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.

Blustery, Gray, Fall Day Walk In The Woods

It may not be Yosemite, but it was still very cool and only a 25 minute drive from home.  Here are a few pics from our McHugh Creek hike this afternoon.

Heading up the trail from the parking lot through the leafless cottonwoods.

We could hear the wind roaring above us, but down on the trail, in amongst the trees there wasn't much wind.  And despite the wet streets and rain earlier in the day, there were only scattered drops now and then.

Ripe rosehips provided snacks along the way.

The only wild life we saw were occasional ravens taking advantage of the winds.

At one point there was water runoff crossing the creek.  Some spots had little boardwalks - maybe a few feet over the worst water and mud.  Other spots had slices of tree trunk.  But at one point I realized that my foot had lifted up without my shoe.  The picture is after I got it pulled out of the muck.















Naked trees.

Trail through spruce.  Then through cottonwoods again.  Turnagain Arm in the background.

It felt great to be in the wind and winter ready trees and earth.

My Perfect Yosemite Moment - 8 AM Hike To Mirror Lake

The fantasy spurred this trip to Yosemite was a chance to relive the magic I remember of Yosemite as a kid.  So Monday morning I got up early, caught a shuttle to the Mirror Lake trail, then wandered up the trail, by myself.  Well, just me and my camera.  I paused a bit reading the sign that warned of Mountain Lions and that you shouldn't go alone.

It's such a beautiful trail.  My pictures don't do it justice.  But for an hour or so, I was alone in Yosemite hiking to through the quiet woods to a spot I remember vividly as a little kid.  There were warnings that by October the lake is really mostly sandy beach, but I was willing to try to find some reflection in Mirror Lake.

Here's a bit of the trail that goes through different kinds of terrain.

It's about a mile hike from where the shuttle bus lets you off.  And relatively flat.  Not like the Vernal Falls hike.

Later I thought about all the huge boulders everywhere and how it's clear that they come from the walls of granite that surround you everywhere in Yosemite.  They most come down sometime.  Fortunately, not while I was there.



And everywhere you are, if you look up, you see those massive chunks of granite towering above you. The wide angle lens takes away the closeness and sheer size of rock, but the regular lens can't catch the whole rock.

I didn't see any mountain lions, but I did see a huge pile of pretty fresh bear poo.  I'll spare you the picture, but I did check with a ranger because it was very different from the bear scat I'm used to in Alaska.

And there was enough water to get a good mirror image of the mountains of  rock above.












It was still very smoky from the Northern California fires.  Our car had ash on it each morning.

With the low water level revealing the sand, it looked a lot like a Zen garden.


And here's one of those walls above Mirror Lake.

It was a magical hike.  All alone on this beautiful trail.  I didn't see anyone until after I'd been at the lake about 20 minutes.  It was what I went to Yosemite for and was wonderful.

Smoky Yosemite

I first went to Yosemite around 1950 or 51 as a very little boy, but it had a profound influence on me.  The last time I was here was about 1972 or 73, Thanksgiving, with snow.  It's when I learned an important lesson.  You can't pour hot water into a glass mug when it's 10˚F.

Since we were driving to San Francisco for a family gathering of sorts, I decided it was time to go to Yosemite again.  Even if there were fires in Northern California.

So here are some shots.  I'd write more, but I'd rather not spend so much time on my computer.

These were our first two views into Yosemite Valley.  

Lots of smoke.  And the remnants of an earlier fire.

Click image to enlarge and focus

Despite the smoke, it's still very humbling to be on the valley floor.  You can't check in for the tents till 4pm  (though they said we could check back between 2 and 3), so we caught the shuttle bus to the trail head for Vernal Falls.  It's only 1.2 miles to the falls (the trail goes on to Nevada Falls), but it's a 1000 foot vertical gain.  The trail starts easy enough.

And eventually we made it to the falls, which were worth the hike.  Even though this is a relative trickle from when the falls are full, the height is awe inspiring.  Toward the end I wasn't sure how my knees were going to react.  It's clear that this sort of work out gets harder as one gets older.

This is a view from the bridge below the falls,  The falls are in the V between the grey rocks and hazy sky.
















Here are the steps just before you reach the falls.  I was thinking about my knees as I went up and wondering how the trip back down would go.  It wasn't as bad as I feared, and I was reassured when I saw much younger folks going down almost as cautiously as I did.

There were some signs of fall here and there as we hiked back down - much quicker than we went up.

I think this is the Merced River, below the falls.  We're almost back to the road and the shuttle at this point.  We were able to check in and find our spartan tent - all food has to be out of the cars and in the food locker outside the tent.  Had a short nap and then came to post before dinner.

Nice To Be Back Online - ACS, The Good And The Not So Good

There was no internet yesterday morning when I got up.  The wifi worked, but there was not internet.

I called ACS (Alaska Communications) and B had me unplug and plug and reset and nothing worked.  

• That's all I can do, I'll set up a problem ticket (or whatever he called it) and they'll check it from here. If they can't fix it, someone will come to your house?
• Today?
• Probably not, we're really busy now.  

Not today (it was Friday) didn't sound good, but I'm supposed to be a resilient person.  I can go to the library to use the internet.  And less time online is good.  

After a couple of hours I called in.  The voicemail actually identified that I had a problem ticket and sent me to S.  She explained that I was on the list, but that they were busy.  

Had they done the internal check or not?  Yes, and someone had to come to the house.  Today?  Probably not.  Do they come over the weekend?  I don't think so.  

Much better if you click to enlarge and focus

After I explained that I'd been waiting around and no one had called to tell me the status, she apologized.  

So I went to the library, sat in the parking lot and checked my email and put up yesterday's post.   Visited a friend, walked to the bridge from the Prospect Heights trailhead,  went to dinner at Thai Kitchen, and went to a Reflection service at Temple Beth Sholom where we heard from a number of speakers - someone from the FBI, from the governor's office, a Presbyterian pastor, a local assembly member (Forrest Dunbar), and a Muslim doctor, all reflecting on Charlottesville and Anchorage.  There was some food and discussion.  A positive and encouraging way to move forward.  

So this morning, when I was doing some yoga stretching - I should be doing these several times a week, but even once every ten days or so is better than nothing - there was a knock on the door.  The ACS man wanted to check the connection.  He was there maybe 20 minutes before he knocked again.  He checked the modem and decided we needed a new one.  He got it all set up, called in to reset the modem name and password, and I was back, connected to the new modem.

But no connection to the internet.  D was good.  I had told him I was told no one worked on the weekend and he smiled and said, us old guys still do.  But it wouldn't work.  He said he would have to go back to the office and fix it from there.  A bunch of calls later, tweaking this and that, and I'm now back on line.  

Since I wasn't expecting any help until at least Monday, I'm happy to be reconnected.  Everyone was polite enough, they just didn't know much.  But D wasn't going to let go of my case until things were working again,  

So now I've got a bunch of things to do that I have been pushed to the side while the internet connection got fixed.  But it did get fixed.  

Here's a picture of a monk's hood from yesterday's hike - one of my favorite Alaskan flowers  Such a beautiful shape and color.  

  

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.

From Pier To Pier - Surfers, Canal, Who Says People Don't Walk In LA?

It's great to do things with a 3 year old in tow.  Took advantage of the sunny, though for LA, cool day to be by the ocean.   The view of the surfers from the Venice Pier was great as they caught long rides on frequent, good sized swells.

Here's that same picture in context.

They made it look so easy, but you can see the power of the water in this picture.  

This was on the other (north) side of the pier.

As you can see, there were great sets constantly coming in.

More gentle water a short walk away in the canals of Venice (California).

My preference would have been to do this all by bike, but there were others.  We drove back towards the Santa Monica pier (about 3 miles north of the Venice Pier) and walked along the boardwalk.  Here one of the many Santa hatted folks watches a slack wire walker.  

And for those who think no one walks in LA, the Santa Monica pier was jammed with walkers.  There just needs to be more pedestrian friendly spaces and better public transportation to get to them. But I'd also guess that at least half these people were from out of town sightseeing.

[UPDATE Dec. 26, 2016:  The LA Times has an opinion piece on LA walkability today.]

A good day and the youngster went to sleep really fast this evening.  

Still In Denial - Keeping Election At A Distance

I had a meeting downtown today.  I knew there'd be no exercise time, so I decided to just walk the 3.5 miles.  I don't have studs on my bike tires and I wasn't sure how icy the trail would be.  I know the sidewalks aren't great, so walking would have to do.

Urban hiking is an idea we came up with when we were living in Hong Kong.  A three mile hike is no big thing in the woods on a trail, so why not do the same in the city?  In Hong Kong we could go explore new places that way and we could always get a bus or train back home if necessary.

Today I just took the bike trail downtown.  As I knew it would, an hour of walking through the woods would clear my head.

I even got to see a young moose eating grass at a playground.  The trail veers to the right and through a tunnel under C Street.








The meeting was fascinating in a troubling way and one day I hope to be able to post about this project.

It did feel like there had been a death in the family and I wanted to go by the cemetery downtown and hang out a bit with the departed.  But the meeting was on the other end of downtown and I was on foot.  Like with a death, I was trying to keep busy with my to do list and increase the distance from the initial shock before I deal with it.  Though in this case, the magnitude of the loss is going to grow and grow.

Trying to be positive, I was thinking that how I feel now is how many conservatives have felt since Obama was first elected.  I'd like to think that my feeling is more legitimate, but feelings are feelings. They may or may not be tied to a rational, realistic assessment.   But it's clear that progressives haven't really listened to the pain of the working class.  As I walked I thought about Trump's childhood.  From what I can tell, it was about always trying to please his father and avoid his wrath, avoid being a loser.  I suspect that a lot of families had similar dynamics and that Trump has that in common with many people who come from families with a strict and mercurial father.  He understood that pain and his audiences caught that.  And his own mercurial behavior - sometimes glowing and kind, as with his first speech as president elect, and other times nasty and insulting and bullying - is something they recognize from their own fathers.  What many of us saw as outrageous and unacceptable behavior, many others recognized as very familiar.

People know when they aren't being respected and I think liberal rejection of frustrated white working class was part of their resentment against Clinton.  Every other group is given a context - discrimination, poverty - with which to excuse unacceptable behavior.  But poor whites are called hillbillies or trailer trash or poor white trash when equivalent ethnic slurs are not allowed.  This is why in this blog I try not to use any kinds of slurs, try to respectful of the people I write about or who comment.  We need to talk and come together.  This is probably a good time for liberals to talk to Trump supporters, because now they are happy and feel like they matter.

Good night.  Don't let this fool you into thinking that things aren't going to get lots worse before they get better.  That I don't expect the mean and brutish Trump to be back soon.  He's 70.  He's not going to change.  As soon as someone crosses him, we'll see the nasty Trump back.