Eagle Glacier Cabin, Alaska, 1998
another excellent adventure of Kathy Henderson, Juneau, Alaska
The ambiance was just right.....a 3-day weekend, the cabin secured for 2 nights, a favorable weather forecast and we were off. Due to the length of the stay it was unanimously decided we could not possibly pack in all the food/beer needed to sustain us for 48 hours so a helicopter was dispatched to assist us. The beer drinkers prevailed and the 178 beers took priority for our allotted 800 pounds which meant we still had packs but they were considerably lighter with only extra clothes and sleeping gear. Tonja and Liasne were the appointed "grub-guards" and accompanied the deployment.
The previous night' s tenants showed up at the cabin shortly after we had arrived and immediately dubbed us "yuppie campers" -- it wasn' t clear whether this was due to the chopper, the cell phone or the CD player but it was a visceral moment in our lives. We took great offense and were determined to prove them wrong. In our careful strategic planning for this trip we had gathered several times and each party had assigned meals and provisions. This method was two fold in purpose, number one so nothing would be forgotten and number two to reduce duplications. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.....we were wrong on both accounts, we had enough food to last two weeks and a most important item was forgotten: TOILET PAPER. At the last minute I grabbed a couple rolls to throw in my box, remembering the ever abundant supply on previous trips. As luck would have it everyone else relied on that memory as well, so....we had two rolls, for 10 people and 2 days.....Oh, but don' t forget the 178 cans of beer!!!!!
Nighttime fell and all too soon it was time to go to bed.....bed being the operative word.....sleep intentionally not included. Our first visitor was the resident mouse....since my head was located in close proximity to the "kitchen" where he patronized most exclusively, I kept a careful vigil for several hours with my little flashlight, following the adventures of Mr. Mouse. Eventually I relocated my head to the opposite direction of the bed.....and one closest to the far end of the cabin whereupon our next visitors arrived. Now, considering this cabin is located in a dense and vastly wooded area, it is a mystery why Mr. & Mrs. Porcupine developed their fondness for our cabin wood. But one thing is clear, it can be ever so annoying. Capable of committing murder kind of annoying.
Our first form of retaliation came in a large can of pepper spray....(who cares that it was our protection from bears) it was the quilled beast we were after. Apparently that message was not clear.....plan B was an even larger can of bug defogger. Tex, the official rodent control officer, declared if those porcupine ever had a bug problem they didn' t anymore. In retrospect we probably did them a huge favor. Plan C was the .44 on hand, thankfully it never came to that. Guinness is Carrie' s Chocolate Lab who is in training for a search & rescue team. He is only months away from taking his certification test and we spent some quality time doing what amounts to playing hide and seek with a dog.
One such mission found us about a mile downstream of the cabin and in the weeds lay the missing picnic table from years passed. The stinging remark about "yuppie campers" still rang in our ears and it was decided we would raft the table back to the campsite. We needed a volunteer for the solo ride and Carrie was elected based on her occupation of knee high rubber boots. There were a few terse moments when she drifted out a little too far (she kept reminding us she did not count swimming among her various talents) but all in all it was a true Huck Finn moment.....picture if you will, sourdough woman atop an upside down picnic table with a long pole in her hand, pushing off, stroke by stroke, to the shores of the Eagle Glacier Cabin. If John Denver were alive he would surely have a new hit song.
One cause for pause came when two older men hobbled into our camp with a crowbar for a walking stick. They claimed to looking for gold, but we were looking for a lock on the cabin door that night! We did not feel all that protected by the critters at large.
It rained our last night and we were forced to gather together inside the cabin. We started playing this card game called "99" at the instruction of resident high school math teacher, Mr. Potter. It includes a lot of math (so he had the definite advantage) and it has lots of rules to remember all designed to make it a drinking game but since I was the only one not drinking it was decided (under my protest) that pushups would be a viable substitution for me....had I not quit immediately I would certainly have a much improved upper body strength. All too soon our little holiday was over with and we were trudging down the mountain headed for our respective showers.
We had a most excellent adventure.