This and That

Well, the summer is over in Anchorage...and it has been for a couple of weeks. The nice weather (the couple of days that were left) were surrounded by cold and rain. So, we haven't really taken any trips recently but we have done a few things around town.

A couple of weeks ago we FINALLY decided to climb Flattop (#35 on the list). The weather was nice and warm and we had the day free. The trail slowly eases uphill for the first part past Blueberry Hill (where you can pick berries) and then turns up some flights of wooden stairs built into the mountain. After about a mile you reach some benches which are the resting point before the final ascent. A lot of people turn back here, because this final part is more difficult. It is much steeper and quite rocky (some scrambling around boulders necessary), but we saw kids as young as 5 making the climb.

(view of Anchorage from part of the way up the trail)

By the time we got up to the top, some clouds had closed in on the side of the mountain destroying our view but it was still a nice hike that we will definitely do again.

From the top you can typically see down into Anchorage on one side, down into Potter's Marsh and part of Turnagain arm on another, and back into Chugach State Park from the other 2 sides which leads to some really cool views in all directions.

(you can see people scrapping up the beginning of the final ascent)

On another weekend we drove up to Eagle River and took the 10 mile trip back into Chugach State Park to the Eagle River Nature Center (#22).

There is a nice information center here with trail maps and information on animals, the park, and the history of the area in general. One of the main hikes is closed this time of year (it goes past the river which leads to bear-human problems) but we took a stroll down one of the short loop trails.

On this trail is a salmon viewing deck where you can look down into the pools of the river and see some Red and Chum Salmon.

They weren't huge fish, but some looked to be at least a few pounds.

The Nature Center is also a point on the Historic Iditarod Trail, which we already saw started down in Seward. It ran up from Seward through Girdwood and Chugach State Park, through the Nature Center and up from there. There is a hike from Girdwood to the Nature Center that goes along that path, but it is 24 miles long one-way.

Afterwards we drove the rest of the way up to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer (#63). Since it was a nice day we apparently weren't the only ones who had this idea as we waited in about an hour of traffic to get to the parking lot. The fair was like any other state fair with high prices, lots of food, and lots of country folks. Rebekah ordered a giant block of fried potato chips, which she only managed to eat about a third of.

We spent a few hours walking around and looking at the award winning vegetables, farm animals, and arts and crafts before we headed home. On the way back we stopped by the bluffs past Earthquake Park in Anchorage to get some pictures of the city from across the water.

The airport is right across the street, and as you can see a few planes flew right over our head while we were there.

Winter is almost here and soon we will be writing about skiing instead of hiking!


Steven

Mining and Fishing - Real Alaskan Pastimes

Last weekend we visited Hatcher Pass Lodge and Independence Mine Historical Site (#64 on our list), both located up towards Hatcher Pass from Palmer. For those that remember, we tried visiting these earlier but were told they did not open until June 20th so we came back. Hatcher Pass Lodge is a nice little lodge, situated up in the Talkeetna mountains. There are rooms where you can stay and there is a quiet restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We did not eat there but the food smelled delicious. As we were pulling out of the lodge, a marmot ran across the road in front of us and posed for some pictures (part of #86)

Then we drove a little ways farther up the road to Independence Mine. It was the biggest hard rock gold mining location in all of Alaska. The buildings were all still standing, but some of the other structures (stairways, railways, etc.) have begun falling apart. We gave a $5 per person donation to have a guided tour from one of the volunteers there. The tour lasted about an hour and was very informational.

From there we tried to drive through Hatcher Pass towards Willow, but discovered the road doesn't open until sometime later in July (it had still been snowing in the pass). So, we are going to have to travel up there a 3rd time later in the summer. As proof that the weather was still a little bit of a question mark we got caught in a hail storm as we were leaving the mine.

On Monday we both took the day off from work and went King salmon fishing up on the Little Su (new entry #90). We woke up at around 3am, just as the sun was beginning to rise (strangely from the North), and headed up through Wasilla down to the landing where we were meeting our guides for the day. Just as we pulled into the area of the landing a mother moose and a baby moose ran across the road in front of our car, and Rebekah made sure to get a picture.

We pushed off and headed South from the landing as the guide began introducing himself and telling us how the fishing had been going lately. It was not a promising conversation as nobody from his boat had pulled in a fish all weekend. However, as we rounded one of the first corners a Bald Eagle (the first we have seen) was resting on the banks and took off flying right in front of our boat (I wasn't able to get my camera out of my pocket fast enough). We headed down and through the first few holes of the day it appeared it would be more of the same as nobody got any hits or movement at all. We were back trolling with spinning rods and were beginning to give up hope when one of the other people we were with got a huge hit. She fought the fish and fought the fish and finally pulled in the 30 pound King salmon. From there, the day got better. Two holes later Rebekah brought in a small 3 pound King salmon. It was less than 20 inches, technically considered a Jack instead of a King, so Rebekah was able to keep fishing (there is a one King salmon limit on the river, once you keep one you can't even drop another line in).

Two holes after that I nailed a 10 pound King Salmon. It was by far the biggest fish I have caught, and I thought it was huge until I put in the cooler next to the 30 pounder. Everyone caught a salmon except for the guy who organized the trip. But in the end he was glad he didn't, because his girlfriend's 30 pounder will be enough salmon to last them all winter.

We were very lucky to catch three fish. It was a down year since salmon run on a 5 year cycle and 5 years ago the Little Su had major flooding which killed many salmon. And it is said that it takes around 40 fishing hours to pull in your first King salmon, as they are the biggest and most particular salmon. Other salmon, such as the Silvers only get up to about 15 pounds but will bite at just about anything and you can keep up to 2 Silvers. That would be a different type of salmon fishing, but would also be fun and we will probably try that at some point.

Our guide at the Alaska Salmon Fishing Guides was excellent. And while we caught 3 fish, all of them were small by Alaska standards. On the Little Su, 30 pounds is the average King salmon brought in with the top end being around 50 pounds. And on other rivers the average King salmon pulled in is 50 pounds with the top end reaching over 100 pounds.

The fishing was excellent and we will definitely be doing more of that. Even Rebekah enjoyed it! And we had the river to ourselves that day (highly unusual) and only saw one other boat the entire time we were fishing.

Anyone who wants to come up and go fishing is more than welcome!


Steven

Change of Plans

We woke up this morning with a plan. Today we were driving up into the Matsu Valley past Wasilla and Palmer, through Hatcher Pass stopping at Independence Mine, and heading over to Talkeetna (#'s 64-66). We were going to leave early...around 8 am and have a nice relaxing day, taking our time along the back road.

Things started going badly before we even left. The weather forecast declared that it would start raining around noon. And with us being a two hour drive away that gave us only a two hour window of nice weather for the day. But, we stayed positive and headed off only a few minutes behind schedule.

The scenery as you approach Hatcher Pass is gorgeous. The road runs along Little Susitna River, which you can see above. The drive starts to turn upwards as you head closer to the pass and there are some spectacular views of the valley below opening up into the Matsu Valley with another range of mountains in the distance.
We continued to climb and were approaching the entrance to the pass and the Independence Mine area when we encountered our next problem...the pass doesn't open until June 20th. So, after the two hour drive up there we had to head back. However, just down the road from the turn off for the pass is the Musk Ox Farm (new item #88), so we decided to make a side trip there.
If you remember from a previous post, this is the animal that produces qiviut that is sold at the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers Co-op in Anchorage that we had already visited. There are only 54 animals in the herd to produce this material, which is why it is so rare and expensive. The animals were interesting looking to say the least, but they seemed to like the attention.
After that we had a decision to make. It was already 11 and it was supposed to start raining around noon. Should we drive around the non-scenic route to Talkeetna or should we do some things around Anchorage for the rest of the day. We decided to head Northwest from Wasilla up Parks Highway to Talkeetna.

The drive is pretty boring once you get outside of Wasilla. It was still pretty, just nothing compared with the other drives we had done in Alaska. After another couple of hours we stopped to have lunch at Sheep Creek Lodge, and got to sit outside as the weather was still nice. The food was prety good and the location was nice, just south of the turn off for Talkeetna.
We left and continued along to Talkeetna (#66), which with under 900 residents was smaller than we expected. It was a quaint little town that seemed mostly like a tourist destination. If you walk down one of the gravel roads from downtown there is access to the shore of the Susitna River, and from there we got our first glimpses of Denali. At 20,32o feet it is the tallest mountain in North America. And it is the highest mountain rising from it's own base in the world (beating even Mt. Everest). It is the large one in the distance right behind our heads.
We then headed back from Talkeetna, as there was not much to do in the town itself. We passed Fish Lake on the way back to the Parks Highway and got a great view of a floater plane in the mountain lake.
When we reached the junction to the highway we had yet another decision to make. Turn back towards Anchorage as it was already around 3 or continue on the additional hundred miles or so to Denali State Park (#41). Since we had already come all this way and the weather was still nice we decided to continue on....
Although the state park does not actual contain the mountain (the national park does), it has some of the best views of Denali and travels right along the Parks Highway. However, it is not an exceptional hiking park (as far as I could find just a few trails with none of them shorter than 9 or so miles).
The mountain was actually out today (although wrapped in some clouds), which from talking to other visitors and park employees/volunteers is quite unusual. This was apparently the best day to view the mountain all month. And in some years, such as last summer which was very rainy, Denali never comes out. Locals say that 85% of visitors to the area never actually see the mountain that they traveled all the way to see.
The park also contains an Alaska Veterans Memorial, which we thought was as appropriate stop on Memorial weekend.

In the end, it was good the pass was closed. It made for a boring morning, but we got to actually see Denali in the afternoon. And we timed it perfectly. As we turned around to head South the rain was just starting to roll into the area, and we even dodged it the entire drive home.

Well this was a long post and a long day, and just imagine...there are still two more days in this holiday weekend. So expect a couple more posts.


Steven