Nah. . . Forget Politics For Now - Anchorage Trails Along Streets Are Snow And Ice Free!

So many things nationally and locally to ponder, but I checked out the sidewalk/trails along a loop from Tudor, Elmore, Dowling, and Lake Otis back to Tudor (that being my warm up run until the the greenbelt trails are clear in the spring) and things were snow and ice free.

I actually didn't take any pictures of trail, except for this one on a bridge on Elmore.

I checked on last year's posts and this one from March 22 is the first bike ride I did last year.  I wrote the

 "for the most part the trail was ice free.  There'd been one spot where a thick chunk was floating over a puddle, but there was a bit of room to go around it.  But then, almost home, I got to this hard packed ice near Providence."

As I recall, there were places where there were big puddles and snow was melting from where it was piled next to the trail.  And the bridge over Campbell Creek (at Lake Otis) still had snow on it.

This year the trail was basically like in the picture.  There were wet areas, but no ice or snow that I was riding through.  There's  a picture in last year's post of trail full of ice and snow on both sides near Providence.  But this time I went in the other direction so I didn't go by there at all.  But I suspect it's clear too.

Anyway, here's Campbell Creek, north fork, from the bridge at Elmore.

And a little further down the road, the south fork of Campbell Creek.

Here's what this spot looked like on March 22, 2019 - with blue sky and sunshine.

Then west on Dowling and north on Lake Otis - here I am at Campbell Creek again, but here both the north and south forks have already converged into one creek.

It seemed a bit early to be so snow and ice free this year, even before I check last year's post.  But I also saw a tweet:

Number of days with a min temp of 40°F or lower at Anchorage Intl AP through March 25th. We're 13 days lower than the second lowest year. @AlaskaWx @DaveSnider pic.twitter.com/EqnuQy9ion

— Brian Brettschneider (@Climatologist49) March 25, 2019

I think this would be clearer if it said "we've had 13 fewer days that dipped below 40˚ than the year with the next fewest days"  it would be clearer.

Big Bright Vernal Equinox Moon Greets Us After Move To Amend Panel

After attending a  panel discussion on "The 28th Amendment" we walked out to see this giant moon pushing up over the mountains and not quite out of the clouds.

Here it's a little higher and we're out of downtown.

I'm still fighting my camera when the auto settings can't figure out what to do.  The manual settings just aren't intuitive and I use them so rarely.  The moon wasn't - as I remember it - so yellow.  

The panel was interesting and very civil.  The basic concern is with the impact of Citizens United and the problems of unlimited money from corporations and other non-human entities on elections in the United States.  The key objection I heard was that by limiting constitutional rights to human beings (Citizens United ruling was based on their First Amendment Right to free speech) organizations will be stripped of important rights, such as due process.  In response, Dr. Sharman Haley (standing at the mic in the picture) argued that such organizations are created and sanctioned by states and it is there, not in the constitution, that their rights should be established.  At least that's what I understood.  

To learn more, check out  Move To Amend.  

Another idea that was raised to make elections less contentious was ranked voting.  Dr. Haley argued that first, this would eliminate the need for primaries.  And second,  if candidates want to win, they have to be listed second on a lot of ballots.  Thus taking an extreme stand will likely lose them the election.   There's more on ranked choice voting here.

Break Up

Ice shelf at end of driveway last week

The temperature has been well above normal - sometimes the lows being higher than the normal high - but it's also been cloudy and grim out.  The warm days have been causing snow to melt and then freeze up at night.  The city plowed the street, but never cleared the berm they left.  It's melted a little each night into a shelf of ice that's 4 inches or more in places.

I've been going out and chopping ice and making a channel.  The picture on the left was a week ago.





This morning there was a powdering of snow on the ground, but from the dentist's chair, I could see sunshine to the south.

And this afternoon, the sun had made it into town.  (Of course the sun was there all along.  It's just the clouds cleared, but it really did feel like the sun had come.)

And with the sun beating down, the shelf was getting slushy and the ice and snow in the part of the streets the cars crunch was mostly gone.

Here you can the melting remnant of the berm.  It's hasn't been snow for a while.  Rather it's a hard crusty icy wall.  I went to the corner to see if I could shovel out the drain, but it was not going to happen.

But I was able to play with the ice chopper at the end of the driveway.  With the warmth and the sun, the shelf was changing composition.  And parts broke off with a single chop.  And then I had lots of ice to clear away.  I know that all this will go on its own, but if I gain a week that's good enough for me.  And I get some exercise.  Out in the sun.


It's a great time of the year.  We're a day from the equinox when every part of the world has the same amount of light.  After that, those places further north get more light.  And around 60˚ north, we gain almost 6 minutes a day now.  And there should be close to a full moon tonight as well.

There were even patches of ground showing up as snow melted and evaporated.

I think the green is just some grass that made it through the winter under the snow.  The berries are from the mountain ash tree that the bohemian waxwings didn't find.

A Ride At Sunset While I Sort Out Friday's Court Notes

I've been working on a post about Friday's court session, but it's not done.  When you read an article in the paper, remember that someone had to go out an gather the news, then they had to make sense of it, then write so it's interesting, but not pandering.  It's not that I haven't been working on it, it's just not done.  An advantage I have over reporters - no deadline, though I know there will be more Monday, and I have some background stuff I want to get up too.

In the meantime, the sun was out this afternoon and so I got out the bike and went on one of my regular rides - NOT downtown.  It's still beautiful.  Though late October with no snow in town at all, and there hasn't been any, is strange.  It was 42˚F (5.5˚C) when I took off at 5:30pm.

On the Campbell Creek Trail just east of Elmore Road.

Flattop on the right.  I'm pretty sure the snoyw peak is O'Malley 

I looked at some older blog posts for late October and going back to 2006, there really isn't any snow.  We're all talking about the strange October, but it's about how warm it is, not, as I'm reminded by my old pictures, how little snow there is.  So far there was one day this week when there was even frost on car windshields.  But it wasn't on the grass.  I think it was rain hitting the cold glass.

Autumn Equinox Is Gone

We hiked the Wolverine Peak Trail today as the colors are changing.

Bark on an old birch trunk.

Meanwhile at home, the birch leaves have begun to fall as well.

Anchorage's Great September

The warm (for Anchorage high sixties and low seventies) sunny days began just before Labor Day and today continued the trend.  But it's getting darker faster each evening, it's colder in the mornings, and when the sun slides out of sight, the temps drop quicker each day.  Down into the low forties at night.  Still eating on the deck, savoring this great weather.

But the birch out front is now all yellow.

(The tree branch in front is a mountain ash. Those leaves are green and the berries are as fat and red and plentiful as I can ever remember.}

But the birch is having trouble holding all its leaves.

While North Carolina and Southern China are experiencing the worst of what climate change means for humans, Anchorage, for now, are getting one of the more comfortable side effects. (But Alaskan villages are being captured by the sea, as winter sea ice that protected the land from the ravages of winter waves thins and even disappears.  And as permafrost melts, roads and buildings built on top of it lose their footing.  And the oceans warm and acidify changing the life cycles of salmon and other marine creatures.)

The Birther Movement Is Alive And Well In the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

Trump got lots of mileage claiming that Obama wasn't born in the United States and thus wasn't eligible to be president.  He knew, all along, that his accusation was false.  But it played well to the sizable racist population that was smarting at the idea of a Black president.  It also got Trump lots of attention and Obama's team had to use up resources (emotional, creative, financial) and time fighting the lies, time that could have been spent constructively.

Well, it's clear now that the Birther Movement is alive and well in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as they question the birth locations of United States citizens who live along the Mexican border.  And it has the same effect of playing to Trump's anti-immigration and racist die-hard fans as well as distracting attention and resources and time from other issues (I don't think I need to list them, though some, I'm sure we don't even know about.)

As the noose around the Trump administration tightens, Trump actions are only going to get meaner and more destructive.  We need to brace ourselves and hang tough until this poison is out of our system - or at least down to a much less toxic level.  (Am I engaging in progressive hate speech here?  I am using a strongly negative metaphor, but I think it's backed up by the example of Trump's administration trying to strip US citizens of their citizenship.  We can argue endlessly about whether there actually are some people whose midwife falsified their place of birth 30 or 40 years ago, but there's a reason we have statute of limitation rules, and it only applies, if at all, to a tiny fraction of the people being harassed.   And these 'crimes' are nothing compared to all the ways that ICE and CBP are treating asylum seekers.)

And to help keep up your spirits, here are some signs of change  as summer prepares to hand over our lives to autumn.

The mountain ash berries seem particularly abundant and large this year.  The Bohemian waxwings will be happy when they come to harvest them during the winter.


















The rose hips are also big and red and abundant.  They're still hard, but before long they will be soft and sweet and full of vitamin C.












And this mushroom has also joined the party in our yard.  I first thought I'd just post the picture without looking it up.  I've got things to do while the sun is out.  But I decided that's not me on this blog.  So I looked for my field guide to mushrooms.  But in all the moving stuff round this summer it's not where it used to be.  So after 15 minutes I gave up and made a feeble attempt online to identify it.  I give up for now.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment.  But it's a handsome mushroom.

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.

For Those Who Want A Break From Watching "the downfall of democracy in real time."

I saw this tweet today.

Twitter needs a switch for when you just want to log in and read some updog jokes and not watch the downfall of democracy in real time.

— snddoɥ ʞɹɐɯ (@markhoppus) May 24, 2018

It was telling me that I don't have to discuss the end of the world in every post.

I'm adding this license plate image to my post on the Vampire History Of Alaska.

One of the workmen who helped with the house last week, showed me this accordion he found in a 'suitcase' (it looks like a suitcase, but it was clearly the accordion case) at a house they were hauling trash from.  He told the owner but she told him to take it.  He's found a person in Anchorage who can fix it, but now he's debating if it's worth the cost.  He doesn't know how to play it, but it's clear he respects good workmanship.

Speaking of the house, we're getting used to having the new light switches that you press instead of flipping up or own.  And we're enjoying the clean walls without anything on them.  But that leaves stacks of pictures downstairs.  I'm thinking of putting up some that haven't been up, and rearranging where the others go.  It's odd how changes make us aware of old habits.

And this picture is less inspiring.  I don't recall things like this in Anchorage creeks in the past.  I'm sure they were there, but I don't recall seeing them.

I thought about pulling it out, but I was on the bridge above on my bike and didn't want to ride on with cold, wet shoes and pants.  Maybe I can figure out a rope with a hook if it's still there next time I go by.

And finally, flowers are starting to bloom, perennials are poking out of the ground, and Anchorage is getting green again.  This is a rather ruffly daffodil.

Emerging As The Snow Retreats [Updated}

We have snow and ice and various combinations of snow packed denser from the weight of more snow.  But the sun and wind are busy melting and evaporating the snow and ice.  My daily exercise has been to chop the ice that formed on the sidewalk and street and to liberate the gutter so the melt water can make a straight path to the sewer and not melt each day and freeze again each night in the street.

Here are some pictures as the disappearing ice and snow reveal what they've been hiding during the winter.

Here's part of the rock flower bed border poking out today.

Under the trees the snow wasn't so deep and so that ground makes an early appearance.  Some of the leaves fell after the first snow falls and have melted their own shapes into the older snow.

And here's some phlox poking out, getting ready to display their tiny pink blossoms near the beginning of the parade of flowers starting in May.

I thought, wow, a moose was just by and I missed it.  But there were no holes in the snow that moose leave, so this must have been left here many snows ago, and buried until yesterday.

[UPDATE March 28, 2018 - What the snow giveth, it can take away again.  I meant to note in this post yesterday that it's still March and there tends to be a snow or two in April still, even May.  And last night it snowed ever so slightly.  But enough to cover up the moose poop:

But the sun's out again and most of last night's snow is gone already.  This time of year we have lots of light and the knowledge things will turn green again soon.]

And the magpies have also been eager to poke around in the newly revealed leaves.  This is a great time of year as the (northern) earth shrugs off its coat and all the life that's been hibernating underneath begins to awaken.

What A Beautiful Morning

I'm hesitant to write posts like this.  I worry people will do to Alaska what they did to Washington and Oregon - move there.  But after our last trip Outside, I realize that the stories people have in their minds about permanent ice, polar and grizzly bears walking through town, and all the hardships of living in a cold wilderness have such a strong grip on people's mental pictures of Alaska, that I don't have to worry.  People's response is a sympathetic smile, a subtle rolling of eyes, and a condescending, "I'm so glad you like it there."

We got home Wednesday night to a nicely cleared driveway.  My car started up right away in the 7˚F (-14˚C) cold.  But after 10 days in mostly rainy Seattle with temps generally  in the 40s(F), it just didn't seem terribly cold in Anchorage.  It's drier for one thing, and not windy.  It snowed that night and I got up and cleared the inch or so out of the driveway before J pressed it down with her tires when she left.  (We have a south facing, sloping driveway.  If I don't keep it as clear as possible, it gets packed down.  Then when it warms up, it thaws and runs down the driveway only to freeze up into an icy sheet when it cools back below freezing.  So I try to keep it as close to the asphalt as I can.  And our house sitter did a great job while we were gone.)

It had snowed again yesterday evening,  So I got up, showered, did my leg stretches and lifted my barbell a few times, then bundled up and went out.

It was so beautiful.  It's about 4˚F (-16˚F) now.  But just my face feels any cold and it feels invigorating.  There are stars out even as the sky is starting to get light over the mountains.  There's not much snow and I just sweep it, but being out there and moving my muscles reminds me why I live here.

The picture gives a hint of the velvet dark blue sky.  But I can't reproduce how bracing the cold feels. I think about long ago when J and I drove through Mexico and Guatemala one summer.  We had to keep getting blocks of ice for the ice box in the VW camper.  The temperatures were in the 80s and 90s F and the humidity was the same.  We'd find the ice factory in a town and it was a pleasure to walk into the 10˚F ice room in our shorts and T shirts.  Though not for too long.  The cold reminds me that I'm still very much alive.

And I can't share with you the freshness and sparkle of the air as it massages my face and fills my lungs.

I wouldn't want it always to be cold with short days, but part of the year is just fine. It's over a month since the solstice in December, the shortest day, and less than two months until the equinox, when every part of the globe has the same amount of daylight.   And with grandchildren beckoning from the south, it's true we spend much of this season Outside.  But it's still a magical time.

Are Your Snow Tires Locked Up At Johnson Tires? You Can Pick Them Up Now

I posted last week about the sudden closure of Johnson Tires, just as people are changing from their
summer to winter tires. (I know for people without snow and ice, this probably doesn't make much sense. I was like that long ago.)

While writing about that, I contacted Cynthia Franklin, Assistant Attorney General at the Consumer Protection Unit.

She got back to me this morning again:

"The bank is trying to return the tires and is holding return hours this week Mon-Fri from 12-2 pm and 4-6 pm. They are trying to get the word out as they have 150 sets of tires and only 20 people have come by so far."

So, if you've got your tires there and haven't been able to retrieve them, you can now.  Let others know.  

I think you can get them at Johnson Tires old building (yes, at 3330 Denali).  The bank is Northrim, who had the mortgage for the building.    The bank employees helping return tires are Tina and Katie.

Blogger Note:  Took the tire track picture Saturday.  I liked the pattern, but it didn't really fit into any of my posts.  Until now.  Coincidentally, this is where the old Northrim Bank used to be at 36th between Old and New Seward Highways.  

Termination Dust Showed Up Finally

October 7 is kind of late for the first termination dust. Last year I got a picture on Sept. 23. Someone did say there had been some dustings that quickly disappeared, but nothing I ever saw when the clouds cleared up.  The sky was perfectly clear when we got up yesterday, but by 1pm it was hazy clouds and by night it was raining again.

Meanwhile, back in town kids are still enjoying fall at the Cuddy Park playground.

I was at the Assembly special public hearing on SB91 yesterday and went past the playground on the long way home.  People were really angry about crime in Anchorage and the lack of apparent police responsiveness.  I've got lots of pictures and notes.   I'll do a post on that soon, but cleaning up the house for our housesitter as we prepare for a quick trip to see grandchildren.  If I get done early, I'll post later today.  Don't hold your breath though.

Sparks

Busy around the house as fall moves in and trying to get things ready for winter.  Raking leaves, trimming back the perennials, mulching the flower beds.  Getting the moss of the roof.  Got someone painting the trim on the house and Jody came out to weld the railing back onto our front steps.

And that's the reason for the sparks.

Falling - A Blue Bridge, Morning Nip, First Yellow Leaves, End of Summer Anchorage Botanical Garden

I woke up and looked out into the backyard.  The sun lit up a a section of yellow cottonwood leaves.  Fall's on the way.  But when I went back out later to catch it in my camera, the light had changed and it wasn't as obviously fall.

Here's a bridge I cross on my most common bike route.  The morning light, as the sun rises later and from a more southernly angle, isn't summer light any more.

OK, so it's not Amsterdam, but the bike rack was full when I visited the dermatologist this morning for a checkup.  It's been a while, but he didn't find anything of interest.

Then after a lunch with a friend, I went off to go home the long way.  I felt sluggish and the bike seemed  particularly clunky, but slowly I got into it and when I got to the cutoff where I had to decide to keep riding further or loop back home, I found myself going for the longer ride.





I turned around at the Campbell Airstrip trail head, but first went to the bridge and listened to the creek a while.  Here is the view from the bridge looking west.

And looking east.  There was a man sitting on a bench near the parking area with his little white dog and we chatted a bit.  He talked about dredging for gold near Nome.  There was a guy from Yugoslavia, he told me, who had a young son, maybe four or five.  One day the guy was going out on the water to dredge and asked the man to watch the boy.  They did some work in the sand and the boy was very helpful.  At the end of the day, he told the boy he worked so hard that he should pay him a dollar.  And the boy looked at him and held out two fingers.  Smart kid, he said.

Then I stopped at the botanical garden on my way home.  Here are some shots as most of the flowers are gone, but there still are many out.

I looked around for the sign that seemed to be connected to this pinkie. I just confirmed with google that this is the flower for that sign.  It's a filapendula Kahome or Meadowsweet.  From the Missouri Botanical Garden:

"Genus name comes from the Latin words filum meaning a thread and pendulus meaning hanging for the root tubers in some species that hang together with threads.

‘Kahome’ is a dwarf form of meadowsweet. It is an upright, clump-forming perennial that typically grows only 8-12” tall and features branched, terminal, astilbe-like panicles (corymbs) of tiny, fragrant, rosy pink flowers in summer. Compound-pinnate, bright green leaves (7-9 lance-shaped leaflets each) provide a fern-like appearance. This is a good foliage plant that is valued as much for its leaves as it is for its flowers."

This one's a Globe Thistle.


And here's a lily finishing out its life cycle.

And the seed pods of a peony.  

This is part of Lile's Garden.  It's a wonderful spot, though at first I was a bit conflicted.  Originally, the garden was dirt paths through the woods with an opening here and there with some planted things in amongst the natural Alaska landscape.  But the Alaska Botanical Garden has worked hard to be more than a bunch of volunteers putting some plots in the wilderness (quite literally.)  And this space is elegant and beautifully designed with a great array of plants and flowers.  Most things are gone now in early September.  I sat down on a bench.  It was cloudy, but felt comfortable enough to sit down and enjoy the garden.  I went to pull my book out of my backpack and that's when I discovered that I must have left it where we had lunch.

Now that I'm home, I checked a little more on this serene (I just saw that ABG uses the same word, so it must be true, right?) spot.  From the Alaska Botanical Garden website:

"Lile’s Garden
This peaceful and serene garden is named in honor of Lile Bernard Rasmuson. Recently completed, it was designed by renowned landscape  architect, Carol R. Johnson, in conjunction with local firm, Earthscape. Plantings and selections were guided by local artist and Garden Designer Ayse Gilbert. Fruit trees hardy to Southcentral Alaska are showcased  here, as well as a  “Gold Medal” Peony collection and Primula collection."

'Renowned landscape artist.'  So I checked on that too.  She's headquartered in Boston.   Check out what other things Carol R. Johnson's company has designed.  We're in good company.

Finally as I was leaving I was struck by the quiet beauty of this ornamental cabbage.

The Thai Kitchen had my book waiting for me.