Alaska: Bearaware

Our last few days were quite eventful. On Friday we arrived in Palmer and decided to go on a hike. The trail, although very sandy at times, turned out to be very rewarding. The views from the top were magnificent with mountains and glacier Matanuska towering over town. It was so sunny that we nearly got a heatstroke due to being unprepared for such heat. (In retrospective we should have complained less about the sun! Although we do like the rain, which has been our companion for the last two days). Happy after the hike, we were planning on having a nice, relaxing evening. Unfortunately, as we all know, gods don't like it when humans think they can plan everything and we ended up spending most of the evening in the hospital due to cellulitis that developed on NIka's finger. We did learn a lot of useful things (how to precisely inject lidocaine and that epineprhine can be used on fingers as well, contrary to popular beliefs as well as the fact that weapons (what a surprise!) are not allowed in the hospital. We also realised that NHS is not so bad after after having been presented with hospital bill.

On Saturday we drove to our current accomodation, which is near a town bearing a lovely name: 'Moose Pass'. We spent some time in Starbucks in Anchorage, where we learnt another fact: since our last visit in the States, Starbucks has introduced a new (definitely American) size. Now, customers can not only enjoy tall, grande and venti but also trenta, which is 30 oz (900 ml!)

We spent the evening in Seward, a beautiful town at the seaside.

Today, heavy rain in the morning discouraged us from hiking outdoors. This proved to be quite lucky, as one of the hikes chosen by us turned out to be in the 'middle of Bearland' and the hike would have been quite adventurous indeed. And how do we know that? Because we spotted two(!) TWO bears today: a grizzly bear and a black bear. We were casually driving through a gorgeous forest, when we saw a stream with dozens of salmons jumping so high and splashing the water around so much that they seemed to be attracting attention of every creature in the forest (hence ours as well). We stopped the car and decided to wait. (In the meantime we had a lunch consisting of peanutbutter sandwiches). Our patience got rewarded as after a small hour a grizzly went out of the forest. It was 3 metres away from us and once again, we couldn't help but feel respect towards it. One cannot even describe what a bear encounter feels like and bear in mind( amazing pun, right?)the fact that we were sitting in the car. Even though inside, we could still feel adrenaline rush when we apprehended the bear. (Afterwards we found out that there had been mauldings in this area).

Shortly after we've driven away, a black bear ran across the street. Having seen them, we have to agree that Kenai Peninsula is truly full of bears.

We spent the evening in Kenai City and Soldotna, both of which surprised us with their sizes. Suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, in true wilderness when one can encounter a grizzly bear or a majestatic moose, a city with Walmarts, Fred Meyers and McDonalds arises. (One could definitely debate whether it is a good thing). Tomorrow we are planning to go to Homer, which is supposedly even more beautiful than Seward.

Ostatnie kilka dni bylo pelne wrazen. W piatek dotarlismy do Palmera i postanowilismy wybrac sie na hike. Szlak, pomimo, iz miejscami dosc ciezki ze wzgledu na mase piachu, odwdzieczal sie wspanialymi widokami na lodowiec Matanuska i gory otaczajace miasto Palmer. Bylo tak slonecznie, ze prawie dostalismy udaru, gdyz nie bylismy przygotowani az na taki gorac. (Jednak z perspektywy widac, iz nie powinnismy byli tak narzekac na to slonce. Od dwoch dni pada- nam jednak ten deszcz specjalnie nie przeszkadza, a wrecz dodaje uroku pokrywajac mgla lasy i gory). Szczesliwi i zmeczeni po hike'u, planowalismy spedzic spokojny wieczor. Jednak, bogowie nie lubia, kiedy ludzie mysla, ze moga wszystko zaplanowac i postanowili pokrzyzowac nam plany. Piatkowy wieczor spedzilismy w szpitalu, gdyz w rane na palcu Niki wdala sie infekcja. Nauczylismy sie wielu przydatnych rzeczy (jak wstrzykiwac lidocaine, czyli miejscowe znieczulenie oraz tego, iz, wbrew ogolnie panujacym przekonaniom, adrenalina takze moze byc wstrzykiwana w palec. Co jednak najwazniejsze, dowiedzielismy sie, ze do szpitala nie mozna wniesc broni). Po otrzymaniu rachunku zdalismy sobie takze sprawe z tego, ze NHS moze jednak nie jest taki zly.

W sobote pojechalismy do naszej aktualnej lodgy, ktora znajduje sie niedaleko miasteczka o uroczej nazwie 'Moose Pass' (czyli 'przejscie dla losi'). Spedzilismy takze troche czasu w naszym ulubionym Starbucksie w Anchorage i dowiedzielismy sie, ze od czasu naszego ostatniego pobytu w Stanach Starbucks wprowadzil czwarty (wybitnie amerykanski) rozmiar. Teraz klienci moga nie tylko zamowic napoj o wielkosci tall, grande czy venti ale nawet trenta, czyli 30 oz!

Wieczor spedzilismy w Seward, uroczym nadmorskim miasteczku.
Dzisiejszego ranka bardzo padalo, co zniechecilo nas do hike'u. I dobrze sie stalo, gdyz jeden ze szlakow, ktore potencjalnie wybralismy znajdowal sie w samym sercu 'Krolestwa Niedzwiedzi'. A skad to wiemy? Otoz jadac powoli samochodem przez piekny las, ujrzelismy strumyk z wesolo skaczacymi lososiami. Byly ich dziesiatki i wydawaly tyle odglosow, ze przyciagaly wszystkie chyba stworzenia zyjace w lesie( a juz na pewno mewy i kruki niespokojnie krazace nad lososiami). Postanowilismy zaczekac tam godzine i poobserwowac w nadziei, iz ujrzymy jakiegos misia. Nasza cierpliwosc zostala wynagrodzona, gdyz faktycznie, po malej godzince, z krzakow wylonil sie grizzly. Ciezko opisac uczucia, ktore towarzysza czlowiekowi, gdy spotyka niedzwiedzia. Grizzly pojawil sie w odleglosci 3 metrow od nas i mimo, iz bylismy bezpieczni w samochodzie i tak odczulismy 'przyplyw adrenaliny'. Jest to czysta masa, sila i dzikosc. Naprawde niesamowite przezycie. Co wiecej, pozniej przeczytalismy, ze w okolicy tego potoku zdarzaly sie ataki na ludzi, wiec dobrze, ze zostalismy w samochodzie.
Tuz pod odjechaniu znad strumyka, przebiegl nam przed samochodem black bear. Po spotkaniu obu misi, musimy sie zgodzic, ze Kenai to ich krolestwo.
Wieczor spedzilismy w Kenai i Soldotnie, miastach, ktore zadziwiaja swoim rozmiarem. Niesamowite jest to, ze czlowiek znajduje sie w sercu lasu, w zupelnej dziczy, gdzie mozna spotkac niedzwiedzia czy losia, lecz nagle wjezdza do miasta z Walmartem, Fredem Meyersem i McDonalds. (Mozna by tu debatowac czy to dobrze...)
Jutro wybieramy sie do Homer, ktore podobno jest jeszcze ladniejsze niz Seward.