Baranof Island in Alaska (re-post)...

[Koda]

not sure where to post this link to a 2 hour read. i guess here is as good as any. it kind of deserves its own ... something or another.

http://forums.backpacker.com/cgi-bin/fo ... 9991140957

This TR gets all the credit to Geographics for sharing with the Portland Hikers community, posted in the gear reviews dept, I stumbled on this and thought it deserved attention as an excellent trip report of all trip reports. Ok so it's not a true Portland Hikers report, so the moderators can do what they please...(I wont be offended) but really, if you have the time to read this it's an exciting adventure of a solo hiker traversing the entire Baranof Island in Alaska in a month long expedition in 2010. This kind of adventure I would love... (but I probably would not want to go solo).

enjoy

http://forums.backpacker.com/cgi-bin/fo ... 9991140957


edit to re-post a couple of the authors pics...

[arundodonax]

Pretty cool. One of these days, I hope to get up there. Right now I have my eyes set on packrafting Princess Royal Island, south of Banaroff, in BC:





The Kermode Bear, unique to the island.

[Dustin DuBois]

That's a neat lookin bear! =)

[Helen]

Thank you for the link, geographics. Too bad I saw it right before leaving for work this morning - it made for a long day!

[Waffle Stomper]

Great shots, especially the spirit bear.

[Chase]

Thanks, Koda! I spent about an hour last night looking at this.
The guy lost his SPOT finder and bear spray, had many other setbacks, and kept his spirit up and made the adventure happen. Inspiring!

[Peder]

Thanks for the link geographics and Koda - I had fun reading it last night. The guy writes well and had a fun adventure. I like is observation that solo glacier travel is probably not a good idea and the he may refrain from that in the future!

[drm]

I used to participate on the Backpacker Forums and corresponded with this guy once or twice about my Alaska trips, though I prefer the tundra and he prefers the coastal forests. I've seen this trip report before - he had one for a month-long crossing of the Olympics, mostly off-trail as well.

This kind of long and mostly trail-less adventure is far beyond what most of us would do, but it is fascinating reading.

[Koda]

I'm just really awe-struck buy this story and adventure. I think about all my own skills hones here in Oregon on my little TINY adventures and their landscape pale in comparison. Reading this TR inspires and humbles me and my aspirations of adventure... and yet if I ever get the opportunity I would go (probably not solo) this is the kind of trip I dream about. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this adventure...

[Koda]

A lightbulb bursts with an incandescent flash inside my head, an idea almost too bright to have seriously considered before. Holy crap. I stand agape for a moment. The small peaks I'm standing on did not exist when this map was made. Neither did the large lake over the pass below me. In 1996 (when the USGS published this map quad), this location was still covered in 300 feet of solid ice. I'm standing on the haggled remnants of a recently-collapsed glacier outlet... I'm still in the middle if the icefield, nowhere near the Eastern edge yet. These peaks aren't even on my map... they were buried for millennia, only in the last decade have they seen the light of day. I look back up the basin and it makes sense now. Holy s***, dude.

this just fascinates me totally gripping the story.