Alaska - Become one with nature

After our nice and relaxing tour of Seward, it was time to be a little more adventurous and active with today's tour choices. Dad had surprised me with his choice of doing the Kenai River Scenic Float where the group shares a small multi person raft spending 3 hours traversing 11 miles down the Kenai River. It is an area where motorized vehicles are prohibited resulting in a quiet, slow, and peaceful float where you can observe the wildlife as you go by. The tour currently retails for $84.95. Me, however, have never been a fan of small zodiac style rafts, kayaks, or canoes. Even though I'm perfectly fine on a floating mat, inner tube, or straight swimming in any water and of course in bigger crafts like speedboats or catamarans, something about being in a personal watercraft close to the water makes me uncomfortable. I have tried kayaking before and was immediately too scared to move. I did however get in a small 2 person gondola ride in Venice and only felt nervous getting in and out. Mostly because my traveling partner was getting out first and insisted on stepping back up onto the dock his own way regardless of the gondolier's advice rocking the gondola back and forth. But show me words like zodiac in a tour description and you best be talking about horoscopes if you want me to participate. Who knows, maybe I was trapped in a canoe in a past life?

Ready for the great pictures from Dad's tour? If you blink, you'll miss them. His tour left a little later in the morning than mine and unfortunately by the time his tour started, so did the rain. Even though the tour operator was still planning to run the tour and most everyone else still went, Dad refused to be out on the river in the rain. Make sure you check your cruise line's shore excursion cancellation rules. You can usually find them in your cruise paperwork, on the cruise website, or at the shore excursion desk onboard. Some cruise lines will also include a small note in the daily schedule delivered to your cabin that says something along the lines of how tours have to be cancelled 24 or 48 hours in advance of arrival at that port if you want a refund. I've seen lines that spell it out based on the itinerary; i.e. we're scheduled to visit Bilbao in 3 days, tours for that port must be canceled by 6PM tomorrow. The cruise lines don't care if you choose not to go but they won't refund your money if you don't make that decision within the time limit beforehand. It's one thing if you decide your feet hurt and you can't take another walking tour that's scheduled for the port 3 days from now. No problem cancelling for a full refund. Cruise lines like Princess even have a drop off box by the shore excursion desk where if you drop your tickets in there by the cutoff, they'll process the refund to your account without you ever having to wait in line. But if you decide when you wake up that morning and find it raining but not enough for the operator to cancel the tour that you don't feel like going, then Princess' response will be "Thanks for the monetary bonus to our bottom line" and wish you a good day.

What did I choose to do today? I opted to commune with nature on solid ground and booked the Kenai Nature Hike through Princess. This excursion currently retails for $64.95 and takes you on a guided hike through Chugach National Forest. The description lists the hike as lasting four hours. It was a nice leisurely walk with stops to check out various flora that our guide pointed out to us. Pro tip - bring bug spray and use it even if you don't think you'll need it. I spent the whole time waiting to board the van that took us to the trail entrance swatting at the gnats feasting on my legs for breakfast. There was benches every so often along the trail but I do not recommend this tour if you have trouble walking long distances or for prolonged periods of time.

This trip was the original reason that I purchased boots from L.L. Bean. I'm usually a tennis shoe kind of gal so I was glad to find what they call Trail Waterproof Hiking Shoes. (Not a commissioned link - unless L.L. Bean would like to sponsor me? 😉Used their sturdy backpacks for most all of my schooling years and they held up so well I even re-used them as carry-ons and tour bags when we first started traveling) They cover, lace up, and fit like a heavier tennis shoe on my feet without feeling like a constricting boot. They have a little more traction in the treads on the bottom so they work great on all sorts of terrain. While they did get and feel wet on the outside for a while after we got caught in the rain, I was glad to have been wearing them during the hike saving my regular sneakers for the rest of the trip. They also worked well when our 2018 cruise had me climbing over 6ft mounds of lava rock on the side of the road while touring Hawaii's Volcano National Park. I've also gotten plenty of use in between trips wearing them when it's time to shovel snow off our driveway in the winter.

Not sure what this guy in the red jacket was so forcefully pointing at as we listened to our guide (light blue jacket) give instructions before entering the trail:

Our guide pointed out several plants growing along the side of the trail giving tips about whether you could survive by eating these or not survive by eating them. She picked one of the safe to eat choices and passed it around for the group. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of what it was called so I guess I'd best not get lost in a national forest in Alaska anytime soon.

As shown in the below photo, the path was paved with asphalt but featured several small inclined hills.

I found Toadstool! Now let's go save the Princess, Mario!

A major diet of several wild animals - lichen:

In addition to the flora, we passed a small creek. A few of us were ahead of the guide so we stopped to check out the creek waiting for everyone else to catch up. It unfortunately doesn't show up well in the photos but the top of the water in this creek looked like the suds during the spin cycle of your washing machine.

While most of the terrain was even ground, there was options to climb up steep steps cut into the side of a hill for those who wanted to see what our guide described as a better view of a glacier.

The "steps" to climb up the hill:

I had considered going up with the rest of the group until an older woman traveling alone in our tour group changed her mind a few steps up. We had gotten to be friendly and chat often during the trip so far so I hung back with her so she wouldn't be sitting alone. About 10 minutes later, the rest of the group rejoined us and we were able to resume the hike.

Shortly after that little side trip, we reached our destination - a platform built over where the creek pools downstream. Our efforts were rewarded with watching from a safe distance as salmon tried to jump upstream and a couple bears tried to prevent that from happening.

The birds appreciated the salmon carcasses the bears left on the rocks.

Fly salmon, fly!

Once we finally tore our gazes from the creek below, we turned around to discover that the backpack our guide had been carrying during the hike contained snacks for everyone. Cheese, salami, carrot sticks, crackers, chocolate chip cookies, and trail mix. There was also cups and a thermos of water. You can see by the lone cookie left which was the most popular choice. I can't believe she also had that vase of flowers, towel/blanket and the hand sanitizer in her bag as well.

Once everyone had been refueled and our guide got all of that back in her backpack, we all chatted about the salmon on our walk back to the trail entrance. We had made it to about 100 yards left to reach the van when the skies opened up. I quickly draped my hoodie jacket over my camera (priorities right?!) and a couple of the ladies took pity on me offering to zip up the hoodie backwards so I did get some coverage of my own as well. We started out trying to make a mad dash for the van but soon several of us decided it was a lost cause and just resigned ourselves to getting drenched. We all had a good laugh at ourselves once back in the cover of the van. By the time we returned to the lodge, the rain had let up for the most part. Dad met me on the covered porch and we headed inside to dry out and warm up with burgers from the bar and grill.