Best Sign at a Trailhead Ever

Sign at trailhead - Tony Knowles Coastal Trail (Cook Inlet):

No Jacket Required

For the last several days, up to but not including yesterday, it was warm and gloriously sunny enough to be out around town in a T-shirt without so much as a jacket. Spring was in the air, and the sky was suddenly filled with winged flyers of both the feathered and fueled varieties, bound for adventures near and far. A pair of bald eagles soared over my head on the trail the other day so closely that I could hear the wind buzzing through their feathers. I stumbled, more closely than I would prefer, upon a huge bull moose with little protrusions where his massive antlers will soon take root. Bears, hungry and a bit grumpy, have awakened from their winter slumber. A pair of geese, as is the fashion this time of year, seem to have nested near my apartment. Ah yes, springtime...

Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa!!! It was supposed to rain on Friday! Cleansing, nourishing rain! Come on! Oh well, the amended forecast called for 6 or 8 inches of snow - no biggie...

Or, as it turned out, 19 INCHES IN ONE DAY!!! Holy Cow!!!

NINETEEN!!!

It was a heavy, wet snow, and it's melting fast. But still, we've had over 109 inches of snow this season, and I join the local chorus of "Enough Already"! You may be thinking "Well, it's Alaska", but, for the record, it's the snowiest April in Anchorage in recorded history.

Even the geese (literally in this photo) are gazing longingly southward back toward Canada.

But just before this storm I saw the first few tufts of green grass on the trail along the south-facing ridgeline above the Turnagain Arm, forcing their way up through the brittle, hollow remains of the year past. So hang in there, feathered friends.

It won't be long.

Flat Stanely, We Hardly Knew Ye

I was recently mailed a "Flat Stanley" from my niece's second grade class in St. Louis to document his "spring break" with me in Alaska. The story goes that Stanley was flattened by a falling blackboard, thus rendering him "Flat Stanley", and able to go places others cannot go (generally, via the U.S. mail, which you know, if you've been following along, is near and dear to my heart).

I, of course, took him into the beloved Chugach Mountains:

And, down to the Kenai, or as I call it, "God's Country":

As previously reported there is still a lot of snow around, especially down south. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but apparently Prince William Sound generates a lot of moisture for snowfall. Around here it has snowed three times this month, but now we have sunny days and balmy temps in the low 50's. I don't have the exact total, but it snowed over 90 inches for the "season" - to be honest, I hope that's it!!!

While I was down on the Kenai I cruised by the last campground I stayed in last year, and only about 4 or 5 inches of the stop sign at the entrance is visible above the snow. I guess it will be a while before it's time to camp down there again! Then again, we already have nearly 15.5 hours of daylight, so I think things will thaw out pretty quickly.

When I was out with little man I suddenly saw a bald eagle soaring right above the truck, so we pulled over to check it out:

It was quite windy, as you can see by the ruffled feathers. Call me old fashioned, but there is something thrilling about seeing bald eagles in the wild.

While the bears have been in hibernation (though by all accounts they are up and about now), there has been no rest for the moose. Quite luckily, a moose wandered into my apartment complex the last night Flat Stanley was in town:

We also hit the nearby Turnagain Arm. Now that the short, pale days of winter are behind us, it sure is sunny a lot of the time!

And check out these backcountry skiers:

That's near Turnagain Pass down on the Kenai - home of the backcountry skier and snowmachiner. Unfortunately, avalanches have claimed some lives down there this year, as they do every year. Bears have killed two people (in a single encounter) in Alaska since I've lived here - to my knowledge four people have been killed in avalanches.

You can see the ribbons in the snow from the skiers dowhill runs, and if you look closely, or click to enlarge, you can see two little dots on the horizon. Those are skiers climbing up. That is so cool to me - hike up, ski down.

As I told my P's, when I had Flat Stanley I felt like I had one of those eggs high schoolers are supposed to lug around without breaking them to prove what great parents they'll be. Well, high schoolers on TV sitcoms anyway. I mean, he was just paper and crayon, and AK is more suitable for at least cardboard! But, truth be told I very much enjoyed the project, and Flat Stanley will be missed. And forget lounging in the back of the truck - if running all over the place taking pictures of a paper doll doesn't make you too self conscious, you are truly free!

Flat Stanley, we hardly knew ye.

Don't try this at home

Whoooooooaaaaaaaaa boy.

These are not my pictures, but hit the news the other day from Kaktovik, AK, which is way up north on the Arctic Ocean. Apparently it's a popular spot to phtograph polar bears.

Bad:

Worse:


Life flashing before eyes:


WHU-OH!


i never heard the whole story, but apparently it all worked out. Wild pictures, but at what point do you think the shutterbug would get involved to distract the bear and at least let the dude get into the truck? Ever? Let's hope so.

I know polar bears are the poster-child of global warming right now, but make no mistake. If you are going to roll the dice in bear country, they are the LAST kind of bear you want to encounter. By all accounts from people who share habitat with them up north, they are big, they are vicious, and owing to their harsh environment they view pretty much any living thing as prey. That's a bad formula for a wildlife encounter.

I would really like to see them in the wild before they are gone.

From a distance!

April.................Showers?

Signs winter is fading and spring/summer conditions are on their way:

1. The sun rises before 7:00 am and doesn't set until after 9:00 pm (and we're gaining a total of about 6 minutes of sun per day).


2. I saw a motorcycle and a motorhome on the highway last week (ah yes, the motorhome - an Alaskan staple in the summer - unilaterally decreasing the speed limit on highways across the state from 65 to 45).


3. Daytime temps into the 40's (keep in mind at the height of summer they are generally only in the 60's), and overnight lows sometimes just barely below freezing if below at all.


4. Winter coats all around town tucked away in favor of spring jackets when the sun is out, which is more the rule than the exception. I even went T-shirt style on a recent hike on the south-facing ridge along Turnagain Arm because the sun was so intense I was sweating through my jacket at 34 degrees!

And then, I woke up on Saturday morning, looking forward to watching one of the annual sporting rites of spring, the Final Four, glanced out the window, and............D'OH!!!!

It just kept snowing and snowing all day/night!!! We set an all time record on Saturday for snowfall with 5.5 inches (crushing the previous record of 2.6) and wound up with a total of 9 inches by the next morning - in some areas it was over a foot!

It did give me a chance to partake of one of my new favorite activities on snowy nights - sitting in the back of my truck and watching the snow come down. You know how it is on snowy nights - nice and peaceful - and I unfortunately don't have a deck on my apartment. Does it make me look like a crazy person? Probably. Do I look too concerned?


And finally, by popular demand, a mug shot with the newly shortened hair:

Now there's a haircut you can set your watch to!