TravelStream™ news feed for member matthewpaul44 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/matthewpaul44 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:17:41 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1220955000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1220955000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1220955000/tpod.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:17:41 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Healy, Alaska, United States

Had the privilidge of spending time with Mom, Dad and Haley in Denali
NP, Autumn was unbelievable. The
mountains and flats are blanketed in rich burgundy, intense yellows,
sparse brilliant orange and evergreen all merging with continuously
variable jagged and soft-dune peaks sporting chocolates, violets, stark
granites, bright white, blue and neutral slates. It's a week of
intense, fleeting beauty and we had nearly perfect weather, won't be
long before it falls away, but I think that's a crucial element
sustaining the intrigue. All of us were in awe, the bus tour went 12 hours,
3 hours spent walking around. Neither Haley or I had taken the tour
into the park yet so it was a new experience for everyone. We had a
few crystal clear views of Denali, saw 5 different grizzlies, one of
which I spotted through the trees, 4 fox, 5 Moose, a wolf, a
hawk-owl...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1215289800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1215289800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1215289800/tpod.html Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:21:35 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Seward/Homer (Kenai Peninsula), Alaska, United States

After working 21 days strait, 12 hours per day on average I have a little more than a week's vacation. I've spent the last four days in Seward, a little fishing town located on Resurrection Bay. I drove down on the first of July and stopped off near Whittier in the Chugach National Forest for a quick hike, this was the sunniest day I'd seen in weeks. The drive between Anchorage and Seward is about two and half hours, it took me about 4 hours stopping here and there, including the hike. I was able to take a back door tour of the Sea Life Center here in town, normally a $30 entree fee, with my couch surfing friend Celeste who works at the King Crab hatchery next door. Their research there is geared toward developing a means of stocking crabs in order to sustain the fishing operations. It takes a King Crab around 9 years to reach ideal maturity, so the idea is to raise the crabs during their most vunerable stages in holding tanks, while providing diet and conditions that will not prohibit the crabs from developing the behaviors/metabolism that they need to survive in the open sea. The saddest thing I've learned about Seward is the devastation the town's fisheries suffered in result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. I guess the supreme court recently ruled on the final settlement which amounted to $500,000,000 (One weeks profit for Exxon), $4.5 billion short of what the suit was seeking. The supreme courts ruling provides each employee of the fisheries a total of about $15,000 in compensation for damages, a small fraction of their permanently expired annual income.

Haley and I hiked the Harding Ice Field Trail above Exit Glacier which was stunning, the clouds cleared away in the later part of the day just in time. It was a pretty challenging vertical hike, a good amount of mud and snow. It took us a little less than 3 hours to get to the top, taking our time to shoot photos and take in the view and a little less than an hour to come back down. After finishing we quickly picked up some food and walked another couple of miles down the coast and crossed an icy river to setup camp for a morning low-tide hike down a beach of skipping stones to Caine's Head on Ressurection Bay. We saw lots of starfish and other small creatures clinging to the beach as the tide went out.

After returning for the hike we headed for Homer, AK where we were able to take a water taxi to Kachemak Bay State Park and hike down to Gweningk Glacier Lake. The Island had sort of a prehistoric feel about it. They've installed these big man powered tram systems for the river crossings over there where you pull yourself across a zip line inside of a steel cage with a hope bound between two pulleys. The views at the lake were spectacular.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212675300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212675300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212675300/tpod.html Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:09:31 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Healy, Alaska, United States

After finishing a contract in Fairbanks I had a great opportunity to stop and see Haley on the way back to Anchorage between jobs. We did some fun hikes and Haley hooked me up with an airplane ride around the tallest mountains on the continent and the most dramatic vertical rise on the planet.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210485480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210485480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210485480/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:21:39 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Jackson, Wyoming, United States

Sunday I drove through the majority of Wyoming, I had heard the SW quadrant was a bit dull, but I found the rolling hills to be nice shift, there were still pockets of snow, melting drifts scattered about the landscape. I took a quick right after seeing a state forest sign pointing toward some isolated dense woods and snowcapped peaks. When I came to the entry, the scenic road sign reading "Leaving State Land" had been turned around the post to face me, upside down and filled with bullet holes. I ventured in a little ways, but the road was rough and the mountains were still out in the distance so I decided to get back to the highway. and camped outside the Grand Tetons, it was already getting late in the evening when I arrived in the park. I was able to talk to a ranger right before he closed down the visitors center for the night and he told me that I could camp free of charge down a gravel road about 10 miles into the national forest, I was able to find a nice spot near a creek that hadn't been gated down. There were several good size herds of elk on the hills above the valley and one other camper on the far end of the grounds. I took a few photos and wandered around the immediate area before battening down the camper shell for some rest in preperation for the drive through Yellowstone.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212955260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212955260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212955260/tpod.html Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:14:45 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Anchorage, Alaska, United States

dfdf
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212951360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212951360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1212951360/tpod.html Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:53:57 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Dease Lake, British Columbia, Canada

As I rolled into Dease Lake, BC I had a difficult decision to make. The gas station closed right at 5:00 pm, the attendant was starting up her truck right as I pulled in. She said that there wouldn't be any available facilities open for the rest of the day and that the next available services were 235 Kilometers away in Watson Lake. I had just over a quarter of a tank which I estimated to be just over three gallons. I studied my Milespost sitting by the gas pumps, there was no digital display, the only indication I could find was an old drop letter sign. I couldn't tell whether is just hadn't been tended or if they were actually demanding $10 per liter. If the price was this high I suspected that maybe she refrained to tell me about the gas station in Good Hope. My travel guide, current off the shelf indicated that there was a station there. I really didn't want to camp in the area as it wasn't nearly as appealing as most of the terrain I had covered during the day and I could tell there was a substantial mountain range further north. So I decided to look for gas in Good Hope, allowing superstition to play a small role continuing further north. About 40 miles up the road I found a beautiful clearing where it looked safe to park, so I decided to do some cooking, take some photographs and get some sleep before continuing onward. I wasn't far from the highway. Passing vehicles, usually fully loaded semis, rumbled by every one or two hours.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210859280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210859280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210859280/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:55:29 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Jasper, Alberta, Canada

fill later
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210833300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210833300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210833300/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:40:27 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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High River, Alberta, Canada

will fill this in soon
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210569720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210569720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1210569720/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:56:25 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Livingston, Montana, United States

I had to wait about an hour and a half at the Yellowstone gate, there was a good snowstorm during the night. I was at a lower elevation so I woke up to a steady cold rain, which didn't really bother me under the aluminum camper. The snowbanks from the plow were impressive, there was apparently record snowfalls throughout the majority of the rockies this year. The fresh snow created a perfect color reference as it melted in around and framed the geothermic features in the park, it kept the crowds down as well, I had the majority of the boardwalks to myself. There was a steady crowd congregated around old faithful but most of the trails were more or less empty, I never came across more than a handful of people as I moved through the park, running on some of the boardwalks to cover as much ground as I could, but still taking time to closely investigate the bacterial mats and bubbling geisers.

The park changed dramatically in color and scale as I got close to Montana, some great views from the truly elevated highway, waterfalls, black bears, bison and scattered snowfall. My sustenance along the drive consisted mainly of fruit, granola bars and various nuts. I touched base with my hosts in Kalispell to let them know I would be arriving in the afternoon the following day. The guy promised me that he wasn't a serial killer, but his girlfriend
said that she wouldn't make any promises.... I let them know that I
deemed 50/50 to be pretty good odds. After leaving the park I found a small diner, since it was early in the season most everything surrounding the park was still closed down. The diner was quiet and rustic, family operated, there were some young kids with the hostess... this was in Emigrant, after eating my first real solid meal of the day, a quality burger, the waitress directed me to a small fishing landing that had camping available, I could hear the trout feeding consistantly all through the night and into the morning... no other campers here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1211673840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1211673840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/matthewpaul44/1/1211673840/tpod.html Sun, 25 May 2008 03:34:48 -0400 Kansas City to Anchorage to Lincoln City

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Limon, Colorado, United States

My goal was to arrive within view of the Rocky Mountains at dawn. I left Kansas City around 8 pm and had been driving all of Kansas through the night. The first hints of daylight were coming on as I departed Limon Colorado but my eyes nagged me into a rest-stop. I was able to get a solid 2 hours of sleep, I woke up straight out of dreamstate and it actually took me a minute to figure out where I was. It didn't take long to clarify the push toward the first mountain range of the many to come, I was rolling at 70 on 70 before 7:00. By 8 am I was sipping coffee not too far from a little town called Silver Plume. I could see a snowstorm was imending but didn't anticipate the white out conditions that swept in at their heaviest when I crested near Vail. During certain moments over the next few hours driving toward Carbondale, I moved toward blurred, glowing red shapes infront of me, guarding my breaks, gaining relief encompassed in the tunnels.
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