We found a little laundromat/shower place in Girdwood that had different themed rooms. Example: One bathroom was a rainforest, equipped with a cassette on loop of bird squawks, colorfully painted walls, and of course lots of animals. The ceiling in the laundromat itself had the winter constellations painted on it. This place was neat except it charged $7 for a 12 minute shower.
After cleaning up, we spent most of the day trying to catch up on blog posts at a nearby cafe. If you remember, that was the day we uploaded 6 posts. What was meant to be coffee and writing turned into breakfast, 2 cups of coffee, 3 beers, and nachos. It was an all day affair which made us crabby and aching to get outside. We found the perfect opportunity.
We heard that there was a ski resort (Alyeska Resort) that had a tram in the summer that would take guests to the top and it had a gorgeous view. This sounded amazing, except it was $25! After 7:00 PM it was $15, and by this time it was definitely past 7.. We thought $15 could be reasonable. We drove up to the resort and saw the tram. It looked like a short stump of tram, hardly a tram at all. I imagined it would go for a mile or something… something worth $25. Adam and I stared at each other. That just made us more grouchy.
“I don’t want to pay for that.”
“Me neither,” grouchy face.
We knew there was another option, to just walk up. It was only 2.2 miles and then you could get a FREE tram ride down. We also read the last tram was at 9:30 and it was close to 8:00. We stared at each other and finally said let’s just walk up, whether we really wanted to or not, and headed unpreparedly up the mountain.
20 minutes in: Sweating more than we have the entire trip. What a waste of $14 on showers.
40 minutes in: Man this hill is really steep, wiping sweat.
60 minutes in: Taking a break, realizing we have a half-hour left to get to the top or we will be walking down.
70 minutes in: Pouring sweat. Decided beer and nachos was not the best way to prep for this.
78 minutes in: Getting nervous. not close enough to get a tram ride. No more talking/picture taking/taking breaks. Heads down, walking up a very steep incline, sweating.
88 minutes in: Almost to the top. We see the tram.
90 minutes in: We made it! Now, straight to the tram. No time for water or rejoicing.
93 minutes in: Informed that the tram runs until 11. Mixed emotions.
The view at the top was gorgeous and the sun was hitting the mountains just right. We hung out up top for a bit and took our much deserved tram ride down.
The tram driver told us there was a huge moose at the bottom, just laying in the grass. We took some pictures of him and headed on our way. Back to the van and a second night on the street of Girdwood.
The next day we took off south toward Seward. We stopped in a little place called Hope on the way. It was an old town that was hit by an earthquake years ago and dropped 6 feet. Now it’s a pretty popular place during the salmon runs. We stopped here and watched the fishermen and women gathered around the mouth. Cast and recast. Cast and recast. We talked to one guy that said he caught his limit in 20 minutes. He had been down there for days just catching his daily limit and stocking up. Seemed like a good plan.
We also ran into “Orangie” here. Adam has seen this rig on expeditionportal.com and was pleasantly surprised to run into them. They seem to always be traveling through some country and have been for years. We ended up running into them throughout the rest of the peninsula as well; we must be on a similar route.
We didn’t stay in Hope for long and headed to Seward. On the way there we stopped at Exit Glacier and took a few pictures. There was a short hike to get up close, but we opted out when we saw the swarms of people. We ate lunch at a nearby overlook and stared at it for awhile. That seemed good enough.
Seward was gorgeous. It is a coastal town known for it’s halibut fishing. It was surrounded by mountains and turquoise water. We hung out on the beach for a while and watched the water along with all the boats and fishermen.
Lodging here was pretty expensive so we headed out of town and stopped a few miles later. We did some creek fishing (to no avail) and called it a night... after making a delicious dinner of course.
The next day we headed back up the Seward Highway and headed West toward the rest of the peninsula. We had heard of this unpaved road called Swanson River Road that had free camping and lots of fishing. This sounded perfect. We found a nice spot right on Dolly Varden Lake and took out the rods. No luck again.
A while later, Adam found an old tennis ball and we started playing a little game of soccer. The little game turned into a competitive one in no time, and we had a rough and tough little rumble… leaving ME to be the big winner. It was a close 10-9 match, and we shook hands like good sports.
Then he got trapped in the hammock.
Not too long after, the rain started and we had a nice long evening stuck in the van. Good thing we got some energy out earlier. The rain didn’t let up and in the morning we took off. This time on the Sterling Highway, heading northwest toward Cook Inlet.