Alaska Day 1: Denali

Hey guys,

Let me start by saying a flat fact. My short trip to Alaska was probably the most breathtaking of all the trips I have taken so far. And I would like to thank every single contributing factor which made it possible and so very much memorable. Starting from the availability of affordable flight tickets to the successful production roll out of the phase 2 of my project just few days back (work stuff!) ... from the more than perfect weather we had throughout to the fact that I had people with me to plan out the most suitable itinerary.

The group was back - Asish da, Sukanya di, Soumen, Moumita and me (The same Yellowstone team). On the due date (Aug 31, 1 am local time) we reached Anchorage via Minneapolis (1 hr in air after leaving which the captain informed us that there is an aurora visible to the left of the flight. I am not sure what exactly was it but that night I did see a yellow something in the sky - true story!). Anchorage airport was the place where we had to freshen up, change, eat and get some supplies for our day to come. There was no possibility of sleep for us in the next 26 hours.

Once outside the 40 mile radius of the city of Anchorage, it was only and only one single lane road to the Denali National Park (Soumen and Asish da exchanged seats at a gas station mid way). We reached the visitors' center of the park at about 730 in the morning after a 5 hours drive to cover about 300 miles of road in high beam. We waited and then we started with the guided tour bus at 830. One thing was there about our whole Alaska trip - there was very less driving in comparison to what I had experienced so far.

Like we were told earlier, there was no food item for purchase (or pluck) for the next 12 hours once we were inside the park. And shortly we were inside the park, it started to snow. The fall season in Alaska lasts only for two weeks. Luckily, we were in the middle of it. It was a total treat to be able to see it snowing on the vast red and yellow carpet. Basically it was like a combination of three seasons - summer (as it was back in Lexington, and in most of the world's calendars), the fall (as it was in Alaska, technically) and the winter (as was Alaska always!).

A little deeper into the park, we witness the vast open wilderness. The human kind has settled everywhere on this planet, but beyond certain latitudes, it could not find it in itself to tame the inhospitable beauty of the land. All he could do here is set his foot onto the land and start walking. On our journey, the bus picked up quite a few number of hikers, who were inside the park, with a backpack, a stick and a camera walking or biking on the trails and experiencing the wilderness first hand.

My personal favorite of the day was the Eielson Point (yes, this one) which was like complete textbook Alaska for me - straight out of the picture in my mind (or rather some book called "Ideal Alaska" in my mind) into the picture in my camera.

This was one of those places in the park, where you ask yourself - is it really real? You stand there for so many passing moments with your eyes blinking less frequently, mouth closed, slow breathing and with your hands inside the jacket's pockets... And you just stand there, savoring every ray of light coming from what is in front of you. You touch the cold metal railing, just to check if it is... really real. The sun was not  in an enlightened mood that day. But however that big ball of fire wanted us to witness the sight, it appeared just perfect. And in a way, it was good we could not see Mt. McKinley, there is only a limit to which I could have taken that day.

Further down west of the park was the Wonder Lake, but I had seen what I had to see. While coming back from the Wonder Lake, I was feeling like that student who has already scored the passing mark and who is now only going for some higher numbers, just for the hell of it. With my nose pressed against the bus window now, the loneliness of the place became only clearer and clearer.

Every place on earth does not make you realize the planet-ness of it. Yes, it is a planet, at just the perfect distance from that insanely bright and hot thing. And this distance is why things are more colorful here. Within a second you zoom out higher and higher - a piece of land, a huge land mass, a continent, oceans surrounding the continent, and Zzoop! A planet! With this picture in mind, you take a look at the piece of land again, and you realize that what you are looking at is a planet, the most colourful of all.

On our journey back to the visitor's center, we could spot some caribou but after seeing the image which one of the hikers/photographers in the bus clicked, I am literally ashamed to put up that image which I clicked. But anyway, our journey inside the park ended sharp at 830 in the evening. By now, we were hungry like sharks. Ion had suggested us to try out the McKinley Creekside Cafe, just a couple of miles outside the park. I must say, the cafe was a little rough around the edges, yet had that warm welcome air to it. A lovely place to sit back at the end of day. And to top everything else, it made me fall in love with the fish called Halibut. I had one whole plate of the entree to myself.

But romanticizing the place anymore had to stop. Once done with our food and all settled inside that SUV, we started again. The GPS showed us that we would reach not before 2 am the next day. And so it was. After waking up on Friday 7am, I was about to go to sleep at 230 on Sunday. But that's not all. We had a train to catch at 630 the next morning (o ya!). The sleep was so insufficient that I overlooked a whole wash basin present in my hotel room and ended up brushing my teeth standing in the bathtub the next morning.

Alaska Day 2: Kenai Fjords

"I dare the chill, the wind, the sleepless nights, the exhausting days,

Coz I, my dear, am born impatient and the habit stays.

Till there is that old rush in my body that always feels new,

Till there is a world out there for me, till I am there to inhale the view."

The next day morning at the train station, I tried to recall when was my last train ride. I could not find an answer. I settled for the fact that it must have been the time when I was leaving Jamshedpur for the last time. Although, in US this was my first train ride (and this is something you don't get  to do much in this country). Huge windows, separate food and drinks compartment and plenty of out-worldly beautiful scenery passing by every moment. Also, I met Christina, for the first time had reindeer meat in that wrap (you know what they say - when in Rome... blah blah blah). With the sun gradually rising over the lake to our right, it presented one of the most pristine sights to feel re-energized in spite of a mere two and half hour sleep the last night. None of us five felt a bit tired the rest of the day.

After 4 hours of this ride, crossing mountains, lakes and tunnels, talking to fellow passengers (there were a few desis too, Bongs to be precise!), we reached the town of Seward. It is a fishing town of Alaska with population barely reaching 3,000. But the harbour appeared to be used for tourism as well. The crew of the cruise greeted us inside the boat and like a 10 year old, the first urge I had, as soon as I was in, was to get to the upper deck and grab the best place by the railings. Less I knew, how empty the deck was going to be later that afternoon when we will be cruising real fast in open waters. Relatively closer to the shore, the captain took us close to the natural habitats of the seals and puffins (No! they are not penguins, they are puffins. Penguins are not found in the northern hemisphere).

Little further into the waters, the captain announced that there might be a herd of Humpback whales around. To our advantage, the water was still. But the best way to spot a whale is by the water it blows out from its blowhole when it surfaces to breathe. The entire population of the boat was now on the deck (for the first of many times that afternoon) and the eyes were looking at every possible direction to get a glimpse of the blowhole exhaust or of the tail. Luckily, my camera had a good zoom in it and was capable of taking super-fast photographs. Looking at the whales, for the first time in my life, that too in the wild was only the beginning of many mixed bag feelings. I had seen these creatures only in those television channels. That day, it sure was a weird feeling of finally believing in their co-existence with us (rather my co-existence with them).

The sun was not at all harsh that day. Neither it was raining in spite of an overcast. It was at that delicate perfectness. The temperature was going further down as we moved ahead. And then we could see something different approaching. It had no visible way around. And it was again something that brought back the feeling of the planet-ness from the previous day.

We were now in front of the Holgate Glacier. Years and years of accumulation of snow and ice. Seemingly so very stagnant but in reality, it is probably the single most dangerous eroding element on earth that is responsible for shaping the features of the massive northern mountains and giving them their valleys.

Our boat gradually lowered its speed and finally came to a complete stop quiet close to the glacier. Numerous chunks of ice were floating in the water around us. With the engine making no sound, it was like standing in front of a massive castle with its ruins surrounding us. We were completely in a hypnotic state ogling at the glacier when the glacier itself decided to break the hypnotism. First, there was a sound, then it grew out to be a huge cracking noise, then it turned into the sound of a nearby explosion and that's when we saw it. A massive chunk of ice falling off from the glacier wall, breaking into pieces in mid way and falling into the water just below it. When anything powerful like this happens right in front of your eyes, you are not left with anything to say or think. But when you come back to senses, you realize that it is not just the planet-ness that is there in your thoughts. Your thoughts now have a planet that is alive. So very much alive. A fraction of whose life is loaned by every creature living on it and in time, returned back.

Before the boat had started its engine, I looked up once more and surveyed my surrounding. It was beautiful, it was surreal, it was heavenly (It was so many things from my little collection of adjectives). I could not help but give up to the feeling that I must have (must have) done something really nice in my life to have deserved to be at a place like that.

"Eikhanei Shib thake na?" I am sure this was the comment from Asish da which made our captain start the engine without any further delay ("Is this not where Shiva lives?").

By now, I had made a lot of conversation with one of the crew members, a lot of talk on whales and how I always wanted to see some Orcas, whom I find the most beautiful of them all. I was sitting inside on our way back when David (the crew member. I forgot his name, but lets just call him David) called me outside, on the deck. There he smiled and told me "We are about to see some Orcas." I grinned from ear to ear, never gave it a thought to hold back my joy! Everybody was back on the deck in a few minutes and we all watched these stunning creatures real close in total amazement. They were there, the most beautiful of all ocean dwellers in their own open wilderness. David had told me about one particular whale which had lost its mother in an oil spill. That calf went into physical depression and now it can be easily spotted - the one with the curled dorsal fin (bottom left in that picture). The story made me sad. But suddenly when we spotted a mother calf pair a little far away from our boat, the smile made its way back. And strangely, when you see them going away from you into the open ocean, you feel that immense happiness within you that only gets expressed in your elongated breathing.

Back to the harbour, we boarded our train back to Anchorage at around 630 in the evening. Shortly we realized, that it is past our dinner time as per good old EST. All five of us went to the restaurant car of the train and decided to enjoy our meals while there is still some sunlight remaining for us to enjoy the view outside through those gigantic glass windows. And truly enough, the scenery through those windows in that dusk were adding flavors to that exquisite salmon soup and that cod entree. The trip had indeed ended at its possible best!

If some day you decide to visit Alaska (even for a short duration like mine), I would request you to consider me as a fellow traveler.

Till next time,

Cheers!