We left the red inflatables head high in the shrubs next to shore. I've never had a bear mess with them but I always feel better if they are off the ground. It would be a long cold swim back to the boat if they got ripped up. I try to separate them in case a bear finds one they won't immediately get them both. Bears walk around with their noses to the ground and they seem to love chewing on the plastic buoys that wash up on beaches. After the narrow strip of spruce and hemlocks behind the beach we got into easy walking in open muskeg. But at the top of the muskeg we looked the sheer rock cliffs above us and couldn't decide which way to go. I'd loaded a GPS route, but ... read more

Down... We started from the rim at noon, in lots of snow. The South Kaibab Trail was partially packed, but the wind was blowing and mini-drifts covered sections compressed by earlier hikers. Down... It was well below freezing. As we crossed between ridges and valleys we went from calm and warm to bitter cold. "Are you cold?" "I'm good, on average. My back is wet and hot, my front is damp and cold, but over all just fine." Down... We passed lots of hikers coming up. My airy, jaunty cadence was in sharp contrast to their slow, focused steps. Down... We had mini-crampons but I never used them, the crunchy packed snow was mostly ice free, or the ice was at least partly dirty and not so slippery. Down... "How are you legs?" " What legs?" ... read more

Last night I watched several gray-haired grandmotherly types ride a donkey onto the dance floor of a packed bar. Flashing lights and music from the early 60´s pumping, folks dancing and whoopin. But I was wondering where they kept the defibrillators. It was a scene from an Annette Funicello beach party movie slow forwarded 50 years with all the actors in place, fresh out of their last retirement seminar and all the boys with jumbo prescriptions of Viagra in their pocket... Go Daddy Go!!! Down a couple blocks I passed the Canucks Bar... everyone staring at the big screen TV watching, yup, you guessed it, hockey. Over at the dock that afternoon I´d watched a local throw netter pull up a pelican, with terns and motor boats diving and weaving between bathers. Sunset time four guys ... read more

I didn't know if we could do it. I'd been looking at aerial photos of South Crillon Glacier where it meets Crillon Lake for a couple years. The right side looked maybe doable but the left side was not clearly visible in any of the photos. Problem with the right side was the big crevasses in the middle of the steep glacier. The idea was to cross from Crillon Lake over South and North Crillon Glaciers to the back end of Lituya Bay. I'd been on North Crillon the year before, so I knew it was possible to get on it, and down from it, along the east side. The float plane was scheduled to pick us up in 4 days. If the pilot couldn't find us in Lituya Bay he would look for us at ... read more

We camped in the woods behind the beach. While it seems appealing to camp in the upper intertidal meadows next to the ocean they are often frequented by brown bears, so we go inland a bit and sleep a little better. In the morning we started uphill, through the rainforest. It was wet with fog, dew and light rain so we hiked in our raingear through huge spruce and hemlock, then through open muskeg, then more rainforest. Eventually we reached the ponds that signaled the end of the uphill. On the outer coast the fog often stops just a little ways inland, but you never know. Hot and sweaty in our rain gear we looked out over the pond to blue skies. At the far end of the last pond we stopped and pulled out our ... read more