Our Shadows Taller Than Our Souls

The sun has set on the winter solstice.

On the count of three, everyone lean south...

One...

Two...

Three!!!

Did you feel that? We tilted back toward the sun!!! It may not get too light too soon, but today was the darkest it's going to get, and we're headed back from hardly any light to more light than we know what to do with. I know it's going to take a while to really feel, but every day for the next six months will be longer and brighter than the last, and that is a good thing.

I took that picture after lunch today - that's pretty low/dim sun for 2:15 pm!!!

Out of the Blue, And Into the Black

Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light.

A vast silence reigned over the land.

The land itself was desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness - a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility.

It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life.

It was the Wild,
the savage, frozen-hearted Northern Wild.

Jack London,
White Fang

WINTER SOLSTICE.

SUNRISE: 10:14 am.
SUNSET: 3:42 p.m.

Hibernation

I swear there will be blog.

But when the sun only seems to come out while you're at work and never on weekends, and it stays only a few inches above the horizon, and otherwise you get 3:15 p.m. lighting like this (along the obscured Turnagain Arm at the onset of a major snowstorm):

...it ain't too easy to photograph & post!!!

Fifteen days 'til Winter Solstice! Only fifteen days!!!

"Justice Delayed is Justice Denied"

Well, not always.

You can go ahead and put your hands down - no glove to try on this time.

Surf's Up, Ace

Pics from the paper: Yakutat, southeast Alaska on the panhandle (the sliver of AK down toward Juneau, rising defiantly from the shadow of imperialist Canada). Air temps around freezing, water temps plus ten. So our non-contiguous brother has surfing. How about the litany of snowsports, wildlife, wilderness, etc. etc. etc. Is there anything Alaska can't do?

Gooch!!!

I mentioned snow, then it snowed (but didn't stick) on Sunday, then we got our first accumulation last night! From the paper:

Luckily I just got my swwweeeeeeeeeeeeeet snow tires installed (Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5's) - the best of the best (and priced accordingly). Yep, I'm running tires based on the season - another stripe on the sleeve - or at least another patch sewn onto the vest. Begin Alaskan eight-month winter nnnnnnooooooooww.

There Goes The Sun, And I Say, It's Alright

If you have to work for a living, why not have an office with a with a view? See the tall building at the left? I'm on the second floor of the smaller blue & white building just to the right of it. I'm right downtown, a block up from Cook Inlet, with The Sleeping Lady (a.k.a Mount Susitna) ever present across the Inlet on the Matsu Valley side.


And, my office is on the back side of the building, thankfully, so I have a SWEET view! This is from my office:

The white out there on the horizon isn't clouds - it's mountains (the Alaska Range). Note the shadow coming off the stairs on the house. That's a pretty darn severe shadow for noon isn't it? The birds aren't the only things heading south for the winter - bye-bye sun.

A closer look confirms snowy mountains, and the tide out, revealing the muddy underpinnings of the Inlet:

It's been really sunny the last week or so, but it's getting a little late in the year and we're lucky to see a temperature starting with a "5" these days (and as I edit this, we're teetering on losing 4's as well), and three of the last four days I've had to clear ice off my truck in the morning.

I took a drive last weekend down Turnagain Arm and a bit onto the Kenai Peninsula to enjoy the sun and the fall colors. Or, I should say, to enjoy the fall "color" - we pretty much get yellow. There's a little red in there every once in a while, especially in the groundcover, but around here yellow is king.

Along Turnagain Arm I saw something peculiar as I sped by at 55 MPH (Sammy Hagar wouldn't make it on the Seward Highway Scenic Byway) - as with many wildlife sightings you need a keen eye:

Do you see them? If you look closely, there are four groups of Beluga whales out there, unfortunately for them, stranded by the tide. There are about 15 of them out there in all. Note the "sand" bar inbetween for reference to the below pic.

Still tough to see, but those are Belugas. I'm happy to report, as you may have expected, that the tide did indeed come back in and there was much Beluga rejoicing. In fact, when I drove back by on the way home, there were dozens of Belugas out there, and about five onlookers on shore per Beluga, with blowhole spouts everywhere (from the Belugas, not the onlookers).

Did I mention it's really yellow around here? Coming soon to a participating forest near you:

More green & yellow along Bird Creek, with fresh snow on the far peaks:

You may remember the beach I like to visit here in town from previous posts - here's a bird's-eye view from a hill near the beach. Note again The Sleeping Lady in the distance, an omnipresent landmark around here. A few weeks ago it was all purple-mountain-majesty. These days, the snow is coming down the mountains all over town, FAST.

I was really hoping to see some wildlife on my hike to/from the beach in Kincaid Park, and was not disappointed. I saw a Bald Eagle down there (I thought they'd be gone by now) and was greeted as I emerged from the narrow trail on the way back by a young bull moose. Their eyes always look a little crazy, but as long as those ears stay up you know they are "curious." If the ears go back, look for the nearest tree (no need to try to climb it, just use it as a blocker).

I was also really excited to see a fox as I was driving back out of the park. As you may recall from a long-ago post about Denali, these foxes aren't indigenous to AK but have thrived after being released from now-defunct fox farms. I'm not sure where the phrase "She's a fox" comes from, but to my mind it could be literal - foxes are absolutely beautiful. In fact, maybe the modified version, "She's a 'stone-cold' fox" originated in Alaska? Well, maybe not. But I digress.

I love this picture - you see this type of long, luxurious grass around town in some places, even by highway overpasses, and I really like the offset of the tall weeds in between the grass and the trees. Oh, and the fox.

He was hopping around hunting a little mouse or something, then I lost him, then I found him again eating said mouse, then I lost him, then I found him again, hanging out on this little concrete slab by the road. Seems the moose and the fox were as interested in me as I was in them...

Beautiful fall this year - they say a dry summer shortchanges the fall, but we had anything but a dry summer. This fall season has been MUCH longer and MUCH more colorful than last year.

I guess there was a bright side to all that rain after all.

No doubt yellow is king, but if you run around enough you can catch some of that red, like down in Portage Valley:

All these fall colors must mean moose rutting season is around the corner if it hasn't started already. The weather outlook for this weekend is not so great, but if it's not too bad I'll be heading up into the Chugach Mountains for that this weekend. Expect to see some boots in snow if I go up there. Those "elevation" hikes I posted pics of this summer at Hidden Lake, Williwaw Lakes, and Flat Top? All now under snow.

A blink of the eye, and we all will be.

Fall 2008: A Time For Change

Change, change, change change, change. Apparently this fall is all about change. One side promises blanket change, the other side says some people use change to promote their careers, and others use their careers to promote change.

I've decide to use my career to promote change. Change in my pocket. Change in my pocket going jingle-lingle-ling (in the words of the Georgia Satellites). Because, for the first time in a long time, I hear the jingle-jangle of coins. I keep turning around looking for reindeer (not quite as far-fetched a propositon around here as in some parts). The other day I used my debit card, and stood there with the dude looking at me, then he said "you need to enter your PIN", and I was like "Ohhhhhhh yeah." Much too long operating on credit only - but the tide has turned.

So, as you may have figured out - I got a job. I'm a real-life lawyer. Pay to the order...of me!

I'll have some more updates soon, but for now there is only one key point. For all the stress, and blood, sweat, and tears, for now only one thing matters.

I made it!

Starlight? Goodnight.

A few weeks back I did a little hike/camp trip down to Portage Valley, a fantastic area about 50 miles south of Anchorage that I've shared on here before. It was the first night I was able to see a star in the sky in a long time - a harbinger of the winter to come.

But, still plenty of daylight for now. I did the Portage Pass hike, which requires a little drive through the tunnel to Whittier. And thanks to Hollywood (and yes, I'm talking about you, Sylvester Stallone) it's impossible to drive through the dimly lit 2.5 mile expanse of wet stone without thinking some spectacular disaster is going to befall you any second.

It's one lane only, so you can enter for 15 minutes at the top or bottom of the hour depending on which way you're going (the other 15 minutes being necessary for everyone to reach the other side.) So if you get there at say 2:46 pm instead of 2:45, you'll need to hang out for 45 minutes before you can get going. I of course planned it out in each direction so I could go right through, only to learn that the train, which also shares the single lane, automatically cuts in line whenever it happens to come through - HEY - NO CUTS!!! On the way down it was a freight train, on the way back, packed full of tourists.

Then, when the train finally clears the tunnel, there's a little more work to be done before we can get going. They have huge fans in the tunnel to ventilate smoke, whether it be from the train or one of the aformentioned disasters. Then again, if you have to be stuck in traffic, its not a bad place to be stuck.

I always find it funny to think about the number of people who must visit Portage Lake (there is a whole interactive visitor center and everything), look out across the lake, see the glacier off in the distance, and think it's Portage Glacier.

Unfortunately, Portage Glacier has receded and you can't SEE it from the visitor center! I wonder how many photo albums there are around the world with the much less impressive glacier you can see from the visitor center (which I believe is Burns Glacier) mislabeled as Portage Glacier (as if anyone maintains photo albums anymore). When you actually see Portage Glacier, you realize that labeling Burns Glacier as Portage is a bit of an insult. It would be kind of like taking a picture of Pikes Peak and labeling it Denali. (Ziingggg!)

Oh, and forget the glaciers for a moment. Is Portage Lake not spectacular? That's Burns out there in the middle. If you look really closely, you can see a little sliver of Portage Glacier slinking out of the far valley on the right. That's where we're going. Or, more accurately, we're heading to the opposing ridge.

It's only about a mile up the 750-foot ridge to where you can see Portage Glacier, and while you're working your way up, you can enjoy the increasingly dramatic views of Prince William Sound behind you:

And before you know it, you are rewarded for your efforts, and the $12 tunnel fee:

Really, it's gorgeous up there even without the glacier. Would you look at the rest of the picture and say "ho-hum"? That's one of the great things around here. Alaska turns it up to eleven.

You can actually follow a little trail down to the lake through some really thick, bear-laden brush (I've seen them there before.) But I was happy to stay up-top, even with the Peacemaker at my side, considering I was alone and it's hairy down there. It doesn't look like much at a glance, but you can see when I drop down just a few feet on the trail it can quickly envelope you.

Oh, and see that brown stripe toward the left side of the glacier? I believe that is called a "medial moraine," one of eight types. A moraine is basically earth carried and eventually deposited by a glacier. On a single glacier there would be deposits on the two outer edges called lateral moraines. When two glaciers coming from different sources collide, a medial moraine forms along the battle line. A little too much information about moraines for you? Hey, you midwesterners would be nothing without glacial deposits!

Perspective in photos is always an issue in mountain regions, so it's nice every once in a while to grab something in the foreground. This boat, packed with folks who opted for a cruise across the lake instead of hiking the pass, is still probably a good quarter to half mile from the face of the glacier:

Check out the texture and contours of that glacier!!! That is just amazing!

No doubt - I LOVE the greater metropolitan Portage Valley area!!!! It is breathtaking year-round - you may remember some snowbound pictures of Flat Stanley down there from last "spring." When you are down in Portage, you are on top of the world!!!

From Moose Steaks to Veepstakes

We are in SHOCK! I can remember two times before in my personal experience when everyone in every home, in every office, in every store, stopped and gathered around the TV or radio to experience an unfolding event. This is the third. One of the most popular governors in the country, and the renowned "hottest governor in America" is in the mix:

Just like any politician lots of questions are going to arise, but not about the authenticity of the roots - check out the non-storebought-bear-hide adorned Alaskan home of her parents in Wasilla (just north of here):

That's a long way from today's events:

This is a nice one from the paper - even Governor Palin herself (pronounced Pay-Lynn) didn't get the official invitation from McCain until 24 hours prior to the announcement:

As previously reported, Alaska and its ever-important, pivotal three electoral votes have gone for a Democrat exactly once in its near 50 year history (our official 50th anniversary with you LFE'ers is Jan 2009). I think this might ensure that trend continues.

Hidden Lake

Before I get started - a quick Bear Watch 2008 Update. The same Grizzly (with two cubs) was suspected in the terrible mauling of a 15-year old cyclist earlier this summer and a jogger more recently in the same area. Not to mention several other close calls. A couple days ago after much searching the suspected sow was killed by Fish & Game, and one of her two cubs has been captured and is awaiting transport to a Midwestern zoo (the other is still at large, and should hope to be captured - otherwise it will not make it). The bad news - DNA tests show the sow was not involved in the attack on the 15-year old. Then again, there was no indication that the bear involved had cubs, and the word on the street is the girl actually hit the bear with her bike. DNA tests for the jogger are due back next week - if the bear wasn't involved in that one either, people are going to go crazy. Personally, I'm wagering it is the sow that attacked the jogger (and threatened others). I'll let you know. If they made an honest mistake - it's unfortunate. But I, unlike others (who presumably don't ever go "out there") would trade the life of one aggressive bear, nay, a lot of aggressive bears, for the lives and safety of our fellow humans.

Anyway, I think I mentioned before that there is lots of water up here, and if you go off of the trail you better have boots on. Upon further review, even on the trail, you better have boots on! I recently did the trail to Hidden Lake up in the Chugach.

I did a portion of this trail a couple times before, and it involved crossing a creek on some boot-smoothed boulders, one time resulting in me slipping right into the drink. Much to my surprise, this time there was a brand new (not quite completed) bridge! Beeeeeeautiful! But, as I said before, many trails are along or in drainages, so you better be prepared. This is the actual trail.


That's easy-peasy - nice and shallow with plenty of rocks. But, 'round here you better PLAN on getting dirty, because you get some sections like this, and if you're thinking you'll just go around, you won't - there is no around.

But once you clear that section (and later another REALLY soupy section), it's all good, and the world opens up its possibilities to you. There is a trail that leads to the left from here, but you really could just blaze your own way:

You can see there is still some snow around, and you have to cross, by my recollection, three snow fields on the way up:

There is also a nice creek along the way. One thing I don't like about my camera is that it has very limited timer settings - you really have to run to get yourself in a picture. I actually took a few pictures and did the below "looking off into the distance" pose as sort of a joke, but it turned out to be the best overall picture. Oh boy - I don't include myself too often - now I'm posing. Next up: "Blue Steel" (movie reference).

Hmmmm - looks like there are some clouds drifting into the valley from whence I came. Better keep an eye on it:

Last post I talked about getting above the treeline - it's a good thing. The nerves are spiked in a place like this, which is from another day in another area:

Up here, no worries:

If you take note of the pattern on the left side of the snow above you'll have a reference for the below photo. I was getting REALLY hot hiking up there, hoping I was on the right path to the lake. And I learned why it's called "Hidden Lake" - you seriously cannot see it until you are right on top of it - until the last 10 seconds I was thinking "Oh no, there's no lake", but then there it was.

I cannot adequately describe how great it felt to palm some cool water from the lake and let it cascade over my head and neck, and how badly I wished I had a water filter/purifier to take advantage of that cool water instead of the warm water bottle I toted up the mountain. As I was sitting there by the lake cooling off, I curiously saw some some smoke wafting over my shoulder. Then I realized it was my own "steam" - like what you see rising from the heads of NFL players when they take their helmets off in cool weather.

There are a couple of great lines in the movie "American Beauty", and if I start posting pictures of floating grocery bags, start worrying. But one particular line I always remember is: "It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself." This hike is just under 10 miles round trip, with 1550 feet of elevation gain (that's two and a half St. Louis Arches) - my personal longest and highest hike ever. Six months ago - no way. But with a lot of hard work I weigh less than I did five years ago and can lift as much weight as I could ten years ago. Never say never.

Hidden Lake:

I know this post is a little out of chronological order - but this is the day I came back from the Ratatouille camping trip on the Kenai - the day I drove out of the sun, and hoped to get back before it was gone. Unfortunately, when I got back to town it was cloudy, and I was crestfallen. But in keeping with this summer's tradition of funky weather, well, the weather was really funky, and I had the crazy idea by the way things looked that I could hike up out of the clouds. Speaking of funky weather, in my first 424 days in Anchorage there were exactly zero thunderstorms. In other parts of the state, yes - but not here. Not one clap of thunder, not one bolt of lightning. Now there have been two full-on thunderstorms in the last few weeks. Funky.

But I digress. You may have already guessed from the above pictures that trying to hike up into the sun worked. But on the way back down? I don't think I've ever before been said to have my head in the clouds:


But there you go.

As Trent Reznor would say - I was up above it, now I'm down in it. But there's nothing like making your way up above it:

And remember when I hiked up Flat Top Mountain? Getting halfway up Flat Top used to be the line. Now I'm so far beyond the line that the the line is a dot (OK - that's hyperbole). But you can see Flat Top out there in the soup to the left center of the picture. My truck is beyond and to the right of Flat Top, just like the rest of Anchorage - that's a long way down.

Sweet.

Just Another Day at the Beach

We have had some nice days here and there around Anchorage, but one "problem", if you can call it that, is when it has been sunny here a lot of times it's not so sunny if you drive more than 10 miles in any given direction. Which is exactly what happened to me recently when I headed out on a day that was "clearing up" here in Anchorage to camp down on the Kenai, and drove right out of my sunny day! But, camping along Bertha Creek is always nice - the campground would be just to the right:

You can see a waterfall coming in from the left, which on top of the sound from the river itself is really nice "white noise" when you're sleeping in your tent. I always sleep with a little fan going at home - not needed out here:

Missed out on the sun, but it's nice down there no matter what, in my opinion anyway:

There were only maybe 3 or 4 other campsites taken that night - and I, of course, was the only tent camper. But, I wasn't the only one in camp:

Anyone ever see Ratatouille?

Little furry creatures are cute enough, but please do not feed them!!! This little guy was entertaining enough to watch for a while, but he CLEARLY has not only picked up food people dropped, but has been fed. It's not so hard to get close-up pictures...

When he kept coming right up and trying to stand between my feet! I swear I was chasing him off for an hour (and by chasing I mean dragging or scuffing my foot to make him run away, in case you were picturing me running around camp like a madman). And he was sneaky too - he would do a frontal assault, then he'd go away for a while and sneak back under the far side of the picnic table, tiptoe in undercover, and I'd look down and there he'd be again two inches from my foot! My guess is he's gotten treats doing that before - but little woodland creatures can get irritating when they keep begging - so NO feeding! Reminds me of the menacing chipmunks in Glacier NP in Montana.

When driving out of town drives you right back into the clouds, it's time to hit Kincaid Park right here in town. Kincaid Park is just south of the airport on the west side of town along Cook Inlet, and boasts 43 miles of trails over 1400 acres. I personally have only gone on the Coastal trail that runs 9 miles north out of Kincaid right along the coast (duh), because I'm really just not interested in risking a bear issue in town - that's just unacceptable. I know we've all learned you can run into bears anywhere, but it's at least less likely to be a problem on the coastal trail. The view from the trailhead:

And even though it's in town and really near the airport, there is plenty of wildlife. Kincaid is where those two bears sauntered right down out of the woods by the lake while I was reading, and there are lots of moose out there too. This is I think the first time I've gotten a pic of a moose in the water, and she had a calf that came out of the brush after about 15 minutes. But moose calves are just absolutely schizo-crazy, and as soon as it came out it freaked and ran through the water to the right before I could get a clear shot. Then the cow, which had looked up at me earlier, looked back at me like "What did you do?" And I, having not moved my feet an inch, said aloud "I didn't do anything."

I've been out on the coastal trail a couple times before, but only during winter. Surprise of the day for me - BEACH ACCESS! I saw people out there and tracked down the unmarked side trail that drops you right down on the beach.

And while the part subject to the tides is, of course glacial flour aka glacial silt (aka mud), there is a layer behind that which is rocks, then believe or not back toward the grass it is soft, warm, welcoming sand.

I've gone back since, and it's a GREAT place to go on a warm sunny day. It's less than a mile hike, and while I was hunkered down in the sand enjoying my book and the sound of the waves as the tide came in, other people were swimming, flying kites, and one group had a beach volleyball net set up (which was sort of wishful thinking - the sand portion isn't really that wide) - just another day at the beach...in Alaska. Awesome!

Oh, and if you visit I found a nice place for you to stay:

Where the beach is located the airport is far enough off that it's not an issue, but if you hike a few miles farther up the trail, you see the first sign you may be too close to the airport:

And a little farther still, all doubt is removed!!!

Look out!!!

Whew - that's one thing I didn't need "Brown" to do for me.

On another note - I've been trying to get my cardio going at the gym so I can hike "up" things more effectively. We don't generally have "switchbacks" (known as Rocky Mountain Training Wheels) on trails around here - so trails pretty much just go straight up - usually because they are along or in drainages. (I'm kidding about that Rocky Mountain thing.) Initially I just wanted to open up some new territory, but an unforeseen benefit is that it doesn't take much to get above the treeline this far north, and it's soooooooooo nice to be able to let your guard down for a while, which you can never do on a forested trail. Above the treeline you can see for a long ways - no unwanted surprises.

My first excursion was to Williwaw Lakes, and you start out by hiking up the below ridge. If you look closely there are a few people up there on the snow - and as I always say, if the people are dots, you have a long way to go. It's not too hardcore, but still a workout, especially at the end:

You'd think that when you get up there, it goes back down on the other side. But, there a reason it's called a "false front". Once you get up there, it's another mile and three-quarters up to here - a nice little lake (or perhaps "tarn") near O'Malley Peak. This picture is actually from my FIRST trip up there, and I was pretty worn out and it was getting late/cold so I turned back. Nice destination, and a lot of ice for summertime:

Of course, in keeping with my "no research, all surprises" motto, I had no idea that if I went another quarter mile I could have seen a series of lakes/tarns in the valley below (a tarn is basically a lake left by a glacier).

So, I went back a few days later, and went a little farther up:

And got the view I missed the first time, including a tarn way out in the mountains visible to the right-center of the picture if you click to enlarge. As I mentioned in my Homer post, it's the joy of endless do-overs:

Two more updates coming soon...