Days 1-2
As you fly over the rugged Alaskan landscape, toward the Anchorage airport, you’ll quickly realize that you’re truly entering a land built for adventure. Upon exiting your plane you’ll be greeted by your new trip leaders and meet your new fellow venturers, folks who’ll become your best friends over the next several weeks. From the airport, you’ll travel just a few minutes away to our first campsite outside of Anchorage. Off to a great start to our trip, for the rest of the night and tomorrow we’ll pretty much hang out, get to know each other, set up our tents for the first time, and prepare for our first backpacking outing into the Lost Lake region of the Chugach Mountain range.Days 3-7
For the next four days, we’ll take to the beautifully scenic land that belongs to Denali State Park! Making our way through this national treasure, we’ll surmount towering ridges allowing us visual passage to inspiring views of neighboring peaks. We begin our backcountry walk traveling shorter distances at first so as to allow us time to learn the important aspects of wilderness travel such as cooking skills, minimum impact camping, as well as map and compass skills. This is land of truly indescribable staggering beauty -- the perfect environment to grow closer as a team and get to know each other very well. And after we’ve toured Denali, we’ll return to bustling Anchorage for showers and laundry.Days 8-14
The start of our sea kayaking voyage takes us to the historic town of Whittier, Alaska. From Whittier, we’ll hop on a shuttle boat that will take us to our drop off point in the glacier-strewn Prince William Sound where our kayaking shall begin. For the next six days, we’ll be paddling from isolated campsite to campsite exploring and discovering all that we can about this mystic location. Meandering through these giant islands of ice, we’ll also get a chance to see native bald eagles, otters, seals, and maybe even some whales! After our kayaking tour is over, we’ll again rendezvous with the shuttle boat and be taxied back to Whittier. From Whittier the group will then head over to Anchorage to shower, do laundry, and prepare for the wilderness trek that lies ahead in the untamed Chugach Mountain Range!Days 15-19
After kayaking, we'll be excited to get back into the high country, this time in the Chugach Mountain range! While out traveling through this stupendous country, we can also only hope for a chance to observe the native Dall Sheep, caribou, and bear that share this land. A great section of hiking, after we’ve explored the Chugach area, we’ll return to Anchorage for showers, laundry and preparations for our upcoming ice climbing trip!Days 20-21
No journey to Southcentral Alaska would be complete without the opportunity to explore it's majestic glaciers. The best of these is the Matanuska Glacier. Here we'll have the opportunity to either learn glacier trekking or ice climbing (your choice). This is a truly wonderful experience to round out your Alaskan adventure.Days 22-24
With our final full days together upon us, we’ll spend it celebrating by conquering the exhilarating class III-IV rapids of Lions Head River! A great way to cap off our trip, and a great way to get the heart pounding. The following day we will have the chance to explore Anchorage, picking up souveniers for those at home, we’ll then gather for our final end-of-trip banquet. We’ll enjoy one last meal together in a somewhat more civilized setting, as we’ll reminisce about the laughs and experiences we’ve all shared over the past several weeks together. Finally, the following morning, it’s time for us to say our good-byes. Our time together has seemingly flown by, but we’ll always have the incredible memories and life-long friendships to hold on to as a constant reminder of the best summer of our lives.
