I knew coming up here would be an adventure of epic proportions. But you just never fully appreciate that until you are in the midst of the adventure! Know what I mean??
We drove up the beach and then at the half-way point (Leif’s Creek) we went up the trail called Jacob’s Ladder to reach the main trail. Let me tell you a bit about Jacob’s Ladder. I’m not sure how it got its name but I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that its is a very steep incline. You just go straight up, up and up. Right along the edge of a bluff, probably a 60 foot or more drop in places. So just like Jacob from the Bible, it seems like you’re going straight up to heaven at certain points. Once you get to the “top” you find a muddy mess of a trail. It’s bumpy with tree roots, logs and rocks that others have thrown into holes to try to make it passable. Last month when we came up, this was the first place we got stuck, so I did have some apprehension about going up that way… some.
I was driving a borrowed 4-wheeled rig called a razor. It’s a cute little thing, drives like a car, has seat belts and window restraints and a roll-cage. Well I understand why now… the thing also has very low clearance underneath. So you high-centered easily and it’s a wee bit tippy.
We were following Dean and Thing 1 who were on his wheeler through the fist muddy hole mess (and the mud really stinks, I call it the “bog of eternal stench”. Thing 2 said when we got up there, “it smells like someone had horses up here”. Horse poop in other words. I’d say pig poop is more like it though.) I was trying to watch where he went through and follow him exactly. He went high around this big mud hole and I followed him. The razor is a bit wider than the wheeler, and my passenger side wheels went off into the hole…. then the rest of it went off. Right over onto its side… in the mud. Like an old mare who just laid down on her rider. It was slow motion, and we just watched as we tipped over. Thing 2 and Little bit were safely belted into the seat but let’s just say they were a little freaked out over the “turn of events”. 😉 Once I ascertained if they were alright, and they were fine-just scared, I released their buckle and put them out on to dry land. Then Dean and I went to work with the wench to get me out of the mud. It took two wenches (the wheeler’s and the razor’s) and a lot of “get on the gas” to get out, but we did. Then we were on our way again.
We have never seen such adventure before! 😉 But this is the reality of life at Gray Cliffs. You get stuck, you wench out. You wear mud boots and rain gear to keep the mud off of you, and believe you me, I was glad to have my rain gear on that day! You learn how to get through the mud if you can’t avoid it. I’m learning.
Alaska on my mind... 