After A Week Home, We Finally Visit Alaska

Yes, Anchorage is in Alaska, but I wanted to get out of town a bit, so we drove down to McHugh Creek.  Here here is why I love living here.

It started out a sunny day today, but by late afternoon, it was mostly cloudy.

Getting Into Alaska With The Kids

We've spent way too much time in Anchorage.  I do like our backyard.  Sitting out on the deck surrounded by lots of trees in the warm weather was nice.  And traffic out of town around the 4th of July is always awful.  But I was getting antsy and wanted to take the kids down to Portage.

First stop, 30 minutes out, was Bird Point.  It was supposed to be a short stop, but the kids enjoyed running around, playing statue on various pedestals on the overlook walk.  Then under the bridge

and back.  Over the fence, across the tracks to check out the beach.  But the five year old started saying she was hungry (we'd been feeding them since we stopped).  But most of the way back she said she lost her gloves - it was almost raining and very windy, maybe 60˚F - so the 4 year old I went back to look.  But we didn't find them.  His cheek found a big rock though when he missed a step in the rocky part.  He had a good reason to cry and he did.  We got back to the parking lot and they deduced, by looking at the pictures D had taken, the last place Z had her gloves.  So she and I went back and found them.

Then to Portage.   At the lakeside parking lot the rain was coming down hard, horizontally.  The

wind was slamming car doors.  BUT, there were icebergs too.  I'd thought those didn't happen often since the glacier retreated out of the water and up the mountain years ago.  And they weren't the giant ones that used to float around, but they were icebergs.






But it was so rainy and windy that no one wanted to stand around outside very long.  The visitor center was a big hit with the kids.  Lots of buttons to push (raven calls, sandhill crane cackles, wolf howls), a kayak to climb into and lots of things that caught their attention.  And we saw part of the movie.











A stop at Black Bear Campground, which was totally empty, and lushly beautiful.  I'm sure the rain had something to do with both conditions.








Soup at the Bake Shop or ice cream at the cone shop at Alyeska?  The kids won that vote.

A potty break at McHugh Creek, so we walked up to the bridge.

Finally a  brief stop at a Potter Marsh pullout.  You can get a sense of the wind by the ripples in the water and the leaning grasses.  But this was nothing compared to Portage.

A fun day of sightseeing, lots of eating and laughing, running around, and seeing new things for the kids.

Turnagain Arm Mudflats - A Favorite Beach Walk Has Fewer Rocks, More Mud

There are lots of spots along Turnagain Arm to stop and explore.  On the east side (away from the water) they tend to go up pretty steeply and that's less and less appealing as we get older.  On the west side are favorite spot is a small parking spot near Indian where the bike trail starts.  But where you can get over a small chainlink fence and then over the railroad tracks down to a rocky beach.

Though we discovered yesterday that the rocky part is much more limited than it used to be  It's mostly mudflats now.



Yesterday there was only a thin area that was rocky, right along the where you climb down the boulders from the railroad tracks.  Then it turned quickly to mudflats.














Here's a picture from September 2012 at this same beach.  While it's not the same exact spot, you can see the same mountains in the background.  You can't even see the rocky slope on the left where the railroad tracks are.   The area between the railroad tracks and the mudflats was much greater.






But let's enjoy the amazing textures of the mudflats.

This one is from the road.  I can't remember such a low tide where I couldn't see any water except for in the deeper channels.

As we got over the railroad tracks we found a couple and their dog enjoying a picnic overlooking Turnagain Arm.  It was warmish (high 50s F) and no wind at all.)

And here we are on the railroad tracks (looking south) as we head back.

Afternoon Trip To Alaska

I picked up my car Friday from the repair place, but they hadn't quite figured out the problem, but it did need to be driven, so if I took it for the weekend and drove it, that would help them.  I'd taken it in Wednesday evening and they were supposed to fix it Thursday. The key issue was that the yellow trouble light was on.  But Thursday is when the truck hit the bridge near Eagle River and shut down the Glenn Highway.  And the mechanic assigned to my car was stuck in the giant traffic jam.  Or so they told me.  No problem, I don't use the car much anyway.

An old gag about Anchorage is that "it's alone about 20 minutes from Alaska."  So, since the car needed to be driven, I wanted to head down the Seward Highway, maybe even take a short hike if the snow and ice weren't too bad.

The trail turned out to be mostly ice at the steepest part - just past the bridge - and even though we had grippers and poles, we decided it wasn't worth it.  Our grippers work fine on flat ground, but not up a steep incline.  But here are some pictures.



Turnagain Arm from McHugh Creek.














Here's a closer picture of the ice floating on the tide.

Here's McHugh Creek from the bridge just before the icy incline.  



















And here are those icicles closer up.





















Another part of the creek.












And the moon was out too.



Oh yeah, the yellow trouble light went back on in the van.  Who knows when they're going to figure out what's setting it off.

Seward Highway Backup Causes Change In Plans And Spectacular View

There were eight us plus two dogs, so we headed for Bird Point in two cars.  When we got to Potter Marsh we were suddenly in stop and go traffic.  This was one of those times when cell phones really make an important contribution.  We called the other car and asked if it might not make more sense to take a trail nearby.
The other car was thinking the same things, so we turned at the Potter Trailhead and did a short walk along the Old Johnson trail. (Alaska Hike Search calls it the Turnagain Arm trail, but says 'Some of the locals refer to this as the Old Johnson Trail.")

We didn't go all that far;  to a rocky viewpoint over the inlet.  We had some people recovering from foot and leg issues and someone who had to get back by 5pm.  The view was spectacular as the tide was out and the clouds were reflected dreamily on the wet.





And my granddaughter got to see her first moose on the hike.  I think she would have felt safer had we been in a car rather than on foot.  But no harm.  The moose was eating a little above the trail.  Others in the group were waiting for it to move further away.  I think the moose was thinking, 'Just go on.  I see you and I'm eating and why should I have to move just because you want to go by.  Just go."





Today's paper said there was an accident further down the road involving four cars and a boat being towed.  So changing plans meant we spent our time in the woods instead of in the car.  And in the pre cell phone age, we could have pulled by the side of the road and waited for the other car to catch up.  But that would only work if the first car wanted to make a change.

It's Summer, A Beautiful Day, So Biked The Bird To Gird Trail And Left My Computer Behind

When they rerouted the Seward Highway many years ago from the perilous two-lane, no shoulder road that went well above the water below to a four lane road at the water's edge, the old road was revisioned into a bike trail.  And it's a wonderful six mile ride from Bird Point to the Girdwood turnoff.

The first two or so miles from Bird Point go up with great views of Turnagain Arm.  Though a number of the view points - including telescope-viewers - have cottonwood and other trees blocking the views now.  But not at this point.



















Here's the rock wall on the other side of the trail.  There are lots of waterfalls along the way and I counted 18 piles of bear scat on the trail.  Later at the National Forest visitor center near the end of the trail, the lady said that yesterday one of the workers encountered a black bear.  Someone coming the other way had to zap it with bear spray before it left the trail.

Here's the trail on the way down near the Girdwood end.

And back down to road level, there's duck playground.  She wasn't happy that I stopped and hustled her brood off while I got the camera out of the backpack.    It should be a little sharper if you click on it.

Here's a July view from 2011 when the flowers were all blooming and a September view from last year.  Same trail different moods.

The Views Were Glorious, But There Was Also An Actual "Glory"

From Weather Online:

"The Brocken spectre (or Brocken bow) is an apparently greatly magnified shadow of an observer cast against mist or cloud below the level of a summit or ridge and surrounded by rainbow coloured fringes resulting from the diffraction of light. The effect is an illusion. Depth perception is altered by the mist, causing the shadow to appear more distant and to be interpreted as larger than normally expected. 

Actually the Brocken Spectre is what meteorologists call a glory. Most air travellers have already observed glories. They are most easily seen when one is riding on the shadow side of an aircraft above the clouds."

When I studied in Göttingen, the Harz Mountains were nearby, so I like the name Brocken bow.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185941/Rare-phenomenon-gives-airplane-heavenly-glow.html#ixzz4aEMQmKKV
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But then we flew over the mountains to Anchorage.  Below is a picture of Flattop, from behind, at least relative to how most people see Flattop, from Anchorage.  It's the nub on the left end of the lower loaf of snowy mountain.  Denali and Foraker are in the background.  A chunk of Anchorage is in between.

Clicking on any of these images will enlarge and focus it

Then we were over the Inlet.  I thought these branches looked a bit like monsters creeping up to attack Anchorage in the background.

There was a very low tide uncovering the mudflats in the middle of the Inlet and down Turnagain Arm.  Below is another view down Turnagain Arm.  Almost no water (some was in the rivers in the mudflats).  Mostly frozen mud.

I wasn't really going to add these photos to yesterday's views, but my battery wouldn't start and after my neighbor helped me start it, I needed to drive a bit to recharge it.  So I went a ways down Turnagain Arm and got these views of the frozen mudflats from the ground.  (And I'd forgotten about the glory which seemed worth a post all by itself.)

Note:  I tweaked the exposure, saturation, and contrast in some of these images.

Getting Out On Blustery Day

I needed to bike.  I needed to just be outside with no distractions.  My regular ride with wasn't going to work.  My body said Bird Point.

We drove through the wind and occasional rain drops.  Pulled into the parking lot at Bird Point and got out the bike and took off.  Through the tunnel onto the old road turned bike trail.  Up the hill against the wind.

After a couple of miles of up, I stopped for a picture.

Then turned around and shot the rock wall behind me.

Back on the bike to the little rest stop back down on the bottom just before the Girdwood turnoff.

I walked around a bit, took some pictures until I got the colors right, then back.  This time with the wind at my back.  Much easier.

That was just what I needed.

A Brief Visit to Potter Marsh To Check Out The Birds

Northern Shoveler

We took a break yesterday and went to Alaska.  Well, it's just about ten minutes down the road from Anchorage and sometimes we forget to take advantage of living here.  There was lots of traffic on the Seward Highway coming back, so we decided to just hit Potter's Marsh and check out the birds.

There were dramatic clouds to the west when we turned back.  

At the end of the boardwalk (going inland) there's an eagle's nest and usually eagles nearby.  Can you see the eagle in the trees?  Hint:  look for the white head.  (You probably have to click on the picture to enlarge and focus it.)

Here's a closer shot.  In the one above there's a white tree trunk in the middle.  The eagle's in the cottonwood tree to the left of it, a little above the the midline.

And below is the nest.  There's a white head poking up.

I liked the ducks all lined up on the log, though it didn't come out that well in the picture.

And here are some green winged teals.  The green of the wing is under and doesn't show in this picture