“Error, error”
Do you remember an original Star Trek episode, called The Changling? (I had to look the title up. I didn’t remember the name of it, just the storyline.) In this episode, Captain Kirk catches a dangerously changed Earth probe called Nomad in a logical error. The poor thing repeated “Error, error!” until it exploded. You don’t remember it? Find it and watch it. It’s kind of fun.
I bring it up because I’m feeling a bit like Nomad. I’ve caught myself in an error and my brain is going “Error, error!” I don’t think my brain will explode, but I do hate screwing up publicly. Good thing there is nothing except friends on this list. Anyway, last week in the Day 5 blog post, I said that we went on a hike and saw the black bear when we got to Hotel Alyeska, but in further reading my journal. I found we did that the morning of Day 6, instead of the evening of Day 5. I know! Can you believe I made such an error? I’ll go back and fix last week’s blog and will just move on with this one as if nothing happened. It will be fine and my brain will not explode. Thank you for your concern.
Day 6 July 9, 2022: Hike to Winner Creek / Spencer Glacier / Placer River Float
Before going to breakfast, we thought we’d tell Karen and Cathy we were going to breakfast and ask them if they wanted to go with us. John knocked on the door of the room to the left of our room. Tom answered the door. Whoops! “Wow, Tom, so sorry.”
Tom said, “that’s okay, but since you are here could you go to room 650 and help Ron? You’ll understand when you get there.”
“Well, of course, we could.” When Ron answered our knock, he was in a wheelchair. Imagine our shock.
“Wow, what happened? When we left you last night, you were walking just fine,” I said.
Injured trip member
We helped get him and the wheelchair out of his room and took him to breakfast. He told us the story as we went. He said that the night before he’d had some indigestion (yeah, me, too) from our wonderful dinner and thought a walk might settle his stomach. As he was coming around the building, he stepped up or off a step wrong. From the ground, he realized he’d hurt his ankle badly. He managed to hop his way back to his room. Once he got there, I suspect he poked at his ankle and didn’t like what he felt.
He told us he thought it would be less disruptive of the trip to do something about it that night instead of waiting until morning. When he called down to the hotel desk and asked about getting to a hospital, they told him he was in luck that they had two on duty that night and one of them could take him to the hospital in Anchorage.
Somewhere in there, he must have called Tom. Once at the hospital, he said that they x-rayed his foot and said it wasn’t broken and was probably just sprained. He suggested the doctor feel behind both ankles and feel the difference. (Nothing like telling the ER doctors their business.) Oh my, he was told he’d partially torn his Achilles tendon. If he’d fully torn it, he’d have been in surgery right away. Instead, they put a cast on his ankle up to mid-calf, told him to stay off of it, and sent him back to the hotel with a wheelchair and crutches.
We were at a table when Tom came into the dining room and sat with us. He wanted to check on Ron as well. After he ate, he left to deal with last-minute raft ride details. He also had to report to Nat Hab that he’d had a client injured on the trip. I wondered how much paperwork that entailed. We ran into Krista coming back from breakfast and met Cathy and Karen later when they came down. Everyone had to hear Ron’s story or at least parts of it. Needless to say, Ron didn’t go on the hike after breakfast with us.
Hiking to Winner Creek in the Chugach National Forest
The hike was a 4-mile walk that morning in the Chugach National Forest behind the Hotel Alyeska.
Photo by John
The day was cloudy and cool. I was happy to have on layers. Here’s a photo of the cloudy sky.
Photo by John
John took lots of photos of the forest, but my favorite was of what I call the “butt” tree. I’d seen a column of wood on a front porch with that shape. This was the first tree I’d seen shaped like that. John looked it up on Google and it said it is a kind of tree burl. Look up “tree burls.” Interesting stuff.
Photo by John
John had given me hiking poles for Christmas in anticipation of our trip to Alaska. I took them with me on the hike and they were wonderful. Like having four legs, I kept saying. We planned to hike to Winner Creek though we didn’t make it that far. Some of us walked/hiked more slowly than others of us. Let’s just leave it at that. We needed to get back in time to rest a bit and get ready to go on the next part of our day, so the group huddled up and decided to just turn around to go back.
Bear
At the end of the trail, just as we were turning towards the hotel, I spied a black bear. I squeaked, “Bear” and pointed. Tom said it was a black bear and looked like a yearling on its own. I guess mama bear had a new cub. John took a picture of it. Yes, that little black speck in the middle of the photo is a black bear. We watched for a while, but I needed to get back to our room and get off my joints.
Photo by Tom Skeele
We got back to the room around 11:20. John and I could have gone on a tram ride up the mountain before we left for the raft ride, but we elected to come to the room and rest. I propped up my feet on three pillows and took some Tylenol for my aching joints, especially my hips.
Next a raft ride with the icebergs
We went downstairs to meet the bus at 12:30 to take us to the train that would take us to the raft ride. Hear that: bus, train, rafts. Add rafts to our modes of transportation for this trip.
I heard Tom say we would not get wet, which was wrong. Having thought I heard that, I didn’t wear my rain pants and neither did John. I wished I had. It was raining. What was I thinking? At least, I didn’t take my phone, so no pictures from me.
But first a train
The bus took us to a train station and we boarded a train similar to the one we’d ridden before but this one did not have a dining section or an observation dome. Someone asked how long the rafts were and we were told they were 16 feet, which was as long as the railroad car could handle. The rafting company had a symbiotic relationship with the train company. We were on a spur from the regular railroad route and I suspect their providing this service to the rafting company brought in some needed income to keep that spur open, which probably helped the people who live along that spur who use it for getting to other places. It’s not like there are a lot of roads in Alaska.
While we were on the train, we got galoshes from a raft guide. He walked along the aisle with a large plastic storage container filled with rubber boots and asked what our shoe size was. Sorting through the boots in his container, he’d extract the correct size and hand it to you. He told us to leave our shoes under the seat because the train would be picking us up at the end of the ride. So the train drops us off at the spot where we go into the river, then travels on the track to where we are pulled out. Sounds like a good deal for everyone.
We got off the train and gathered with all the other people going on this trip. First, we all got personal flotation devices and cinched them up tightly. Then one of the guides climbed up on a picnic table and did the obligatory safety lecture. The lecturer said: Do not stand up in the boat. Sit and scoot, but do not stand up. If anyone falls out of a boat the whole trip is canceled for everyone. You don’t want everyone mad at you for spoiling the trip, so stay down. Yeah, with water that cold, hypothermia would be a big problem. He did explain what to do if you fell out. Feet downriver, on your back, try to paddle with your hands (frozen by now) to the shore. Don’t stand up until you are sure you can stay standing.
Ron asked to go on the raft ride and was allowed to go. He just about did himself in with hopped on and off buses and trains, so as not to put any weight on his cast. He used his crutches when not boarding transportation. The guides at the river bank put a white plastic trash bag over his cast and cinched it down with a bungee cord to keep it dry. Can’t say those people don’t know how to improvise. He was on the raft with Tom and our French couple. Krista, Cathy, and Karen were with us and our guide.
Our raft guide’s name was Ben. We put in at Spencer Lake which is fed by Spencer glacier, which turns into the Placer River. The lake was filled with icebergs that had calved off the glacier. In the beginning, I didn’t enjoy the raft ride as much as I would have liked to have because I was annoyed with myself for misunderstanding the need for rain gear.
Everyone else wore their rain pants. That makes it my fault if everyone else wore theirs. I did wear my rain jacket and was darn glad I did. Luckily, Ben, our raft guide lent me some gloves and a fleece jacket to put over my lap. I shared it with John over one of his legs. He said it was better than nothing. Both the fleece and the gloves really helped both my comfort and my mood.
Rafting
At first, I was too annoyed to get the full impact of the iceberg-filled lake. I enjoy it now looking back on it. The scenery was surreal with the gray sky leaking rain, the chilly air, and icebergs of many sizes floating in the lake beside our raft. Some icebergs were bigger than the raft; others were not. Ben told us that there were three sizes with different names: icebergs, growlers, and bergy-bits.
Later, on another iceberg trip, Tanya told us that the rule of sixes is how you name them. Basically, growlers are between 16’ and 6’ and anything smaller than 6’ is a bergy-bit and anything bigger than 16’ is an iceberg.
Photo by Tom Skeele
Our raft floated out of Spencer Lake into the Placer River and some ice came with us. Ben told us that the lake and river were between 34° and 36° F. That’s colder than I wanted to fall into.
We did hit some white water in the river. Ben told us that the area had had record snow last winter, then with the heat, they’d had a lot of snowmelt. Also, it had rained the last few days, which made the river run high. He said one stretch was class 3 and 4 rapids. He maneuvered us through them deftly. It did make me wonder about how useful the passenger’s paddles are in the other raft rides we have taken. Ben handled all of it by himself and without having to yell out orders to the client/passengers.
T-shirts?
As we were queued up and waiting for our turn to get out of the river, I asked Ben if they had any t-shirts for sale. I like to support the local vendors that Nat Hab uses. He said no one had ever asked him that and no they didn’t have any. He said that seemed like they were missing a marketing opportunity and they could sell them at the train station. I agreed with him, but alas could not buy any yet.
I was ready to get out when we were done. We got back on the train, walked all the way back to B car, and found our seats where we’d left our shoes. It felt like we (our tour group) were the only ones in the car going back. I don’t know where the rest of the people were.
Ron managed to crutch and hop his way to the train and onto it. Tom told him to sit in the first available chair. Then Tom walked to the back of the train to get Ron’s shoes (well, really it was just one shoe since he had the cast on his other foot covered with a white plastic trash bag) and his backpack and returned those to him. The train ride back was short.
More excitement from Ron
Our bus took us back to the Hotel Alyeska. Ron and Tom sat in the front seat of the bus. I don’t know if they got off the bus first or last, but we were all congregated outside the hotel listening to Tom tell us what we were doing next. He told us that we had dinner on our own that night. He also handed out some maps for the local shuttle if we wanted to go to town for some dinner. Ron was leaning on a brick pillar with a fire pit off to our right. Between us and the resort were some large flower planters. Most of us were exhausted and talking about room service for dinner and not going into town.
The group was breaking up with some of us heading into the hotel when Ron hopped over to the planter and threw up into it. Tom, John, Krista, and I were still there. Krista and I started walking towards the hotel as if it were none of our business when it struck me, Ron could use his wheelchair. I went back to do that (that being to get Ron’s room key and get his wheelchair) and told Tom what I wanted to do. Ron handed Tom his room key and we started walking to the hotel door. Tom suggested I stay with Ron and John for moral support. After I joined them, Ron threw up again in the planter.
Poor man! What could I do to help him feel better? I thought he needed a towel, so I told John I was going to go get some paper towels from inside. Once I got to the lobby, I asked a cleaning guy where the nearest restroom was. I wet two paper towels and left three dry. Hurrying back outside, I gave those to Ron. He wiped his mouth and face, wadded them up, and stuck them in his jacket pocket. I felt like he was trying hard not to be an inconvenience. Clearly, he didn’t want anyone else to have to discard his vomit-stained paper towels.
Pretty soon, Tom showed up with the wheelchair. During all of this, not one person, employee or guest asked if we needed any help. I wondered if I should have told the bell captain that there was vomit in the raised flower bed behind the fire pit, but I didn’t. I don’t know if Tom did or not.
John, Tom, and I got Ron into his room and sort of settled. I hated leaving him all by himself, but he thanked us for our help and made it clear he did not want us to stay. We told him to call if he needed anything and left.
Dinner?
John and I still needed to get some dinner. I had said that I thought when we came in from the hike that there was a bistro. Cathy and Karen told us there was not one, but they’d bought a bag of popped popcorn at a hotel store downstairs. We wandered around and finally found the store with the popcorn, which with some peanut M&Ms was dinner. We took it to Karen and Cathy’s room to eat and chat. John got a little of the wine Karen had taken from dinner the night before. Then we went back to our room for some well-deserved rest.
Fitbit data for Day 6, July 9: 16,593 steps, 6.57 miles, 1855 calories, 40 floors, 57 active minutes
The next day, Ron stays behind to make his way to Anchorage and home. We head off to Seward and Fox Island without him.
Okay, can so relate to the “error report.” I was triggered by Ron’s mishap, and that raft picture! How cool. Thank you for sharing this amazing trip, Susan.