rivers-lakes

Blink, 4 weeks.  Run holiday over.

Travelling ‘north of 60’ (north of 60° latitude).  Sunday, marathoning in Canada’s Northwest Territories.  Long way from here to there.  HUGE grin 😊

Denver ✈ Vancouver ✈ Calgary ✈ Yellowknife

SPECTACULAR Northwest Territories.  License plate says it all.

Post-midnite touchdown; pick-up coordinated with my Airbnb host (no wheels this adventure).  Less than ‘spectacular’ accommodations, but…location, location, location.  Maybe 200 yards from Sunday’s start.  Eye mask ready; 3am top-of-world daybreak.

Arctic Char benedict at the Dancing Moose.  5-mile training run, hugging Frame Lake. Everything looks better in the morning.  Sunshine, tall trees, low 50’s chill.

Yellowknife, NWT.  My first territory.  O’ Canada LOVE fest  🇨🇦

 

 

Frame Lake, NWT

 

Setting out on a journey by yourself takes courage and an open mind.  But the rewards are always worth it.”  ~ The Solo Traveler 

 

 

ALASKA for SALE 🌲

Calling?  Obsession?  too much Reality TV?

Think it’s ’cause Alaska’s so big, so rural.  Being isolated, folks count more on each other, make do with what they have.  Strong sense of community, similar to my own childhood.  And of course the Into the Wild manifesto which inspired my Life 2nd Half – that feeling anything is possible.  We’re not stuck.  Dream BIG.  Life is meant to be lived.

Alaska, the Last FrontierHopefully outta my system next 5 years; that’s the strategy.  Reality – I enjoy my creature comforts.  Fresh vegetables, seasonal fruits, accessibility to the Rockies.  In Colorado, they’re our playground.  They don’t cage us in – mountains, road-restrict Alaskans.  Made my list (pros/cons) & bought another plane ticket.  LOL>

Denver-Seattle, Seattle-Anchorage, Anchorage-Cordova ✈️

Most isolated of my Alaskan pilgrimages.  Fishing community, economy-wrecked by the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.  Birds are back, fish numbers up – shellfish ‘bottom dwellers’ gone.  Decades ago, but nothing surviving the inlet’s ocean floor.  For us tourists, you’d never know.  Beautiful scenic Prince William Sound; inland, massive Lake Eyak.

Cordova’s Baja Taco 🐟 – YUM!

Touchdown Cordova.  Long travel day.  3 nights stay at The Reluctant Fisherman.  Missed, not planned?  Transportation.  No Lyft, no Uber.  ONE guy taxi service, 4pm to 4am.  Cash $$ haggled to tag-along other vacationers’ arranged transport.  Mudhole Airport 12 miles from port.  So where’s my rental?  Folks, it’s a one street town.  Population 2500.  Who knew?  Alaskan adventuring on FOOT this holiday.

Hotel dinner.  Black-out curtains & sleeps (limited night, 11pm-3am).

Up about, walk about.  Baja Taco – by far, THE place to feed.  Bib pickup @ the Community Center.  Grocery provisions.  Two-mile walk to Lake Eyak.  Big beautiful QUIET Alaska.  Dig the isolation.  50-50 culture split: Inuits or Anglos in fishing boots.  Moms, kids.  Teens in trendy boot brands.  But all wearing tall/to-your-knee Gorton Fisherman garb.  Fashionistas & dockworker alike.  ‘Deadliest Catch’ Fashion Week.

Downtown shops.  And yep, a museum (surprisingly HUGE, paid for by Exxon).  Better understanding how/why/from where we came.  Eyak, Tlingit, Chugach Eskimo.  Sarah Palin’s Russian neighbors.  LOVE LOVE history.  Afternoon NERD escape.

Big, wild, beautiful ALASKA ❤️

Salmon JAM Festival starts tonite (music JAM not fish jelly) – I’d festival bus to Mt. Eyak tomorrow, after marathoning.

 

 

Cordova Historical Museum

 

Lake Eyak (Cordova)

 

 

Second day belly-filling mid morning on Turkish kebabs & rice.  Not very Italian but certainly more substantial than the native expresso & cigarette start.  (People still smoke, seriously?)

Train Thursday, boat queue Friday.  I heart European travel.

Purchased a hop-on hop-off day pass but arrived, settled on a single-stop destination: Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo.  Y’all know I dig history.  No tour of the 17th century villa itself (found myself indoor ‘done’ after 2 days of rain).  Today’s OUTDOOR plan: the Villa’s extensive botanical garden.

Rhododendron & azalea.  Roses, hydrangea & camellias.  Trail-walked thru non-native bamboo, palm.  A citrus grove of lemons & oranges.  Personal fave?  Rustico Pra di Oc, ‘the Rural House’.

Quiet.  Peaceful.  Located on the trail’s far perimeter, abandoned by old & youth ticket-holders alike.  Slow-walked a mile thru the Villa’s olive gardens.  Found beauty in the garden’s simple ingredients.  The Villa’s tall native grasses, its Mediterranean roots.  Bellissima ❤️

Completed the afternoon with another outdoor cappuccino.  Two weeks before Easter (official tourist season start), happily secured a table overlooking scenic Lake Como.  Perfecto.  Check, done.

Concierge coordinated a private rustico dinner in Old Town (off-season perk).  Raw fish appetizer, quail, risotto alla Milanese (saffron rice, nutmeg, marrow).  Go BIG or go HOME, last nite in Como.

Local train, new hotel.  Tomorrow’s memory: Milano.