Day 3 - Epic Al-Can Odyssey

Day 3 - Denali to Seward

386 miles

We headed back south early in the morning, leaving Denali and Mt. McKinley to the hikers and campers. 

I honestly never realized it could get this cold in July – we woke up to 29 degrees  - but at least it wasn’t raining…yet.

Our first top was Girdwood, Alaska, just south of Anchorage for what we supposed would be the highlight of our trip: sled dogging on a glacier.  At Girdwood we suited up in rain suits and wished we always had somewhere warm and dry to put rain gear on, instead of by the side of the road in a torrential downpour.

We hopped a helicopter ride into the mountains. Can’t say I was very excited about riding in a helicopter, and admittedly it was a whole different feeling than riding in an airplane, but it was kind of fun.

The ride was short, 

only about 15 minutes before they landed and deposited us on a glacier in the …. Range.  This snowy dog camp belonged to sled dogging legends, the Seavey family. They rotate dogs throughout the summer so the whole herd got to spend time on the snow.

We were met by Pete, a professional musher, who gave us a great overview of the camp.

And we got to play with tiny puppies that didn’t even have their eyes open yet!

Then…

…Sean’s dreams came true when we got to ride in a sled with some of the Seavey’s top dogs pulling us over the glacial snow and ice. I was in front but could hear Sean’s joyful laughter as we sped along.

We stopped to give the dogs a break, which gave us a chance to really talk with Pete about the dogs, the camps and the Iditarod.

He reinforced that the dogs really do all the work, all the musher has to do is give them directions and hold on. Tight.

With that, Sean got to give the command to start them up again. “Go Dogs”

While we were waiting for our turn on the sled, we chatted with Molly, a nice young woman who was working at the camp for the summer.

We asked her where she was from originally and she told us “Minnesota”. Wow, us too! Where? “Oh, a little Minneapolis suburb.” Really? Us too! Where? “Savage?” No way. US TOO!!

And that’s how we met Molly the Musher from Savage, Minnesota on a glacier, accessible only by helicopter, in Alaska.

This trip ended all too soon as the helicopter came back to get us and take us back to the valley.

We continued down the coast of the Kenai Peninsula toward Seward, basking in our most recent adventure. We didn't even mind the on and off again rain that clouded the landscape.

Though we did arrive in Seward, cold and wet. We warmed up quickly after a local recommended a great restaurant that the wealth of tourists usually passed by.

Neither of us are really fish eaters, but we do like to try the local fare wherever we are, so we had the halibut and chips.

The fish was amazing, fresh, just lightly battered and fried. It was so wonderful we went back the next night for more.