March 31st
– April 6th 2014
It is still cold in here (especially in the night). The days are
relatively pleasant because of sun. On Monday, J. had
her last day of orientation, it was quite short. Quick stop at the
grocery store (we had to go to the store so many times – what is
going on?). Quiet evening – we are still planning the trip home,
slowly booking one motel at the time. By now we are in Cranbrook,
British Columbia. On Tuesday, day off, we went to
downtown (quite small), parked in the garage and walked to the State
of Alaska skyscraper (19 levels) to get receipt for J.'s nursing
license. Easy. In the same building was DNR information center. We
bought state park's pass and talked for a longer while with the lady
that was working there. We tried to figure out what we can do during
April (snow, not a “tourist” season) but she told us that we have
to see. Most of the parks are open but the trails will be snowy, icy,
and muddy. Apparently she enjoys fishing and hunting and was quite
happy when she got hunting rifle from her husband for her birthday.
She also told J. had she is canning salmon. Or how she came to Alaska
over thirty years ago and much of today Anchorage was swamp.
Apparently her in-laws had a chance to buy bunch of land few miles
south of the town (in mid seventies or so) but they did not while
saying “who wants to buy a swamp”? Could, would, should … We
also (apparently) slept though small earthquake that happened during
the weekend. There were some incredible views from the building. It
was still cold. We walked to the old federal building where is a
public lands information center (theater, info center, exhibits). We
were there (just for a moment) after we arrived, and like then we had
to go through the metal detector. We watch three movies (about Native
people in Sitka, Alaska railroad, and Carter administration's
protected land laws) and there was just two of us. Alaska is
definitely interesting state. It is impossible to describe or think
here about the resources that Alaska have. Should it be nature?
Should it be oil, gold, and gas? Something in between? In the last
movie President Carter was saying that during state fair in Alaska
people could throw balls at either him or Iranian leader Khomeini and
apparently people preferred him (by a large margin). Strange. We
talked with the staff for a while about our possibilities during
April. Small walk around the town. We do not really leave the house
(on the days off) until 11:00 am or later (when it finally gets
warmer), and it was the case also on Wednesday. We were
going to check out some trail heads to Chugach State Park
http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/chugach/
within the city limits. It is hard to know what will be easily
accessible and what will be closed or covered with too much snow.
About 10 miles on the road. We were on the foothills (those were
apparently without houses 30 years ago, now it is just sea of lights)
of the mountain range and enjoying small neighborhood roads. Some
oversized homes, some million dollars views, and still a bit icy
roads. Approaching the area, we actually saw an Anchorage moose.
According to magazines and articles, there are about 1500 moose
within city limits, finally we saw one. First trail head, we got out,
walked a bit around (less than a quarter of a mile) and saw the city
and whole area, some majestic mountains in the distance. More driving
(tiny roads, huge houses), climbing up, Glen Alps Trail head
(starting point for the Flattop mountain hike). Flattop is the most
popular hike (about 3.4 miles round trip) in the area. It was very
scenic and pleasant drive. We were not planning to go all the way up,
but we wanted to get a feel of the area. There was a detour sign for
a Flattop trail, we felt lost and ended up on the top of the hill off
the lower trail loop. The views were spectacular, even though it was
a bit windy and chilly. It was strange to be warm (from walking) and
cold (weather) at the same time. It was definitely interesting
experience to see it mostly covered with snow. And … no tourist.
Again and again, there are benefits and drawbacks to be “off
season”. No idea how much did we walk but there was no way we could
do the top of the mountain this day (too tired and too cold). People
with dogs. On the way down we found the real trail and it was much
shorter and easier. If we would take this trail we would know that we
were on the middle loop trail. Oh well … next time. Drive home,
quick stop at the store (J. needed padlock). Another day gone …
(OUR FIRST ANCHORAGE MOOSE. BETTER NOT BE THE LAST ONE!)
(SOMETHING PERSONAL. THAT IS ME WALKING AROUND FLATTOP.)
J. had her day shift orientation days on Thursday and Friday.
It was fine. Get thermostat fixed on the car, errands, and some more
monkey business. Gray and sad looking days. It is strange season in
Alaska, I guess not much different from Michigan or any other state
with four seasons. Winter is pretty much gone, spring is not quite
here, and it is messy and dirty everywhere (some snow left, gravel,
slush, garbage). It just feels like the period between winter and
spring is longer here. Saturday morning was very
similar to our other mornings. It is too cold and gray to do much
until at least 10.35 am. Even though Saturday morning was somewhat
warmer (maybe spring is slowly coming). We got gasoline, we had some
car issue, and left the city a bit after midday. Few miles on the
highway, turn to Eagle River (town), and continue along the Eagle
river for 11 miles. Relatively nice road, wide valley (apparently
carved by glacier a while back). Some snow, higher to high mountains
on both sides, mostly frozen river, houses (all the way to the park).
Nature center – Chugach State Park – there is a trail connecting
this area with Girdwood (village on Turnagain arm): 23 miles one way.
We went into the center, talked to one of the volunteers, got a map,
and pad a parking fee. Some nice display: birds, animals, and furs.
About six miles of walking (we combined few trail for a bigger loop).
Almost completely cloudy, relatively pleasant temperature, no wind.
Small nature trail next to the creek, apparently salmon is here in
summer (making babies). Trail: gravel, packed snow, ice, melting ice,
mud, debris – pretty much all the options were present. It was
pretty pleasant walk. The river was mostly frozen, some parts of the
trail were really horrible (washed out), some parts were still
“winter wonderland”, all together it was great (even a bit too
long) walk. The creek area did not have much snow left and it was
just gray and “sleeping for winter”. Two trumpeter swans.
http://www.ernc.org/ (Eagle River
Nature Center) We got back, drove to the highway, and stopped by the
bookstore in the city http://www.wavebooks.com/
(Title Waves Bookstore). We got two older James Bond movies and some
other stuff. Later we watched Octopussy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086034/,
Bond movie from 1983. Who knew those old ones were so awesome.
According to the forecast Sunday was supposed to be
uglier than Saturday. Bunch of liars. We could see at least a bit of
blue sky. Milder morning. Some talking, reading, breakfast eating,
and other monkey business (still the same idea: mornings are too
unpleasant to leave the house). Finally we decided to go and see
Anchorage Museum https://www.anchoragemuseum.org/.
Free parking on the street next to the museum (it was Sunday).
However, we discovered that in winter (until the tourist season
starts) the museum opens at 12:00 (and it was 11:38 am). Across the
street was a mall, so we went in there and just wandered around for
twenty minutes. The museum has two full stories and additional two
more stories in different building. Some modern art and impressive
views of the mountains (those views are from any higher building in
the city). GYRE – very sad exhibition about the environment and all
plastic products that end up there (ocean, rivers, everywhere). There
were few shorter movies, some paintings, and some installations from
“garbage”. We, humans, should be really proud (just to be clear,
I am being sarcastic). Second level had a Smithsonian affiliated
exhibit – Native people and Arctic studies. Incredible exhibit with
many artifacts (interesting), many informative displays – data and
time lines (very interesting), and several screens playing bunch of
short documentaries in loop (amazing). The short documentaries were
showing the life and the culture of many Native tribes.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/
The rest of the museum had some modern art exhibits, photographs from
the earthquake, “hands on” play area, and the time line of Alaska
history. Short description of different periods (Russians,
statehood), artifacts, articles, and so on. The museum was not too
big and it really had so much to show and tell about Alaska that
overall it was just amazing. Our second full week in Alaska is over.
Surprisingly, time is flying.
