Bicyclists Getting A Little More Respect This Year From DOT

Last Saturday when I biked over to the Japanese Summer Festival, I noticed that for once, the Department of Transportation was thinking about cyclists and even gave us some benefits cars didn't get.  I knew there was construction on the Campbell Creek trail under the Seward Highway and at Dowling and I decided to take surface streets to avoid that.  But going south on C Street from Tudor, I saw there was a detour at Potter.

BUT, while cars were forced to go right or left because C Street was closed, the bike path on the west side of C Street was open, allowing me to keep to my route.  And it was marked too.  This is something that didn't use to happen.  But clearly someone had to have thought about this and said, "Well, we can leave the bike trail open."  Hey, humor me, I measure progress in very small increments.

On the way home, without having to worry about time, I picked up the Campbell Creek trail at its terminus near Dimond High School. 


The cow parsnip was in full bloom along the path.  This picture of the creek along the trail should give you a sense why I was willing to add a mile to my (now seven mile) trip back to be on the trail instead of the city streets. 

Under Minnesota the creek had flooded and the trail was covered in mud and water.  Fortunately there were some drier spots (on the left.)







But then it was beautiful again.

At Taku Lake  (I posted a video of the beaver I saw there already), there was also this duck dock right near the trail. So much nicer that navigating the sidewalks and intersections. 








But soon I was nearing Dowling and getting curious how I was going to get past the construction.  I needn't have worried.  There was a big sign blocking the path, but pointing out a detour.  In the past, there just would have been a sign blocking the path with no help for the cyclist to navigate around the blockage.  But this detour led to the construction site (Dowling Road) where a flagger got me and a pedestrian past the heavy equipment and around to another flagger who directed me to more signs that led me easily back to the bike path.

At Old Seward Highway, after the Arctic Road Runner near the Peanut Farm, the signs aren't quite as helpful.  There they say the trail is blocked at Seward Highway and direct you to take Tudor or Dowling.  There, you really have to know how to find the bike trail yourself.  You have to wander through the neighborhoods to pick it up after the creek crosses under the New Seward Highway, where they are widening the road and raising the bridges over the creek and where, by the end of next summer they say, there will be a real bike trail under the highway.  Now, from Tudor, looking south, the construction looks like this.

When the trail goes under Dowling and New Seward when this construction is done, you'll be able to bike from Dimond and Northwood to University Lake between APU and the Native Hospital (about 7.5 miles) with only having to cross one street (Lake Otis).  It mostly follows Campbell Creek going under or over bridges at other roads.   And I found this cool 2009 video by MijelRiak that takes you on the trail from New Seward Highway to Dimond and Northwood.  (Where the video crosses the street is Dowliing, where the construction is now.)

June Ends, July Begins - Cottonwood, Construction, Contentment

 A breeze blew the cottonwood seeds from our big tree in the afternoon.  Fortunately, we don't have cottonwood allergies.  (For a lot more on cottonwood, here's an old post on this untapped Alaska resource.)

Later we went got onto the Seward Highway at Tudor.  The highway is being widened and the four bridges over Campbell Creek are going to be raised and a real bike trail constructed under the roads (including the frontage roads on each side.)
This is the on-ramp merging into the highway.

We had dinner with old friends who moved to New Zealand but are back in town visiting.  They are staying above Potter Marsh and the time flew as we talked about many things.  It was after midnight as we went home and I stopped for this view of Turnagain Arm, Potter Marsh, and Mt. Susitna.

Taku Lake Beaver and Campbell Creek Bike Trail Improvements

Riding home on the Campbell Creek bike trail from last night's book club meeting near Campbell Lake, I saw a big brown lump swimming through the water of Taku Lake carrying a good sized piece of wood in its mouth.








It was clear that he had been busy for a while.  There were quite a few of these chewed off tree stumps. 






A couple of big cottonwoods showed the early chewing of a beaver, but someone had put wire around the trunk before it got too far.

The beaver disappeared under the water where the chewed tree goes into the water.

The Campbell Creek trail ends (for me, begins for others) in the southwest near Victor and Dimond.  It's a great diagonal commuting trail for anyone going from that area - Dimond High is near that end too - to the Alaska Native Medical Center on Tudor past Elmore or spots in-between.  From Dimond to ANMC it's through the woods with occasional views of houses or businesses and there are only three spots where the trail abruptly ends to cross a street - Dowling, Seward Highway, and Lake Otis. 

They've already begun work at Dowling.  According to a Department of Transportation document   they will "replace Campbell Creek Bridge, install a new traffic signal at C Street, re-align the Campbell Creek Trail to go under the new bridge. . ." 


The picture is of the trail yesterday, from north of Dowling.  A new trail goes up to the left.  I think it will go to the new trail along Dowling, and the old trail will go under the new bridge and no longer cross the street.  The orange fencing on the right of the picture is where they are re-aligning the creek.






The infamous 'gap' under the New Seward Highway where you had to carefully maneuver you bike under four bridges of rocky trail (I see that some of the pictures have vanished from that post, I'll try to recover them soon) and sometimes high water, is now being changed into official bike trail.  They are going to raise each of the four bridges (north and south parts of the highway and the frontage roads).  Here's a shot from the east side of the Seward Highway from last week.    The project engineer told me that the September 2014 completion date will be for landscaping, but the trail should be complete by September 2013.




They've blocked it with a big chain link fence.

The only place you'll have to cross a street is at Lake Otis.  Either a few side streets to get to the tunnel or if you go directly, Lake Otis itself. 

The Seward Highway is less than 1/4 mile west of this map.


For now, the best option (going southwest) seems to be to go to Tudor and back up Old Seward Highway to the Peanut Farm or Arctic Roadrunner to pick up the trail again. 

New Seward Repairs and Campbell Creek Bike Trail Start Today for Two Years

Between Tudor and International Airport Road

First Southbound - Starting May 2 - the frontage road will be closed.  They're getting it ready to take the Seward Highway traffic for when it gets closed down, later.

Then they'll do the same Northbound.  From DOT (with some reformatting): 

The Department of Transportation, in partnership with QAP, is working to improve the New Seward Highway, from Dowling Road to Tudor Road. Improvements will include

• added lanes, 
• resurfacing and 
• Campbell Creek bridge replacement.  

The Homer Drive and Brayton Drive frontage roads will also be improved with

• resurfacing and 
• the addition of multi-use trails. 

We will do our best to keep you informed as work continues, and appreciate your patience and cooperation during construction. This project is scheduled to be complete by June 2014.

In addition to the highway work - the bike trail along Campbell Creek under the Seward Highway is scheduled to be completed.  Here's a picture from 2007.  You have to walk your bike and duck low.   They also say they will have trails along the frontage roads when they are done.


There will be a public hearing Thursday night at Dimond High

A PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE will be held at the Dimond Center Hotel (700 E. Dimond Boulevard), on Thursday May 3, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Project teams will be available to review the scope of work and provide detailed information about the project. 

Lingering Signs of Fall as Winter Approaches

Rain drops washing fallen mountain ash leaves the other day, 

but the sun's out again. 

Not all Canadian geese have left for warmer climes.

 And the water flows freely along Campbell Creek as it tumbles wildly under one of Anchorage's most busy roads - the New Seward Highway.   Cyclists have to negotiate the rocky banks to get past this spot still,  but a memo from Rep. Berta Gardner tells us that a real bike path is scheduled here by September 2013.

 The Seward Highway Upgrade Project, Dowling to Tudor, will also go to bid in October with groundbreaking in spring 2012 and scheduled completion in September 2013.  We continue to confirm that sound barriers along the freeway are included in the plan, as well as the long-awaited connection of the Campbell Creek Bike Trail under the Seward Highway.   This connection will give neighborhoods safe and easy access between east and west portions of the trail, opening up miles of trail to surrounding neighborhoods.

"We continue to confirm" sounds less than certain.  And I've ducked my head negotiating my bike over the rocky and sometimes wet path under the highway often enough that I might just miss it when it's paved and civilized here.  And will it be open the year they are building?  Who knows?

But we can be certain that winter is on the way.   It's the end of October and so far the snow's stayed in the mountains.  But the word is creeping into the weather forecasts for us lowlanders.

May Day Tree Invasion - Obvious While Blooming

Riding home along the Chester Creek bike trail, it was clear that chokecherries - also known as May Day trees - were in bloom.  They were all white with blossoms, standing out starkly from the green birch and aspen and spruce.  Not only do you see them, but you can't help but breathe in their powerful fragrance.  Probably not fun for people with allergies.

They aren't native to Alaska, but do well here.  Too well as was clear along the bike trail.  

An Alaska Dispatch article  by Rick Sinnot from February gives more detail:

Chokecherry trees are not native to Alaska. We brought them here. Now tens of thousands of these trees adorn yards, parks, and roadsides in every part of the city. Three species are most common in Anchorage: Amur chokecherry, Canada red chokecherry, and May Day tree (or European bird cherry). May Day trees are highly invasive. They have escaped cultivation in Anchorage and are beginning to replace native trees, especially along waterways. A 2010 report on several municipal greenbelts by the Alaska Natural Heritage Program described dense thickets of bird cherry trees, in some areas replacing willows, which are a preferred forage for moose. Some riparian areas in Anchorage are already dominated by May Day trees in both the canopy and understory. Invasive plant specialists call this an infestation.

I had heard about this in past years, but what I didn't know is that they are poison for moose.

For all its imposing bulk and rugged good looks, a moose is a delicate creature. Its huge, four-chambered stomach, well adapted to digesting a winter diet of woody twigs, is particularly sensitive to physical and chemical agitations. Swallowing a few mouthfuls of chokecherry twigs, leaves or seeds can kill a moose in one to two hours. Calves are probably more vulnerable than adult moose because they are smaller.

The deadly ingredient in chokecherry foliage is cyanide gas: hydrogen cyanide or HCN. The cyanide is locked in plant cells, isolated from the enzymes that create the gas. However, wilting, freezing, crushing, and chewing (does this sound like what might happen to a plant eaten by a moose in winter?) releases the gas. So does digestion by the enzymes in a moose's rumen, the first of four chambers comprising its highly evolved stomach. A lethal dose of HCN causes rapid labored breathing, frothing at the mouth, dilated pupils, ataxia, muscle tremors, and convulsions. The moose usually dies within a few minutes of developing these symptoms. The cyanide stops cellular respiration, resulting in respiratory arrest. The moose suffocates.

On this gray day, the ones on the left don't come out as clearly as they do when riding by, but you can see the white near the front there.  They were scattered along the trail all the way I went from Valley of the Moon Park to Lake Otis.

Campbell Creek Trail website offers this suggestion for this and other invasive plant species:

Avoid purchasing, growing, or sharing invasive plants. For help contact the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service at 907-786-6300, or the Alaska Committee for Noxious and Invasive Plants Management at www.cnipm.org.

Campbell Creek Bike Trail Under Seward Highway Tonight

There's a meeting tonight to talk about 'improvements' to the Seward Highway between Dowling and 36th.  According to Rep. Berta Gardner's November 11, 2010 email to constituents

I spoke yesterday with Jim Amundson of the Department of Transportation and confirmed that sound barrier fencing (36^th Avenue to Dowling) and a bike path at Campbell Creek under the Seward Highway both remain in the project.   DOT plans to begin "turning dirt" in Spring 2011!

Some history.  Lanie Fleischer, who was one of the key people to get the bike trails built in Anchorage over 30 years ago and whose name is on the bike trail sign at Goose Lake, told me that the engineer in charge of building the Seward Highway, way back then, told her they were going to build the highway low enough that they could never have the bike trail go under it.  Non-motorized vehicle riders in those days were considered anti-capitalist, pinkos.   So now, at far greater expense than necessary, we are finally getting that part of the trail completed.  If the trail stays in the project.  So get down there to let them know you want that bike trail finally done.

If you can't go, call them up and email and tell them you support the bike trail.   Contact information below.  It's not a done deal until they have it in the plans, in the works, and finished. 


Here's the info from the Department of Transportation website:

Body of Notice:

Wednesday, November 17, 2010
5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Sourdough Mining Company
5200 Juneau St.
Anchorage, AK 99518

Seward Highway: Dowling Road to Tudor Road

The State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) invites you to a public open house regarding the Seward Highway: Dowling Road to Tudor Road project. DOT&PF has completed the environmental phase of this project and is proceeding with design.

Why should you attend this meeting?

The meeting will provide information on the project and solicit public comments for consideration during the design phase.

The meeting will be in an open-house format, so you can stop by at any time during the scheduled hours. Staff from the project and DOT&PF will be available to discuss, answer questions and take your comments regarding the project.

Contacts:
Project Manager, Derek Christianson
CH2M HILL [This is the company that bought VECO from Bill Allen.]
Phone: 762-1358
sewardhwy.comments@ch2m.com

Project Manager, Jim Amundsen
DOT&PF
Phone: 269-0595
jim.amundsen@alaska.gov

Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage already has a post on this.

Weird Weather, New Road, Amy Stewart

The weather has held steady for about two weeks now - "lows high 40s-mid 50s and highs to the mid 60s".  We've had interesting clouds.  Then today it was sunny and warm.  When it hit 75˚ F (23˚C) this afternoon I decided I needed a bike ride to the Botanical Garden and back.

And that's when I discovered that Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue is almost ready to open.  At left is where it begins at Elmore Road across the street from the Muni buildings south of Tudor.  Anchorage folks remember a long time back how our city where we're told there is no racism rejected naming any of our streets after MLK.  When logic gets really silly ('changing 9th Avenue to MLK Avenue would disrupt the [alpha-] numerical integrity of our streets' - really they said that!) it means people are covering up their real, less savory reasons ("We're not naming any street after that commie N.")[Thanks Jay, I forgot the alpha]

[Update July 10:  I found this picture from the same spot last August - that brown spot in the middle is a moose.  I don't think they are welcome here any more.  And I guess it looks greener than I suggested

But it seems the more left leaning side of our population has finally got a street named after MLK.  There is a bit of a catch though - it goes through parkland that the libs really wanted to leave parkland.  Clever those road builders.  In any case, the road, which I'd seen previously as this brown swath through the woods south of Tudor and which blocked the bike trail from the Native Hospital to Tudor Municipality Buildings for a couple of summers now, is pretty much ready to be opened.

But this evening it was my private bike trail.

There's a way to Tudor and the various buildings around the ANTHC.

And then it ends at Tudor and Boniface.  That's when I learned the road's name.  



You'd think with this macho road through the woods here to Boniface, where Elmore Road traffic could then go north, that this would alleviate any need to push through the UAA-APU land at Bragaw.  You'd think.  It will still be a fight to keep those people who think in straight lines and get really uncomfortable when two points aren't connected by a road to go after that area that is park now and could be campus as the need for more university land grows.

There's also bike trail connected with this road and it's nice bike trail through the woods, but it isn't particularly good commuter bike trail because it's off on the edge of where people are and not going to work.  Though I imagine the folks going through bear country trails from Service High could then go west on this trail.  But they'd then most likely want to connect to the Chester Creek trail into town. 

Right near the State Troopers headquarters, where the sign said it was 81˚F

I continued on to the Botanical Garden (just up Campbell Airstrip Road from Tudor) where this sign was posted on the gate.  Amy Stewart's website says about her most recent book (the green one on the left in the poster):

Wicked Plants is a New York Times bestseller! National Public Radio says, "Bram Stoker meets Agatha Christie in this sophisticated little brew of botanical bogeymen."

 This workshop is tomorrow (Saturday July 10) and the talk is Sunday July 11. 








I rode back home through Campbell Creek Park where people were enjoying the warm weather next to the creek.











[Update July 10:  I meant to put up this 2008 map from the kidsneedparks]

Sunday Walk in the Woods - Campbell Airstrip

We went to Campbell Airstrip yesterday for a walk because it's close and it's flat. This is my favorite cross country ski trail. You can see what it looks like in winter.

Lots of people and their friends were out today.

No sooner were the horses almost out of sight
and the bikers came by.

While today it was in the high 60s F (@20C) there have been
some cool nights and some plants are already hinting at fall

Can anyone tell what these are?

Rose hips have lots of vitamin C. And I love picking them and eating them along the way. It's an acquired taste, but this time of year when they are soft and almost sweet they are great. So how much vitamin C do you think they have per 100/mg? The chart below from naturalhub.com shows the amount of vitamin C/100 g of some other fruits. (The column that shows green kiwi has 98 mg/100 g.)

Kiwifruit, green	Actinidia deliciosa	98	74	exceptional
Kiwifruit, yellow	Actinidia chinensis	120 to 180	108 to 162	exceptional
Lemon juice	Citrus limon	46	3*	-
Lime juice	Citrus aurantifolia	29	1*	-

Orange	Citrus sinensis	53	70	excellent
Papaya	Carica papaya	62	47*	excellent
**Pawpaw/Asimina	Asimina triloba	14	28(estim)	good†
Passionfruit, purple	Passiflora edulis	30	5	-
Peach	Prunus persica	7	6	-

The answer is at the bottom of the post.

Most of the devil's club was still green.
This one is a little ahead of things.

Some of the dogwood (no, not the tree) is still green.

Finding a good patch of dogwood to photograph

allowed me to see this seven legged spider.

And some dogwood is already red.

While I stop to take pictures, J goes on ahead. Why was I not
surprised to see her waiting for me in a sunny spot?

A great young boleta.

Even a fly fisher in the creek as we went over the bridge.

And this is Blake from Glenallen.
He works for the BLM there, but is going to UAA,
so he was doing their survey of people using BLM land.

Here's the rosehip vitamin C answer. Compare the third column numbers here with those in the table above. For Alaskans, they are out in the woods waiting to be picked and eaten now, or stored away for winter.

Rosehip	Rosa pomifera cv.'Karpatia'	1,500	45(estim.)	excellent	[5]
Rosehip	Rosa sp. cv.'Pi Ro 3'	1,150	34(estim.)	very good	[5]
Rosehip	Rosa sp. cv.'Vitaminnyj-VNIVI'	2,000 to 2,500	60 to 75(estim.)	excellent

5. These are three different types of roses. Full citation at naturalhub.com.