Seward, AK (07-08-14)

Seward is located on the Kenai Peninsula, a couple of hours south of Anchorage.  We just had a couple of days to explore this area so  we had to make decisions on what we wanted to see.








One of the debates I have had is whether I want to go on a sled dog tour.  I have mixed emotions about it, but I decided that sled dogs are definitely a part of Alaska that is unique, and I have loosely followed the Iditarod race over the years, so I am interested in it.


The Iditarod is an annual race that runs from (near) Anchorage to Nome, some 1000 miles away. It takes about 9 days of travel to run the course, and that’s for the winner.  The non-winners take longer. It’s an exhausting, sleep depriving race.  No one is allowed to help the musher with the dogs, so they each have to care for the sled, themselves and all the dogs’ needs.

Each musher starts with 16 dogs, but many are dropped off along the way, for a variety of reasons. All dogs are examined by a vet at each checkpoint for any health issues that may have developed and some dogs just don’t like long distance running.

  In 2013, at age 53, Mitch Seavey was the oldest person to win the Iditarod, and his son Dallas is the youngest ever to win- in 2012 he won at age 25.  He won again in 2014.
 
 



 
 
 
The Seaveys use these summer sled dog tours to both condition and socialize their dogs. Since there is no snow here, the dogs pull a sled that has wheels on it.
 
 
 
 






 

Our guide talked about the history of the races, mushing in general and the dogs themselves. I would have sworn that Alaskan Husky was a breed of dog, but as it turns out, Siberian Husky is a breed, but Alaskan sled dogs are mutts. They are bred to run. Any dog that doesn't love to run is not bred for these races. I think Paul and I got a little queasy at the thought only breeding dogs that want to spend all day running and nothing more.

One of the most famous dog sled trips, known as the Great Race of Mercy, took place in 1925 when an outbreak of diphtheria took place in Nome. It was winter, and no planes had ever flown that trip in the winter, so to get the needed serum there, 20 teams of mushers and over 100 dogs relayed the serum to Nome, each driving about 100 miles.
 

Once the history lesson was done, we moved on to the dog yard.  As soon as we walked into the yard, the noise level intensified as the dogs all began shouting "pick me! Pick me!"

 
 




 
 
16 dogs were harnessed and away we went on our two mile trek. Of course, I expected to hear the word "mush" from the musher, but it turns out thats a myth. They actually say things like "alright" or “hike”  to get the dogs moving. The dogs definitely understood the commands from the musher, even when they were told to turn right, or go straight etc.
 
 
 




 
 
 

After our short trip, they brought us over to meet the latest puppies.  They were cute, but neither of us held one- we just watched as they were passed around.

I’m glad we did it, but now I can definitely file it under “been there, done that”.

It seems I can’t get enough of the wildlife adventures here in Alaska. Paul and I bought a coupon book before coming up here- its called the Alaska Tourbook-and its full of 2 for 1 offers. 

One of the excursions we were interested in is in Seward.  Its a wildlife boat tour, but the 2 for 1 deal is only good on their evening cruise.  Since it stays light forever up here, that’s not a big deal. I particularly wanted to take this cruise because I know that a few days ago, they saw killer whales along the way,  and seeing killer whales is still on my bucket list.





As we pulled away from the harbor, we enjoyed the All You Can Eat prime rib/baked salmon buffet.  It was excellent.








It was a beautiful night, and we were using our new binoculars to check out the eagles and Steller sea lions along the shore, but I was just thinking that we weren’t going to see anything of real interest when the National Park ranger on board called out that there were humpback whales off in the distance. 

The captain was able to approach closer so we could get a good look at them, and soon, something really awesome happened.  We had heard about a phenomenon called Bubble Net Feeding, but it is rare to actually see it.

Bubble net feeding is when a pod of humpback whales work cooperatively to capture fish.  They make a big circle under water, blowing out bubbles as they swim in a circle. The fish think that the bubbles are a net, so they stay in the middle.

The whales tighten the circle and work their way closer to the surface. You can tell where they will surface because the seagulls have figured out how this works and they are waiting for the whales.

The whales shoot straight up out of the water with their mouths wide open, gobbling up the fish.








This pod is just learning this behavior- transient whales have been teaching them how to do this, and both the captain and the park ranger had only seen this phenomenon twice before.

We watched them do it several times before they had had their fill.  The boat was pretty rocky and the sun was shining so it was hard to get good shots of it.

So, even though we didn't see killer whales, the trip was certainly worth taking!

Having moved on from Seward, we are now sitting in Anchorage.  For the first time since we left California, the camper is off the truck.  That’s because Dozer and I are sitting in Anchorage but Paul is in California.  He flew out Thursday morning at 1 AM to attend his nephew’s wedding on Saturday. I’m not fond of driving the truck, but it’s a lot easier for me if the camper isn't on it.





Dozer and I have been very busy since Paul left.  We've done a bunch of cleaning and laundry…..and shopping.

I spent a whole day talking to my friends who are professional photographers, getting their opinion on cameras.  I really like my camera for the most part, but it has some limitations.
  As an example, with no view finder, I had no idea whether the whales I was shooting were actually in the frame or not.  Same with the eagles.  I have to guess, and hope my aim is accurate. The LCD screen is pretty much impossible to see in broad daylight. (see what a good job I am doing of justifying this purchase??). And my pictures of mountains!  Really- they are so washed out because I can’t put a filter on this camera!

 OK, enough justifying.  The reality is, when originally I bought this camera, I almost bought a DSLR for the above reasons, but I ended up with my very nice Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS20 digital camera.

After a lot of discussion with my friends (thanks Carol and Wayne!!) I ordered a new camera. My Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 arrives on Monday and I am really looking forward to testing it out!  It isn't really a DSLR, because to get a decent DSLR, I was looking at an investment of about $1400 and I just don’t take enough time playing with pictures to warrant that expense. 

Driving from McCarthy to Seward (07-05-14)

After leaving McCarthy Road, we headed towards Anchorage with the intention of driving down the Kenai peninsula to Seward for July 4th.   We've gotten into a loose habit of several days of leisurely travel followed by a few days of staying put in one area.  We knew it would take a few days to get to Seward- we never just drive- we are always exploring along the way.

Our first stop was an outdoor museum in the very small town of Chickaloon.  Someone puts a lot of effort into this place.  With coal mining equipment and restored buildings, it tells the story about the boom and bust of this area. In 1916, when the U.S. Navy found out there was coal here, they paid to have 25 buildings and pieces of machinery built that were necessary for the coal to be extracted and shipped to be used to power their fleet of vessels.  The town prospered. 

Six months after the last building was finished and operational, the Navy decided the coal wasn’t of sufficient quality, and shut down operations.  The town went bust. That happened a lot back then- whether the boom was coal, silver, or gold related, towns came and went it seems, in the blink of an eye.  The town still exists- population: 236

Our next stop was Anchorage, supposedly for a quick shopping stop before heading to Seward.  We had decided we need a better pair of binoculars so we spent the morning looking. It was here that we started hearing stories about the craziness in Seward. We discovered that Seward is the place to be for the 4th, and that in fact, people were paying $20 a night to park in someone’s driveway due to the lack of room.  Oops. We have no reservations.

And that’s how we ended up spending two nights in a Cabela’s parking lot.  It was actually our first time spending the night in a store parking lot.  The first night almost scared us off, with our neighbors partying and playing football in the parking lot until midnight.  But then, it was the 4th of July! The second night was much quieter.

We could have driven downtown for the fireworks (if you know Paul, you know he loves fireworks!!). But the fireworks are done at midnight, and this is what the sky looked like at 1145 PM.  Um, the sun was pretty much still out.  The locals say they have the best fireworks you've ever heard. Hmmm. We decided it wasn't worth braving the crowds.

The next day we did buy some binoculars (not from Cabela’s though). We found a store with an employee who really knew his stuff so we bought a pair of  cheap  inexpensive reasonably priced excellent quality binoculars.  Waterproof, drop proof, lifetime guarantee- Zeiss.

We also decided that if we could get a reservation in Seward for the following 3 days, we would go, and if we couldn't, it was fate, and we’d skip it altogether.  The following day was Sunday, so our chances were better. The first place I called said “no problem” so off we went.

The drive took us around Turnagain Arm (an inlet). This area is home to 20 some odd glaciers.  Amazing, and beautiful.

There are plenty of informative turn-outs and even a visitor center on this stretch of road.  This turn-out describes Beluga whales, which are common in this area, and how to spot them in the water.

There’s a side trip to the small town of Whittier that we decided not to take.  We would have gone through a very unique tunnel to get there.  Instead of spending millions to build a second tunnel, cars and trains take turns driving through the Whittier tunnel, and travel is one directional, so everyone has to have some patience.  It would have been fun, but maybe some other time. Paul consoled himself with pretending to be a train in the tunnel that we did go through.

This area is also known for it’s bore tide- where the tide comes in on a wave.  The height of this tidal bore varies, but it can be 6 feet tall. The day we sat and waited for it (actually on the way back to Anchorage from Seward) it was a no- show.  Maybe some other time.

Our last stop before getting to Seward was the small town of Hope, Alaska. Hope’s boom to bust story is due to the gold rush.  Gold was discovered here in 1888 and Hope became one of the largest towns in Alaska.  Once the gold played out, most people left.  The town population now is 132 or so.

This is yet another town that has done a great job refurbishing old buildings so the town’s history can be remembered and shared. 

Not every place that we explore is “Awesome” but each little place has something to teach and helps me to better piece together the history of the places we visit.

Exploring Our nation’s Largest National Park (07-02-14)

  Have any idea which national park is the largest one in the United States?  I, for one, had no idea.




It turns out that Wrangell- St. Elias National Park, at 13 million acres, is 6 times larger than Yellowstone. I had never even heard of it until we arrived here in Alaska.

There are only two roads into this remote park, and we explored one of them- Nabesna Rd.- on the way down to Valdez. Both roads are gravel, but Nabesna is the easier of the two roads to travel on, even though it did require us to cross several streams with the truck.

Once we had traveled most of the 40 miles of this road, we stopped to hike the Skookum Volcano Trail. This is a 6 mile trail that starts in mosquito filled woods. We wore our net hats on this trail. 

We are in Grizzly country and this is the first time I felt nervous about that.  This is prime habitat, and there were signs of recent bear activity on the trail.

The key to hiking in Grizzly habitat is to make noise, and we ran out of conversation, so I started singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”.  By the time I got to 86, the lyrics had morphed into “86 Grizzly bears on the trail, 86 Grizzly bears- I push one down, onto the ground, 85 Grizzly bears on the trail.”  Paul didn’t join in.

Once we were out of the woods, so to speak, we came upon a creek.  The trail follows the creek, which is usually just a trickle of water, but the recent rains turned it into something that required some strategy for crossing.  Unfortunately we had to cross it about 24 times. A rough path is marked with cairns- piles of rocks that show you the trail- but they are hard to see, and I don’t think they were put in place when the water was so high.  There are cairns on both sides of the creek in this picture.

We had gotten a late start on the trail and actually gave up before we found the path to the volcano, but we still had great views from the top of the hill.

McCarthy Road

On the way back north from Valdez, we drove McCarthy Rd. into the park.  The decision to drive this road isn’t one to be made lightly.  It’s 60 miles long and  isn’t in very good condition. It takes at least 3 hours to drive it. Only the first mile or so is paved.  The rest is gravel and dirt, with deep ruts.

 

  The rewards made the drive worth it though.  Within the first mile, we came upon this family.

   

The twins were adorable and we were able to watch them for quite a while, with mom glancing over at us once in a while to make sure we didn't approach.

Soon enough we were on to the rough stuff.  We took our time, and in fact, we spent two days exploring this area, just pulling off the road to spend the night.

At the end of the road is a parking lot with a footbridge next to it that spans a river. Before the existence of the footbridge, people pulled themselves across the river on this contraption, which hung from a cable. It reminds me of the seats that can be found on a swing set.

Two small towns- McCarthy, and Kennecott, are across the footbridge (apparently there is another, larger bridge, but it costs a lot of money to cross it).


Kennecott is an old mining town that was funded by the JP Morgan and Guggenheim families. The copper ore found here is the richest in the world, with 85% copper content instead of the usual 10%.




After $100,000,000 in profits, the vein was played out and the town was essentially abandoned, as is. The national park service is slowly restoring the buildings.

Very close by the mine there are two glaciers.  The mounds of dirt in this picture are actually part of the glaciers that have been coated with enough dirt that you can’t see the ice anymore.

A couple of miles down the trail the dirt disappeared and ice took its place.  This is where we headed. We took a half day guided glacier hike on Root Glacier.  If you enlarge the picture you can see the people on the glacier.









Before we hit the ice, we put crampons on our hiking boots.  They are similar to old fashioned roller skates, but with spikes instead of wheels.













Paul and I were the only two on this trip, other than our guides.  4 would be the maximum allowed, per guide.  Killian showed us how to walk with the crampons and sure enough, we could even walk straight uphill!
Killian is a recent college grad with degree in environmental science and a passion for the outdoors, and he has tons of knowledge to share.

There is more to see on  a glacier than I thought. Small blue puddles….

and meandering rivers, with multiple waterfalls and tunnels.  It reminded me of a Disney World ride.

It’s definitely not as flat as I would think.

In fact, there were all kinds of hills and nooks and crannies to explore. We hiked on the ice for about an hour and a half, which made our hiking day about 6 miles long. We were really tired by the end of the day. 
Using  crampons added a new element to the hike.
You can rent crampons to hike glaciers by yourself, but I really felt that we wouldn’t have found all the neat features we saw if we hadn’t had a guide, so it was worth the money to me.

On the way back down McCarthy Road, headed up to Anchorage, we stopped along the river at a popular fishing spot.  These people are using fishing wheels to scoop the salmon out of the river.  There were dozens of sea gulls and Bald Eagles feasting on the leftovers.

It was one of those times where I wish I had a better camera (an enough knowledge to make a better camera worth the price!).

It was fascinating watching the every day lives of these birds for an hour or so.