Tree-Top Adventure...

Yesterday was the first adventure we did as a cast or just in general since being on this Alaska itinerary. We all had our mornings free and then we met up around one in the afternoon for a little canopy adventure. It wasn't the greatest of days for weather, but really what day has been a great day since we got up here? We've had maybe 2 or 3 days in Alaska that have been nice enough to call summer. The rest have been dreary and reminiscent of autumn conditions. It was a cloudy day with a light mist in the air. Cold. As usual. We met one of our liaisons in front of the tram station where we were led to the first part of this eco-adventure. It was the high-speed boat ride across the Gastineau Channel. I forgot about the high-speed part. We started out at a moderate pace and then she kicked it into high gear. We were fish tailing and riding over wakes like mad. It was like a roller coaster ride. We made it across the channel and disembarked on a rocky beach on Douglas Island where there used to be a gold mine. Treadwell Mine. We got suited up and were given our instruction on the safety of our gear. Afterward we got into a huge off road vehicle that resembled something you might find at Disney on the Indiana Jones ride. The oversized hummer took us up steep inclines passing various remnants of the mineshafts that used to be there. The mine caved in so it was just the skeletal remains of this gold mine that we could see from the dense foliage. We passed some of the tree platforms on the trail and they were fairly high in the air. The zips would take us over many "glory holes" so called because many a miner went to their "glory" while mining here in the 1800s because they slipped or got to close to the cliff's edge. The area we were in was really rich in quartz crystal. You could see it condensing on the rotting trunks of trees that had fallen over. Because of this, the guides said that these areas would also be rich in gold and that is why many miners flocked to these regions. The mine is dead now though and is only used for recreational purposes such as careening through the treetops on cable wires. As we were hiking to our first platform we passed many bushes of Devil's Claw. This unsuspecting plant looks like an innocent large leaf plant from above, but the guide lifted op the leaf and showed us the stalks underneath. They were loaded with spikes from the underside of the leaf to the root. He told us that an encounter with this plant would release the spikes into your skin where they would burrow deep into the layers of the skin and keep burrowing until you got them surgically removed. Ouch!!! He did say that they contained chemicals within the stalks that were highly medicinal for treating cuts and bruises. The needles wouldn't cause any poisonous damage, but they would be a huge discomfort if you never got them removed. The forest floor was covered with this plant. I think I'd rather fall into a patch of cacti rather than be the victim of a Devil's Claw patch. Especially with the constantly burrowing spikes. Anyway we got to our first platform, which would be our test run. The cable was only 10 feet long, over shallow ground, and pretty level. At this point there were already major differences between a U.S. based zip line company and the Costa Rican based company. In Costa Rica we only had one cable and here we had 2 cables holding us up (one on top and one on bottom). Throughout the tour we were constantly strapped to a line of some sort and in Costa Rica we were sometimes at the whim of the platform. The U.S. based company was just a little more safety conscious. It was so much fun to watch the newbies go first. I knew how to brake and understood the concept. So did a few others, but some didn't catch on. You're supposed to press down on the cable behind your head, which causes friction enough to slow you down or stop you with the gloves you have on. Well, some just flat out grabbed the cable, which is equivalent to slamming on your car brakes. A quick and jerky stop. After the test cable we were suspended over 100 feet off the ground on a platform near the top of the tree. We were zipping mostly on Sitka Spruce, which is most prevalent in these parts. They are tall and skinny. The trees in Costa Rica are stubby and thick so you're thrill is zipping over the valleys and the trees root themselves on the sides of these valleys so you're not up to high off the ground until you zip on the cable. Here in Alaska you're suspended over 100 feet in the air on a skinny spruce zipping over the forest floor and valleys. I noticed the difference in thrill when I looked to the next platform and saw the tree swaying from side to side. A tall and skinny tree with a lot of weight at the top tends to sway. Although the guide said that he'd rather see it sway than to see it stiff. Stiff would mean that the tree was dead and that we'd be in trouble. The zip lining part was so much fun. I love this idea. We were going from tree to tree and over these huge "glory holes" (deep cliffs) and at one point in the course we were on a tree platform about 200 feet off the ground. As we went along we saw various remnants of the leftover mineshaft including an eerie cave entrance that looked huge from above. We came to our first rope bridge. There are 2 in the course. It spanned about 100 or so feet across the valley. It was three 4 x 4 planks wide and all held up by cables. We had a cable above us that we were clipped to just in case the bridge were to sway too much. It was really strange walking across the bridge. My knees wanted to buckle because it was so skinny and we were so high. This was much different from the Capillano suspension bridge up in Vancouver where you can walk across without any safety gear and about 100+ people can fit on it at one time. This could really only hold 10 people at a time and it swayed a lot. We crossed the 2 suspension bridges and finished our zipping with the longest cable. The 750 footer. This passed a view of the Gastineau Channel and a steep valley below. It was awesome. The last part of the adventure was the most difficult for me; getting down. We were on a platform now about 100 feet off the ground and there were no lines attached. No zip line to home base on the forest floor. No, the only way down was a straight down repel. You had to swing out on the platform and lower yourself. It was totally safe since the pulley carried 90% of your weight. So even if you swung out and let go, you'd fall at a moderate pace and there was someone below to control the pace of the rope as you came down just in case. I swung out and my foot slipped off the platform instead of pivoting and I did a full turn before stopping again with my feet on the platform. I could have just started descending, but they wanted us to just pivot, regain control, and then ease down. The regaining control was what I had trouble with. Once my feet were planted and my heart eased a bit, I started to lower myself. I was glad to be on the ground again. We got a snack and a gold medallion (well maybe fool's gold) for completing the course. We took the high-speed boat back across the channel and we were done with our adventure for the day. It was so much fun. My first time zip lining in Alaska. After this adventure I was so tired from all the fresh air. We took in some pub food and headed back to the ship for the evening. I still got my gym workout in though.

Alaska Home? No Way...

Alaska has just been so unmotivating. After being in Alaska now for 3 seasons, I just don't see how anyone can live here. I was strolling through Ketchikan today noticing the small bar-b-ques and festivities for the locals. Stores were closed and even some local restaurants. The tourist shops didn't close. Oh no. Not with 3 big ships in port. It was raining as usual. This has been quite the rainy season this year with temperatures not breaking over 60 most of the time. These parts of Alaska (the most southern) get close to 300 days of rain a year. That's A LOT of rain!! Also, since they are located pretty north on the globe, they get the shortest days of the year from October through April. Ew!! Depressing. I'm only visiting and it's depressing being here for such a long time. The general feel of the territory is mining and fishing. Schools are small. Towns are small. I feel like when you live in a particular region, everyone knows who you are and what you do. Wild animals are predominant here since there is so much open territory and bears can be in your backyard like deer in the Midwest. Yikes!! VISITING Alaska is about all I can handle and after this summer, I think I will have seen enough of the northern territory. At least the territory along the cruise ship routes. When the weather is warm and sunny, the scenes are breathtaking. The sights you can see here are like nowhere else. Bald eagles fly freely. You can spot one almost everyday. A rare if at all occurrence anywhere else in the U.S. Bears also run wild around here. My philosophy on that is as long as they are visible and separated by a large body of water; I would enjoy seeing them in their natural territory. If they are hiking alongside me in the woods, they're too close for comfort. Soon, I'll be able to see the salmon as they swim upstream in certain parts of the Alaskan regions we visit. You don't see that everyday, unless you live here. The glaciers are truly amazing and are just as unbelievable and breathtaking as the ones in South America and Norway. Snow for 8 months out of the year? No thanks. Temperature highs only reaching maybe 70 (80 once or twice) and sinking as low as 20 below? No thank you. I can barely stand the weather in the northern climates where I grew up let alone that kind of weather. Houses still go for half a million here for a modest home you may not be able to access via a drive or a street, but by stairs. I could understand if they were cheap and you could have one for a summer retreat. However when they compare to those houses in warmer climates, forget it. Yet people do CHOOSE to live here. I don't understand why. To me it just seems so secluded. Yet, maybe THOSE people that live here wants to be secluded. It would explain some crazy behavior I see whenever the ships are in town. To each his own, but in my opinion Alaska would not be the home retreat for me. I'd rather live in the jungle.