Photography Credit: Most of the photos in this blog are credit to Abi and Cheyenne.

I waited much longer this summer to go backpacking compared to the last time I had ostomy surgery (4 months this time compared to 2 last time). Having my friend Abi back in town from Texas and Cheyenne available for the weekend was the perfect excuse for a getaway. The plan was to do an “easy” trip to ease me back into carrying gear and traveling longer distances. I am quite familiar with the terrain of Caine’s Head and there’s a significant amount of flat beach walking and trails, so it seemed like a good trip to prep for off-trail routes down the road.

Of course, “easy” is relative. And our plans typically changes as our desire to go higher and experience the most adventure gets the best of us.

With Abi in town, we spent the week hiking and paddling leading up to the backpacking trip. It was nice to get more mileage under my belt and to feel more active in my body. It was also fun to return to the days of staying out late to take advantage of the full summer sun.

Gear Prep

To keep my pack weight low, we decided to stay out for 2-3 nights, but packed more for 2 nights out (which ended up being what we did). We split up our gear and food. Abi carried the tent and fuel and I took the stove. Cheyenne brought all her own gear, but I ended up sharing her tent one night as well. I used Tyler’s Montane Trailblazer fast pack, which at this point I feel like I’ve commandeered because I use it so often. It’s very light weight compared to my standard backpacking packs, but still fits a large amount of gear. There’s plenty of water along the route, so we didn’t have to worry about hauling large quantities. With a more liberal diet, I was able to bring dehydrated meals which until this last surgery, I hadn’t been tolerating. Overall, I’d say my pack was less than 15 pounds when full.

The Weekend Plan

I took the long weekend off from work for Labor Day, so we headed down to Seward on Friday after a full day of packing our gear. Our goal was to hike out to Tonsina Point (2.1 mi) to camp for the evening before venturing out to Caine’s Head (3+ mi) in the morning. And then up the Alpine Trail (3 mi). Depending on rain conditions, we would stay out there until Monday.

Tonsina Point

Abi and I drove separately from Cheyenne because we had a more flexible schedule on Friday. So with a heavily packed car (full of gear for plans B and C), we left for Lowell Point to begin the hike out to Tonsina Point. It ended up being a beautiful evening and we were happy to set up camp before the sun set. We had an enjoyable time interacting with a family with a toddler out at Tonsina and were able to help them out by offering up one of our camp spoons which they forgot. It was a good way to cut back on more weight too since spoons are quite heavy these days 😉.

Cheyenne didn’t end up meeting us that night because it was too dark by the time she arrived at the trailhead, so she came out early the next morning to meet us. The sunrise was gorgeous, so I took advantage of the early light to just sit and enjoy the scenery before the tide would allow us to continue our hike.

Caine’s Head

The Caine’s Head hike is tide dependent, but the high tide was very low over that weekend, so it wasn’t a concern, but we always check the tide chart. Once Cheyenne met us, we packed up camp, and started out on the next leg of the adventure. The beach walking was straight-forward as expected. We took our time, closely inspecting all the sea life that had washed up on shore and being careful to avoid the dead salmon strewn about. Once we hit Derby Cove, we took a side jaunt over to the North Beach since Cheyenne and Abi hadn’t been there. And then we back-tracked to start up the Alpine Trail.

Alpine Trail

The Alpine Trail had caution tape up at the entrance, but it appeared to be due to trail work, so we forged ahead. We appreciated the maintenance being done to the trail and eased our way around some of the sections that were being worked on. We could tell there was a lot of effort and love being put into the work by many of the details. We were surprised to find that there weren’t many berries along the trail and the leaves had been eaten by bugs. Usually this area if full of berries around this time of year. The weather continued to hold in our favor as we approached the top of the trail. And were were hopeful that conditions would remain that way for the rest of the day.

Once at the top of the official trail, we set out to eat lunch and figure out where to set up camp. We wanted to set up close to the trail because we knew there was a high likelihood of fog in the morning, and wanted an easy escape route. In line with having an “easy” weekend, we had a leisurely lunch on top of a little knoll overlooking to ocean. It became a little less leisurely when we spotted a bear on a hillside across the way. When it go up on its hind legs and started looking in out direction, there was a collective moment of tension. But then it immediately plopped back down, paused, and took off sprinting in the other direction. At least we knew it was skittish or spooked easily. With that in mind, we backtracked a little bit to set up camp further away.

With camp established, it was time for the long journey of the day. Our goal was to hike up into the alpine to the Bear Glacier overlook. It had been 7 or so years since I had been up there, so my memory of the terrain was a bit vague. From camp, the overlook didn’t look that far away. But for my baby deer legs which haven’t done a lot of hiking this summer, it ended up being much further and steeper than expected. After what felt like many hours, we finally scrambled our way to the top. We were rewarded with unexpected sunshine, mountain goat friends, and endless views of the ocean to the West and Harding Icefield to the North. We lounged again quite some time before deciding to head back down to camp.

We had a beautiful evening back at camp despite feeling our legs being totally wrecked from the day’s climbing. It rained overnight and the fog did in fact roll in the next morning. We had a slippery hike down the trail to the beach and the cold started to seep in. Once at the beach, we were pleasantly surprised that the rain had let up and we had a nice time making our way back to the trailhead.

We ended up climbing over 4,000 feet total and hiked about 20 miles on the trip. I didn’t have any ostomy issues. I do change my bag every two days now, so I did a quick bag change in the outhouse at the parking lot before heading back into town. To get back to the leisurely weekend plan, we decided to have an easy town day on Sunday, stopping at Resurrect Art Coffee House in Seward to warm up and then heading over Exit Glacier to take in the touristy sites.

Abi and I ended up camping in Hope Sunday night while Cheyenne headed back to Anchorage. We had a busy day Monday. Tyler met us to paddle Granite Creek and North Fork of Six Mile. And then we stopped in Girdwood to see friends on the way home. It was a lovely four days off full of adventure. I felt the most like me that I had felt in a long time. Weary and full of adventurous tales by the end of the weekend. Just the way I like it.