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...

"The Americans? We're Going To Smash Them"

The above quote is from Frenchie swimmer Alain Bernard. Par le vous médaille d’argent, Frenchie?

If you didn't see the finals of the Men's 4x100m freesytle swimming relay, make it happen.

And not just the highlights, the whole race. A true scream at your TV, run around your living room moment. Unbelievable.

USA!

Bear Country? Bear City.

The weather has actually been pretty nice the last 10 days or so overall, and I have a couple of updates I haven't gotten around to, but I have to relate one quick story in the meantime.

Okay, Okay, I'll toss up a teaser picture of posts to come so I don't lose you with a picture-less (versus picture-esque) post:

Whoa - that's nice territory. That will be coming up two posts from now.

So anyway, today a funny thing happened. I was coming back from the above pictured trip and stopped along Turnagain Arm because I could see it was cloudy ahead, and thought I might extend the sun & fun a bit longer by stopping to read for a while. Innocent enough. Parked in the second tier of three parking lots (it's a developed, and well-attended area), walked, oh maybe 20 yards from the car to check out some benches, then decided I was really just ready to head home.

Started to walk back to the truck, noticed a big group of touristas at the far end of the lot huddled behind a van and wondered what was up, then heard the call:

BEAR!

Not the most fluid exchange, because half of them seemed to be pointing to where the bear was, and the other half to where I should go, so I initially had no clue what was up and must have looked like one of those cowboys in a western movie when the villain shoots at their feet and yells "Dance"!

Anyway, I'm trying to back off, then I see the bear, and it is a VERY young black bear, in my estimation WAY too young to be on his own unless his momma has met with an unfortunate end. Generally, when you see a cub - be afraid - be very afraid - because a protective mother is nearby. So I backed off a bit, it went into some trees/shrubs at the front edge of the lot - no harm no foul.

But go figure - I'm on guard all the time while hiking or camping (well, most of the time). Then I do a little innocent stop, in a sea of pavement, and suddenly there is a freaking bear between the truck and I, the truck where I have left my TWO canisters of bear spray AND my gun!!! Proof positive - there is nowhere up here you can ever say "There is no way a bear will be here".

Bonehead moment of the week: the aforementioned touristas, after the little blackie went into the trees, immediately walked over to said trees to see where he went and maybe try for some photo ops. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm - do not try that at home. Again - there is no worse feeling than seeing a bear cub and not seeing the mom, because you do not under any circumstances want to get between them.

I know I mentioned the increased bear problems this summer before - for the record, there have been three hospital stay-inducing attacks in the last four days, the most recent one in the same urban park where a 15-year old cyclist was critically injured six weeks ago. And at the time that was the FIRST bear attack within the actual city EVER, and it has already happened again. Forgive me, but I want to reiterate that fact - the FIRST mauling in town EVER in history, and it's already happened AGAIN a month and a half later. As the police sergeant on the latest case said in the paper: "You get between a sow and its cubs and a sow's gonna do what a sow's gonna do." I guess tourists don't read the paper.

EDIT: Since I wrote the above yesterday, it happened AGAIN today!!! I stopped at a little lake in a park right here in town on my way to the gym to read for a bit because it was so nice out. There were literally 25 people out there, 15 of them screaming kids, but I decided to stop for a while anyway. Then about a half-hour in some dude is suddenly yelling, and two black bears come right down out of the woods like nothing, and I'm telling you there was like a six-year-old kid by a little free life jacket stand and they were within 20 feet of him, with people shouting for someone to grab that kid! It took lots of shouting but the bears finally retreated back into the woods, and after one of them started to retreat, I swear it took a couple hops back toward the crowd then changed its mind. I, again, had NOTHING with me because there's no WAY bears are going to come around with all that racket right? Yeah, right. A couple people had bear spray and one had a gun. The same bears emerged on the other side of the lake 20 minutes later for a swim. New rule: ALWAYS BE ARMED in one way or another when outside friendly confines!

No Fluke

Let's see...where were we? Oh yeah, shaking fists at heavens...Right, right, right.

Very much to my delight my buddy Josh, whom I've known since high school, came up for a visit. And despite the cloudy, rainy weather which continues its clammy grip on the North (save for one day) we had a really nice time. We got around town and did some good sightseeing, sometimes in the rain, and also hit the firing range for some good old fashioned fun (and potentially life-saving practice for me).

Ahhhhh - the Peacemaker (as I call it) - friend, confidant, last line of defense. I actually hadn't been to the range in a while and was pretty pleased with my performance, and Josh is a crack shot. When a box of fifty Colt .45 bullets (which are fine for range practice, but too weak for bear defense) costs $38, it gets a little pricey to go too often when you add in the $9 range fee and consider how quickly you burn through fifty bullets. The much more powerful bullets that actually go with the gun and that I actually load while hiking/camping (.454 Casull) are about the same price, but for only twenty bullets! As you can see the only range in town is outdoors (run by the state), with a series of stations with wood tables, and you have to tape your own targets on the stands you pick up on the side of the range. On the other side of that berm is the Cook Inlet, in case you "Aim High" at the wrong time.

The only ranges I had been to before I moved here were indoor ranges like you see on TV or in the movies where you just press a button to reel in the target, take a look, and zoom another one out into the range. Here you WALK the target out there yourself!!! You heard me right - you WALK downrange to place your own target! As the guy in the office where you check in says, "It's up to you to negotiate your own cease fires" with the other shooters before going out there. And while I really, really sincerely appreciate the fact he used the phrase "negotiate your own cease fires", firearm safety is no laughing matter! I've been there a bunch of times and am old school now, but the first time I went last year I sat and watched for quite a while to get the system down. Seems crazy, but you really rely on the other people to know what's going - I guess it's not that different from the way you trust people to drive on their own side of the road and stop at red lights. On second thought, maybe that's a bad comparison.

We did have one local day of sun, which all things considered was quite lucky, and Josh and I headed out on the Glenn Highway toward Glennallen, which is a spectacular stretch of road. I didn't take too many pics, but thought I'd toss up a couple (totally forgot to put one up of Matanuska Glacier - I'll do it next time).

Your humble servant, hard at work, unphased by the baby moose carcass in the background:

There are really cool mountains/rock formations out on the Glenn - and it's pretty much wilderness out there - no real towns to speak of. Lots of multi-colored scenery though:

Which upon closer inspection reveals what I see as a green mountain, then red, then gray, then black. As Josh noted, there is such variety in terrain up here. I have no idea how that happens, here in such close proximity, but am glad it does. If you saw this picture elsewhere would you guess "Alaska"?

I would say the highlight of the trip for me was a Kenai Fjords Tours cruise out of Seward. (Although I also enjoyed eating, on three occasions, delicious Alaskan halibut, considering I heretofore was no fan of seafood. That seems to be changing, though.) I did a Kenai Fjords Tour on my trip here in 2006, and it is a GREAT value at $129 for a six-hour glacier and wildlife viewing tour. I'd HIGHLY recommend it if you ever come to AK. Yes, you.

We originally had a morning tour scheduled, but switched it to the afternoon so we (meaning I) wouldn't have to get up so early to drive down there. It's about a 2.5 hour drive, but you have to allow for at least three in case you hit a snag or want to stop to take pictures. We did the 3:00 p.m. tour, but it sure looks like morning to me in this pic from the harbor. Seward is on Resurrection Bay, which is protected like a fortress from the outlying North Pacific Ocean, and enjoys year-round freedom from ice due to warm currents. Cloudy, but still beautiful - our boat is on the left:

Most unexpected turn of the trip - completely socked-in on land, but out at sea:

Warm, life affirming sun!

It's been so rare this summer, that when it comes out you stop in your tracks, close your eyes, and lay your head back to soak it in.

The tour we took normally takes you to Aialik Glacier, as it did in 2006, but sometimes opts for the closer Holgate Glacier if you spend extra time marine wildlife viewing along the way, which we happily did. Holgate to me looks very much like Aialik, pretty imposing even from a 1/4 mile away (for safety, you can't get too close in case a huge chunk cleaves off and swamps your ship).

Holgate Glacier was actually kind of cool too because there is a nice side glacier to the left:

No Kenai Fjords Tour is complete without an Alaskan Amber beer on the bow - I have pictures of myself and my buddy Jeff doing the same in 2006. And if you come, at least if you're with me, you'll do the same. We stayed outside the whole time - you may note that it's still Alaska, and you better layer up and wear a warm hat out there!

If you do go, you are sure to see Puffin, an Alaskan favorite.

Very exotic, regal looking birds I think.

The lighting in the below pic is totally off because I use manual settings on my camera (versus the presets like "landscape" or "portrait") and was taking a picture of something else at the time, but managed to turn quickly and catch a Puffin in flight right next to the boat - I think with a snack in its mouth. They are really funny birds - they can fly (as you can see), but barely. As our ship captain said, if they've just eaten, they are too darn heavy to lift off, try as they might. On many occasions you'll see one in the water right in front of the boat beating and pounding those wings like crazy, but unable to get out of the water. But just when all hope seems lost, they dive under the water to escape the crashing bow, much to the relief of all on board!

You are also sure to see Stellar Sea Lions out there, which are endangered, and certainly make a ruckus with all their barking!

Pretty cool - check out the size of that bad boy second from the left:

Looks like a few battle scars on these guys too - the one at right looks pretty relaxed - kind of like a dog on a lazy summer afternoon:

We also had an awesome experience watching some Dall's Porpoise, which look like mini-killer whales due to with their black and white coloring. There were about five of them that did that cool swimming with the boat, jumping out of the water thing that dolphins do. It is amazing how effortlessly they speed through the water and turn on a dime. The crew had us all whooping and hollering and clapping, saying that they are very curious animals and the more noise we made the more they'd stick around, which really did seem to work. I don't have any pics of that - I was just enjoying it. Sometimes in fleeting moments you really just have to put the camera away and live it.

Which brings us to my favorite, long-awaited sight. When you see lots of birds, there must be lots of food in the water:

And who needs lots of food? Humpback whales! We saw three on the way out, then a couple on the way back in (maybe the same ones). Here's one poking its barnacled snout straight up out of the water:

As the captain said, this one was "fat and happy" after plenty of feeding, rolling in the water to expose the white underside of his pectoral fins, and dragging lots of kelp:

And back right side up:

And upside down again:

Kind of nice background scenery as well I think. It's amazing to think these humpbacks do nearly all of their feeding for the year up here - when they return to their breeding grounds in warmer waters (like Hawaii, our non-contiguous brother to the west), there is nearly nothing for them to eat.

I know what you're thinking - where's the obligatory fluke (tail) out of the water shot? I saw it happen at least half a dozen times, the last the most spectacular and emblazoned forever up on my memory. But I have zero pictures of it. I've wanted to see humpback whales in the wild my whole life. Now I have, with my own eyes, and the last thing I wanted to do was to get mired in looking through the camera, instead of just living it. Thus the title of this post.

In fact, come to think of it, I listed a number of goals on my original roadtrip blog at http://www.upperoneroadie.blogspot.com/. To review, the List:

1. See the Northern Lights - check.

2. See humpback whales in the wild - check.

3. Check out the Iditarod - check.

4. Hike a lot - check.

5. Put my hand in the Arctic Ocean - pending.

6. Experience wildlife, safely - check (knock on wood).

7. Enjoy a nice sunny night (Solstice above the Arctic Circle) - check.

8. Go back to the Denali Highway/Tangle Lakes - check.

Seven of eight in just over a year - pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

Oh, and speaking of the loud, barking sea lions, does anyone remember those Bud Light "Wazzzzzzuuuuuuuppp" commercials?

"Gloomy Summer Headed Toward Infamy"

That's the top headline today Anchorage Daily News website: "Gloomy Summer Headed Toward Infamy". Well, it was the lead story until another grizzly bear attack left a summer lodge worker down on the Kenai in critical condition. Attacked 25 yards from the lodge on the way back from a hike - that is just not fair. Think about how close 25 yards is. A guest heard screaming and ran out to find a bear with the girl's head in its mouth and yelled and waved his arms around and thankfully convinced the bear to leave, likely saving a life by putting his own at peril. Lots of bear problems this year - three extremely serious near fatal attacks I know of, and many other less life-threatening encounters. And lots of bears having to being killed right here in Anchorage too - in the 90's it averaged 2 or 3 per year, but in recent years has been as high as 21. We're up to 17 already this year and very likely to set a new record before all is said and done. One or two of those bear kills are vehicle-related, but the vast majority are bears that must be killed (using our trusty guns) to protect humans. Crazy summer (or so-called "summer") - and COLD:

The 70+ and 75+ degree days no one really cares about, especially at this point - if you have anything starting with a "6" and a little sun it's plenty warm. But we have an average of 44 days above 65 degrees, and this year there have been 7? SEVEN! And the real killer is lack of 60+ degree days - an average of 88 days and we've had only 35. Sixty degrees is not that much to ask for! It starts cooling off here in August, and something tells me we don't have 50 more days of 60+ weather coming! And by my count it's been sunny three whole days out of the possible 24 in July so far, pretty much on par with June. Yeeeeesh!

And can you tell me what in the hell this forecast image is supposed to mean for tomorrow?

Even the weatherman has given up! So let's see, it could be cloudy, could be sunny, could rain. Way to go out on a limb, weatherman! If they could have fit a little graphic of the hand of God reaching down from the heavens they could have had all their bases covered. And 69 degrees tomorrow? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! As of right now, 3:40 p.m. on July 24, they are still showing a predicted high today of 61. As of right nnnnnnnow, 3:41 p.m, it's 52. It was in the 40's until lunch. At exactly what point is it going to skyrocket 9 or 10 degrees and get up to 61??? Near 70 tomorrow? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! On behalf of all of Anchorage, thank you weatherman, we really needed a good laugh! They need to do their little forecast models, then subtract about 5-7 degrees because they are high by that much nearly every day.

Whew, I feel better now. My real reason for posting, before an unplanned weather rant, is because while the purpose of this blog is primarily to serve you, the faithful reader, it's also a log for me so I can go back and see what was going on when.

So, for the record, IT FREAKING SNOWED LAST NIGHT!!! Not at city level of course, but in the Chugach Mountains at the edge of town. I looked it up (see, this personal "log" thing is coming in handy already), and last year it snowed up there for the first time on September 14, noted in the blog post titled "It Happened One Night". I sound excited about the first snow of the season in that post. I am considerably less excited about snow on July 23rd!

So, we basically aren't having a summer this year. That could hurt come winter. Why have things gone so topsy-turvy? Ocean temperatures basically. They say cooler waters off of Peru, which has been the case this year, leads to a "La Nina" weather pattern, keeping it cool up here. But there is some good news - they say those waters are warming, so we should have a warmer than normal October to December. I'll start stocking up on sunscreen and beach blankets right away! Then again, these are the same people saying it's going to be near 70 tomorrow!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Don't worry, I have a much more cheery post coming soon about last week's activities, which includes something I had always wanted to see and had never seen before. This picture, featuring me shaking my fist with contempt at mother nature, fits better here, and may give a clue as to the subject of my forthcoming post.