Alaska Trip - Arctic Circle and Beyond

Day 3

We were a couple of sleepy heads in the morning, having slept late the previous night. It was already really bright as I openned the window shades. Once I saw where the sun was, and had risen from, I knew my answer to the question in the previous post.

This is one of the places where if the teachers teach "Sun rises in the east and sets in the west" kids would be baffled. Sun rises in the north east and sets in the northwest, I guess, in Summer. To give a background, We know the earth is tilted on its axis. As it revolves around the sun, in Summer, the earth's north pole is tilted towards the sun. In winters, the earths north pole is facing away from the sun. If the tilt were not there, there wont be any seasons, just like it is in the equator, like in India. Because of the tilt, there is a certain part of earth near the north pole, which always faces the sun. Even when the earth makes a full rotation, this place never away from the sun. As we go down from the north pole, the Arctic Circle separates that area and the area where the sun does set. But the sun is hidden for a short while, because the circumference of the earth as we go towards either poles is smaller.

I am terrible in explaining things. Here is a wonderful website which shows what I am trying to say. The red circle on top is the Arctic Circle. So as we go more north, across the arctic circle, the sun would make a neat circle right in front of our eyes, as it sets and rises again. The concept of day and night, which we folks closer to the Equator, take for granted is so differnt in these places.


The picture above is from the web.*

We had to be at the airport at 9AM. We got ready and had the Hotel Breakfast. The airport was 15minutes away. Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska, next to Anchorage. Still it was small. We went to the Northern Alaska Tour Company. There were already a group of oldies. We were going to travel with them. It looked like they all wanted to fullfill their dream of crossing the Arctic Circle before they died, or something. Yes, we were going to cross the Arctic Circle. This was my birthday gift from DH.

We were travelling onboard a twin engine plane for the first time. It was so small.


The pilot, he was our host too, he took our bags and jackets, and put them in a compartment in one side of the wings and locked it. There were eight seats in all, four rows, and one seat next to the pilot. All the flight controls were directly visible to every person onboard. The pilot took off, it was pretty smooth. It was very noisy, as all small planes are. And it was very bumpy, as all small planes are too. We gained altitude pretty fast. The landscape of beautiful Alaska stretched out for us. No snow. Just green mountains, with meandering rivers in the middle. For now. We saw Dalton Highway, winding along in the middle of nowhere. When we decided to cross the Arctic Circle, one of the many plans was to drive on Dalton Highway, that way you can actually physically stand on the Arctic Circle. But we had a lot of driving to do already, so we dropped it. We saw the Trans Alaskan Pipeline zigzagging along, in the middle of nowhere too. We also saw the Yukon river, flowing through the wilderness.







To give some history, Dalton Highway was constructed to transport machinery from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, where Oil is drilled. The Highway is just gravel road, unpaved. Trans Alaskan Pipeline is one of man made wonders, winding along cold tundra, about 800 miles long I think. transporting gallons of oil everyday from the drill site.

I rarely have motion sickness. But this time, both me and DH had trouble because of the very bumpy ride. I surely would have thrown up if we had landed just a minute later. It was a 90 min flight to Coldfoot, which is 55 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The vegetation slowly changed. No trees, only small shrubs, and plants. Lot of Fireweed, giving a reddish pinkish color to the ground. The pilot told us exactly when we crossed the Arctic Circle. By the time we landed on Coldfoot, We reached the part of Alaska where, it was too cold most of the time even for trees to grow. BUT, it was 70 degrees when we stepped out of the plane. :--) There was a van waiting to take us to a small restaurant, where everything was exorbitantly priced. We had our lunch waiting for us. Coldfoot has a population of 14. Yes 14! And one of us was our van driver. There was nothing in that place really. Saw this sign board, 240 miles, all the way to DeadHorse in Prudhoe Bay, no services on the way.





I shyly asked an old lady who talked nicely to us, if she had any medication for motion sickness. She gave us Ginger Candy. Ah! Namma Inji mittai. I have never had motion sickness, so never realized how charmingly the candy works. She asked us to suck on it slowly. The next leg was a longer one, almost two hours to Barrow, we had to make sure we were alright.

Barrow is the northernmost settlement in Northern US. It is one of the fifteen or so cities touching the Arctic Ocean. We saved out lunch till the end of the flight, while sucking on ginger candy. The landscape was beautiful, as we flew over the Brooks Range. We seemed to be close to the land because of the tall mountains over which we were flying. We kept clicking pictures like crazy. The others in our plane also did the same.









The mountains were barren. I guess most of the time they are covered with snow. No trees whatsoever. Real Tundra! An hour later, the mountains ended, it was barren flat land thereafter. It was really like flying over nowhere. There is no road connecting Barrow to civilization. Only means to reach Barrow is by flight. Makes one wonder who would want to live there.



There were numerous lakes. It was from all the snow melting from Brooks range. We finally saw some patches of snow on land. I thought we would never see any. In Summer this place didnt seem to reveal what bitter winter it suffers every year. The sun was shining really bright. I guess we are closer to the Sun across the arctic circle in summer, than in any part of the earth. It was irritatingly sunny, I had to wear my sunglasses.



Finally, we saw the land end. The Arctic Ocean. It was like the beginning of any other ocean or sea, but to think it was part of the mass of water, often covered in ice, around the North Pole, it was a huge deal. There was no sea ice for as far as we could see though. It was a bummer.

When we landed and went out, it was cold. It was 45F, one of the warmer days in Barrow. We hurriedly wore our jackets and set off to see the northern most point in continental US.

* With due credit to the author of the picture taken from here.

Alaska Trip - Dog Sledding and Drive to Fairbanks

Day 2

We tried to get up early, as we had a long day and a long drive ahead, 350 miles to Fairbanks. We reached Willow, a small town about two hours from Anchorage at about 10AM. We had our Iditarod sleg dog tour scheduled at 11AM. But nice as they were, they let us do the ride with the 9AM group, and then have the explanation session later.

A few words about the Iditarod. Iditarod is an annual dog sled race in Alaska, inviting all mushers to participate and win lot of money. This happens in remembrance of the good old days when mailmen took their sleds from place to place distributing mail. This race started at Anchorage, and ended in Nome.

Initially I thought it was not such a big deal but many banks, and other companies do sponser mushers, just like any other race. We went to Dream a Dream Dog Farm in Willow which was run by a musher, who had participated in Iditarod many times, and won cups.

We had to put on a wet suit kind of a garment, which was optional, but since it had been drizzling, and we were going to go into the woods, we thought it was a good idea. Later we realized it was a great idea. Me and DH and the other couple looked like real mushers, with the suit and the boots and the caps. We saw retired huskies around the house, all waiting to be petted.

I love pets. I love cats, yes, but I love dogs even more. They are the most faithful of animals, we know, and I can particularly empathize with them. We went out to the kennels and there were about thirty huskies, mostly Alaskan and some Siberian, chained of course, but barking their heads off. They all wanted to be petted. When we neared them they tried to jump up on us, with their front paws on our chests, to be petted and cuddled.

DH was so scared. :--) This is because he has had some encounters with dogs in India, not good ones. Me on the other hand, though have been thoroughly scared of dogs in India, after looking at how dogs in America are well mannered, with excellent behavior, was not scared at all.

I somehow feel dogs can understand that they are not supposed to hurt human beings. Atleast the owner make sure their dogs understand that. I know some leave their kids with the dogs, and the dogs are so delicate with kids, I was sure we were safe with these dogs. These huskies they look like wolves. They are huge, but very athletic. They love running, they have been bred for running in cold temperatures. In fact their optimum throughput in races is in negative temperatures.


We saw the puppies, they were barely two months old. They were waiting to be let out of their enclosures. They all were so playful. I fell in love with them. They had so much energy, they were running around, curiously checking out everything on our way, fighting with each other, biting, barking. It was a merry crowd.



All the time the tour guide was telling us about the dogs, what kind of food they take, and how they are prepared for the big race, how much training they go through for months before the actual race.

Once we were back, the guide and her helper started tying selected dogs onto the long ropes in front of the jeep. We were going to go on a shot ride in the jeep with the dogs pulling. It is not a real sled, but still for summer this was more than enough.

Now, all the dogs wanted to go with us on the ride, so all of them started barking, it was deafening. It was as if all of them were shouting Pick me! Pick me! Ten of them were chosen, two leads and eight followers. They were only too eager to run, as fast as they can. It was work for them. They have been bred to run. We went on muddy road and then into the woods, on narrow pathways.


Once we finished the run, the dogs were fed fish again, it was a riot, unhooking them from the sled and tying them back to their kennels. Once that was done, we were back to the house, for the session about the Iditarod. We watched a short video on the race, and then the lady talked about race, it route, the number of days it took, the checkpoints, the bitter cold in which the mushers had to go, the breaks they had to take. The mushers had to carry the dog food and a first aid kit for the dogs with them. A cooker and oil to melt snow and make water to cook the food for the dogs. It was an interesting session, a look into the preparation that went into the race, the risks, the dangers.

Soon it was time to leave. It was about 1PM. My desire to have a dog increased even more.

We crossed Mat-Su Valley. It was very cloudy and was drizzling all along. It was a bummer, but given that it was a Valley with the Alaskan Range on either sides, it was not a surprise.

Our stomachs started grumbling. We drove to Talkeetna, had lunch, and it was 3PM by the time we left from there. A few miles after Talkeetna, before reaching Cantwell, our surroundings slowly changed, as we entered Denali Borough. It was beautiful with spruce trees, all around. I tried to locate Mt. McKinley , the tallest mountain in North America, also called Denali, in the horizon, but it was too cloudy. It was quite a bummer. Untamed wilderness, they call it.


Pictures and movies dont do justice to the beauty of this place. It has to be experienced, in my opinion. At one point, it was cloudy, and the road went winding in front of us, with an occasional car n the front or behind us, or on the opposite side, Low lying mountains sprung up as we drove, trees were a brilliant green, thanks to the rain, I would call it heavenly.

Soon we entered, and drove inside the Denali park, stopped by at Nenana River, which flowed through the park, another way to see the Park was on the river.


We reached Fairbanks at around 8:30-9:00. I liked my hotel instantly. It had fresh flowers hung outside, and inside had a gardeny look, in a bright green shade.


I had to click the notice board which gave the Sunrise and Sunset times, along with the temperature in Fairbanks. You see, one of my colleagues thought Alaska was cold all through the year. I had to take evidence to prove it was not the case.

Our room was cozy too, there was a cute little book about Alaska, which had facts and anecdotes about Alaska, pretty funny ones. There are only a couple I rememeber.
"You are in Alaska if you would not dare to tell your kids to back before dark in Summer."
"You are in Alaska if when you try to order something to ship, they go, " Alaska? Oh no we dont do international shipping"" :--))

Fairbanks being north to Anchorage, the sun sets at around 1AM in the morning and rises at 3:00AM. As you might have already seen in the board. ;--)

The hotel was in Fairbanks dowtown, close to Chenaya River. We had dinner at an Italian place very close by. The food was amazing, we had an Indian waiter. Did you know Alaska recruits people in Summer from all over to cater to the tourist crowd? ;--) This guy was from Bulgaria, studying Medicine, and was here in Alaska in Summer to make some money for his studies. They have valid Visa and all. I was surprised.

It was 11PM and we walked to downtown, and a little by the river, clicked pictures of the sun still in the horizon, like it was just evening. Our main topic of discussion was how the sun never sets in areas beyond the Arctic Circle. Like would the sun set in the west and also rise in the west? Like it would go down close to the horizon and then just backtrack its path? It was totally mystifying*. We took pictures with DH's watch, to show the time, initially, then I set the camera to show the time, so we could capture the midnight sun in all its glory. :--)


I wanted to stay up until atleast midnight, to take the signature picture of Alaska, the sun at midnight. We found a bank in downtown, which had a display of the time and the temperature. So precisely at midnight, there was still day light, so I wasnt scared at all, we went to the bank to take pictures underneath the display. Yeah! I saw the midnight sun!


We retired to our beds soon after tired from the days drive. I wanted to wake up early to see the sunrise also, but we had a long day ahead the next day and DH was totally against waking up at 3:30 in the middle of the night. :--)

* I did find the answer to this question the next day morning. Can anyone guess?

Trip to Alaska - Glacier Cruise

Day 0

The day after my birthday. Thanks to the party we had on my birthday every single soul in my team knew I was leaving to Alaska. It didnt help when a couple of them dropped by at noon to ask why I was still sitting in my cube, instead of being on a plane. This was when my manager was sitting right opposite me, and we were in the middle of getting some things done, before I left.
I took off work at around 1PM. DH also had been busy with a doctor appointment in the morning, so packing was done as fast as can be done. Usually for a 5 day trip I pick about 10 set of clothes, one set for incase it is cold, and another for incase it is too hot. By 2:00, we were out, all packed, set off to the Doctor's, the nurse looked at our hand and said we didnt have TB, and we postponed our vaccination for the next week and left hurriedly. Since our flight was from SFO and the traffic has always been unpredictable, mostly being slower, we wanted to make sure we got to the airport on time.
Surprise of surprises, there was not too much traffic, even at the Bay Bridge Toll. The East bound lanes were jam packed though, I had a good time pointing and laughing. We had a lot of time to spare at the airport, while having dinner of soup and hummus wrap, we were wondering why the airport was not crowded. It was about 7PM. It was me who came up with the theory that, at 7PM, no flight from SF can go anywhere, long distance. All the East bound flights from West either take off in the afternoon, or take off late night. All international flights take off in the middle of the night. Tcaah! Thats why the airport was not too crowded.
The flight was full, me and DH had seats in different rows, later we managed to be seated together. We were chasing the sun, it became darker outside and then there was light, it continued. As we landed in Anchorage, at about midnight, the sun had just set, and there was still the dusky sunlight. My first experience of the midnight sun! :--) We took a cab to the Hotel, the driver said this is just about as dark as it would get, wow!! We scrambled to our beds as fast as we could, and slept like angels.

Day 1

We picked up our rental car from the Airport, a Subaru Impresso, connected our GPS, and set off towards Whittier on Seward Highway. Seward Highway is one of the top scenic drives in the US, and it certainly lived up to its name. It was a two lane road, winding amidst the snow capped mountains of the Kenai Peninsula.

We crossed the Turnagain arm of Cook's Inlet, a water body between the Chugach Mountains. We were on a schedule and it was drizzling, so we didnt stop anywhere. We missed the left turn to Whittier, and had to drive a few miles before we could make a U-turn. We entered Portage, by now it was certainly chilly.

We stopped at a scenic spot, with a good view of the Portage Glacier. Our very first view of a glacier. A glacier is a large slow moving river of ice. It had a tinted blue color to it.
We were at the Whittier Tunnel by 9:05AM, a good 25 minutes before the tunnel openned at 9:30AM. Whittier Tunnel is the only way to get to Whittier. It opens for 15 mins every one hour for either directions. It is a tunnel built into one of the mountains, for either side traffic, and the train.

The tunnel length is 2.5 miles, one of the longest. It seemed unending as we drove at 25mph inside the tunnel. A big relief, as we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Whittier was a small little town, the gateway to Prince William Sound. Here is a new definition of sound I learnt, Sound is a relatively narrow passage of water between larger bodies of water or between the mainland and an island.
We checked in for our cruise, at 11:00AM, went to a nearby cafe for coffee, and watched a short video of what we were going to see. I am tired of cruises, and boat rides now. My head felt funny the first few minutes and I wondered if booking the longer six hour cruise was a bad idea afterall. We went out to the deck, and I instantly felt much better.
The boat moved slowly, away from the dock, into the sound. Snow capped mountains surrounded us. I thought this trip must make me tired of mountains.
We had crab cakes and wild rice pilaf for lunch, they were yum. We had loads and loads of coffee, to make up for the cold everytime we were out.

We saw the glaciers from Harding Ice Field at a distance. We went through Esther Pass, and then a Salmon fish Hatchery. We saw loads of Salmon jumping out of the water. There were apparently millions of salmon at the hatchery.
We saw a lot of bald eagles by the hatchery. At this point we werent experienced enough in wildlife viewing to know the importance of a pair of binoculars. We simply zoomed our camcorder to the eagles and video taped them. I caught some good pictures too. I am not sure what is the big deal about bald eagles anyway. I think they were an endangered species at some point.

Here is a classic reflection picture of Alaska.



We saw a bunch of sea otters as we neared the glaciers. I thought they looked cute. They seemed to just lie there in cold water, like a man sitting comfortably on an easy chair, rolling over once in a while. They were such a sight to watch. DH said he wanted to be a sea otter, solely for the carefree life they lead. He doesnt know they are an endangered species too, as they were hunted for their thick fur.

The first of the glaciers we saw was the Cox Glacier, we werent headed for it though. It started getting chilly as we closed down towards the glacier. We had to cover our ears and necks. I was so excited about seeing the glacier that I kept clicking away to glory. ;--)

Then we went through a small water channel, towards the Surprise Glacier. It looked magnificent. We realized how huge it was until we got closer and closer to it. There should be a sign which says glaciers are very much larger than they actually appear from far. :--)

The glacier was about half a mile wide, and it flowed almost 25 miles from the mountains into the sound. All these glaciers are tidewater glaciers.

We stood there and waited for some calving to occur. Calving is when a large or small chunk of ice spilts from the glacier and falls into the sea. We saw some small pieces of ice fall into the sea, but that was it. It was a bummer. Then we turned back, to watch three more glaciers, Barry, Cascade and Serpentine. There were a lot of water falls, all over,they looked beautiful.






By this time it got very cold to stay outside. :--( We clicked pictures and then ran back inside to the warmth of the cabins. One of the guides told us why the glaciers looked blue. Here is an explanation. Those lazy to click, it is because the shorter wavelengths, predominently blue, have more energy and hence easily escape the ice, while the other colors like red are absorbed.

It was time to return back. I slept for sometime on the cosy comfort of DH's shoulders.

We had free tickets to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. So we stopped by on our way back. This was just in case we never got to see the exotic tundra/arctic animals that Alaska is famous for. :--)

We saw Caribou, Moose, Reindeer, Muskox, Bison, and other animals. We saw a Brown Bear too. I felt sorry for the guy, because apparently he got lost before his Mom could teach him how to survive in the wild. :--( My heart went out to him. He was lying there on his own, swatting flies. The conservation center was pretty huge with lot of space for the animals, but still I guess it is not like actually roaming free in the wild.

Finally we stopped at another baby bear. I had a fun time watching him dig deep. He looked soooo cute, I really wanted to cuddle him. No wonder they make teddy bears. ;--) There definitely is something about them bears.

By now DH was a bit tired with the travel, we thought we would retire for the day. It was past 8PM, normally I would have happily retired for the day, but since it was still bright and sunny, I was reluctant. ;--) The sun actually came out out of the clouds only past 5PM.

Memorial Weekend - Road Trip - 2

Day 2

The next day we woke up early again, we were all set for breakfast by 7AM. The lady was there in the kitchen, making breakfast for us. There was a huge doggie outside on the patio. He was Brick. And he was c-u-t-e. I mean handsome cute. He was huge, like a wolf, but was very well mannered. All pets in this country are so well mannered, they are trained so well, its amazing. So Brick, though he would stand a foot from the entrance door, would not come in to the house, he knew the rules. I slowly petted him, on the head and he snuggled upto me, as if asking me to pet some more. I spent some time stroking his neck, giving him a rub. He was so cute, he would just stand there and enjoy himself. When breakfast came, he looked so forlorn, with a sad face, I couldnt help but put a bit of my super delicious French toast for him to eat. Here again he knew the rules. He didnt jump up at the food on the table, but once he saw the food in my hands and he knew it was for him, he just jumped to my hand, almost snapping the food off my hands. On my god, I just forgot how adorable and faithful dogs were.

We learnt that the lady had 23 dogs. 23 dogs! She has a dog sled team and trains the dogs for dog sledding competitions in Alaska. Wow! I was impressed. The lodge itself had a lot of dog-related things, and pets were more than welcome in the lodge, unlike other places. I was amazed at how she can even know one dog from another, care for them, and give attention to each one of them. All the creepiness we felt earlier melted away. We started liking everything about the place.

So we set off at around 8AM towards Crater Lake National Park. We drove through meadows, with cows grazing the fields, the field was surrounded by mountains on almost all sides. We drove to the north, following directions was easy. The parks in this country are so huge. They span miles and miles and miles. They give a park map at the entrance and it is up to us to drive along and visit the points of our interest. We reached the park pretty early. As always, there was a creek flowing down, as we climbed uphill. It was called Annie Creek. Lame name I think. The view got better and more picturesque as we climbed up. And the inches of snow on the sides kept increasing. I knew we would be driving on the Rim of the lake, so anytime we drove along a mountain side, I imagined the lake on the otherside. The expectation was growing and growing. I had seen many many pictures of the lake on the internet. But the real thing did not fail to amaze me.



May be because we were there so early, and there werent too many people around, I thought the lake had a very wild quality to it. Untouched beauty, cold and foggy, mountains covered with snow, a pristine deep blue lake, calm and peaceful. It was beautiful. The Lake was apparently formed about 4000 years ago. Mt Mazama stood over a mile high at the very place where the lake was, started erupting, lost its balance, and collapsed on its weight, to form a caldera that is the Crater Lake. The Lake was formed by all the snow on the mammoth mountain. I had read about the history of the lake over the past week, and for a second I imagined the whole disaster happening in front of my eyes. It was amazing. I know I am running out of words, so here are some pictures.





We started driving along the W Rim drive. Only a part of the Rim Drive was open, obviously due to snow. We stopped at many observation points, to take pictures of the huge lake at different angles. We could not cover the whole lake in one picture it was too huge, about 6 miles in diameter. From the rim, it was about 2000 feet fall to the water level. The sides of the crater had conifer trees growing. The water color has been in discussion by many people. It is a distinctive deep electric blue. All the water in the lake is due to precipitation, the snow in the mountains melting in summer into the lake. So it is supposed to be very pure.



The Wizard Island, which is referred to as the volcano inside a volcano, in the middle of the lake, was covered with conifer trees and snow as well. We couldnt see the Phatom Ship as that part of the road was still closed. May be the park would have been more accessible when we had come later in Summer, but the beauty of the place lay in the snow covering the place. So it was well worth it.

All the hiking trails were closed as expected. Anyway it was too cold for a hike. We drove out to the North entrance of the lake, where we saw the Pumice Desert, which is also a by product of the eruption.



We returned the way we came back, this time I admired the other side of the road, the mountain side and meadows, snow covered. The roads had been cleaned and snow was piled up several feet high on the side of the road. Ah! Thats why they charge the $10 fee at the entrance. The snow piled looked like snow walls. DH came up with the idea of capturing our drive on the camcorder. I recorded our drive with the camcorder jutting outside off our moon roof. It was fun! I wish I could put that video clip out here too.









It was almost lunch time when we were outside the park, stopping to see Annie Falls on the way down.



After lunch, with some information from the Lodge lady we set out to hike on a trail close to the lodge. Close for driving but a little far for walking. We walked on the road a bit, it was fun, as I have never done it before. The road was so empty, every once in a while a vehicle would pass by, driving almost on the other side of the road.

The trail was a bit scary. It was gravel road, and then we had to take a diversion into the forest area. By the way our lodge was in Winema National Forest, it was really a forest! It was tall trees and shrubs and grass. And thumbis[what are they called in English?]. And mosquitoes. We crossed a couple of creeks, Cherry Creek and Nannie Creek. It was beautiful, yes, but it was scary too. Had it been me a year or so back I wouldnt have even ventured into such a hike, where noone else was there, the trail was not marked. But I guess I have become bolder or something, or may be I have more faith in DH, ;--), I looked down, listening to the crunching of the twigs under our shoes, ears constantly looking for some extra noises, and finished the whole trail. I was so glad to see gravel road on the other side, I almost jumped with joy. When we reached the Lodge, we had walked over 5 miles. I kept telling DH my legs were not aching. But of course they started aching the moment I sat down.

Evening we went to the only Casino around the area, lost some money, picked up dinner and returned back to the Lodge. We had not explored the area around the lodge, there was a small river and canoe rentals. We watched some TV, played cards, read a book on Crater Lake and its history and retired for the night. Another couple from the Bay Area were also staying there, and the girl said she wasnt impressed with the lake. She said it was just a lake. Again I had to pity her, for not being able to appreciate nature.

Day 3

The next day morning we asked the lady to show us her dogs. We walked over to where the kennels were and immediately we heard like a thunder the barking of the dogs. 23 dogs barking at the same time, sure is loud. They were all Alaskan Huskies, bred for improved performance for long distance running. She told us about how she trains each of the dogs individually, and in groups to prepare for contests. She is travelling to Anchorage Alaska for a dog-sled contest in March. She is driving, that too, all across Canada. I cannot even imagine something like that.



We had yummy yummy breakfast of casseroles and home baked plain cake. It was sumptuous. I saved some food for Brick, who happily gobbled the food, his tail wagging rapidly.

The drive back was uneventful. The picturesque route gave way to drab dry plain valley, as we returned home safe.

Overall, it was a great trip. We thoroughly enjoyed staying at the lodge, it had a cosy feeling to it. The place was not as much touched by tourism and tourists, which was great.
It was relaxing, overwhelming, another tryst with nature, another opportunity to be awed and amazed with nature's works and realize humans dont stand a chance against nature.

Memorial Weekend - Road Trip - 1

For the Memorial Weekend we went up North to Oregon, discovering and relishing the Volcanic Legacy of US (apparently, we saw the sign all the way), the Cascade Mountain Range.

Talking of road trips, I love it. And I am really glad that DH enjoys them too. I know a few who dont enjoy road trips. DH's brother and friends drove to Niagra Falls and bil said he was tired driving for 3 hours only. I know a couple who dont enjoy driving. I think they are missing a lot of fun. Unlike the long and dry I-5 down South, the North route was pretty scenic. And thankfully not too much long weekend traffic. This was primarily because most of the places are still under snow. I couldnt believe that its May and there was still multiple feet of snow where we were headed. These places were so exotic, its a pity they are open only 3 months of the year. But also, I guess these places are beautiful only because they are untampered by humans 9 months in a year.

Day 1



We started at 8:30AM on Saturday which was pretty early by our standards, given that I packed lemon rice for our trip also in the morning. On our first stop at a rest area, we realized we forgot to bring our drinks, two Gatorades and two Sobe Leans. By noon, we were on CA-36, the road from I-5 into the mountains leading to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We passed a place called Mineral, with a population of 90, I didnt miss any zeroes. As we climbed up the mountains slowly, the view changed from dry brown to lush green and sunny. The snow level was about 6500 feet, which was most of the park itself. We saw patches of ice and snow on the mountains, still it was not chilly.

We just planned to drive around the park for a while, take a hike and go our way. By 12:30 we were inside the park.

Our first stop was near Sulfur Works. We distinctly smelt sulfur as we passed. There was this huge hole, ash colored on the outside, making eerie noises, as hot water splashed inside, fuming on the outside. On the other side of the road we saw a mound coated in yellow which was sulfur, and fumes emanating from them. Only a few feet by the side was snow. Its really weird I tell you. Volcano is heat from underground and snow is cold, I dont know how the two can mingle. Those were the only geothermal things we saw, unfortunately since Bumpass Hell, and Boiling Springs Lake were all closed due to snow.





We drove along the park road, it was b-e-a-utiful. Snow is beautiful to look at. But to see snow you have to drive in the bitter cold in snow. The best part here was, there was snow all over and still the temperature was in the 70s, and very sunny and the roads werecleaned up and hazardless. Ideal I would say.

We reached the other end of the park after an hour or so, which was longer than we expected. On the way we saw Hot Rock, which was a huge rock that was spewed out from Mt Lassen when it erupted in 1915, and had travelled over 5miles to its current location. The magnitude of an eruption enthralled me. We drove past Devastated Area, which as the name suggests was the area devastated when the volcano erupted. We reached Manzanita Lake. It was a little disappointing. It was too small. We had our lunch there, and started hiking around the lake. There were a lot of mosquitoes by the lake, and like everything else here, they were huge. Mt Lassen looked picturesque with patches of snow all over it.

I tried to capture the mountain's reflection on the lake, it would have come out better if not for the ripples in the water due to the wind. The hike took longer than we thought it would as the lake was bigger than we thought it was. There were folks fishing all along the lake, kids canoeing, couples romancing.



It was about 4PM when we left the park to drive towards Klamath Falls in Oregon. We drove past Shasta Lake and Mt Shasta. The place was a little too crowded. The route became very beautiful from then on. DH made multiple attempts to capture Mt Shasta as we were driving, and finally managed to get something.

The drive on the mountains was like driving in a video game, with the road winding sleekly but dangerously, with umpteen trailers chugging along the upslope. We were driving into Oregon for the first time.

Our little Lodge was not to be found in the GPS. The directions from the lodge website was long, very descriptive. We wanted to reached the lodge before it got dark. Route 97 was too empty. No vehicles in the front, no vehicles behind us. I got a little paranoid, as we neared our lodge. Of course, various horrid movie scenes flashed in my mind, it was almost dark, when a lone pair of lights showed up behind us. We had about 7 miles to go, and I was prodding DH to drive faster, so we can get to the lodge before the lights came closer to us. The Lodge was eerie too, we had to drive a quarter mile from the entrance, to the lodge, on a gravel road. There was no other car in sight in front of the lodge. Creepy it was.

Nowadays we have all these chains of reliable hotels we can stay in, like Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Hilton Garden, etc etc, the uniformness is what makes us feel secured.. and safe. But there is no personal touch in any of these places. This lodge had only 7 rooms. Yes. It was run by a lady, who also looked creepy to me at first, but turned out to be really sweet. No keys for the room!, we had to just leave the door closed. The lady said it was pretty safe around here. No TV in the room. The room was miniscule. No AC in the room too. There was a small window, which when left open, small midgets come through, the lady said, we kept it closed through out our stay. She gave a fan for us to use in case it got too warm. When we enquired about dinner, she said most places closed by 8, the one that was open late was over 20miles from there. We ate leftover lemon rice and slept on a super creeky bed. In the middle of the night, we heard a sound of something crashing on the floor above us. For all we knew we were on the topmost floor. There was may be an attic above, we pacified ourselves and slept. The next day we would realize that it was the fan that fell off the top of the chest and had been running upside down all night.

Thus ended the first day.