Alaska Uncovered Podcast

Finding Family Heritage in Cordova and Adventure Racing with Andrea Anderson and Chip Dodd (Alaska Traveler Series)

• Jennie Thwing Flaming and Jay Flaming • Episode 113

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Jennie, welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co host and full time husband, Jay and I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska, travel and life in Alaska, before we start the episode, we would like to thank our Patreon members for making this podcast possible. You can join them at the link in the show notes. We are so grateful for your support of independent podcasts. Enjoy the show. Are you interested in having some big adventures in Alaska, or do you want to get way off the beaten track to Cordova? Well, I haven't even been to Cordova, but that's what we're going to talk about today with Andrea and chip. My guests today are Andrea Anderson and Chip Dodd Andrea and Chip are adventure racers. We'll talk about what that is in a minute, and they are here to share their story of their trip to Alaska in july 2024 and they did a variety of things on their trip besides just the adventure race, including going to Cordova and they live in Virginia. Andrea and chip, welcome to Alaska, uncovered. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Yeah. So for everybody listening, Andrea and Chip also have a podcast that is about adventure racing, and I'll put the link to it in the show notes, but I would love it if, before we talk about your Alaska trip, if you could Just briefly explain to everyone what adventure racing is. Sure? Well, adventure racing is a multi disciplinary sport. It usually involves mountain biking, some sort of paddling and trekking or trail running and map and compass navigation. So there's no GPS. There's no connection to the outside world. There is usually a tracker to make sure that you're safe, and the race organizers can find you, and your fans can follow along on the tracking website. But the range of lengths of races can start at, you know, three hours, which would be an entry level family race to multi day races. So the race we went to Alaska for was a five day race. So, yeah, we love to do it awesome. So I know that you did this trip, like when you got in touch with me about a year ago, over a year ago, um, you were looking to plan the other parts of your trip around the adventure race and your trip to Cordova, but, um, I would love, uh, Chip, could you share just a little bit about why you took this trip to Alaska at this particular time there was the race, but I know that wasn't the only reason. Yeah, sure. Well, a lot of it was probably the race, but I guess, you know, Andrea has some heritage in Alaska, so it's kind of on her bucket list to go, to go there. So that was kind of on the radar. But when it comes to adventure racing, you know, sometimes there's the same race every single year at the same country, or whatever. So you go do it, and then you're kind of done, and you don't have to go back to that, because I've already been to Croatia. I've already been to Ecuador or whatever. Yeah, in this situation, there was a race in Alaska, way back, I can't remember, like 2012 or 2016 or something, before Andrew and I really got into the big races. And it was a one and done. And, you know, it was on YouTube, and a whole bunch of our friends had done it, and it was amazing. And so our friend Jeff leninger, who owns warrior adventure racing, he basically rekindled it and put it on the radar. And that's when I was like, Okay, we this has got to be the time. Like, if Jeff's doing the race there, we're familiar with his company, his team, his style. And so that was this, this was going to be our year to go up there. And like you said, we didn't just go for the race. I mean, the race was five days, which usually means seven or eight days, because you got a couple days getting ready for the race, and then there's an award ceremony. But, you know, we decided, hey, let's, let's take a lot of time. So we went up there and got an RV, and kind of just wandered around and some of your guidance. And then, you know, I'm more of a wing IT guy, which is get there and you go to a local diner and talk to people and see what we should do, and, Andrea, yeah, and then research, and, you know, all of that. So it we did a little bit of both. Well, that's a really good balance, then between the two. You So Andrea, before we get into kind of like the basics of your itinerary, tell, tell everybody a little bit about Cordova. Why? Well, first of all, let's talk about where Cordova is, and then why that was such an important place for you. And then we'll get into your itinerary more in general, sure. And I should mention, there was one more reason we were coming, and it was because my youngest daughter had graduated from high school. And it was so this was a trip for her, yes, as well, too. So it's so great that this one trip we got to, you know, check off all of these boxes, but going to Cordova has been on my bucket list since I can remember. My grandpa and my dad were both born in Cordova. My grandpa lived there most of his life, and he was a fisherman. My dad then grew up in New York, and had been out of touch with his dad until he was 25 years old. Wow, I'm, I'm trying to make this a short story, but knowing these details kind of help. So I had never been to Alaska, and it was always kind of a mythical place, you know, that my grandpa would talk about his fishing excursions, and I just never, I never knew that I'd get to go. So I Cordova, was amazing. We took the Alaska marine highway, and I'd highly suggest your episode on that. In fact, I learned so much from you that I really appreciate the time that we spent. You know, I booked a half an hour with you to help us plan balancing so many things. You're balancing my daughter's trip along with me wanting to research my his family history and then this race. So you really helped us prioritize things, and helped me get my mind wrapped around what we could fit in, which we did fit a whole lot. But can you say a little more about the ferry, just because that's something a lot of people are interested in and have questions about, but don't always realize, you know, until they kind of dive into it, like details of the schedule and how much time it takes. So can you just tell everyone a little bit about where you boarded the ferry for Cordova and how long the ride was? Sure, I might not get the details right. That's okay. Oh, we boarded. Yeah, we boarded in Whittier, yep. And to get to Cordova. I want to say it took us about eight hours. It took us the full day. Yep, and you know, there's no there's there are no roads to Cordova, so you either have to go there by boat or plane. The the ferry was very affordable, and we were able to drive the RV onto the ferry. One thing that, you know, we learned was that you can't access your your vehicle, even if it is an RV while you're on the ferry, right? Fine, you know, we, we had a lovely time in the cabin and the dining area. The views were wonderful, and the people were amazing. And it was so just really great to connect with some people that will, you know, probably keep in touch with and have kept in touch with. And one of them, I told her the reasons we were there, and she gave us her phone number, and we later planned to meet up, and she showed us all around Cordova. It was such a great experience. In fact, we met the next morning at Baja taco, which I gotta say, might be one of my favorite restaurants of the whole trip. Oh, and we met there, you know, she, she knew almost everybody. It's a very, very small town. Yeah. And she said, you know, why don't there's some older fishermen in the restaurant. And she said, why don't you go ask them if they knew your grandpa? And I did, and they did. That's so cool. It was really cool. They knew his nickname. They They just knew a lot about him, and it just making those connections was really meaningful to me. Yeah, I loved Cordova. Like I said, it's very small. Yeah, it only took a day to see the town. In fact, we probably could have gone, you know, seen it three or four times over in one day in the town, but then the next day, we went out to Sheridan glacier, which the lake there. There's a short hike to where we put in with our pack raft, and, oh, it was amazing, amazing paddle. We had all. So done the Valdez glacier Kayak Tour. So we had done that with my daughter, I felt like that was, you know, a little bit of a safer entry point to do it with a tour the first time around. But chip and I, you know, we, we adventure all around the world, and had our pack rafts with us. So, you know, we had our dry suits, our pack rafts, and it was a great Sheridan glacier was so removed from, you know, people, we were just, yeah, out there in a gorgeous, Oh, that's awesome. Um, one logistical point I just want to bring up for our listeners about the ferry. So this eightish hour ferry ride, and there are some variables that can make it a little longer or shorter, is not a ferry that goes every day, and it is a short ferry for Alaska, even though it's eight hours. So that, I'd say the big thing, and you hit on this already, Andrea, if you're thinking about a ferry trip, is just knowing that it doesn't go every day and that it takes a long time. But it's also awesome for all the reasons that you mentioned, a couple of little things on the ferry. I would highly suggest bringing binoculars. Oh, yeah. Views were stunning. And for us being, you know, in Virginia, at sea level, with tiny mountains being down there in the summer, you know, it's kind of nice outside, but, you know, it's Alaska, so it's like, you're really almost, you know, even though you're at sea level, you can see mountains that don't have vegetation or trees. So you get this big, high altitude, Rocky Mountain, Alpine feel. And then there's like, glaciers, like, here you are at sea level with binoculars, looking at glaciers. And it just, to me, it was like, this is just unbelievable. It was nice that they had food on board. So, you know, they had hot food and a soda machine. So if you have a laptop, you can, you know, go to the dining hall, plug in and get work done. Internet most of the time was fine. But if you also just want to see the views, you can sit up front. It's like the space shuttle with like, yeah, see everything. And it was just really, really cool. And some people like camp out on the deck and just get some sleep so it didn't feel crowded. It felt super comfortable, and we just really enjoyed the experience. Yeah, that's awesome. I also want to just mention about the ferry. If you're bringing a vehicle, it's so for people listening, you absolutely have to have a reservation as early as you can, if you're going to just walk on the ferry, then it's, it's much it's much less expensive, and it's also doesn't require quite as much planning. But if you're bringing a vehicle, especially if it's an RV, you gotta, have, gotta have a reservation, sweet. Okay, anything else either of you want to say about Cordova specifically, before we go back to your kind of big picture itinerary, I would say the I know most people don't travel to Alaska with their own inflatable raft and dry suits, but that's true. They do not. They do not Sheridan glacier that that was absolutely stunningly beautiful. So even if you can find a tour, we really liked that there was a lot of like floating icebergs that you're kind of navigating around. And many of them have that, like they've, I guess they call it calving. They've broken off just recently, and so they're this deep blue color. And if you get it on a sunny day, or at least a patchy, cloudy day where the sun's hitting it, I mean, it is like being on another planet. Yeah, highly suggest doing a kayak glacier thing. And if you can, even if it's over in Valdez or Sheridan, is amazing, yes, yeah. So the only other thing I'd add about Cordova is there's a great, small History Museum in Cordova, and I thought it was really informational. And surprisingly enough, I saw a picture of my grandpa's boat looked like the 1940s but it was really neat. And I would also say to have realistic expectations. This city is not really a tourist destination, right? It's a working fisherman's town, yep. And so there's just a couple restaurants, just a couple of I think maybe only one or two hotels. There was just one campground that I was able to find. And, you know, booked all of that ahead of time. And I think if I were to go again, we were very close to being able to go to the copper ribbon River salmon jam. Oh. I guess it the annual festival they have in the summer. I think we were a week off or something. We couldn't fit that into our schedule, but that looked like it would be a really fun time. Yeah, that would be awesome. Also for people on a budget, I think because Cordova, everything has to get there by boat or plane, everything was just a little more expensive, yeah, if you are taking a car or even a backpack or whatever, just, you know, maybe provision up a little bit Yep, in a larger town before going over there, yeah, not to take away their their tourism, but, you know, go to the restaurants and stuff. But just, just be aware it is a little bit more expensive, yes, yeah. And in places in Alaska, off the road system, like Cordova in general, you know you can't when you go to the grocery store. There may or may not be certain things just might not be there that that's pretty common in a distance in addition to the cost. So depends on how long it's been since the last barge or airplane and that kind of thing. So also one other thing, and maybe this is all around Alaska, but in Cordova, we experienced it. The one lady that was showing us all around. She was very proud of the bear population there. And yeah, trying to show us bears both black and brown. And we didn't get to see any bears, but she drove us all around trying places where she sees them, yeah? And she she mentioned, you know, do we, do we have a horn or something for the bears? And we're like, oh, no, we have bear spray, because the race requires it. So we got into town and bought bear spray, yeah? Like, theoretically, good, responsible citizens. And then she said, You really need a horn? We're like, No, we got the bear spray. We'll be good. And she was kind of a little bit demanding. And then we actually ended up going by our actually ended up going by our house, and she came out and gave us horns, and she didn't want us to spray the bears. We didn't realize these bears are, like her friends, and, you know, we're thinking the bears are going to attack us, and she's like, you're going to hurt my bears. So just, just if anybody goes, be aware that, you know, a horn is the like, the least damaging way to get a bear to leave you alone, but maybe have the bear spray as a backup plan. Yeah, the locals are sensitive to that. Yeah, that's a good point chip, because I've never had to use bear spray, but if you do have to use it, you're, you're already kind of in trouble. So, um, it's definitely a last minute defending yourself kind of thing. Um, so other and the deal with the horn is all about just making noise, any any kind of noise when you're on the trail, that really helps the bears keep their distance to begin with before they even get close to you. So that's a huge deal. Cool. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, so let's go back to the big picture of your trip. So you were doing this trip to Cordova, you were doing the adventure race. So tell tell everybody a little bit about how long the trip was total and how much of that time was doing the different things that you did. Okay, so our trip was basically three weeks, or maybe three weeks in two days, yep, something like that. The first week was basically with my daughter there. The second week was when we went to Cordova, and then the third week was dedicated to the race. So that seemed like a good amount of time, but there's never enough time. I already know that's so true. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny because I mentioned, you know, earlier that I've never been to Cordova, and you know, I lived in Alaska for years, and I still spend eight to 12 weeks there a year, depending on exactly what my schedule is. And I have a long list of things I would love to do that I haven't done. So I always tell people that when they're planning their trip is like, focus on and we talked about that too, you know, figuring out what you really want, what's most important, and try to let go of seeing it all, because that's not a thing, even for lifelong Alaskans, not a thing. You know, Sadie really wanted to see Valdez. And you know, of course, being from the lower 48 like, all we know about Valdez is, that's where that, you know, the oil spill happened. Yeah, so it's kind of neat, like you actually are in the town, but it was quite the hike. I mean, I'm glad we had the RV, you know, but getting from Anchorage all the way to Valdez and back, it's like almost a whole day of driving, especially if stopping hike or something along the way. And there's not a lot between the two, other than a few gas stations and little dinky towns. So either way it's it's like one of those whenever we travel, we're on the fence of. Do you stay within a given area and really just try to do a whole lot of activity and minimize your driving and travel time? Or do you, you know, do you do a big, big thing over to Valdez just to see this epic city? I'm glad we did it the way we did it, but, yeah, but it is, yeah, you don't it. The Alaska is huge. It is huge. You don't want to out of a if you're only there for a week, you definitely don't want to take a whole day driving out and back, you know, like, pick a local area and stay to it and just do a lot of hiking and other stuff. That's really good advice. And by the way, listeners, we have an episode coming up in July about Valdez, so you'll get to learn more about Valdez then, okay, so that first week, you were in the RV with your daughter, and you went to Valdez back and forth from Anchorage. Yes, yes. And then, oh, go ahead Andrea. I was just going to add that on the way. We stopped at Matanuska glacier. Awesome both ways. On the way back, we did a hike there at lion head, which was an amazing way to see the Matanuska glacier. And then going out there, we took the tour. So awesome. Out the highlight, yes, Matanuska glacier is so fun. Love it. Okay, so you had a week in the RV going to Valdez and back from Anchorage, and then you had a week in Cordova, which was still with the RV. And then you had the race for a week. Yes, yep, okay, and that was in Alyeska. Was the main, you know, the basically the race hotel was in Alyeska, yes, and which is in Goodwood, for those of you listening, which is quite close to Anchorage. And one thing I wanted to mention for everyone listening is go back and listen to our best hikes in the anchorage area episode, because it covers basically the same area of the Chugach Mountains, where Andrea and chips race was, and it's a really beautiful area, so definitely recommend going back and listening to that one. So I know you didn't know exactly where you were going before the race started. That was part of the deal. Is there anything about the race itself that you want to share with everybody before we move on? Sure, that was quite an experience all all in and of itself. But it started like you said. We didn't know where we're going until we get the maps, which is given out on the day that the race starts. So we were bussed down to Seward, and at Seward the race started with climbing up and down Mount marathon. Oh, wow. If you're enthusiast, you might know about the mount marathon race. They call it the toughest 5k on the planet. Yeah, it's three, 3000 feet of elevation gain. And, you know, I think that it's pretty attainable, though. So, you know, you might not want to go do the world's toughest 5k as a race, but yeah, the Seward where, you know the beginning of the Iditarod is, or used to be, I don't know, used to be beginning there the history, yeah, yeah. The modern race doesn't go to Seward. But yes, there is a long history. There is the the history of the Iditarod relates to Seward. Yeah, yeah. So you can go there and do that hike on your own. It's amazing. Make sure you take hiking poles. In fact, that's one of my suggestions for anyone going to Alaska, because you're surely going to be on a trail. And they come in handy. Yeah, they do. Yeah. The race started there. And I think another highlight of that race, as we were going north, we went up to Cooper Landing and then down to hope, and we took the resurrection pass to get there, and that pass was amazing. It's a 38 mile trail. People backpack. You can bike it. We had to bike it. And I think people usually take multiple days to do it. It didn't take us more than a day, I don't believe, but the trails were really pretty accessible as far as mountain biking goes. And there's cabins along the way, yeah. So it was just so beautiful. And if you go that direction, from Cooper Landing to hope, that downhill seems to last forever and ever, which is really fun when you put so much effort to climbing up. It was really fun to go down. Yeah, yeah. So what about you chip? What other things about the race? So was, so was the whole race then on the Kenai Peninsula. Well, once, once we got to hope we made our way over. To the Portage Glacier Lake, okay? And then from there, we took the portage pass trail over to Whittier. Oh, that is awesome. Trail, interrupting for a second to say, if you're listening and you're a hiker, you gotta do Portage pass. And if you just do that section, it's like four miles with about round trip with about 1000 feet of elevation gain. So if it's not part of this bigger thing, totally doable day hike for hikers, okay, go ahead, yeah, it's one of my favorite hikes in Alaska. No question. It was really great. Unfortunately, there was no view of Whittier that day. It was really cloudy. It that's an amazing, amazing area. And like you said, it's just two miles. And if you want to step up your game and you have a pack raft, you can do that Trek and put your pack raft in the lake there, and get slowly to the glaciers. And there's a beautiful waterfall. In fact, there are many waterfalls that was just an amazing part of the race as well. Yep, love it. Okay, so. And then after that, where was that the end? Or did it go over to another area? So, after, after going over to Whittier and back to back to the portage Lake, then we hopped on our bikes to get to Girdwood, okay? And then at alieska resort, there was supposed to be a glacier section, and unfortunately, it was canceled due to weather. Got it. We didn't get to do that, but that's on our list for next time we go to all of our glacier gear, our crampons and our ice axes. And you know that might be beyond what some some folks do that are your listeners, but maybe not. We're beginners. And you know that we were looking forward to using all of our new skills, you got to start sometimes. So yeah, and you know there are lots of places, including Matanuska glacier and root glacier in Ringel st Elias National Park, where you can do glacier trekking and ice climbing and things like that with a guide if you have no experience and no gear. So yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. Andrea, okay, so most of your race was really in the Kenai mountains and on the Kenai Peninsula, rather than in the Chugach Mountains, although part of it was in the Chugach Mountains. So that's a little I misunderstood that before, and I know you didn't know where you were going ahead of time. So chip, not exactly sure where we were. Yeah, no, I get it. Chip, do you want to add anything about the race before we move on. Yeah, she covered most of it. There was quite a few white water sections that we did that, if anybody does like white water, it was punchy fun. It didn't, it didn't feel dangerous. You know, there wasn't like big class three rapids with consequences, so you could get through it on a pack raft or a ducky or, you know, you know, you know, something, something that can handle lots of splashy white water. You know, water is cold, but, you know, with a dry suit, or whatever, we were fine, and so that was definitely a highlight. Is the White Water sections. Yeah, that Portage Lake had a glacier coming right into the lake. So, yeah, this is one of those race I mean, or it's just a, it's a, it's a state that, just everywhere you look is like, wow, wow, wow. And so, especially if the weather is good, but yeah, it these races are intimidating because, you know, you just, when you sign up, you just sign up to do the race. You have no idea where you're going to go. And you just, you load a bus, you have no idea where the bus is going, and they just hand you maps. And this is usually, like, 25 maps that are different scales, but many of them are zoomed out. You're desperately on this bus, just trying to figure out, like, okay, we're, you know, how is this gonna work? And yes, that's part of the adventure. It's like, it's the adventure of not knowing you're just, you're basically thrown into the wilderness. Here's your compass, you know. And have at it. And so it's a ton of fun. So if anybody wants to do do a race like like that. I mean, start with a smaller race. Don't do Alaska first, because it was hard. And, yeah, you did some experience. Anybody to go five days you get into nutrition and sleep strategy and chafing and blisters and all this stuff that you don't get when you do some type of sport that's less than 2448 hours, Yes, yep. But other than, I was just it was really beautiful. All the people we met were nice. You know, the whole time, we're terrified of bears, because we keep hearing about bears and all this. And all over YouTube there's bears, bears, bears. During this entire visit, when we were in the wilderness, most of the time, we are not city people. So we find RV park, and then we find a hike, we do a hike, and maybe we find a pub or something afterward. But other than that, we're not going to museums and stuff usually, yeah, and this whole time before however long, we're there two and a three weeks, three and a half, whatever it was, we never saw a bear until very end. We got done with the race and a handful of the. Racers, we decided to go to a zoo, and we went and saw a bear in Oh, well, I'm glad that you got that, yeah, because I was like, we can't leave Alaska without seeing a bear, you know. But on the hand, we saw bear droppings all over the place, yeah, it is puckering to be hauling butt down a trail, you know, like, like, that resurrection trail. Yeah, there's big piles of bear poop in the trail. So, you know, the bears are there, and they use your trail as their bathroom. And, you know, we just never saw one, so I was pretty happy about that. Yeah, yeah, I that's a very relatable story. Oh, boy. All right. Well, we're gonna take a short break, and when we come back, we will talk more with Andrea and Chip about their trip. Hi everyone. Here we are in April. Those of you who are traveling to Alaska this summer, your trip is just around the corner. If you want to go this summer and you haven't made your plans yet, please let me help you. I would love to help you figure it out in one of my 30 minute planning consults, there are only a few more days that I'm doing it, between now and May 6, and then I'll be stopping until September. So book one of those today, if you want to get my help, I'd love to meet you back to the show. We are back with Andrea Anderson and Chip Dodd. They are adventure racers and hosts of the this ability adventures podcast. And they went to Alaska in July of 2024 for three weeks, and did an adventure race, went to Cordova, and also took an RV over to Valdez. So we're going to transition now to talking about, like, some of your favorites, things you would do differently, that kind of thing. So I would love to have each of you share what's your favorite place you went to. And if that feels too impossible, which it might, then maybe instead you could tell us if you could only go back to one place, where would it be? That is such a hard, hard question. I know, I know it is chip you need to go first. I'll try. It's hard, but I was thinking, you know, we were on a little bit of a tight timeframe while we had Sadie with us, because we had to get over to Valdez and back. Yep, I left Valdez thinking there's probably 50 more things I want to do in this little town, because probably it was a big enough town that it felt hustle and bustle. There was bars and restaurants and the fishing community. There is like off the charts. So every time all the fishermen come in. They got these huge fish. What halibut, I think it is. And just, you know, I wanted to just ask 1000 questions. I wanted to go fishing, yeah, salmon, I guess, come up there, like we went to the salmon kind of museum where they not museum, but the salmon processing facility. So, yeah, be there sometime when the salmon are running and see all the bears attacking the salmon. Yeah. So Valdez, I felt like we needed a few more days. It did have two or three RV parks, so if anybody does like RVing and camping, it was a great way to get over there and see it and drive over. We were in a rush. We're trying to get to Valdez. So yeah, we do a hike here and there. But I felt like, literally, from Anchorage to Valdez and back, if you had two weeks, you could, you could do that whole route, and the drive over and back is unbelievably, stunningly beautiful. So you want to leave time to pull over and look around with your binoculars and talk to people like we did the one hike, and there was some dude up on the top of the hill with a spotting scope, and he's a hunter, and he's not hunting, but he's a hunter with the spotty scoop. So he's showing us all these animals that we would have never seen. Yeah, where to look and what to look for. And so it's, you know, you want to, you want to save time to really meet the people, the the one that, again, from a downside standpoint, in Anchorage, I was kind of surprised at the homelessness in Alaska. I wasn't expecting next, it's cold, you know, you kind of think of, you know, people go to Florida, but I was, I was kind of surprised at how many things like that they were. But again, I'm not a big fan of city, so I'm kind of like, let's get in and get out and go see the wilderness. But, you know, I'm glad that you mentioned that chip, because, you know, I'm I spend a lot of time in Anchorage with, well, with and without guests, and that is something people comment on frequently. And I think often people are surprised that Anchorage is a city, you know, it's a it. Has, it has homelessness. It has, you know, housing is, is it's hard for people to get housing and keep housing and get health care and, like all the other all the challenges that cities across the US face anchorage houses as well, for sure. Yeah, yep. Oh, one other hack that we did that I was really excited that we did for anybody that kind of does a trip like this, where you have a lot of gear, or you have a multi phased trip, like we had Sadie for the one period, had to come back and then drop off the airport, and then we go on another adventure. We actually, the minute we got into town, we went to a little storage unit place and got a little tiny storage unit. It was super cheap. Oh, good idea. We were able to take all of our glacier gear and all this stuff and store it in the storage unit. And then we could, we could go in the RV without all this extra, extra stuff and luggage, yeah, that kind of stuff. And then we were able to, you know, come back and get it. And then, of course, when we turned in the RV, like we used indie campers for the RV, so we didn't need the RV during the adventure race. So we were able to get back to the storage unit, grab all our stuff, put all the luggage back in, and then turn in the RV and then now get over. And actually, one of the guys we met on the boat on the going over to Cordova, one of the guys that we met, he was like, Oh yeah, if you want, I get my pickup truck and we'll, I'll take you over to alieska with all your gear. Oh, that's so fun. Yeah, super nice guy. And yeah, actually pulled in. He says, I actually kind of hate driving. Why don't you drive like guy he just met, and I'm getting into this big old Dooley truck and with all of our gear, and we're driving over to alieska, oh, really, the the people in Alaska are all just super amazing. Yeah, yeah. Alaskans are incredible. Okay, so Andrea, how about you? Hopefully that gave you a minute to think. Yeah, about Yes, it did, yes. Keep coming back to you know, when we're adventure racing, we're trying to go fast. We're trying to make our times and cut offs, and it's 24/7 so some of the time we're racing in the dark. Yeah. So I keep thinking, I would love to go back do that whole race again in slow motion, you know? Yeah. Want to stop and see everything that we might not have seen in the dark, and particularly the resurrection pass. I just can't say enough about that. It was just just so gorgeous at the top there, and the little cabins that you can reserve, I love to reserve one of those cabins. So I think that's the place I'd like to go back to. Love it. That's great. And what about for you? Andrea, because has chip kind of got into the sub bit, and his answer of like things that you might do differently next time, or things that weren't as great. How would you answer that one? Well, I think, like he alluded to staying in one place a little bit longer. Yeah, would be nice. You know, we did hone it in after talking with you quite a bit, so we did try to stay longer than we might try, but that's what I would probably do, stay a little bit longer, yeah, stay longer in Alaska, or stay longer, like in Valdez or Cordova, our resurrection, yeah, right, stay as long as you can in a lot you know, you're paying the money to get up there. Yeah, you can. But I was really thinking within our trip to spend, you know, a little bit more time in each place that we were at instead, or go to fewer places and spend more time. Yep, Yep, cool. I think that's, that's a frequent reflection that people have, including me, and I sometimes be like, Oh, yeah. Or, you know, often I'm like, if I wasn't working, I would have done that differently, right? Yeah. So either, oh, go ahead, Chip just real quick, because we, both, Andrew and I, are able to work remotely. We actually, it seemed like in the in the city areas, the Internet was actually really good, and we brought a Starlink with us, but we ended up not needing it as much as we were expecting. Yeah, that was for people who are remote workers. It actually, again, it wasn't that bad. And she's on Verizon, I T and T, yeah, so I was impressed with that. The other thing was super surprising, which I kind of knew it was coming, but until you experience it, it's, it's just weird, um, the sun doesn't set. So you can actually plan really big days of stuff, because you're not worried, like, you know, oh my gosh, it's 630 the sun's going down. No, it's like 1130 and, you know, we almost needed to tape a piece of cardboard over the top of the RV to stop the light from coming. Yeah, could sleep. Yes, you can really plan big days of lots of activities. I mean, stuff closes and stuff, but just hiking and pack rafting and stuff like sunset is not a not a thing you need to worry about. Yeah, it's funny, because when you live in Alaska during the summer. Or it's still like that. And then you get to, like, mid August, and you're like, why am I so tired? And you're usually, you know, working in a job crazy hours. And then after that, you go for a hike, and you're just kind of like, and then, you know, it starts getting dark at night, and you're like, Oh, I'm so tired. Yeah, love it cool. Okay, so I would love to know now, of course, Sadie is not here because she's graduated and is off living her best life, but I'd love to know like, were there any places that she talked about so let's just review she had just graduated from high school, yes, yes. Okay, so were there any things, and I know she wasn't with you the whole time, but were there any particular things that she really loved or didn't love on your trip? So she really loved the the kayaking tour in Valdez that we did to see the Valdez glacier, she really that was her highlight. Okay, I think she was a little surprised that it was kind of colder than she thought it might be. And, yeah, you know that kind of meant that the cute outfits she brought she didn't need, you know, she ended up, yeah, you know, the rain, the rain gear, a little more than she probably expected, yes, but that said that was really minor. I think she really, really was happy about the whole trip. Love it. The one thing she was a little bummed about she was really, really wanted to see the sled dogs. Oh yeah. We went, like, way out of our way to go to the sled dog place where you're supposed to be able to see the dogs. And it was closed, and there were no dogs, so that that was a little bit of a bummer. Yeah, yeah, that was the Iditarod headquarters. And I think I didn't do enough research on that they are there some of the time, but not the time that we were there. So yeah, their hours are a little bit limited. And then the times that they have dogs there are very limited. And it's kind of inconsistent season to season like, like, whether or not they have a partner who's bringing dogs or not. That's been my experience. And that's listeners, that is in Wasilla, the I did run head dog. Head dog, I did. Okay, all right, so as Oh, were you gonna say something? One other highlight, I was trying to think, and this was after Sadie had left. But when we were in Anchorage, and we were at a little park, I think it was northeast of the main city, there's a really, really cool paved bike trail, like, all around the waterfront, all the way around Anchorage. And that, for anybody that likes biking, you know, easy biking, it wasn't mountain biking is paved. That was, that was a lot of fun, just to see anchorage from that standpoint, and the waterfront, all the birds and the, you know, I know that was a lot of fun. And it, again, it's kind of like the bears. We saw very few moose, but when we were in Anchorage, it's like the moose are everywhere. And so, yeah, yeah. Like, a huge moose, like, right there along, yeah, yeah. That was kind of a highlight. Just it was a nice way to see a lot of the city, the beautiful very quickly, Yes, yep. And that's the Tony Knowles coastal trail that you're referring to chip. And actually, even beyond that, Anchorage has an amazing bike trail system. Um, it's a what? And there's places you can rent bikes. Did you bring your bikes? You probably did for the race, yeah, yeah, we did, yeah. We brought our bikes. Yep, they most of these races, they require a a standardized bike box, and as they move your bikes around during the race, they need to be able to put them on a U haul. And so if everybody has standardized boxes, they fit perfectly, like Legos in the U haul, right? And also, they can't, you know, you can't tell, oh, you broke this, or you bent that. It's like you you put your bike in your box, as long as the box, you know, yeah, so let's use on the airlines to get over here. So yep. And if you like biking and you're not bringing a bike to Alaska, you can rent bikes from Pablo bike rentals, which is right downtown in Anchorage. It's really convenient. And they have tandems, and they have E bikes, and they have fat tire bikes, and they have all kinds of cool stuff, yeah. And for Die Hard mountain bikers, we were really, really impressed with the trail systems, yeah, um, the dedicated mountain bike parks. Like, you don't think of Alaska as a mountain biking destination, but man, everywhere it is, yeah, when we went to the ones that were dedicated, it was like, holy, these are really well kept trails. And, yes, you know, very flowy and fast, it looks like. There's volunteers or somebody that take a lot of time to really make sure the trails are nice. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Same is true for cross country ski trails in the winter. Great, amazing trail systems, especially especially in the anchorage area. Yeah, Fairbanks has some really good ones too, and so do other places. But yeah, okay. As we move towards wrapping up here Andrea and Chip, I would love to hear what your favorite meal or your favorite restaurant was that you went to in Alaska. So I already mentioned the Baja taco in Cordova, yes, but what's unique about it is the kitchen is in a school bus, and the school bus is connected to a building where where the tables are. And you can, I mean, the best thing I had there was the huevos rancheros, and you can have reindeer sausage or salmon added to any dish at that last month, and so that that's gotta be my favorite. Love it. Okay, yep. So I don't remember the name of it, but you'll probably know it off top of your head. But there's a brewery right there in Anchorage. It's the Palmer Ale House, yeah, in Palmer or Anchorage? Oh, I was thinking of the Ale House. Sorry, I'm thinking of the one they had. They had gluten free options on tap, which I need. I need gluten free. But it was like, you know, it was just hopping, like, it just seemed like the place to go. That sounds like 49th state brewing, yeah. Okay, yep, yep. 49 state brewing. And then the other thing, and Andrea, where were we when we stumbled across that place with the Irish music, the live band that played, that's what I thought you were gonna say, and that was the Palmer. That was the Palmer Ale House, okay? And they had live music the evening we were there, and I can't remember what we ate, but I remember it was good, and we really liked the atmosphere. And the outdoor stage was just the right size, you know, not too big, not too small. And there was a lot of people milling about, and there were fire pits. And, yeah, it was a really good fun, great time. Lots of and again, we met some really nice local people there. And yeah, had some great conversation there. Love it. Okay, Andrea and Chip last question, what is a piece of advice that each of you would have for fellow travelers who are planning a trip to Alaska, well, I guess I have to mention the philosophy of our team. Our team is TEAM this ability, T, H, I S, we. We try to focus on what we can do and not what we can't. And we're inspired by the people in our lives that have disabilities. I have a son with Down syndrome, and Chip owns a company that supports people with disabilities, so they're inspiring to us. But I'm saying that in order to give the advice of you know, look at what you can do, not what you can't and don't be afraid to venture off the beaten track. Don't be afraid to push yourself, to find your limits. You know, of course, do it in a safe way, but just get out there and yeah, make it happen. Love it. How about you tip? Yeah, I would. I would say a few things, Alaska was a really good place to access with an RV. I felt like the driving was easy the RV, there's bunch of different RV companies, and there's tons of parks around. So I felt that that was a really, you know, as opposed to getting a rental car in a hotel and all of that. I really enjoyed that aspect of it. I mean, for adventure, people definitely get like Gaia or some other way of downloading the trails offline, because a lot of the when you get away from the cities, you do lose internet. And obviously, Alaska is beautiful, but it can also be dangerous, and it's always good to have offline maps so that you can get yourself out of a situation if, whatever reason, get lost. Yes, definitely the hiking poles, like Andrea said, because it's the mountains were pretty steep, and there's a lot of kind of scrambling and stuff. And so that would be definitely nice to have. And and the locals, I guess it was, it seemed like we were constantly impressed with how friendly they were and talkative. And, you know, they want to know everything about you, just as much as you want to know about them. And so, you know, spend time in places where you can socialize with locals. Because that was, I think, some of the most rewarding experiences, which is having these really long conversations, like, because you're on a boat for eight hours, like I talked to that guy for what felt like six of the eight hours. Yeah, it was amazing. So that the people were a big highlight for me. Yeah. Yeah, love it. Well. Thank you so much chip and Andrea for joining me today. Once again, I'm going to put the link to their podcast and their YouTube channel in the show notes. So if you want to learn more about adventure racing and hear some fun stories, see some beautiful things, then feel free to head over there and Andrea and chip. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, Jennie, you were just so helpful. You really made our trip. What it was, which it was amazing. So thank you. Oh, you're You're welcome. Thanks for having us and sorry. One, one thing about the for people that are interested in our specific story, on the podcast, we do something called the race ramble, which would be the four teammates on a call at the same time, just talking about our experience during the race. Fun. People that want visually to see what the race looked like, we go pro our races, or just, you know, little clips, so that, basically on our YouTube channel, you can see, like Alaska day one. Actually it'll probably be Alaska the day of the race, the prep, and then day one, day two, day 345, and it's just the highlights of the race put to music. Usually we try to use local music. It just gives you a feel for what it looks like to be in these races and seeing all the beauty and suffering, and we try to do the highs and the lows, but um, either way. Good. Keeping it honest, you're welcome. You.

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

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Jay Flaming

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