Snowfields Forever

I'm still sitting on some good pics from last year and have slacked on posting! Special thanks to Andrea for inspiring me to dust off the cobwebs. Here are a couple pics from Portage Valley, just about an hour south of Anchorage. How about the P's coming up from sweltering STL to hike the year-round snowfield below Byron glacier!


Portage Valley - gorgeous! I think the P's agree.

Happy Winter Solstice!!!

The North Pole hits its farthest point from the sun at 8:30 pm my time....then it starts tilting back toward the sun already! It arrived sooooo fast this year! I had barely started to notice how dark it was and how weak the light was even when the sun was around.



Sunrise: 10:14 a.m. Sunset: 3:41 p.m.

Tommorow we'll gain about 1 minute of light. But by the third week of January, we'll be tilted back far enought to gain five minutes of sun a day, every day, all the way until Summer Solstice on June 21, 2012. By then we'll have about 15 hours more of sun than today. Wooohooo - something to look forward to every day!

NatFreakinGeo

I won't get the quote quite right, but the best bus driver I ever had in Denali Nat'l Park (you generally can't drive in there) said something to the effect that at the zoo they put the animals in cages and let the people wander around, and in DNP they put the people in cages and let the animals wander around. Very true.

Today every living animal in DNP was born during a time when buses ran in the park. So, to them, it's just part of the environment. The bear in front of the other bus in this pic, oblivious to that bus, and to the one occupied by me and my P's, is proof of that.


I've heard tell that some folks go to DNP and do a six, or eight, or up to twelve hour bus tour and see no animals to speak of. Yeeeouch!!! I've done the bus four times (once in 2006 before I lived here, once on my own in 2008, and twice hosting the P's in 2009 and 2011) and have always seen an abundance of wildlife. This last time with the P's we saw moose, caribou, fox, wolves, dahl sheep, over a dozen grizzlies, and more, all very close up.


We also saw the most incredible wildlife encounter I've ever seen, and will likely ever see. I have no pictures, just memories, because it was well within binocular range but outside camera range.

We were just the other side of an area called Polychrome Pass when we saw a grizzly bear lounging in the bushes way off in the distance down the ridge. We were stopped for a rest stop, and he was just chilling down there. As we left, before we knew it, he was on the move. Suddenly a white wolf appeared, and they seemed to be circling one another, but still 30 yards apart, and it really wasn't clear who was after who. Then it became apparent the wolf had something in its mouth, which it dropped as the grizzly circled. No doubt that was food, part of a fresh kill. Then, as the white wolf and the bear closed in on one another, seemingly out of nowhere, because I didn't see them coming, four more grey wolves appeared (some other observers said five) and surrounded the bear. It was completely surreal! Where did those other wolves come from! Then, for the fifteen minutes we got to watch, the bear would launch into a charge toward a wolf full speed, the wolves would scatter, then the wolves would re-establish an attack formation around the bear and he would pick one and charge full bore again. It was UNBELIEVABLE!!! Unfortunately, on the bus, you have to keep moving, so we left at that point and didn't get to see it all play out. These things can easily go on for well over an hour or more.

When we came back by a few hours later on the return trip the bear was back to chilling, I assume satisfied with whatever snack he stole from those wolves. A ways down we caught up with the white wolf (obviously the pack leader) trotting down a river bank back toward the den. I've seen a lot of things up here and I'll say it again - most incredible wildlife encounter I've ever seen, or will likely ever see.

Loved, and Lost

I took this picture June 10, 2008 to show $5.00 gas in Cantwell, Alaska in the middle of an oil crunch. Reflected is me, my camera, and my favorite gas station in America. And the fountain isn't even any good, and I'm a fountain soda aficionado.


You may or may not recognize the name Cantwell as the junction of the Parks Highway and my beloved Denali Highway, the expansive, spectacular area about 4.5 hours north of Anchorage featured many, many times on this blog, and soon to be featured again from a trip this fall. Cantwell isn't good for much more than gas, but the Cantwell Chevron became something more to me over the years. I always stop at the Chevron for gas (one of only two gas stations in town, and the one less likely to be featured in a horror movie "inspired by true events"), but while it may just seem like a fuel stop, you have to understand it's always been more than that for me. The last chance I have for the luxury of a restroom, for last minute supplies, and most importantly for cell phone service to let someone know where I'm going before it's too late, or to report I made it back OK. I don't think I can really explain it, but stopping at the Cantwell Chevron has always been part of an important tradition for me.

As of Sunday evening it's gone.


Gone, gone, gone. It exploded, but not from the tanks. Thankfully no one was killed. A 25 year old employee suffered burns while heroically running back in to save people. Five people were injured, I think three hospitalized. I hope they're OK.


I hope it comes back.

Super Troopers

So imagine you invite your parents out for a boating excursion on a nice summer day the third week of July. Now imagine the sales job involved to convince them to pack long johns, hats and gloves! Luckily my P's heeded the advice, and we comfortably had the great fortune to sail out of Seward and see glaciers, puffin, dall's porpoise, seals, stellar sea lions, otters, fin whales (huge, and new to me), and humpback whales.


What troopers! It's pretty much always cold on the water down there - third trip for me, second coldest.

I camped I think five times along Denali Highway last summer and it was always cold at night this year. The P's and I camped one night in Denali National Park (northwest of the DNH) when they were here. It was pretty warm at bedtime relatively speaking, but it did get pretty cold in the middle of the night there too, I must admit.


Deluxe accommodations for the P's to be sure in my old 4-person tent equipped with TWO fresh twin air mattresses, BUT I think it's safe to say the camping trips for the P's above the 63rd parallel have come to an end! I guess there's a reason so many people up here camp in RV's instead of on the ground....