Great Hikes

This is a privately accessed glacier, so you pay the people who own the access. It was worth the $15 bucks, though.

Glaciers are really so amazing, moving rivers of ice. Let’s bring back the Ice Age! I want glaciers in Missouri! 🙂

That’s me, just strolling around on a glacier!

The patters in the ice that form are amazing. Nature is truly a fantastic artist.

Just more of what this amazing place has in the way of scenic views.

We had to go back through Anchorage after our time in the Kenai. We finally got some good photos of moose, these were right in town. We hiked a trail to the top of this mountain ‘Flat Top’ which offers great views of the city below. Dave even got a few more hours of fishing in, right there in town. Unfortunately he didn’t catch any, but I’m not sure what we’d do with them if he did, our freezer is full of salmon! We also ate some reindeer hot dogs. Yes, the hot dog stands all over town have reindeer dogs. I got a free soda from the hot dog vendor for knowing that Loretta Lynn sang ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’. It’s unusual for music trivia knowledge to actually be useful.

The view of Anchorage from the top of Flat Top mountain.

Dave and I on Flat Top. Oh, and Molly too. It wasn’t too hard for an old dog like her.

Finally, some moose photos! With babies, even.

Just some more beautiful mountains scenes. Alaska sure does have enough of them!

We had a lot of fun in the Portage area, despite of (or possibly because of) the weather. We arrived from nice mild weather only 50 miles away. The closer we got the harder it rained, the more windy it became, and the colder it was. By the time we got to the Forestry visitor’s center it was 40 degrees with gale force winds and rain with sleet. Brrr! We stayed in the area 2 nights and the weather improved only slightly. The rain eased up for our hike to Byron Glacier but started raining again as soon as we decided to ride our bikes on a trail nearby and really started coming down for our boat ride to Portage Glacier. The Forestry Service Center there made it as enjoyable as possible, though. The day we arrived was Saturday and they did a free ‘Saturday night at the movies’ presentation. I mean, the movie was about the Forestry Service but it was actually really nicely done and interesting. The next day there were celebrating the 99th year of the Chugach National Forest and had free cake and coffee for everyone. That was nice after cycling 2 miles from our campsite in 30 mph winds and rain! We did drive into Whittier through the amazingly cool $12 toll tunnel that is shared by trains and traffic going each direction. Maybe by then we’d just had enough of the rain but the town actually seemed pretty grim and didn’t offer a lot to do. There was a cruise ship in port when we arrived and it looked like they loaded up the passengers on trains and busses and got them out of that grey little town as quickly as possible!

This is Byron Glacier near Portage.

Dave and Molly hiking on Byron glacier.

This amount of ice can really make a person realize how small they are!

On our boat ride to see the Portage Glacier we saw this piece of ice floating along…doesn’t it look like a whale’s tail?

There is the main attraction, the big and beautiful Portage Glacier.

This waterfall is in Whittier, adding a bit of beauty to what we found to be a rather unhappy seeming little town.

Seward is a nice place. We took a boat ride to see the glaciers and wildlife, did some hiking, had a really good time despite the freezing cold, rainy weather. We did see two whales on the boat ride, but I couldn’t get a decent photo!

Harbor seal just browsing on the rocks.

Beautiful blue glacier coming right down to the water.

It really was cold and rainy!

This is Mt. Marathon, the backdrop of Seward. Every 4th of July they have a race up and down the mountain. It’s only 3 miles, so how hard can it be, right? Well, the winners of the race do it in 45 minutes, the top women are under and hour. Dave and I hiked the trail and ended up turning around because when it rains the mud is so slick and the trail is so steep we kept falling down. We made it almost all the way and it took us 3 hours. Not only are the people who run that race tough, I think they must be a little crazy as well.

Dave and Molly pose with the Iditarod ‘mile 0’ sign. She thinks she’s a sled dog now!

Another bald eage.

The view of town from almost on top of Mt. Marathon.

This glacier you can walk right up to. We touched it and I had to lick it. When else can you lick ice that could be like 1,000 years old? Ok, maybe only I would care about something like that but I thought it was super cool.

The glacier ice up here is so blue!

It is really cool to get up close.

The view as you approach.

That’s where I licked it!

All over Alaska everyone was talking about the Russian River salmon fishing. For the longest time we thought it was the Rushing River they were talking about but finally we figured it out. Dave and I both gave the fishing a try, and he actually caught a few after some expert guidance from a fishing guide from Washington. Those sockeye salmon are delicious!
The salmon are amazing how they find there way back to the river they were born in after years in the ocean, spawn and then die. I have a video of the salmon jumping UP a waterfall but I’m still experimenting with adding video to this page!

Dave proud with his catch! Don’t ask about his outfit…you really needed waders to fish here but since neither of has had a pair we wore our diving wetsuits. They kept us warm and mine came in very handy when as I was trying to avoid a grizzly floating down the river I fell full in the freezing water! I also lost my wedding band when I fell it. We searched for it but I think the darn bear stole it! Now some hobbits will come by fishing and find it, I’m sure.

Here’s a black bear that was hanging around looking for scraps of fish. This bear seemed pretty nice.

I’m trying so hard, just not getting any.

Dave fishing with the black bear sneaking up behind him.

Dave fishing with the grizzly sneaking up behind him. This bear everyone knows and calls ‘gimpy’. He was shot and his mother was killed last year. Because of the large number of bears looking for salmon scraps a lot of people were carrying guns around the river. While I understand if you are going into the back country, I found it a bit excessive around a busy populated area around the Russian River, and I found the rednecks with guns a lot scarier than the bears.

Well, we did a lot in the peninsula but here I’m just going to post a few photos that don’t really fit in anywhere else.

Just beautiful!

A bald eage just hanging around in Homer.

Mountains in the background hear Homer, AK.

Here’s the seashore near Captain Cook State Park. Lots of people are out clamming at low tide.

Anchorage is really a cool city. Fairbanks was rather grim, so I wasn’t sure what to expect but this is what a city should be like. There is a 23 mile bike trail all along the water front that is a great ride and even on a warm sunny day at 6pm was uncroweded and great. Didn’t see any moose along the trail but I’ve heard they will often cause a small wildlife jam along the trail.

View of low tide in the bay from along the trail. They have some of the biggest tides in the world here with there being a 20+ foot difference!

We visited the Native Heritage Center here. It is like the Epcot Center of Native Alaskans, they have a model home of each different group of people native to Alaska.

They had whale bones at the Heritage Center!

That’s me, in the ribs!

Dave on some rocks at Beluga Point.