Seward - Take 2

I decided to give myself a few days to play in Alaska after I finished work and school. I finished (thank goodness!) and decided to play in Seward for two reasons: (1) I love it there; and (2) It is super easy to get around without a car. When I was planning the trip I had big dreams to do 3 things - hike Mount Marathon, go behind the scenes at the SeaLife Center, and take a kayaking trip. I was successful! I managed to do all of them safely and I couldn't have asked for a better trip!

Lodging: I attempted to save myself some money by staying at a hostel. That was the biggest mistake of the trip. The people were very odd and I was completely uncomfortable with the clean-factor. Since I made the reservation I figured that I owed them a night and I stayed for the first night, but I called Soo, the owner of the B&B Amanda and I stayed in, and she gave me a room for the next night. I resigned myself to the extra cost of the B&B knowing that it would be a luxurious night. As with the whole trip though, luck was on my side. Soo knocked on my door at 9:30 and told me that she made a mistake - she forgot to write down a reservation so I was kicked out of my room! She put me up in the loft, which was amazing, and told me that my stay was free! If anyone makes it to Seward please visit Soo, she is one of the true gems I found on my Alaskan adventure.

Mount Marathon: A 3.1 mile hike with an elevation gain of 3022 feet, Mount Marathon is a difficult trek that is also a race every 4th of July weekend. Last year's winner did it in about 43 minutes. I was up on the Mountain for about 4 hours and I made it to the top of the lower patch of snow decided not to go any further. Thanks Mom -I heard you say "be safe" and I made the right decision! The first part of the hike was through forested area over a muddy path, above the tree line the terrain was all loose shale. The view from the top was absolutely amazing and I'm proud to say that I did it.

I started the hike with 3 other groups of hikers. The first group was a Mother and her Son, the Mom quit after the first rock scramble and her Son went ahead with an older German gentleman who appeared from what seemed like thin air. The second group consisted of 3 guys from South Carolina who grew up together and 2 of them were up visiting the third who was stationed at the Anchorage military base. I traveled down the Mountain with Chad, one of the Carolina boys and the German gentleman, who again, appeared out of nowhere. The descent was much faster than the ascent because we slid down loose shale most of the way, and I really could have used my rock shoes (and maybe a harness?) at a few points, but we made it down in one piece. The third group I started the hike with was a guy and a girl, I couldn't quite tell what their relationship was, but they seemed nice enough.

The girl from the third group was really struggling up the Mountain. She had a walking stick and was taking a ton of breaks. I buzzed up ahead on my own, and they caught up to me at the point where I decided to turn around. They decided to go on (she said something about "Woman vs. Wild"), but I could see that it was going to be a tough journey for them - I was right. After I had gotten off the Mountain and showered, I called Josh from the porch of the hostel which has a great view of Mt. Marathon. As we were chatting, a rescue helicopter came over the Mountain and tried landing near the top. As it turned out, the girl had taken the wrong path back and had slipped down a very steep incline of loose shale. She wasn't injured but she was stuck, and the helicopter had to rescue her. When I found out who was stuck on the Mountain, I was pretty shaken up. It took about four hours for the rescuers to get her down, and aside from being very cold the girl was alright. I had a blast up on Mt. Marathon but it was a very sobering experience.

SeaLife Center: Seward is home to a facility that conducts research and rehabilitation, and has a zoo for Marine animals. I knew that I wanted to visit the Center and I had this crazy thought that I could get behind the scenes by calling the rehab department, telling them I used to volunteer for Sarvey Wildlife, and asking. It worked! They let me in the Center free of charge and they gave me a private tour in the quarantine area where they rehabilitate the rescued animals. As I told Josh, "It's like Sarvey, with money". It was super neat to see how marine mammals are cared for, and to see how a facility can operate with proper funding. The director of the Center was great, he took the time to show me around and he answered all of my questions - and he gave me a t-shirt.

Kayaking: I had such a fantastic time with Kayak Adventures Worldwide last time, that I decided to go again. I had a great kayaking partner, we motored along and we did everything that the guide could think of on Resurrection Bay. We hiked to the fort and had lunch, visited the waterfall, and stopped at a river with a salmon run. Beautiful scenery, great company, and an amazing sport - what else could a girl ask for?

Homeward Bound: At this point I am packing up to head home. I had a fantastic trip and I can't wait to come back!

Josh in AK!

Over the 4th of July weekend, Josh came to visit. It was his first time in Alaska and I was pretty excited to see him and to be able to show him around. We had a fantastic weekend and I wish that he could come back!

The Car: We rented ourselves a car for the weekend. But not just any car - a GOLD Ford Focus. It was essentially the best thing ever. It was a stick so Josh had a blast driving it and most importantly, we were mobile! Anchorage is a completely different city when you have a car and personally, I believe that Mobile-Anchorage is the best Anchorage. By the end of the trip we were both a little attached to our Focus - dents, dog hair, and squeaky back doors - we were sad to have to give her up.

The Location: We spent most of our time in Homer where I found us a great little B&B. We had our own room with a view of the water. There was a wood-fired hot tub, which we went in both nights; I'm pretty sure that only in Alaska will you sit in non-electric hot tub, have a view of Cook Inlet, and watch bald eagles. The town of Homer was pretty neat too - we made it into the famous Salty Dawg and had fresh fish every night.

The Hike: We wanted to spend 1 day out hiking. We didn't have a plan we just knew that we wanted to go "over there" which meant across Cook Inlet, and to do that we needed a water taxi. We packed up our gear and went down on the Homer Spit to find a water taxi - we had a bunch to choose from and our final selection criteria was the best looking sign (advertising at work!) and we ended up at Mako's. Mako himself took us across the inlet and dropped us off on a beach with the instructions that we were to find the trail head marked by an orange triangle, follow the signs to the glacier and then take the saddle trail to our pick up spot, which was not the same as the drop off spot. 45 minutes after we parked the car, Josh and I found ourselves alone on a beach on the other side of the Cook Inlet knowing that we had to catch the boat at "a staircase" at 4:30 pm, with our only way to tell the time being a digital camera with a low-battery camera.

We managed to get ourselves to the trail head and we successfully followed the signs and the rock-piles to the glacier trail. The lake was amazing. The glacier was huge and there were a bunch of calved pieces floating in the gorgeous blue water. We took our pictures (doing our best to conserve the battery) and noticed we had some extra time. We decided to walk along the shore edge and explore. We found a dried up mudflat with Momma and Baby Moose prints. In the process we must have gotten to close to the nest of a group of Arctic Terns because one of them started circling us, making horrible noises, and swooping down at Josh; we quickly left the Tern behind and did some more exploring. On our way back to the trail we took a slightly different path to stay out of the Tern's way. We screwed that up big time.

We must have gotten closer to the nest because instead of 1 Tern there were at least 3 all circling, screaming, and dive-bombing us! I thought it was pretty funny but I was still shielding my head as we tried to get away. At some point the Terns got very serious and they had Josh and I running away while trying to protect our heads. As we were running, Josh fell down and about 5 seconds later one of the Terns hit me on the head! We finally got out of their territory and they left us alone - thank goodness. But I think the Terns won that battle. I had a lump on my head, I was dizzy and Josh wished he had thrown more rocks to hit the darn things. Overall, we both had a hard time believing that we just had our asses handed to us by 3 four ounce birds.

The rest of our hike was pretty uneventful - in a good way. We met a ptarmigan and her babies, she was very nice. So nice, that we had to shoo them off the trail so we wouldn't trample the them. We saw some great views of the other side of the Cook Inlet, we found the staircase and we met our pick-up boat just fine.

Whittier: A former top-secret military base, Whittier is literally enclosed on all sides by Mountains and water. On land, the only way or out is through a single 3-mile long tunnel that is wide enough for one lane of traffic or a train. The tunnel runs on a schedule; you have the ability to travel to or from Whittier between 7am and 11pm, one direction of travel for about 20 minutes designated every hour. I'm happy that we went - it was certainly an experience, but holy cow - I have never felt so claustrophobic! 80% or more of the population lives in a single building; this building houses apartments, privately owned condos, and hotels. I was terrified to be there, worried I might get stuck there, and Josh was happy to get us out of there as soon as possible - as soon as the tunnel schedule allowed it!

Around Anchorage: Even with all that, Josh and I found time to have coffee and breakfast in Barnes and Noble twice, play tourist in Anchorage, go to Humpy's, take a nap, and visit the University Lake Beaver. My only regret about the weekend is that Josh didn't get to see a Moose. There is always next time!

Hike to Gull Rock

The hiking group formerly known as the fab four (Jules, Nick, Amanda, and myself), has become the fantastic five with the addition of Noah. For our first excursion we decided on a five mile hike to Gull Rock, of course that meant five miles back too. We had a great time - the views were amazing and the trail was the most rugged in the Anchorage area that I have been on. It was pretty grown over in a lot of areas so we had to move bushes out of the way of the trail. I felt very small in some places where the brush went way over my head. There were a lot of other places that were muddy and we had to walk on sticks that other thoughtful hikers had placed on the trail. There was another spot where we had to cross a river and the only way to get over was to walk along a tree trunk. The river was several feet below and I made it across the tree-balance beam just fine. It wasn't until after I was across that I realized there was a bridge a little further down the trail...

It rained on us about 1/4 of the time but the trail was so protected that we were usually covered. When we weren't covered I still enjoyed it thanks to my awesome raincoat that I received for Christmas this year. Thanks Josh!

My favorite moment of the hike was looking over the bluff down at the beach and seeing a bald eagle. Its not very often that I have a high enough view point to look down at a flying bald eagle.

I think the groups next excursion will be to Denali National Park. We plan to stay a night there and do some hiking and maybe drive up to the Arctic Circle. For this week, my plan is to do a little bike riding; make it out to University Lake at least once; get ready for Josh to get here on Thursday (yay!); and get a pedicure - I think I've earned it.

Bear Tooth Theater

The Bear Tooth Theater is a movie theater and a restaurant. Picture a normal movie theater with every other row of seats removed and replaced with a table. You order your food up front and choose a seat, then they bring the food to your table while you watch the movie. This is such a novel and fantastic idea! I went on Friday and saw "Then She Found Me", which was a mediocre movie made fabulous by the viewing experience. I loved it, and I plan to go back. Does anyone know of any similar theaters in the Seattle area?

Seward 6.14-15.2008

Anchorage Police Department Ride-Along

As part of my internship for the Municipality of Anchorage I am required to do a ride-along with the Anchorage police department. I did mine on Friday evening from 2:45-midnight. It was a very interesting experience; I learned a lot about police culture and about the attitude that officers have towards the horrible and sad things they see every night.

They put me in a bullet-proof vest - which made me feel like a bad ass - and I sat in the passenger seat of a patrol car with Officer Deville and essentially became a shadow for the night. There is nothing like doing 70 in a 30 with the sirens and lights going. I had to try really hard not to grin and giggle because I thought it was so fun. Just like there is no crying in baseball, I found out there is no smiling on patrol.

My favorite part of the whole night was working with a K-9 unit. Every K-9 unit is required to do a certain number of "training tracks" to keep the dog and the handler prepared and in tune with each other. Officer Deville put on a different jacket over his uniform (to keep the dog from barking at the uniform) and layed down the track; I stayed with the handler and the dog to watch them. It was super cool to see a working dog in action.

I wouldn't say that it was a fantastic experience, but it definitely was interesting. I would like to do a ride-along in a different city to see what the differences are between departments, but I can't imagine wanting Officer Deville's job.

Denali State Park

This past Sunday a group of us (Jules, Nick, Amanda, and myself) decided to make a day trip north and see where we ended up. Jules has a car so it was much more successful than my usual bus outings.

On our drive we saw some beautiful scenery, a male moose who was just getting his antlers and we stopped for lunch in a little tourist stop town called Talkeetna. We ended up at a place called Troublesome Creek, and we did some hiking. Most of the trail was near a river and almost all of it was through some pretty dense foresty area. We were noisy hikers because none of us had bear bells and we didn't want to surprise any wildlife - don't worry I picked some up today at REI, I am now fully equipped.

About three miles into the trail we came to an area that was washed out from a landslide in 2006. We tried to find the trail again, but finally gave up and turned around, none of us wanted to get lost. Although, one local fisherman gave us the friendly advice to "spread out", it was very sweet of him but we chose not to listen.

All in all it was a great hike. I got to see some beautiful scenery, including Mt. McKinley even though its half covered by clouds, and hang out with some great people with similar interests (such as leaving the dorms). I'm looking forward to many more random road trips this summer. Tomorrow, I hop on a train with Amanda and its off to Seward!

Baby Beaver

Amanda and I went to University lake in hopes of seeing a beaver. Not only did we see a beaver, we saw two, one of which was a baby!

We saw the adult and followed him as he swam around the lake. This one was not aggressive at all, and it seemed smaller than the one that had warned me off before so I am pretty sure that this was a different beaver - maybe Momma beaver? Anyway, she climbed out of the water and munched on a tree for awhile (video). As we were just getting ready to leave a baby swam up! The baby knew to keep its distance from us so I was not able to get a good picture. But, both of the pictures were taken from the same distance and as a size comparison the first picture is the adult beaver and the second is the baby (the streak behind the twigs).

I find it almost unbelievable that I have access to things like this while I am here. I am one lucky girl.

Flattop Mountain

The Anchorage guidebooks tell readers that the quintessential Anchorage hike is Flattop Mountain. Amanda, my fantastic roommate and hiking partner for the summer, and I decided that we wanted to hike up Flattop as our first official hike. We had a shuttle scheduled for about 2 hours after we made our decision.

First of all, the shuttle was great. The driver is a local named Pete who is a total character and the people on the shuttle were great too. Roll call: 3 brothers from Jersey who teased each other mercilessly but successfully entertained the rest of us; a girl from Switzerland; a guy staying in a hostel who take an insane amount of pictures; and a guy who planned to camp overnight at Flattop.

The hike was beautiful - especially the views. The hike was supposed to be excellent for beginners, a category that I firmly place myself in. It was a lot more challenging than I expected (take a look at Amanda's blog to see one of the paths we went on) and, unfortunately for us, the intense wind really increased the difficulty level. There were a few spots where I could lean almost completely against the wind, something I haven't been able to do since the 2nd grade. As a result of the wind, Amanda and I didn't make it to the top. However, every year a big group of Anchorage hikers go up Flattop for the summer solstice and watch the sun not go down. We plan to make the solstice hike - hopefully the weather will cooperate!

These two pictures make up a more or less panoramic view of the view from Flattop. On the top (left if you are looking at the view)are the mudflats, of which I have been warned of 25 foot tidal differences and instant quicksand - beautiful but dangerous, don't worry I'll keep my distance! I was able to get a great view of them on the flight in and that's enough for me. The picture on the bottom (on the right side of the view) is Anchorage. The buildings in the center are "downtown" Anchorage, the rest is sprawl. Downtown is pretty small, as you can see but the city has about 300,000 people but it is spread over about 2,000 square

miles.

This hike was a major

success and a perfect introduction to Alaska hiking - snow, wind, and amazing wilderness!

The infamous University lake beaver

University lake is across the street from where I am staying this summer. I walk there just about every night to relax and enjoy the scenery. The area is also an off-leash dog park so I get to see a bunch of great dogs (my current favorite is an irish wolfhound whose nose comes up to my armpit) and a great view of the mountains and the lake. Every year, around baby season, the beaver who lives in University lake gets very aggressive in defending his lodge and his babies. There was an article in the local paper last weekend warning that the beaver is biting dogs who get too close to its lodge. As I walked around the lake I had seen trees in various states of being gnawed by the beaver - but I had not seen the actual beaver.

One night I was sitting on a bench overlooking the lake (isn't it a great view!) and some dogs were playing fetch in the water near me. I was on the phone with Josh, watching the dogs play and the beaver came right up to us. He smacked his tail on the water (a very clear beaver warning) and started to go after the dogs. The owners were smart and called the dogs away before they were bitten and the beaver went on his way. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera with me that night so I could not get a picture of the beaver.

Im sure that no one will be surprised to find out that I went back the next night with my camera. I was not successful in getting a picture of the beaver - but I did see him and he showed me where his lodge was. The following night I went back with my camera and waited close to his lodge until I finally got some great pictures. I have seen baby beavers before, which was wonderful, but they were at Sarvey and waiting to be re-released. It was amazing to see an adult beaver in the wild! I plan to go back, and if Im lucky I will get to see the babies go out for a swim - I think I will be here long enough :)