Thought Terrarium

Laying in my tent, sleeping at times, writing for hours, quietly listening to the drops, I waited for the rain to stop falling. Though it's not a bad place to hang out-- the col or of the tent filters the light into a pleasant golden glow-- after 24 hours I was ready to get out. My drinking water was gone, I was ravenously hungry, and my bladder was far, far too full. At a lull in the weather I began preparing myself for a peek out of my den. I unzip p ed the front flap and got socks and long underwear. I put on my rain pants, boo ts and g aiters, a long-sleeved shirt and my hat, even my wet wool gloves. It was time to test out my blistered feet and get a bite to eat. T hen I'd be ready to head up to the pass with a light load, or head b ack down the valley with everything. Of course it was difficult to get out of a warm, comfortable sleeping bag and into the cold wetness, but I looked forward to the continued challenge of this lonely exist ence. Ther e was much to be excite...

Journal Entry: 10 July, 2005 I've been holed up in my tent for the last 14 or 15 hours.... [W] hen I woke up today I discovered that the rain that had just started when I set up my tent had been pouring continuously all night. Little puddles are starting to form in the corners of the tent and drips becoming more common around the edges. I can only hole up for so long, but it seems senseless to go out and get soaked just so I can see a socked in pass.... I've got my barometer out beside me and I check it rather incessantly. It's hanging at a ridiculously low 990 (which must have something to do with the altitude) but I think it has to start rising soon.... Perhaps I can find an alternate route so that I don't have to go back the way I came. [Later.] After lengthy consideration of the maps I don't think that there is any way for me to go but the way I came. At least on the second time through I'll have a better idea of how to avoid the tussocks.

My third full day of hiking was a l ong one. I woke up on my gravel bar after a night of rain to find a beautiful morning. It took a long time to get out of camp. All alone, I went at a slow pace, eating and collecting my gear contemplatively. After all, the sun wasn't going to set. As I was getting ready to go, lo oking reluctantly at my big pack and getting ready to swing it up onto my back I noticed a little piece of paper sticking out of the padding. It was a note from my friend Steph. She had written it and tucked it into my pack nearly seven weeks before when we went camping in th e Olympic Mountains back home. I can't remember exactly what it said, and I've since lost it, but I know it told me to scream in a beautiful p lace. It was such an unexpected connection to my world, to home, I might have scr eamed just for the happiness of having received it, but as I looked around I saw beautiful clouds drifting over the mountain tops in the awesome blue stillness of co...

I think I left off on my second day of hiking. I'd just spent the night at Glacier Pass on the rocks above the moose filled marsh. In the morning I spent a long time getting out of bed and packing my stuff. I was too lazy to cook myself a hot breakfast , and took off a little slower than the day before. I was low on water, so that was my first priority. My maps indicated a small lake just a half mile down the slope from my camp, and I set my sights on it. It also looked like a good way to cut some time off of my route, shooting through a gap between hills and then down into the Glaci er Valley proper. I still hadn't had a good view of the valley, and I was eager to se e the long view. At first the travel was no problem through thin spruce forest, but I quickly found my way into thick tussocks. I should have stayed on the wide winter path that I had followed across the pass! The last 1/4 mile to the lake was grueling. I was thirsty and the lake was so close, but the tussocks ma...

My vacation from the Spirit of Columbia and Cruise West started as usual with a bus ride out of Whittier along Turnagain Arm and into Anchorage. I spent a couple days there in preparation for my long anticipated hiking trip into Gates of the Arctic National Park . Most of the gear that I needed I'd brought up from home and kept stowed aboard the vessel during my last rotation. But I needed a first aid kit, food, and maps, so I still spent a whole day bussing my way around the city finding everything. From Anchorage I made my way via Alaskan Railroad to Fairbanks where I spent the night in a funky hostel. There were a lot of older guys there. Oil company workers from up in Prudhoe Bay. I talked a little with a guy named Jerry with spindly forearms and coke-bottle glasses and wispy blondish-white hair. He helped me find my way around Fairbanks when I was looking for a digital camera, and basically talked the entire time I was within 10 feet of him. After one night in Fairbanks I ca...