Wrapping-up Alaska, part 2

I’ve been routing thru stuff which I guess is a healthy reaction to the New Year and all. Anyway, I finally found my rain pants, which I thought I had gotten rid of already. I thought I would have decided that I’m not going to be a fanatical bicycle commuter any more, but I guess I didn’t think that hard enough. Good! Anyway, they reminded me how much I would have appreciated having them in AK. And that reminded me to finish my last story.

When we last saw our heroes they were waiting for the Ranger’s office to open in Petersburg in hopes of reserving a cabin in the wilderness but out of the rain for a day or so. Finally, it did, and a squat little local lady manned the desk.
“Are there any cabins available for tonight and/or tomorrow that we can hike to?”
“Oh, no, there all booked,” She shook her head.
“How do you know without looking?”
“I’m in charge of reserving them. So, I know.”
I took out a booklet that listed the cabins and began asking her about each in turn. “What about Raven’s Roost?” This one had been written up in both our Lonely Planet guide and an article I’d found someplace. “It came highly recommended” were Jared’s words.
“Oh, that one’s available, I think. Let me check.” She pulled out a big binder and began leafing through the pages. I was not allowed to look at them as she did. “Yes, that one’s free for tonight and tomorrow night.” I asked to book it. “For the same day, you have to book online,” She replied.
“Can we book it on your computer here?” I motioned towards the computer at her desk. “Or is there an internet café in town?”
“No, I guess you can’t use the cabin,” she shook her head.
At this point, her supervisor popped out from behind the cubical walls and set her straight. Then, there was some kind of delay during which she began to tell me about her daughter’s wedding and all the seafood they caught for it. The daughter now lived in Seattle, but she had her wedding in Petersburg where she grew up. They caught all the food from the sea – it cost them nothing! Anyway, about 2 hours later, she finally managed to book the cabin, but not finish telling me about her daughter’s wedding. Her phone rang, and Jared took this opportunity to extract me.

Raven’s Roost is a 4 mile “difficult” hike from the roadway near the airport. First, I misread the map and we ambled in the rain for a while on the wrong road in search of the trailhead. The map quickly disintegrated. Jared was sure to emphasize that this was the kind of situation that made him question our relationship. Was I not sorry enough? I don’t know. But eventually, with Jared navigating, we found the trailhead and began walking our bikes up it.

This lasted about 200 feet. The trail turned into a series of uneven steps, and the rest thick mud. Quickly, we decided to leave the bikes in the shrubbery and carry our panniers ourselves along with our sleeping equipment (which had been strapped to the top of the racks). It’s only 4 miles, right? That should take us about an hour... Wrong! So, Jared turned into a pack animal, with the panniers and sleeping mat strapped across his shoulders using ropes that dug into his muscles. I believe I continued to carry mine like shopping bags. The part I think I haven’t mentioned recently enough was that the trail was deep with mud and required hands a good bit of the time (like bouldering but on roots and thru mud). This continued for 4 miles, or, in our case, 6 hours… in the pouring rain. Remember, more rain means more mud.

I’m sure there are many entertaining anecdotes from the hike, but I have blocked them out. When we thought we were pretty close, we left some of the bags behind, with plans to return for them once we found the cabin. Except, it turned out to be about half way. Every time we rounded a bend, I hallucinated a cabin, and, eventually, about 2 hours after I thought we must be on the wrong trail or we would have found it by now, my hallucination became real. You’ve seen the photos.

We were completely wrecked. But there was still the small matter of the bags we’d left 2ish miles back. Jared went for them. I stayed at the cabin intending to get the heat going and have some tea and dinner ready for him when he got back. But, alas, the heater didn’t work. I tinkered for a while, and then entertained myself instead by unpacking all of our soaking wet belongings. The food and camp stove were not among them.

Once Jared returned, he was able to rig up something (again, you saw the photo) to keep the heat going thru drip from a fuel-refilled whisky bottle. It was kind of amazing. We never found the spring for fresh water but contented ourselves with drinking boiled bog water during our 2 days there.

Before I let the whole Alaska thing die, I wanted to include some suggestions:
• Ludvig’s Bistro in Sitka is so tasty. Imagine gourmet food with AK-scale seafood. I’ve never had anything like it.
• We were also really taken with the small businesses in Haines such as Sockeye Cycle Co. (the only full-service bicycle shop in the state), Dejon Delights (selling smoked fish), and, as I mentioned earlier, the Haines Brewing Company (!).