Semiserious Chefs

I don’t think we could have asked for better weather during our kayaking trip yesterday, because let’s be honest, it seems like it’s always raining in certain parts of Alaska. It’s probably not true, but if you live here you’ll know what I mean. In fact, it’s raining outside now while I’m writing this blog post. Refreshingly though, there were blue skies everywhere and not a single cloud could be found anywhere. Unfortunately, I must not have put on enough sun screen because it’s been a couple days and my face and forearms still kind of hurt. What’s that? Did someone say, “Man up and stop being such a sissy.”? Yeah, that would probably be Vanessa…

After packing a few spare clothes and some food we struck off to meet up with my brother early that morning (9:30 A.M. being early for us) and not long after, we were on the Seward Highway making our way towards Alyeska and Portage, and eventually to the tunnel leading to Whittier. Yes, you have to drive through a mountain to get to Whittier. What’s that? You would like to know more about the tunnel? No Problem!

Most people simply refer to it as the Whittier tunnel, but it actually has a name: The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. And it’s the only way to get in and out of Whittier if you are driving an automobile.

It serves as both a highway tunnel and a railroad tunnel. Cars and trucks going to Whittier line up at a toll station at the midpoint of each hour with a fifteen minute window before proceeding through the tunnel to enter Whittier. Traffic leaving Whittier gathers at the beginning of each hour for fifteen minutes before entering the tunnel to leave Whittier. In other words, the direction of traffic going through the tunnel changes every half-hour.

Some sources say it’s the longest, but I kind of think it’s only the second longest highway tunnel in North America at 2.6 miles. I do believe however, that it is the longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America. The elevation of the tunnel itself is something like 43 ft  (13 m), but Maynard Mountain which is the mountain it goes through, reaches an altitude of 13,176 ft (4,016 m). It’s also the first tunnel designed for -40°F (-40°C) temperatures and 150 mph (240 kph) winds!

Pretty cool stuff huh? Enough about that though, let’s get back to the kayaking trip. It was a trip we hadn’t even planned on doing until the day before. The original plan was to stay in town for Great Strides; an annual 5k walk that raises money for research into finding a cure for cystic fibrosis, but my brother called us the day before and asked us if we would be interested in doing some kayaking.

Being that Vanessa loves the outdoors, the decision was quickly made. Usually we wouldn’t be inclined to miss anything that raises money for something like cystic fibrosis that directly effects us, but it had been a while since we got out on the water. Besides, we could pay the entrance fee which goes to a great cause while simply skipping the walk.

By the time we got out on the water a little after noon, it was already over 70°F (21°C). I know, not very impressive for some of you, but here in Alaska that’s nice and hot. In fact, if it were to get much hotter out it might start melting our igloos.

Not only was it Vanessa’s birthday (I won’t say how old) but it was also a chance for us to let Nathan experience the joy of being out on the ocean. It was an opportunity for him to get his knuckles dirty, or in this case wet. He would be learning how to paddle right along side us in a ‘triple’ (three person) kayak. After a not so smooth departure (mostly because my foot pedals weren’t adjusted right) we made our way along the rocky coastline on a half-day trek to wherever we saw fit.

Although it might not be the prettiest town in Alaska, the surrounding mountains and glaciers of the Prince William Sound totally make it worth visiting Whittier. If you ever plan on visiting Alaska, Whittier is home to a few different companies that offer day cruises for sightseeing the wildlife and glaciers around Prince William Sound, if that’s your thing.

It didn’t take long for our small group of three kayaks to get going towards the first little cove we saw on the map. Everyone was getting a little hungry at that point, especially the two children. It was decided we would all stop off there and have a light snack. While the kids devoured a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I decided to take some time and check out the surrounding creek that was filtering into the ocean. It was surprisingly swift, and one that apparently is used by salmon during spawning season.

Remember, if you wear rubber boots like we were, that the rocks around the water will be slippery. And you probably don’t want to fall into the ocean in Alaska. As the lady at the kayaking company said, “It’s refreshingly chilly.” Chilly being the key word. Slipping and falling in the shallow water while on shore is one thing, but tipping a kayak over out on the water is an entirely different thing. After the initial shock of the cold water, you would have to extricate yourself from the kayak (while submerged) before flipping it over and pulling yourself (and anyone else) back into their proper seats. And did I mention the water is chilly?

Not that I am trying to dissuade anyone from taking a nice kayaking trip, and here I go again getting off topic, but it’s something to keep in the back of your mind if you ever decide you want to try it out.

Anyway, enough doom and gloom. Seriously, that rarely happens. As long as you stay relaxed and just go with the flow as the kayak rolls over the ever present swells caused by the constant boat traffic, you should be fine.

As we continued on, we started getting into a nice groove. The shoreline was beginning to move by at a pretty decent pace. All kinds of sea birds glided up and down with the breeze coming off the ocean, and sea lions periodically poked their heads out of the water to check us out. One actually popped up and then made a quick dive not more than 20 feet ahead of us. As cool as that was though, the Prince William Sound doesn’t have as much diversity of wildlife that one might find elsewhere such as Seward; do mainly in part to a massive oil spill you may have heard about way back in March of 1989.

The Exxon Valdez oil tanker collided with a reef spilling many thousands of gallons of oil, and that oil is still there collected on the shores around Prince William Sound. You can’t tell now days, but it was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of seabirds, thousands of sea otters, bald eagles, harbor seals, and even some killer whales.

I was just a little over 7 years old when that happened and I remember it to this day. I even had a blue shirt with hand prints covered in oil on the front. But like I said, if you didn’t know there was a devastating oil spill many years ago, you would have no clue simply by looking around. Everything has appeared normal for many years.

Instead of saying normal, I should probably say all of the beauty of the sound has returned and has been that way for many years now. And speaking of beautiful, that is a good word to describe the place we finally settled on to beach the kayaks and stretch our legs. We were approaching an island known as Emerald Island which is located just outside Emerald Bay. About a quarter mile (just a guess) from the piece of land that jutted out concealing the bay from view, someone decided we should all race to the point. Here’s a piece of advice, if you haven’t been kayaking in a long time, don’t exert yourself like a crazy person trying to prove that you can win. Especially if you have a return trip ahead of you. You’ll be sore in places that you didn’t even know existed.

After rounding the point, we were very pleasantly surprised to see a beach appear that I would say was easily the nicest one so far. It even had a built in fire pit right in the middle of the beach which had obviously been used by many people before us. Extending south beyond the beach, the green waters of Emerald Bay reached far inland. It almost felt like a scene right out of a movie.

The air was warm with just a hint of breeze. We beached the kayaks and immediately started gathering some driftwood to start a fire so we could roast some hotdogs. Or I should say, I immediately chugged some water and then began gathering driftwood. It’s easy to get dehydrated with the sun beating down on you all day coupled with the physical exercise of paddling the kayak. I don’t know how many times I reached into the water and scooped up some of that “refreshingly chilly water” and drenched my head so I could cool down a little.

Vanessa busied herself by looking through her National Geographic – Field Guide to the Birds of North America book, trying to identify a particular bird we saw fly overhead. We still don’t know what it was but it kind of looked like a larger version of an arctic tern with its pointy wings, but it was either all black or very dark brown. Vanessa thinks it might have been a Sooty Shearwater. If you have any idea what it might be please let us know.

I busied myself by looking around for a comfortable spot and then laying down in that said spot. Laying down was awesome. I could talk more about laying down, but I should probably not waste any more of your time. The beach was also full of smooth flat rocks that were perfect for skipping. So I skipped rocks too.

After about an hour of relaxing on the beach, Vanessa and I decided we wanted to make it back to the tunnel by 6:00 o’clock so we could get out of Whittier and back to Anchorage at a decent time to start Nathan’s evening treatment, without having to keep the children up too late. A little after 4:00 P.M. we said goodbye to everyone and headed for our triple-seat kayak. We pushed off and headed around the point on our way back to the launch ramp in Whittier. The return trip took us about an hour and fifteen minutes, and we were by no means trying to break any speed records.

By this time, I could feel the fatigue in my arms setting in. Nothing major, but it was a nice reminder of how not in shape I was. We passed a couple groups of kayakers on our way back, and when we were about ten minutes out, Vanessa called the kayaking company so they could come get us. Not more than a couple minutes after we reached the launch ramp, the van showed up. By this time Nathan had learned how to use the bilge pump that came with the kayak and was busy running around in the shallow water, pumping as much water as he could.

We quickly loaded all our stuff up, but not before I managed to step in deep enough water that my rubber boots filled with water. Up until that point, I had somehow managed to keep my socks fairly dry. There’s nothing like trudging around in boots with socks that are completely soaking wet, almost like a sponge. It makes a special noise when you tromp around. So we hoisted the kayak onto the rack of the trailer and then jumped into the van to head back to our vehicles.

A few times I thought we might not make it to the tunnel in time, but after getting back and loading everything into our Jimmy (and changing into a refreshingly dry pair of socks) I realized we still had at least 20 minutes to spare. It only takes maybe 5 minutes to drive through Whittier, plus the 15 minute wait while cars and motorhomes and trucks towing boats waited in line for their turn to go through the tunnel.

Everything and everyone was accounted for, so it was time to head out. I turned the key and… click.click.click….

Vanessa and I looked at each other. That wasn’t good at all. From time to time our truck has battery issues and drains super quick. We haven’t been able to figure out why. It usually happens when the truck gets turned off but the key stays in the ignition while something like the radio is going. And it doesn’t take long for this to happen.

I turned the key again thinking we were going to need to find someone that could give us a jump, but to our surprise it started. I don’t know how, it seemed like it had absolutely no juice left, but it did. So off we went, waving goodbye to the town. Maybe we would visit again next year.

Below is a quick video of what it looks like while driving through the tunnel. It sounds louder on the video than it does while actually driving through.

The trip back was just as beautiful if not more than the trip from Anchorage earlier that day. As usual, we stopped at the gas station in Girdwood to stretch our legs and grab something to drink. I picked out a couple energy drinks (the cheapest ones I saw) being that I was thirsty and chugged them both right down. I don’t know if they tasted that great (they didn’t) but they were cold and carbonated and that was all that mattered.

We arrived home a little after 8:00 P.M. that evening and got busy with our evening routine. It was a later night than usual, but one that was a close to an awesome day.

Bottom line: don’t skip the opportunity to go play outside every once in a while. I have to tell myself that as well. Far too many experiences never happen, because we are too busy with our noses buried in our phone. So with that being said, I will get down off my soap box and get started on the next recipe I plan on adding.

It will be epic! Just kidding, but it will be good.