I’m not sure exactly what I expected Alaska to be like, but I was surprised around nearly every corner. My exposure to Alaska before this had only been what I had seen on TV and in pictures, but they almost never show some of the things that I feel truly represent the sections of Alaska we had traveled through. Much of it felt familiar, but so much more of it felt strange—larger than life, in just a few words. The sky is bluer, the mountains rockier, the sun hotter, the wind colder, the climbs steeper, and the roads rougher.
I will attempt to describe my impression of it with a few words and phrases: Lusciously green, and yet rocky and bleak. Jagged. Towering. Daunting. Wild. Frigid shadows--burning sunlight. Otherworldly. A sense of always being on the razor's edge of treacherous, life threatening danger. A feeling of extreme altitude, as if I could easily slip and fall endlessly into the sky. Exploding with strange, whispy yet resiliantly dense life.
Love how you descibed the exstremes that are Alaska and how you feel apart of the far north.
ReplyDeleteEven having done a number of bike trips it is hard to fully
understand how scary it would feel to be in such a remote part of the world with just your bikes and for the most part your grit to get you thru.