Eastbound and Down

After spending a few days in Seward, we headed back to Anchorage to lay low and figure out our next big move. An awesome moose hunter named Bela from Couchsurfing was nice enough to let us crash for a few days in his rustic man-cave loft-space, and we hung there with him and shared adventure stories and made our plans.

Our next destination is San Francisco CA, and we wanna get there sooner rather than later so we can make time to see all of our friends in the bay area and beyond. We've been hitchhiking different places (sorry Mom) and it's been pretty easy to catch a ride, but the drive down to the lower 48 is a three day ramble down the Alcan Highway, through miles of stone cold wilderness in the Yukon. Gas stations, truck stops and other signs of civilization are few and far in between, and it's apparently not a fun or safe place to be stuck on the side of the road for a long time.

SO instead we opted for the next best and cheapest route south- a kooky Craigslist rideshare! After some Internet scouring, we found a cool sounding gal and her dog who were leaving from Palmer/Wasilla- home to Sarah Palin and even better, the Alaska State Fair going on THIS weekend! Of course we had to go, so again we packed up and said farewell to Bela the moose hunter and hopped on a bus heading north.

PALMER: A few weeks ago we ran into a weird old Canadian guy who described the state fair as (in heavy Canadian accent) "Just a buncha fat people eatin' all sortsa things... Halibut, tempura, hotdogs, corn on the cob, ho-hos, French fries, popcorn, fried chicken, fried dough, all sortsa fried things..."

The 75th Annual State Fair was all that and more! There was a lumberjack championship, a demolition derby, native crafts and dance demonstration, adorable lambs and calves and goats and squealing little piglets. There was all sorts of live music- country and folk and native and heavy metal (headlining this event were such bands as Chevelle and Staind and Queensryche..) and good bluegrass. My favorite scene at the fair was the prize vegetable show, with a 97 lb cabbage and just every kind of delicious vegetable under the sun, lovingly grown and beautifully presented. I imagined how proud I would be to get a blue ribbon for a strawberry rhubarb pie or a jar of pickled watermelon rinds. Someday!

Camping at the state fair was only 5 dollars a night and very wild. All the drunken degenerates of Alaska came out to see those heavy metal bands and wasted no time pitching ramshackle tents and getting high and making a general ruckus late into the night. They were at it bright and early the next day, smashing empty beer cans on their foreheads and probably smoking meth inside their tents. We were warned that all our stuff might get stolen, so we decided to camp at another place outside of town, near the Matanuska River, and wait a few days for our ride. There, we met an Israeli girl going solo all over Alaska, and together we hitch hiked and climbed Lazy Mountain (not lazy at all) and camped and enjoyed eachother. There were nights of roasting salmon and buttery noodles, of sizzling bratwurst on sticks and steaming perogies, of delicious barleywine and beer. We've been living the good life thus far, it would seem. We wake up and get out of our tents and we're surrounded in every direction by snow capped mountains in the distance, as far as the eye can see.

This morning we're supposed to meet up with our girl and her dog, and then I guess it's back to the continental US for us. Will she turn out to be a terrible axe-wielding lunatic?! Will we collide with a 1200lb moose on a steep cliffside highway?! Will crazy Yukon hill people lure us into their tourist deathtrap?! Only time will tell! See you in California!

1:41 PM
Palmer, Alaska

Big Cabbage

G + J 

The Last Frontier

So I kissed my parents goodbye and flew to Alaska. A week later, I'm still here in the last frontier, traveling all over with my boy and seeing what there is to see. I didn't know it could get so rainy here (we've had just three days of sunshine) but I figured out that you can have fun in any weather as long as you've got the right gear. Plastic tarp covers for our packs, rain jackets and shoes, wool socks and gloves and hats... I only vaguely considered the possibility of rainy weather when I was packing, but J is an every-scenario kind of guy (he packed his own rape horn, for example, in case of a bear attack) so he made sure we'd be prepared for anything. We've been hosteling, camping, and couchsurfing in Anchorage and Seward, a tiny fishing town along the southern coast and also the endpoint of the Iditarod. The landscape here is so romantic and wild, even more so in the rain and wind. We took the train down to the coast and passed through mountains with glaciers, thick spruce forests, rivers teeming with brightly colored spawning salmon, big bodies of water milky blue with glacial till (crushed rock silt flowing out from under the ice). Everything I ever heard about Alaska is true.

More in Seward. I had my first White Russian (thought about The Dude). We cooked and ate all sorts of freshly caught fish: fried halibut, halibut sandwiches, grilled salmon, salmon on the campfire, more salmon... They have this thing in Seward called the Silver Salmon Derby, where folks line up shoulder to shoulder along every fishable dock and shoreline to try to catch the biggest coho salmon (the winner this year was 19 and change, big deal). It would seem that there's no limit to the amount of fish in the waters here; even just walking down the highway, J and I spotted a runoff stream with trout in it the length of my thigh bone. It's thrilling, but also kind of foreboding. J's dad says the fishing in New York State was just as bountiful when he was a kid, and people just fished it all up. Big game hunting and fishing is part of the Alaskan lifestyle, it would seem, but who knows for how long?

Other friendly critters we ran into this week: moose with gigantic antlers, mountain goats, bears, porpoises and otters in the Kenai Fjords, pesky squirrels that ransacked our food supply... We've been doing all sorts of physical outdoorsy things- hikes and bike trails and what not, and trekking these backpacks everywhere is an olympic event in itself. Best thing so far has been a 6 hour hike up to the Harding Icefield- thousands of acres of solid ice that feed all the glaciers in the Kenai Mountain range. At the crest, the weather was freezing rainy and the landscape looked like the surface of another planet. I had never seen a glacier before- or climbed that high in any mountain range really, so the whole experience really blew me away.

No accidents or catastrophes just yet. We had a minor setback our last day in Seward when J left his backpack in the backseat of some kids' truck when they were kind enough to give us a lift into town from the campground at Miller's Landing. Luckily, we knew one of the guys worked on the boats there, so we were able to a.) postpone our train trip back to Anchorage at no extra cost, b.) figure out another place to stay in Seward and c.) play phone tag with a bunch of irritated strangers to locate the truck and retrieve said backpack, which contained (among other things) J's cellphone and several pounds of salmon... Those who know J understand that misplacing and/or losing important items while traveling is just part of his mystique. Keep 'em guessing, J!


11:00AM
Anchorage, Alaska

G

J

Behind us, miles of ice

Goodbye

I'm home now, in Closter.  It rained a lot all weekend. In the city it's pretty unpleasant, since my apartment is still hot and stuffy and all of the bad city smells are amplified by the humidity: wet garbage on the street, stinky car exhaust, cat food, the metallic smell of hot tar roofs steaming under the rainwater.. Everything here in Closter is so fragrant and peaceful. No car horns or parties, just the crickets and the quiet hum of the street lights; here the air is cool and thick with the smell of earth and green plants growing. I took Birdie for a walk in my bare feet and we both reveled in the beauty of this lush suburban night.

Months of working and meandering have zoomed up to today, the day before I leave. My apartment has been vacated of my belongings (packed safely away now at my parents') and is all ready for the subletter, a fun and very beautiful Australian girl with a work visa (thank you Craigslist). My backpack is craftily stuffed with everything one could think to bring on a 6 month journey. I took a long bath today, just to get extra clean. It feels like I spent all this time stressing out about all the loose ends (Sorry J- not your style) and now there's nothing to think about but the task at hand.

Hardest part about leaving? Leaving everybody behind. I have this sick thought that my grandparents will die while I'm gone, or that J's family house will be blown away by a tornado. That my friends' lives will collapse without my loving support and sage advise. That my parents' home will continue to accumulate other people's crap until it looks like "Hoarders: Special Edition". That TJ will decide to get married while I'm gone instead of next summer. That my little sister will grow up and turn into a nasty teenager and I won't recognize her. That I'll come back and New York will be a pile of rubble, etc etc etc..

When I step outside the funhouse of my brain, it turns out that most of those worst case scenarios aren't going to happen- and if they do, there probably isn't much I could have done to stop them in the first place. But.. it's so hard for me to let go. I think that's what I really want to work on, these next few months.

Anyway. J has been exploring Alaska on his own these past few days, catching salmon with his bear hands (not kidding) and howling with the wolves at night. I haven't seen him in two or three weeks and I'm so excited to start this big thing with him. My guy- tough, adventurous, clear-eyed and open-minded, super goofy... I don't know anybody else I'd rather travel around the world with. Do you? I feel so nervous and lucky.

That's it. Sayonara, suckers. See you in the future

12:39 AM

Closter, New Jersey

Sublet

One tricky part about leaving for a long time is figuring out what to do with your home. This is my second time subletting, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. It kind of forces you to get your life together- or at least your domestic life. Fix everything: creaky loft bed, broken shelves, spot on ceiling, sagging couch, light fixture.. Clean everywhere: behind couch, under shower curtain, above cupboards, inside fridge. Take all clothing from the closet and the dresser, fold into paper bags and pack into overhead storage. Take all bathroom products and precious treasures (sunglasses collection, love letters, jewelry, fancy condoms..) and put into boxes. Post an ad to craigslist, light a candle, wait for loony toons to show up. 

This is my pad, dig it? 

9:53 PM

New York City

Making a List

For months now, we've been thinking about what to bring on our big trip. I feel like every item in our packs has been passionately debated: the one person tent! The necessity of a warm hat! The difference between a scarf and a sarong! The Tarp: to bring or not to bring?! J and I have gotten into some heated arguments over this silly crap, mostly because it's a tricky trip to pack for. Our first stop is Anchorage, Alaska, where the current temperature is 56 degrees and drops even lower at night. Further down the line, however, we'll be trekking across India during monsoon season. Since we'll be camping in AK, we're bringing gear of that variety (J's 1 person tent, sleeping bags, teeny stove, mittens, etc) with the intention of mailing it all back east when we don't need it any more. 

I sat with J while he loaded his pack up last week, a day or two before he left with his fam. I had to hold my tongue a bit, I guess because we're differently minded when it comes to organization and process. I couldn't believe the haphazard way he had his pack laid out, as if it was not a limited collection of earthly possessions he'd be carrying with him for months, but rather the contents of the junk drawer of some loony anthropologist, shaken up and emptied out onto his bed. Is there a method to his madness? His pack weighs 48 pounds and contains things like "two cigars", "armed robbery mask" and two sharp knives, one smooth and one serrated (see master list). Secret is, I think he knows exactly what he's doing!

I'm packing too, but in my own anal retentive, obsessive kind of way, with labels and plastic baggies and pills for every ailment imaginable. I've been collecting everything over the course of the past month or so, and now it's all neatly folded and laid out, ready to be packed away into my green hiking backpack - light stuff on the bottom, heavy stuff on top. I thought of every thing: mini flash light, camera charger, USB, dental floss, multivitamins, glue sticks. I relish the day when J has a sniffly nose and I can reach into my pack and hand him a sudafed and a bottle of nasal spray. "See?? See how organized I am???" I'm sure he's looking forward to that moment when we're both really in the mood for a cigar. 

9:30 AM

New York City

J's pack

my pack

The Best Laid Plans

Here's the plan. We graduated college, worked hard and saved our pennies, and decided to plan a big adventure somewhere else in the world. J went to Alaska a few days ago on a vacation with his family. They are currently riding around Denali National Park in an RV, singing Partridge family songs and trying not to get eaten by bears. I'm flying out to him in Anchorage on August 17th, and then I guess we'll go from there. We haven't bought round-the-world tickets from some major airline because we didn't want to lock ourselves into one set route. Rather, we're going to wing it from place to place and decide where to go next once we get there. When we run out of funds, we'll come home. This feels right to both of us, but lots of people (our parents, our friends, people at the bank, sales personnel at outdoor/sporting goods stores, etc) feel differently. "What do you mean you don't know where you're going? What do you mean you haven't booked any hostels?!" No one can believe that travel--especially to far away lands-- is possible without without a printed out itinerary inside the secret pocket of your fanny pack. It's the 21st century! There are ATMs in the jungle now!

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, right? We mapped out the general guidelines for our trip and then figured out what we needed for those places (visas, malaria meds, pepper spray, mittens). When we come to a fork in the road, we'll take it.

Good night moon

2:31 AM
New York City

Hello, Earthlings

Welcome to my blog! I don't normally subscribe to the online lifestyle, but I thought it might be nice to keep track of my thoughts and feelings, and to stay in touch with my friends and loved ones whilst traveling into the unforeseeable future. I'll be leaving in a few weeks (August 17th) for Alaska, where I'm meeting my partner J and embarking on an extended adventure around Southeast Asia, India and beyond. Who knows how far we'll make it! Who knows if we'll even come back alive? For the time being, I'll try to consistently document our travels with updates and photos as we go. All of my friends are very important to me and I for sure want to stay connected and close; email me (galendorian@gmail.com), skype me (galendorian@skype) or yell at the top of your lungs and I will keep my ear pressed to the ground on the other side of the world. Look out for postcards in the mail and please please let me know of any change of address / change of plans / or if you're interested in meeting up with us. Also, give me feedback and suggestions about anything you think I may want to know-  about your own adventures, places to go, things NOT to do, etc. This is a big step for me and I want to do it right, you know? When I return, I promise we're gonna go walking through the park every day. Until then, everybody be good and work hard and have lots of fun and take care of yourselves. I love you very dearly and I'll see you in the future!

<3   G

9:07 AM

New York City