers everyone. Most likely, people tend to plant flowers since the summer is so short, so it's nice to have all those bright colors to be seen when it's rather monochromatic in the winter.

So we stopped in another horrible strip mall to eat dinner in Soldatna on the way to Homer, which we finally reached around midnight. We had planned to camp in the public campgrounds on the Homer Spit, a narrow sandbar jutting out into Kachemak Bay. We discovered that it was a bit crowded and our drivers were perplexed, discussing among themselves what to do, whether to look for another campsite or what? Apparently no reservations were made, even for a bus load of 35 people as they had never needed to before. We drove around for a while and then came back to the public campgrounds, which were on a stony beach and they told us to just find somewhere to camp. We scattered about, finding spots, nosing our way into other people's space. There was not anything good left, so I found a rather sloping spot to camp.

This was a minor annoyance and all was good the next day as a lot of people had left and we were able to consolidate our camp into one area. We stayed on the Homer Spit for 3 nights. Most of the water-based (and air-based) activities leave from the Homer Spit. There are rows of cute little wooden cottages that line the Spit, offering fishing trips, kayaking trips, transportation across the bay, flight seeing tours, etc., plus shops selling a huge diversity of arts and crafts. That first day was spent organizing the next few days. A big group of us signed up for various kayaking trips for our second day on the Spit. After organizing our activities, Jo and I decided to go into the town of Homer. You either have to call a taxi or hitch a ride. It was easy for us to hitch a ride in the back of a pickup truck, which is what we did. The town is 5 miles from the Spit. Homer is known for it's artistic bent and there were plenty of unique and quaint buildings, housing cafes, art shops, etc. to explore there.

The second day I went kayaking in Kachemak Bay. It was a full day kayak trip and we stopped on a beach for lunch. We went over to Gull Island, where thousands of seabirds are nesting, and had some luck in photographing puffins, oyster catchers and other birds. It was a noisy experience and loaded with flies, but worth it. I found it was very difficult to take photographs while in a kayak as the kayak keeps moving and if you're close to shore, keeps bumping into the rocks, but I did get some decent shots. Kayaking was a great way to see the bay. It was a long and strenuous kayak and at the end of the day, I was so tired that I had to take a nap before dinner. One of the people on the trip went on a halibut fishing trip and donated one of his fish to us, so we had fresh halibut for dinner, grilled over our camp fire.

The last day on the Spit, I embarked with a group to cross the Bay by boat and hike to the Grewingk Glacier. This was a pretty long day hike of 14 miles round trip. About halfway, we needed to cross a river using a hand tram (which was a lot of fun!). The boat dropped us off at a beach and we started up a hill, through an old rain forest, meandering up and down hills, across a plain, and finally to the glacier lake. Most of us were pretty beat by the end of this trip. When we arrived back at the Spit, we saw someone walking by dressed up as a halibut. I snapped a photo, but since we were starving, we rushed off to find a restaurant, and I never got the story about that 'walking halibut.'

On the Spit was the infamous bar (and only one on the Spit) called the Salty Dog, which usually consisted of drunk fisherman from out of town (tourists, not locals). There were a few locals here and there, but it mostly seemed packed with tourists. It had a sawdust floor and the walls and ceiling were covered with dollar bills that customers left as a souvenir. They served a cool local beer in recycled snapple's jars.

The last two days were spent at the Seaside Farms, 5 miles from Homer, which is a farm and hostel with a camping meadow. The weather was beautiful and it was like paradise at the farm, with green meadows, pink fireweed and a panoramic view of the bay with snow-capped peaks on the other side. They rent cabins there, or you can stay in a private room in the hostel or stay in a dorm bed in the hostel. Because of the nice weather, I went ahead and camped. I met a few people at the farm who had camped there the whole summer (and longer), one guy who was working in a pub since May and the other who had been there since October and was looking for a job in the environmental sciences. There were still others who had lived in the hostel for several years. It did seem like a nice place to stay, although if I stayed there long term, I think a cabin would be the best bet. They rent those for $250 a month.

It was sad to leave the farm, which came complete with a swing (near my tent), chickens, rabbits, ducks and horses. On the way back we stopped in a cute little town called Ninilchik, where you can see two volcanoes across the bay. We should have eaten dinner here, but for some strange reason, we left quickly and stopped for dinner again in Soldatna at the retched strip mall. At least this time, I was able to go to the bakery called The Moose is Loose and buy a lovely cinnamon bread - the best cinnamon bread I ever had, I must add! It was truly a piece of art, in appearance and taste.

The next day was full of goodbyes and promises to write and keep in touch. Alaska was a magical land, and for sure I want to go back and explore it some moreŠ.. This trip was a good overview and I know which areas I would like to return to, my favorites being Homer and Denali. Prince William Sound (or other areas where there are tidewater glaciers) would also be a place I'd like to return to.

Alaska is a last frontier, where the land is still wild and free (as the people are). But unfortunately, strip malls (I guess you can tell how much I hate them) are encroaching upon it at an alarming rate. Let's hope that Alaska does not turn into middle America.

September 2003 Kristin Piljay