Eye on you

Cascade Glacier

Prince William sound

Another Alaska Paddling Day

Harriman Arm- Prince William Sound

Crossing winter creek

Turnagain Arm from Glacier Bowl , Alyeska ski resort

July 1 - Girdwood, AK - camped out in Alyeska Ski Resort Day lot - Daisies by the thousands cover the bank adjacent to our camping spot.  We are nestled in at the edge of Girdwood, a small community on the Alyeska highway off the Seward Highway which ruins along the length of the Turnagain Arm. As is typical, the clouds which built during the day have cleared mostly off, and we are enjoying bright sun and dropping winds while we eat dinner no relax for the evening.  

The tide in these parts is massive, almost 30 feet, and the entire bay empties out into the Gulf of Alaska a twice a day.  At this part, about halfway in, the arm is well over 5 miles  across, but at low tide only a few threads of water remain visible across the entire mud flat.  When the tide comes in on a full moon, it's called a Bore tide, and a wave almost 6 feet tall sweeps into the arm, pushing all manner of debris before it.  The roar, and power of the Phenomena is well known, and respected, and very good fodder for fishing tall tales based in the size fish riding In with the surge. 

We spent the day hiking a Alyeska ski resort.  I recommend hiking up to the top of the resort from the hotel, about 2 hours, then grabbing a sandwich from the cafe up there, and riding the cable car down. The ride down is free. The ride up costs $25.  This resort is compact by some standards. With three primary lifts, but the terrain is epic, with steep,chutes and slopes looming well above the highest lift which are "hike to" terrain.  To control avalanches , the ski patrol has strung a series of immensely long fixed cables which traverse just in front of some of the biggest cliffs , which they use to run trollies down loaded with explosives.  Avalanch control often takes until past 11 to get completed, but with the short daylight in winter, the slopes could not open too much earlier this this anyway.

The views from up top are exceptional, with the massive Turnagain arm in one direction, and the Chugash mountains around on all the other sides.  While riding the tram we saw a mother moose and her child nibbling on greens at the edge of a run.  There is plenty of hiking here in the summer, as well as the Alaska Railroad with whistle stops all along the arm all the way to Whittier offering access to trail heads along its route.

We are dry camped in the day lodge parking lot for $10, a great value and quite pleasant as compared to the far more expensive place we stayed in downtown Anchorage yesterday , adjacent to the train tracks with frequent heavy train traffic , and crammed full of other travelers trying to put a day in anchorage on their itinerary.  We used the laundry, and showers, filled water tanks and dumped our sewage, but otherwise, I would avoid this downtown campsite at ship creek if possible. The bike path along the Anchorage water front is 10 miles one way and  is very nice, and there are a few convenient bike rental places right downtown. We saw no Moose there, but were told is is a very common occurrence. The wind off the Bay is broken by a dense copse of trees, with frequent viewing spots carved out for the traveler. 

Valdez earthquake museum

Valdez small boat harbor

June 26 - Squirrel creek campsite - Richardson Highway north of Thompson Pass - a diving duck fishes alone in a wide spot on the creek, and the grey clouds scuttle quickly overhead racing from the coast, but dissipating after rising up through Thompson Pass and towards Alaska's vast interior.  The slate grey sky reflects as a shimmering background for the ever changing elongated ovoids  of dark green floating and changing and forming, and stretching, and joining, and dissipating as the breeze creates ripples over the water.  An abandoned fishing skiff lays beached among the reeds across the river, it's owner having been absent long enough to bleach the benches, and gunnels pale tan, stripped of any paint.  A bald eagle soars low over the trees at the edge of the river scanning for any prey unfortunate enough to be In shallow enough water for the powerful bird to spy from above.  

We have left the rainy coast and busy fishing and tourist port town of Valdez behind with its steady drizzle, and squads of ubiquitous White boxy rental RVs.  The ferry disgorges a new fleet of travelers with each stop once a day- most of which rapidly dissipate up the Richardson Highway, but some who congregate in the soulless parking lot RV camps near the small boat harbor.

Out near the compact airport is "man camp" a crowded collection of clustered multi story quick build barracks for the army of transient labor working on the new port construction project and its related stone quarry, and at the trains-Alaskan pipeline terminal across the bay and the other  gravel operations. Mining sized dump trucks belch their acrid exhaust endlessly one truck after another all day long drive out of the harbor carrying the blasted and scraped and dredged remains of a shoreside hillside that is being transformed into a new boat harbor.

In Valdez ( actually new Valdez, since the original Valdez was abandoned and burned after the 1964 9.2,  5 minute earthquake and subsequent tsunami) is built on  the terminal end of Prince William Sound, surrounded by the snow capped Chugash mountains. Waterfalls cascades down the steep alder covered slopes beneath the melting  snow fields above. Their is no evidence of the booming heli-ski operations which operate here between mid February though Early April- but two kayak companies keep a colorful fleet of stout double kayaks in the small boat harbor for daily short, and multi-day excursions.

There is a salty fleet of sturdy commercial fishing vessels, sprouting all sorts of tethered super structure, a mound of netting threaded with bouys along one edge, and a deep welled tender, used to stretch the net around the suspecting schools of fish out in the deeper water.  They were all out yesterday, but this morning found them all in port, holds being hosed out and engine compartments open with work in progress. Mountain sized fisherman mingled in knots, smoking cigarettes, and gesticulating dramatically as voices rise to make a point.  Dashboards of the hard working vessels strewn with sea charts and binoculars, and air horns, and threaded with piles of electronic devices leave barely any clear room for the captains to see forward.  The tall proud prows of these vessels reflect the steep seas in which they must often find themselves.

Bald eagle at Blueberry Lake outside Valdez

Bald Eagle on Eklutna Lake

June 29 - Eklutna Lake, AK - 10 miles into the Chugash State Park off the Glenn Highway north of Anchorage lies a gem of an Alpine Lake called Eklutna.  There is a state campground at the end of the paved road, and from there you can take an easy hike along the lake, or a more strenuous hike up into the Alpine high onto Twin Peaks.  If you come Sunday through Wednesday expect to hear swarms of ATV enthusiasts on the lakeside road, kicking up dust, but generally much less disturbing overall compared to Motorcycles or snow mobiles.  You can rent single or double kayaks at the concession (or mountain bikes too) at the lake for a reasonable rate and the park does not permit any gas powered motorized boats on the lake with only a walk-in ramp.  canoes and kayaks only.  The water is a grey/pale green/ blue from the glacial silt contributed by the glacier at the lake's head. The park has a cabin on the lake, at about 3.5 miles in, that you can reserve. There are also two campsites at the end of the lake that have outhouses. There is a flat dirt road, great for mountain biking running all the way down the east shore, so you can use that road to access the hiking trail up Bold ridge. You can also make a day trip from the campsite at the far end of the lake to Serenity Falls and Hut.

Because of the road and the 4 wheelers some of the week, wildlife is pretty scarce on the east side of the lake, but if you paddle up the west side of the lake keep your eyes out for Eagles.  The large scavenger birds tend to perch in dead tree limbs at the water's edge on the downwind shore, waiting to see what the wind will carry across the lake to their dinner table,

The lake is deceptively big, and the water is cold, like 45 degrees cold, and being nestled tight in a glacial valley, the weather can change very rapidly.  The steep chop builds fast as the lake's shores rise suddenly at the edges.  The lake is used as the primary drinking water source for Anchorage, and that same water is used to generate electricity on it's way down the hill. Because of that draw on the water, this natural lake has more the look of a reservoir around the shores, with a steep, graveled bank, rising some 20 feet during our visit before reaching the vegetation line.  I would guess at different times of the year, and during different weather cycles this rocky shore may grow, or disappear, but there are no shore mammals, like beavers or otters or muskrats that would otherwise occupy this special environmental niche due to the unnatural fluctuations of the water level. It's still very pretty, with the snow capped Chugash Mountains Comfortably nestled at the end of the lake beckoning the adventuresome traveler and the heavily forested slopes pleasantly covering the hillsides below the alpine. If you are not an ATV'r, avoid Sunday through Wednesday, but especially Sunday, when the day riders come out from Anchorage.

Glacial meltwater stream near Glennallen, AK

Eklutna Lake, AK 45 degree water and glacial blue

Matanuska glacier

Observing an eagle on a nest near camp