Extravagantly Green

Summer began the last couple of days.  Today is magnificent.  I went to a rally against guns in Fairview and here are a couple of shots of the bike trail.  It's the kind of green that first awed me on a half-day layover in Anchorage 51 years ago.  And made me susceptible to a job offer ten years later.

This is the Chester Creek bike trail (the Lanie Fleischer trail) and now I'm getting ready to go in the opposite direction on the Campbell Creek trail for a party for someone special turning two.

Been Raining, Creek's Rising, But Nothing Serious

Took advantage of a long break in the rain as well as in my lethargy to get on the bike and move my legs.  The rain's made an obvious difference on Campbell Creek.

Last time I looked, that picnic table was on gravel.  (This is near Campbell Creek park.)

I went on.



There was a bit a blue sky reflected in a puddle on the bike trail.















And when I got near the State Troopers Headquarters, I saw the only white stuff near the mountain tops was cloud.   It's September 23, and no termination dust so far.

Then up the new bike trail along Campbell Airstrip Road.  You can see a greener version of this spot about a month ago here.

I figured the bridge at the Campbell Airstrip trailhead would be a good place to turn around.  That gives me about 9 miles round trip.

Here is today's picture on top of one 11 days ago.  I wanted to compare the water levels.  If you click on the image, it will enlarge and sharpen and if you look carefully you can see differences in the water level.  But nothing like the picnic table.





Here's looking to the west from the bridge.  On this one the water level is more apparent.  The gravel bank is now an island, and there's white water along the left bank.  Again, clicking on it will enlarge it.









On the way home, I stopped on the viewing platform that just reopened a couple of weeks ago.  There's a little stream of water coming in from the east.  There's a much bigger one coming from the west (the creek flows basically east to west but has various loops.)


I'm not quite sure what I thought the many other times I've been at this spot.  Maybe it was the bright yellow/orange of the birch tree, but I focused on this little water way coming in from the left (east).  I wondered how Campbell Creek had gotten so small.


Then I looked right (west) to see the much larger flow of water.  I think I'd always thought this was a loop in the creek, but both bodies of water were flowing toward the platform and the little one essentially joined the bigger one.  Were these two different creeks?


Humility is a good trait.  All these years and I never even thought about this.






So when I got home I checked the maps.












The red is the reduced sized platform (see this post) with the boardwalk from the bike trail.  You can see clearly from the map the one from the east is the North Fork of Campbell Creek and the one from the west is the South Fork.  Unless you go out onto the platform, you never see the North Fork join the South Fork.






Below is a map of the Campbell Airstrip road a few miles east of the top map.  We still have both the north and south branches of the creek.  The bridge I took the pictures (above) from is the red rectangle going over the south fork.  The bike trail ends at the turnout for the Campbell Airstrip trailhead.  The new bike trail ends just before the bridge over the north fork of the creek.  I took that bridge picture for the post about the new bike trail.  The pics are there just to help anyone who's trying to connect the pictures and the location.

Click on image to enlarge

Moose Musings And Shiny New Bike Trail.

I figured it wasn't raining and the ground, while damp, wasn't splashy wet, so it was time to get on the bike before it started raining again.  Almost to the tunnel under Elmore, there was a moose in the path.

This is not an uncommon situation on the Anchorage bike paths.  This one saw me and kept moving into the brush.  But I wasn't sure if there was another one nearby.  It got about 15 feet off the trail and I decided that it was more interested in eating than chasing cyclists, so I went on by.

Further on I got to Campbell Airstrip Road and discovered the new bike path was completed.  There had been short stretches of bike path - a little on the east side for maybe half a mile up from Tudor and then a ways up more on the left side.  But like the road itself, it was in bad condition.  Earlier in the summer when I biked up here I saw them working on the road and what looked like a new bike path.  But since mid-July I had stuff to do downtown, so that took care of most of my biking and I realized I hadn't been up this way for about six weeks.

Well, now there's a spanking new bike trail, separated from the road.  As I enjoyed the crack and bump free trail, I also thought about why I sort of liked riding on the road.  This road dead ends and doesn't have a lot of traffic.  There are some trail heads, and after a few miles through the woods, there is a scattering of houses.  This is also bear country in the summer.  They like the salmon that come up Campbell Creek.  I have never seen a bear here, but this is their territory.  And this has been the summer of bears in Anchorage.  I've never seen so many people carrying bear spray on hikes and even on the bike trails in the middle of town.  So being on the road means that if I encounter a bear, there should be a car coming by within a couple of minutes.  But now much of the trail can't be seen from the road easily.

As I was thinking about all this I did encounter this cat, still clearing debris on the side of the trail

The new trail is done, pretty much.  They're still working on the road.  They both go just about to the bridge before the Campbell Airstrip Trailhead.  Here's a picture as I came back.  I was on the little bit of the old bike trail that's left.

The new trail ends where the saw horses are on the other side of the bridge.

So, as I was biking back home, I thought about whether the moose would still be in the area.  I also thought about the guy I heard on KSKA's New Arrivals program this morning.  He'd been in Anchorage about a month and he has a degree in assisting the blind.  Too bad my friend Lynne moved out of town last fall.  He sounds like he'd be a good resource.  But he mentioned seeing his first moose and swallowing a scream.

My experience is that most urban moose are used to humans as long as we act predictably.  We can pass by them pretty close - 5-10 feet even - if we stay on the trail, or the road, and just keep going in the direction we're headed.  The only time I've seen a moose charge someone was when a small crowd of people stopped on the bike trail and started getting closer to the moose to take pictures.  She did a fake charge and scared the hell out of them - one was a friend of mine who wouldn't listen to my pleas to get back.   (You reading this Doug?)

I'd recommend a much greater distance than five feet, but there have been plenty of times when I was running or biking and didn't see the moose as much as felt its presence as I was going by and then saw it as I turned my head.  It would just keep on eating.  Last winter I shoveled the driveway in the early morning darkness and when I got to the bottom and turned around, there were two moose eating the Mountain Ash tree just a few feet from the driveway.  I pulled back and let them wander off, before I went back up the driveway.

And earlier this summer I passed a mom and two calves.  The mother was right on the edge of the path, but by the time I saw her, it was too late to stop and there wasn't any other way to go, so I just rolled on by.

So I was thinking all this as I came out of the tunnel near where I'd seen the moose earlier and there it was again on the trail.

This time, there was an easy detour that would get me back onto the trail just beyond where the moose was and I took it.  [Well, it was available the first time too, but I would have had to backtrack and the moose was calmly eating far enough off the trail anyway.]

And as I kept riding, I kept thinking about moose and bikes, and I suddenly realized that there was another moose about five feet to my left as I rode past.  The moose didn't even wiggle its ears as I went by.  I didn't stop to take a picture of that one.

Hanging Out With My Granddaughter

I stayed with the car while J went into the baggage area.  Then she came out carrying my granddaughter who then ran to me and gave me a great big, long hug.  As I've posted before, not ever having met any of my own grandparents, I didn't realize what I was missing.  We have lots planned for her visit. 

Today we tried out the new bicycle trailer.  Last year we borrowed the kind that's like a stroller attached to the back of a bike.  This time I got a bike off Craigslist that attaches to my seat stem.  I told her she can't fall asleep this time - she's got to keep her hands on the handle bars and feet on the peddles. She hasn't mastered riding a bike on her own and I was completely sure how this was going to work out.  

But as soon as I started pedaling, everything was just fine.  She was totally delighted.  We got to Campbell Creek and stopped on the bridge to check for salmon.  

Here's the bike with the trailer attached under the seat.  We did eventually have some problems because it wasn't attached tightly enough.  No danger of it coming off, but it twisted to left and I'd here, "I'm sideways" and we'd stop and and adjust it.  

I hadn't seen any salmon yet this summer, but there they were today.   I don't have a polarizing filter on my little camera - I don't think I can even put a filter on it.  But there are six or seven reddish shapes under the water above the white water around the rocks.  They were easier to see in the original and you might do better if you click on the picture, or just check the picture below.   It was like they were daring each other to be the first to try to break through. We waited about five minutes - which is like an hour for a four year old - and then we rode on.

At the next bridge the fish were easier to see.  

If you start in the lower left corner and look up toward the middle along the plants, you should see the reddish shapes in the water.  By this time though, the attachment was getting looser and the trailer was shifting more frequently, so we turned back and went to the playground by Lake Otis.  Kids playgrounds have gotten much more interesting and much safer over the years and she had a great time exploring.  This playground also has one of those community library boxes and she got some books and we read a while.  

By then, the trailer was getting looser so we walked the bikes home.  I need to tighten it better.  But we made some lunch and ate on the deck.  Z has a little sprayer and is spraying everything with water.  I had thought she might find the crossword puzzle interesting.  Her vocabulary is big enough that she'd get some of it.  After I filled in a few, she wanted the pen, and to my surprise wrote in the letters.  It was slow and they weren't always facing the right direction, but she did do it.  I can read them anyway, but I know what she was trying to write.  Like 10 down is GRAB. I had to tell her the letters.

I'd show you some playground pictures, and I wouldn't have cut off the rest of the bike in the first picture, but grandchild pictures are off limits.  Which is fine.  There are some strange people lurking out there - none of my regular readers, of course.  Well, maybe a few.  Here's a picture of the bike trailer when I bought it.  

(Another) Why I Live Here: 'Forest Bathing' With The Moose

At my check up last week the doctor asked for a routine blood test, but I had eaten, so I had to come back on an empty stomach.  That was today.  I was in and out in ten minutes.  It was gray out and I could either ride back straight home or get in a real ride.  So I headed toward the Campbell Creek bike trail.

Besides the physical benefits of riding the bike, there's also a lot to be said for the mental benefits of being in the woods.  And as I stopped to google for some back up on that statement, I got this (among many other hits): 

"Numerous studies in the U.S. and around the world are exploring the health benefits of spending time outside in nature, green spaces, and, specifically, forests. Recognizing those benefits, in 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries even coined a term for it: shinrin-yoku. It means taking in the forest atmosphere or "forest bathing," and the ministry encourages people to visit forests to relieve stress and improve health." (emphasis added)

It goes on to detail eight specific health benefits:

• Boosts immune system
• Lowers blood pressure
• Reduces stress
• Improves mood
• Increases ability to focus, even in children with ADHD
• Accelerates recovery from surgery or illness
• Increases energy level
• Improves sleep

I know that I feel much better after a bike ride, and even better after a ride that was mostly on the wooded bike trail.  Today I noticed a brown mass out of the corner of my eye as I road along the creek and stopped to check out the moose across the water.  

And then I noticed there was another, little one.  Note, the moose didn't want their faces to appear on the blog.

Even on a gray day, I can take a delicious visual bite of the creek and the intense green of the trees and undergrowth. 

At Taku Lake I could see the rain drops' ripples.  But it didn't come down hard enough to even wet the trail.  

On my way back I stopped to see if the moose were still there.  All I could see were two ears.

I don't have a lot of posts called why I live here, and surely this is the first time I have two in a row.  But it's how I felt as I rode along.  This is what keeps me here in Anchorage, this easy access to all this beauty.  

Bread Print, No blue, Remaining Ice [UPDATED]

My bread recipe calls for parchment paper under the loaf.  Here's the bread print on the parchment.







And the bread itself.  (I know, they don't look like they match.  I think if I had turned the bread around it would fit better.)


I've been doing chores inside and outside.  There's one tulip bud and lots of other things are poking up out of the ground.  The irises, some lilies, and other things were exposed as I started raking the mulch off the flower beds and moving it up the compost pile.





Also had some printer problems.  It stopped printing blue.  I checked at Office Depot where we bought it about five years ago and they sent me to Lewis and Lewis on Fireweed where I could buy a new printhead for $65 with no guarantee that it would fix the problem.  And even if it did, the machine was old

by their standards and something else could go wrong.  And new ones that did all the stuff my old one can do - wifi, copy, scan, fax, color, etc. - are now available for a little more than the $65 printhead.

It's the magenta and cyan printhead on the right in the picture there.

He did suggest pulling out the printhead and cleaning it, but that didn't work.

So at Costco today I checked what they had.  The HP's started at $59!  (A whole printer for less than the printhead.  Something about our system seems pretty cockeyed.)  I ended up with one for $119.

It took less than 30 minutes to get it out of the box, plugged in, connected to the wifi and to download the appropriate software for my laptop and print.  I haven't tried anything with blue yet.  So there's now a five year old printer looking for a new home.  The blue doesn't work and other things could start to go wrong any time.  But surely someone can use it.

[UPDATE April 28, 2017:  I tried color on the new printer - picture letters to my grandkids.  It worked.  Then I made an envelope.  But the computer chose the old computer and printed the envelope on a page.  With BLUE.  So, it appears, eventually, the blue got back into the system.]

And yesterday I checked out the bike trail along Campbell Creek, east of Lake Otis.  It's all clear of snow now.  But there is still ice on the creek itself.

Early Fall Bike Ride - Old UAA Trail Reopened

Got in a bike ride yesterday afternoon while the sun was out.  We're clearly moving into fall as the leaves change.

A week or so ago when the temps dropped and it rained, I expected there to be termination dust* on the mountains when the clouds cleared.  But there wasn't any I could see.  And as you can see, it's still that way.

And here's a view from the trail that connects the east and west sides of the UAA campus - north of the student center and sports center.  The trail was blocked at the east end for two years because the put up a new parking garage at that end.

Imagine shutting down a well used street for that long.  Well, bikes and pedestrians don't matter.  They just have to live with it.

But it's open again, though instead of woods, there's a parking garage.  The gate was closed so I don't think the garage is open yet.  But from what I could see, they haven't really thought out very clearly how the bikes and cars are supposed to interact at that point.  Maybe they'll paint some lines, we'll see.  The windows in the picture are on a pedestrian bridge from the parking garage to the building that used to be the engineering building.
[UPDATE Sept 20, 2016:  I was wrong. Went by again today and they do have lines and a lane for bikes to avoid the cars.]

*termination dust is an Anchorage term for the first snow on the mountains signaling the end of summer

Small Changes - New Library Entrance And Park Parking

Some big, small changes in town.

First, the Consortium Library at UAA now has a north entrance.  From the day they opened the remodeled library it was obvious that they needed another door.  Anyone parking north of the library has to walk about 1/3 of a mile to get to the entrance.  No matter where you park, it's a schlep to the entrance.  I think walking is healthy and al that, but for someone with difficulty walking, particularly in the winter, that's a big deal.

They finally have a new north entrance.  I saw a north entrance sign in the library and looked in amazement.  I followed the arrow and low and behold there was a new entrance and a new spot to check out books for people using that entrance.  How long has this been here I asked.  Just a few days.

[Yes, I know the arrow doesn't point toward the entrance the way I meshed three pictures together.  I could have put it on the right and played with the perspective, but I wanted the check out desk to be clearly visible.  The rotated image in the middle was from further back.  The background picture is near the new door.]

When they first opened the remodeled library I was told a second door would have been too expensive to maintain.  That was when the price of oil was double or more what it is now.  I wonder how long they'll fund someone to check out books at this door.  People better use it a lot.  I'm guessing it was planned before the state budget tanked.

Second, there's a new parking lot at Campbell Creek park just south of Tudor and Lake Otis.  I first saw it from the bike trail not quite two weeks ago.  I was aghast.  Does this park really need more parking?  I guess there are a few times when it gets full, but I'd bet 90% or more of the time there are empty spaces.  And to take trees out for this?

But in the back of my head there was an image of a clearing at this spot, maybe some old maintenance building or something, but it had trees along the bike trail (the old one that cuts from Lake Otis to the easterly bridge.  I never understood why they build a second pedestrian bridge so close to the old one.)  I guess you'll have to go from the parking lot to the old bike trail and across the old bridge to the playground.  Or perhaps you can walk along Lake Otis Parkway to the new bridge.

I checked on google maps to see what was there before.  It looks like a late March or early April image with the creek and the bike trail still iced, but the rest of the snow gone.

And yes, there was a clearing with some sort of building(s) on it - in the green circle.  The playground is where the marker is and you can see the existing parking lot below it.

Salmon Back In Campbell Creek

My three year old granddaughter had two goals for her first trip to Alaska.

• To climb a mountain and touch a cloud.
• Go biking with grandpa.

Sunday she got to climb up a mountain at Arctic Valley and a cloud touched her.  

Yesterday some friends brought a child carrier and hooked it to my bike, but they didn't have a helmet for her.  There were some tears.  We did a little short practice ride and that was ok.  Then when she was in bed, her brother and I went out and bought a child's helmet.  

This morning we had our ride scheduled.  And even thought it was raining, we were headed out.  And when we crossed one of the bridges on Campbell Creek, we stopped to see if the salmon were running.  And low and behold, they were.  One of the wonders that makes living in Anchorage so special.  

I wasn't sure my little camera would be able to catch the fish through the reflection and under the water, but with a little computer help - higher contrast and saturation - you can see them just fine.  Riding in the light rain was great!  We both had a wonderful time.  

Why I Live Here - Chester Creek (Lanie Fleischer) BikeTrail

I had a workshop at Rural Cap yesterday and since it was sunny out I figured it would be an easy bike ride.  And it was though there were a few spots where the trail was icy - some bridges and along Gambell. 

Riding home, particularly, I was reminded how wonderful our trail system is, at least for those traveling in the areas there are these trails.  Right in the middle of the city you are out of traffic, away from buildings, in the woods, on a trail that serves not just recreational users, but also people going to work and other errands. 

Here's the lake just before you get to the tunnel under Lake Otis Parkway.   The ducks and gulls seemed to be enjoying themselves.














And here's the trail as it skirts Goose Lake and then gets to UAA.

As I rode along this route, I realized how infrequently I see this now that I'm not running any more.  I used to go on the first part of this trail twice a week and the other portion once a week.  While regular daily exercises have gotten me to the point where my Achilles tendon doesn't interfere with walking any more, I'm not ready to push it for running.  When I've tried, it's been a problem.  So I've switched to bike rides, and the best trail for that near the house is the Campbell Creek trail, not Chester Creek.  Also a beautiful trail, but they offer different experiences.  Chester, along this part, is more birch and Campbell is more small Spruce and Chugach views.

If you look carefully at the shadows in these photos, you can see it's late October.  The sun crosses the sky fairly low to the south and the shadows go to the north.  But it will get lower still over the next several months. 

It's Not A Cristo - It's Lanie Fleisher Chester Creek Bike Trail Construction Closure

I noticed - how could I not - the orange material on the edge of the bike trail as I rode home yesterday from the LIO.  It looked like pretty nice material, but it didn't really look like a Christo art installation.

Yesterday on the way home there were some construction folks so I asked.

They are, if I understood this right, going to take out the old bike trail and completely redo it with jogging paths along the sides.  The trail certainly could use some repairs, but I couldn't help but think that they would close down the major streets completely for repairs all summer, and the Chester Creek bike trail is the Seward Highway of bike trails in Anchorage.  He said there'd be detour signs and routes.  We'll see.

I asked how long it would take.  He's got 70 days he said.  That's most of the summer here in Anchorage.  They'll do it in sections, he told me, so it won't all be closed at once.  It would be nice if they did this continuously - one short section per summer - and when they were done after, say ten years, they'd start over to keep the trail in good shape.  But I guess securing money over time like that isn't likely.

Anyway, I understood that the portion that's got the curtains - Maplewood west to near the Juneau Street spur - will be shut down on Tuesday for work to begin.  Actually, probably from Lake Otis west. 

I didn't know anything about this, but I found the plans online.  It seems they sent out notices to people who live along the trail.  But lots of folks use the trail who don't live along them.  Signs along the trail might be a good way to let cyclists, runners, and other trail users know about the planning phases.

Here's a link to the written documentation.  It's not at all clear which parts they will do when.

Here's a link to the maps documentation.  Again, not terribly clear about timing.

This is a huge file, so you can click on it and see it much bigger

Phase 1 was completed last summer.  It's beyond my regular routes, so I didn't notice.  

The whole project this summer goes from Arctic to the Arc (near Debarr).  The section near the Arc really, really needs to be repaired.  The roots damage there is horrendous.  And where I was, there are regular big bumps where the asphalt has contoured around pipes underneath. 

Bike Break Along Campbell Creek

I took a break from reading student papers yesterday afternoon to check the bike trail along Campbell Creek from Lake Otis to Campbell Airstrip Road. 

All the snow and ice are totally gone from the trail.  But there's still some ice along the creek itself.  But it was nice to be out. 

This spot has flows coming from two directions.  You can see it flowing in from under the ice.

 

Enjoying The Pre-Equinox Sun

September 22 will be the fall equinox, when everywhere around the world will have the same amount of daylight and night.  That does, of course depend on where you are.  It's on September 23 Greenwich Mean Time.

In Anchorage the clouds and rain that have been here over a week gave way to sunshine and big puffy clouds.  My little guy is visiting from SF and was out with his parents, so I took off on my bike to move my muscles a bit. 

Campbell Creek, near Lake Otis