Campbell Creek - Still Some Snow

Biked over to Campbell Creek yesterday to see if the snow was gone from the trail as it is from the Chester Creek trail from UAA to Goose Lake and on around to Alaska Native Medical Health Consortium (ANMHC).  It's close, but there are still snowy/icy/slushy spots like this one.

I made it through on several of these patches, but decided I'll wait another week to see if my regular run up to Campbell Airstrip is ice free.  But the views of the creek from the various bridges is, as always, wonderful.

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.

Let's March

Seattle, where we've spent most of the month, had one of the coldest Februaries on record and including one of the snowiest.
San Francisco, where we spent part of the month, was rainy and February temps were well below normal.
And the LA Times says today that LA had its first February since they've been keeping records ( "at

least 132 years") when temperature never reached 70˚F.  The average was down from 68˚F to 61˚F.

Meanwhile Anchorage started February a little warmer than normal and ended a little colder than normal.

So, does this mean Trump is right and Climate Change is a hoax?  Weather is NOT Climate.  Weather is what happens short term.  Climate is the larger overall trends.  And Climate Change is about change.  That doesn't mean just getting warmer (though that's the overall trend).  It also means more extremes, more volatility, and changes that will affect how much water areas have, whether traditional crops will survive, whether heat and floods will change the landscapes.

Climate change is real and businesses know it and are concerned.   Only ideologues who reject science for vanity and ideology don't believe it.

But meanwhile, Let's March.  Let's enjoy this month.  Our last full day in the Seattle area is beautiful.  And I'm looking forward to getting some sunny wintertime in Anchorage tomorrow.

Seattle Readies For Snow Storm, We Decide To Get Closer To Airport

We have tickets for tomorrow back to San Francisco for more grandkid duty.  But our daughter warned us a storm was coming.

..WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 4 PMPST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 4 to 6inches expected. Local snowfall accumulations of 8 inches. Northto northeast winds will increase late tonight and Saturday to 15to 30 mph with some local gusts to 45 mph. The wind will likelyreduce visibility at times due to blowing snow, especially nearshorelines of the inland waters.
* WHERE...Portions of northwest and west central Washington,including Seattle, Everett, Tacoma, Bremerton, Bellevue, NorthBend, Redmond, Kent, Port Angeles, Sequim, Oak Harbor, and MountVernon.
* WHEN...From Noon today to 4 PM PST Saturday. The heaviestsnowfall accumulations for most of the area will occur between 3PM this afternoon and 10 PM this evening.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...A period of 2 inch per hour snowfallaccumulations is likely during todays late afternoon and eveningcommute in the Tacoma, Everett, Seattle, and Bremerton area.Travel is likely to become very difficult. Areas of blowing snowcould contribute to reduced visibility late tonight intoSaturday.

The island is a 35 minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle.  Then it's a short walk to the train, and about 40 more minutes to the airport.  And when storms hit the island, trees fall onto power lines and people lose power for days sometimes.  And they said the ferry can't dock if there's no power.

But the ferry only comes once an hour so last time we had to get the 7:05am ferry to get to a 10:45am flight.  (The 7:55am ferry probably would have gotten us there on time, but if anything went wrong on the way we'd have missed our flight.)

Snow falling as we depart ferry,  barely see Seattle buildings

So we decided we should get a room near the airport for tonight.  But that was easier said than done.  Everything in the SEATAC area was full.  I finally got a room at Motel 6.  We could check in at 3pm.

Last night the snow wasn't going to start for real until about 3pm so we decided on the 1:15pm ferry.  But we decided if we were packed we could go for the 12:20 ferry.  And then we learned the advisory had been moved up to snow beginning at noon.  So as we were walking to the ferry, the first flakes began.

We walked up to the Link (light rail) station past Pioneer Square.  If you click on these pics you can see the snow.  They were big flake and coming down seriously.

As Alaskans we take all this snow preparation as a little strange, but they don't have the plowing equipment and they don't have snow tires or studs, and there are lots of hills.




The train station was a surprise.  It looked like everyone had decided to take the afternoon off to get home before the snow got bad.  The buses and trains were packed.  After not being able to get on the first two trains, we got a little pushier for the third.

This was after things got a little better.







By the time we got to the SeaTac station, the snow was sticking on the side streets and sidewalk, but
it was less than a mile walk so we enjoyed the snow.  We've reduced our luggage to one carryon and two backpacks.  (We've heard about but haven't watched Marie Kondo.  We've generally traveled light enough so we can walk with our stuff if we have to, but for this week in San Francisco we've rethought anything that had any weight.  Here's the view from our no frills hotel room - but there is heat, to compensate for the gaps in the door frame.

Leaving LA. Arriving Seattle. Then On Home To Anchorage

The rain stopped during the morning in LA and we had periods of sunshine.  We even got a rainbow while waiting on the plane to take off.











And here are all those beaches I've been posting pictures of.  This time from the air.  The line out to see at the bottom is the north side of Marina del Rey.  Then comes the Venice Pier, and beyond that is the Santa Monica Pier.  Strange light close to sunset time.

I spent most of the flight trying to catch up on my reading of Abramson's Proof of Collusion.  I'm trying to imagine the explanations we'll get when current Republican Senators write the memoirs.  Murkowski might write something like, well, I opposed when I thought it would make a difference, but I had to balance getting things for Alaska vs losing all leverage vs being attacked and cut out completely.  I waited until there were enough other Republican senators to act in ways that would make a difference."   All the pictures of her I see nowadays have this terribly pained expression.  Is that her current look, or is that what the editors think is the most likely to get readers' attention?

Abramson tells a bunch of different stories that all tie together to explain Trump's historic and more current ties to Russia, gives details on the key players, and a massive backup of footnotes, of sources.  He doesn't make extravagant claims.  He mentions things that are missing in the evidence.  One can't help but wonder how the Republicans piled up on Clinton, yet the evidence of Trump's collusion is overwhelming.  Yet they do nothing, letting him stay in the country's cockpit pulling the levers.  If there was a hint that a pilot had a drinking problem, he'd be suspended until it was determined if it were true.  If a teacher were accused of inappropriately touching a child, he'd be out of the classroom immediately.  Yet the Republicans allow Trump to keep tearing apart the United States' political and physical infrastructure, honor, economy, and ideals while they let Mueller gather the details.  (It's not bad that they let Mueller do his work.  I'd like them to protect Mueller from being removed, and protect his work from being buried by Trump's new Attorney General.)  But in the meantime they let him continue to do his damage.

I do recommend the book for anyone who isn't quite sure of how and why Trump will be found guilt of colluding with the Russians to get elected in exchange for wrecking Western alliances, removing sanctions, supporting Russia's annexing of Crimea, pulling out of the Paris Climate Treaty, and on and on.

And then I noticed we were flying over downtown Seattle.  You've seen enough pictures of all the buildings.  Here are a couple of more impressionistic pictures.

The wide shot.









And the closer shot.  (The green is the ferris wheel on the waterfront.)











Eventually we caught the next flight and made our way home to Anchorage where it feels a lot warmer than our outdoor thermometer's 14˚F (-10˚C) reading.  The temperature at the drug store sign up the street seemed a bit off in the other direction.  It said 42˚F.

Rain, Sun, Rain, Food

Saturday threatened rain.  There were drops on the ground when I finally got round to my bike ride, but I figured I could turn back if it rained harder.  But it didn't.  Just clouds.  Some spots the pavement was wet, other spots not.  But the traffic jam along the beach bike trails was greatly reduced.  (They are bike trails.  It has pictures and the word bike stenciled on the pavement.  But scooters and joggers and strolling tourists can make it something of an obstacle course during the holidays and weekends)





It felt so good to just ride without worrying about hitting people or being hit, that I just kept going the seven miles to where the bike trail ends and then turned back.


This is looking south on the return trip from Will Rogers State Beach.  The buildings on the left are around downtown Santa Monica.



It rained seriously during the night, but by morning the sun was out again and we met (J walked and I biked) at the Mar Vista Sunday market.

The quiche was at Sandra's Soups and Sweets and I agreed to let people know.  Open food like this is required to be kept behind screens.  There are zippered openings for purchases.

I pointed out to one of the servers at Vegan Bite Bowls, that the name Buddha Sauce seemed a bit disrespectful to me.  He listened as I went on about cultural appropriation, and how I suspect that they didn't ask permission of any Buddhist temples or associations to use the name to make a profit.  Or that I suspected they didn't contribute any of their profit to any Buddhist organizations.  He listened and said he'd think about it and that no one had ever made that kind of comment before.


We woke up to rain this morning.  The sky seems clear again now, but everything is nicely watered .

Visit To The Eye Doctor - Fancy Frames And Inside Closeups

I first went to Dr. E - as he reminded me yesterday - in 1975.  His office is in Beverly Hills, but the prices don't reflect that.  We came down to LA often enough to visit my mom over the years that I could get a check up every year or two.  He's a great doctor - considering how well my contacts work - we get along well, and he plays real jazz in the background.  Not only am I one of the patients he's had the longest, but he also appreciates that I come all the way from Alaska to get my eyes checked.

The waiting room had mostly ordinary glasses on display.  But there were also several very splashy ones.

Dr. E has gotten a new toy since I was here two years ago - it's a machine that takes pictures of the inside of your eyeball.  Here's what I look like inside - at least the way the machine paints it.

The blue at the bottom is the macula.  And he pointed out where a few bits are breaking off.  He didn't seem to worried at the moment.  I couldn't make sense of this at first but he explained it was at the back of the inside of my eye.   This picture I got online might help.  

Image from dreamstime

 The Macular Society tells us this (there's also a video there):

"The macula is part of the retina at the back of the eye. It is only about 5mm across but is responsible for all of our central vision, most of our colour vision and the fine detail of what we see.
The macula has a very high concentration of photoreceptor cells that detect light and send signals to the brain, which interprets them as images. The rest of the retina processes our peripheral (side) vision."

It's pretty important.







If I understand this right, the white spot in the darkish area is the macula.  Then there are other areas and layers of the eye as you can see in the chart above.

Here's a different view.  

I need to wrap this up because Alaska's being given a bad rap again - a storm from the Gulf of Alaska is headed for (maybe already there) Northern California and we're supposed to get rain here in LA tonight.  So I want to go for my bike ride before it starts.  It's already pretty gray out.  

Almost Headed Home - Kindergarten, Rainbows, and Poke

Part of volunteering at my granddaughter's school is prep work for the teacher.  Had to copy the numbers onto the yellow paper, then cut them up.  There were also booklets to copy, cut, and staple.  Then sit with a group during reading and be a resource.  I was surprised at what fluent readers some of the kids were.  And they had use of tablets and earphones to listen to someone read as the words turn red as their spoken.

Later in the day I walked to the school bus stop and waited in the sun and rain.  When I figured I should look for the rainbow, I just had to look up.

And we all ate at the nearby Japanese restaurant.  I've been poke spoiled since Hawaii and this poke was good and spicy.

And one of the sushi rolls.




We're at the airport waiting to board.  It's been warm - in the 50s.

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.

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.)

Learning The News By Seeing Who Visits What Post On My Blog

A post on the Earth Null School has suddenly started getting lots of hits from people in Korea.  So I decided to see if I could figure out why.

Earth Null School has a dynamic map of the world showing wind, currents, air,  among other things. [Click on EARTH in lower left to get options.]  So I went to the site and looked around.  You can see the hurricane headed toward Hawaii.  And then I spun the globe, so to speak, and saw two more little swirling balls - one off Japan and one headed to Korea.

Japan is the island with the orange weather pattern.  And to the left of that is a yellow ball at the southern tip of Korea.  If you go to the Earth Null School page, all these wind patterns are moving.

Accu-weather says:

"After grazing southern Japan, Severe Tropical Storm Soulik is on track to sweep across the Korean Peninsula through Friday.
As AccuWeather predicted, Soulik reached the equivalent of a Category 3 major hurricane in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific basins at its peak. Soulik has since weakened to a severe tropical storm."

And here's a Washington Post story on all three storms - Hawaii, Korea, and Japan.

"Three tropical cyclones are lined up in the Pacific Ocean, and one, Hurricane Lane, may hit Hawaii in a few days. The other two, Typhoons Soulik and Cimaron, will crash into east Asia, directly affecting South Korea and Japan later this week.
All three storms contain winds of at least 74 mph, indicating hurricane strength (typhoons and hurricanes are the same kind of storm, but have different names depending on the section of ocean they traverse). Typhoons Soulik and Cimaron are on a collision course with the Asian continent, and effects from torrential rain, strong winds, and dangerous surf appear unavoidable"

 I'm assuming that as Koreans are preparing for some weather, the word got out that you could see it coming toward them at Earth Null School and google offered them my old post.  That's purely speculation.  

Standing For Salmon 2: Fish [Ship] Creek Fishers

The last post was about standing for salmon politically.

This one is about literally standing for salmon - at Fish [Ship] Creek in downtown Anchorage next to the Port of Anchorage.

We'd made a trip to Alaska Mill and Feed, but they close at 4pm on Sunday, it turned out, and it was 4:30.

So we decided to walk around the area.  We hadn't done that for a number of years and things have been spiffed up.  The Bridge Restaurants crosses over Ship Creek and has an upscale menu and there have been lots of improvements.  Here's the fanciest outdoor public restroom I've ever seen in Alaska.  If you look closely (you may have to click on it to enlarge and focus it) you can see they're labeled Dollies and Chums.


It had rained during the night and much of the day, but it was surprisingly warm - low 70s F.  And it was windy.  Weather reports said it was a remnant of a typhoon in Japan.  I'd say we had about 10 mile/hour winds most of the time with gusts over 30 mph.

Here's a guy sloshing through the mud, his rod had snapped.












Here we walked down to a look out point, next to the boat launch into Cook Inlet.  The picture is looking north to the mouth of Ship Creek with the Port of Anchorage in the background.  If I'd turned around and taken a picture to the south, you'd see downtown Anchorage about half a mile away.

We sat there watching the clouds move past us in the wind.

To get a sense of how fast the clouds were moving, the series of shots below span just under two minutes.

Another shot to the north, geese in the foreground and the port in the background.











Another view of the fishers as we cross a bridge and return on the other side.

And yes, folks were catching fish.

[UPDATE Aug 16, 2018:  Jim Kerr pointed out this is Ship Creek, not Fish Creek.  I seem to have used both names in this post.  Thanks Jim, I've made the corrections now.]