The Farm at Lake Clark

 “Alaska has a soul-stirring unspoiled beauty that goes beyond words”
– Eric McReyolds

The Farm Lodge at Lake Clark – Lake Clark NP last post

E: It was sad to leave the beautiful setting at The Farm Lodge at Lake Clark.  The food has been wonderful. A lot of calories and sugar offerings but irresistibly yummy. For my last breakfast I chose a sausage and kale quiche and took a homemade, freshly baked cranberry muffin for our plane rides home. They gave us our previously selected bagged lunches and we were off around 9AM on Lake Clark Air to Anchorage.

We never like to talk about money, but let’s be honest. It has to be in the back of some of your minds and is always on ours, that some of the trips we take must be right up there in cost. We always joke with our kids that we were spending their inheritance. We have worked, saved and invested for the past 40+ years so we could afford these adventures at this stage of our lives. And, each time we do a fun trip, many other people benefit from us buying, spending and sharing our money. We pay the resort’s owners, who pay their employees, who then buy food in town, allowing those employees to spend money on their families, and so on. But, I must say, the suggested tipping policies are a bit hard to handle. Whether you are at a high-end foodie resort, on a cruise or here at The Farm, the suggested tips, we feel, are high. This 6-night, all-inclusive trip (flights from and back to Anchorage, 4 all day float plane tours, 3 meals a day, lodging, guides, etc. was expensive – $17,000 for two of us.  Our trip to Gates of the Arctic, also an all all-inclusive exclusive 4-night trip in March of 2022 to go dog sledding was $20,000 for two. Both trips were unrelated, different owner and did not include or encourage alcohol. But, both trips were, without a doubt, worth every penny to us. Adventures of a life time! If you look into the cost of what you get in these very remote locations, it’s so worth it to us. The fresh ingredients of the home cooked food; flying staff on and off site seasonally; flight/plane costs: i.e. burning 50 gallons an hour in fuel, pilot’s experience and ground crew assistance on either frozen lakes or actually wading into the waters to manually dock the planes; lovely and efficient kitchen and dining room staff; housekeeping; guides, landscaping crew and more, it breaks down to a reasonable amount. I guess the tricky part comes when discussing gratuities. Most all-inclusive places say to give 10-20% of your trip cost in gratuities. That’s $1,700 additional on this trip. I think it’s possible that the owners of these all-inclusive places might not be paying their employees enough and expect guests to subsidize their staff’s pay. Let me assure you, we do tip, and well, but it doesn’t mean we agree with it. I personally think “All Inclusive” should mean just that.

So now I will get off my soap box and with all the above said, we will continue to look for these types of adventures for years to come! We love the off the grid locations. We love unique tours where very few people get to go, like being two of the whopping total of 11 people that visited Dick’s Cabin the entire day we were there! We are learning about the locals and communities where we travel, exploring the United States and other parts of the world, while we CAN!

We would love to return to The Farm Lodge at some point. We could take additional tours we did not choose this time around. Seeing the walrus on the shores of the Bering Sea and take boat trips to the thousands of uninhabited beaches and islands on and around Lake Clark, Twin Lakes or go to other rivers and lakes near Port Alsworth to look for the natural inhabitants that have been there for centuries…eagles, wolves, moose, bears, caribou and seals to name a few.

We are sad to add that Gary’s mom, Earline Marsh, age 93, passed away on our last full day in Alaska. Although she will never read this post, see was always excited to hear of our adventures. I am so happy I was able to visit with her, in person, just before we headed to Alaska. I thank M.O.M. (My Other Mother) for her encouragement in my love of writing and her support of Gary’s and my enjoyment and need for adventure. She loved to travel. She was an accomplished educator, a published writer and handmade paper maker. She supported her local Vermont theaters & poetry societies. She could knit, crochet and had the best dress up clothes chest and puppet theater in her home for her grandchildren. She will be missed and remembered by many.

Thank you for traveling with us. Until we post again…

I leave you with a poem Earline wrote and gifted to me many years ago. It is on a bookmark made of laminated blue handmade paper. Good thoughts for when we struggle to move forward.

TODAY

sense the day
with its elation
and its pain

hug and belly-laugh
bask in the sun
walk in the rain

read a poem
do good work
don’t complain

be in the now