Time to Relax in Seward, AK

       After an amazing road trip across the southeastern US, the upper Midwest and beautiful western Canada Doreen and I arrived at Seward, our destination in Alaska.

       When we first began thinking of attempting this trip, we were inspired by several movies and television programs that showed people going on long road trips or people who lived in remote areas that you just have to visit to really appreciate. Some of the shows we drew inspiration from were Long Way Round and Long Way Down (actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman ride motorcycles around the world and from the top of Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa, respectively), Top Gear special episodes in which the hosts embark on epic journeys of adventure the likes of following the Dakar Rally route or driving across Patagonia, Ice Pilots, which features a Canadian air cargo company called Buffalo Airways that uses WWII-era aircraft to supply remote northern villages like Inuvik. We're actually hoping to make it to Inuvik ourselves, and we probably never would have known of its existence without watching that show.
       We also saw footage online of an interesting race called the Mt Marathon Race. held in Seward, AK it is one of the oldest foot races and one of the most challenging. It is a three mile route beginning at the edge of town and almost immediately transitions on to the unimproved trail that leads to the 2900 ft peak. The elite racers make the ascent in about 40 minutes and then charge back down in around TEN MINUTES!

Mt Marathon

       Of course, the real world is vastly more interesting and exciting than watching a show. I'm an amateur road runner so I certainly found this race fascinating. Don't worry, I am not doing the race. You need to train heavily and specifically for this race. I did hike the trail yesterday, and as you can see it is no joke!

        I didn't expect to see so much snow especially given the fact that it was about 80 degrees yesterday. It was breathtakingly beautiful to look out over the valley at that amazing scenery (okay, maybe I was just out of breath from having my butt kicked by the mountain :-) )

        The view from the top is always worth the struggle of the climb. Go ahead, you can borrow that line.

        The local news station had their equipment set up for today and they camp on the mountain overnight. Love that journalistic dedication!

        It almost seems a little unreal that we set this ambitious goal for ourselves and now here we are at a place we wanted to be...and better yet, ON TIME! We got to see the fireworks at the official "sunset" time of midnight last night, although the sun never actually went down. We woke up this morning and made breakfast and we just watched the live coverage of the race. It's such a feeling of accomplishment to put a lot of hard work into a goal and see the results like this. Okay, enough babbling for now. Until next time!