The Bear

The tourists gawp
at the bear
and all I can feel
is pity
this creature
of power and hunger
subjected to this
indecent
oggling
and disgust
for my fellows
in their leering, slathering, avariciousness

I can see them drool
as they shutter away.

Alaska

Perhaps its fitting
it was so difficult
'The Last Frontier'
and all that
we saw beautiful sights
even if their access was constrained
we experienced the wilderness
even if it was extreme
we navigated hordes of tourists
the tourist prices, the tourist traps
the exclusive tours
the prevailing and seemingly inevitable plague of unsalted food
the ever-present Boomer niggling
we endured it all
and had our adventure.

Denali II

Last day in Denali. Its been challenging, highs and lows, but an adventure. Can't say I'd recommend the trip honestly just because of the cost/benefit. There are similar places in the continental 48 that you can experience for 1/2 the price with more accessibility and without Alaska's libertarian culture/infrastructure. Not a bad experience, Nicole and I had a great time and saw some amazing things, but certainly a more complicated one than we were expecting. For visitors Alaska seems most appropriate for either backpackers looking to spend multiple days/weeks camping or rich people who can afford various guided tours and to charter planes.

Ended our time with a visit to the sled dogs, cool and cute!

The Walk

When the first bus was full
I knew we were in trouble
when the second bus was full
I saw my wife transform
already depleted she retreated
to survey the reservoirs of her strength
what appeared empty was in fact only a single chamber
she opened a door to the next, a basement
and took energy from there
we continued to walk

Denali

In Denali the rest of our time here. There's only a single road access to the park and not a ton of established trails. A big thing here is just hiking out into the bush, there's a bus system that takes you farther than you can drive and you hop-on/hop-off to explore. An interesting idea but the bulk of the guests here are retirees or international visitors both groups seemingly ill prepared for the conditions and terrain. Beautiful but logistically a bit complicated and relatively difficult to get away from crowds and experience the park in some solitude.

'Pristine Wilderness'

What they call nature

that can't be exploited

not because of law

or moral fortitude

simply because

it is too costly

to get at

Kenai Fjords

Nicole and I are on our yearly National Parks trip, this time in Alaska, going to Kenai Fjords and Denali. First stop is Seward which is basically within Kenai Fjords NP. Mostly nice little tourist town.

Our first full day we did the only hike they really have here up to Exit Glacier, a lot of it is inaccessible except for backcountry backpacking. Pretty intense hike, relatively severe elevation gain.

Beautiful but very demanding hike.

Our second day we took a boat tour, saw some Orcas, sea otters, sea lions, tons of birds. Really cool.

The best part was to get up close and personal with Holgate Glacier.

Exit Glacier

There is a funerary feeling

as we ascend

to pay our respect

the remanence of the ice

all around us

in swaths of rubble

and dirt tracks

even in its diminished state

it is formidable

grand, implacable

it is gracious

as it bleeds