Day 50- Heading to Valdez

We’ve already traveled some of the mileage we covered today. In fact, over two hundred miles were repeated today. It wasn’t until we turned right onto the Richardson Highway outside of Anchorage that we found ourselves traveling “virgin territory. Before we left the Kenai, we had one more thing to do, visit Portage Glacier. We drove up to Portage Lake formed by melt water from three different glaciers as well as snow melt from the surrounding mountains. The water was a chalky gray, much like most of the rivers and creeks we‘ve encountered. Carl was surprised by how much the glaciers had receded since his visit in 1984. During his visit, he was able to stand on shore and watch Portage Glacier calving into Portage Lake, but now it has receded back around an outcropping of a smaller mountain and we were unable to see Portage from the Visitor Center. We did get an up close and personal view of Byrne Glacier and watched a very informative movie on the formation, life and even the death of a glacier. Then, the screen lifted, curtains parted and there on the other side of the glass was a marvelous view of Portage Lake and Byrne Glacier. Boat trips to the foot of Portage Glacier were available but Carl wanted to get going. He had miles to go before he slept. We did take an additional 15 minutes to listen to the ranger talk about the town of Portage and the devastation of the 1964 earthquake. I’m finding the devastation was not restricted to Anchorage although it’s there the news footage came from. Turnigan Arm dropped more than 20 feet and never rebounded. The Tsunami wiped out several towns on the coast and causing one to relocate 5 miles inland. As a result of this earth movement, the Arm or bay now has a bore tide of more than 4 feet. That’s a minimum of a four foot wave rolling in all at once instead of a slow and gradual rise of seawater twice each day. When the moon is full, the bore tide is even more. We drove though the Mat-Su valley, short for Matanuska Susitna. During the past 3 weeks, we’ve been driving by road signs shot full of holes. With more Alaskan residents carrying guns than not, it seems most have decided to use the highway department signage to get a bit of target practice in, including the one that reads “No discharge of firearms within 25 yards of the highway.” I knew Carl wanted to cover a lot of miles today but I wanted to stop at this one Scenic Overlook to get a really good look. The Matanuska River winds it’s way, in typical braided glacial fashion, filling in more than a dozen eroded pathways in the river bed. My attention was drawn upwards to catch a pair of dueling eagles mid-flight. As they got closer, I discovered they were juveniles practicing maneuvers that will aid in their hunting abilities. Matanuska Glacier was visible from the road so there was no need to park the truck and walk in. I was reminded of the Egyptians reverence for the pyramid when we drove by King Mountain. Once we reached Glenallen, it was time to find a gas station. We had fueled up in Anchorage for $3.84 a gallon. Here in Glenallen, it was $4.41 per gallen. So much difference in 186 miles. By this time, my head was pounding and I needed to take some medicine and go to bed. Carl insisted on driving a bit further. He’s done such a good job of keeping us on schedule, I hated to be a wet blanket. Eventually, shortly after a nice sighting of Mt Drum at 12, 010 feet, we found the Tonsina River Lodge. They advertised $10.00 campsite with free wi-fi. Carl pulled in, registered us and drove to a spot on the grounds with a fire ring only. We’d paid for a dry site, which basically means no amenities like water, electric or sewerage. The Lodge was run by a Russian family who offered a Russian/ American menu in their dining room. I opted for the Pilaff ( their way of spelling ), rice cooked in broth with meat and vegetables added, which sounded great but was told the last serving had just been given to the table before us. My second choice was a buffalo burger. It came with a heap of French fries, mushrooms and Swiss cheese. I know I would have enjoyed it much better without the headache. By 9:00PM, I was in bed with my eyes closed. Even free internet couldn’t keep me from getting my head on the pillow.

Day 49- Last Day In Soldotna

The weather is a bit better today. It’s only occasionally raining but it poured last night. They have issued flash flood watches for some areas. I don’t really want any more gray day photos but I may never get back this way again so we head off. First to the Soldotna Landfill to get rid of the fish guts and carcasses and to find the eagles the guy at the Kenai River Boardwalk told us about. Getting rid of the fish stuff was the easy part. There was thousands of gulls and ravens all over the place and try as we might, we couldn’t find any eagles. Then, just as we were headed for the exit, I spotted one in a tree. Carl grabbed the tripod and I got set to get some great eagle shots. We watched the bird at the very top of a spruce tree for about 20 minutes. I muttered under my breath that it was time for him to fluff up those wings and take off. And sure enough, about 5 minutes later, that’s exactly what the eagle did. The shot turned out okay but would have been much better with a blue sky and a few puffy white clouds in the background. A photographer like skiers are never satisfied. There is some prime moose habitat between Soldotna and Homer. It’s too bad the moose haven’t heard about it. In fact, I am very disappointed by the lack of moose sightings since we’ve been in Alaska. We saw the cow and calf and another cow on the Dalton Highway and then two distant bulls in Denali. That’s it! I keep looking though. The high point of the day came when I spotted not one but two nests with fledgling eagles on them. Of course, I have to stop and take pictures even though the trees make it difficult to get just the right shot. Eventually the road turned towards the Cook Inlet and we arrived at a beautiful overlook. In the distance, there was the merest hint of the high mountains in the Katmai National Forest, cloud shrouded, of course. And somewhere in the distance is three of the most active volcanoes in North America, Spur, Redoubt and Illiamna. I know where I should be looking thanks to a carving of the panorama before me that someone made, painted and numbered years ago. The weather is taking it’s toll but I get the general direction I should be looking. And while I’m on the subject of sky conditions, every so often, there is the smallest hint of blue that pops through and the sun threatens to show itself but then the clouds prevail once more and it starts to rain. The run into Homer and out onto Homer Spit doesn’t take any time at all from the Scenic Overlook. We go all the way to the end, looking for the commercial pier in hopes the Time Bandit, one of the crab fishing boats from The Deadliest Catch, is in port today. I asked the silly tourist question of our server at lunch and she replied it was true but she hadn’t seen them all summer. They must be at their other home port. There are, however, two shops with the words “Time Bandit” over the door so I wander over to one of them and find an 8 foot by 8 foot crab pot on it’s side by the front door. Carl leans against it for one more cheesy tourist photo and I set out to find the one thing our son, Dylan, asked for- a sticker that reads “eat crab“. He saw it on the wall of the Hillstrand wheelhouse. Can’t find it there but the shopkeeper does tell us where we can find it or something like it. While on the way to Redden Marine to see about the sticker, I spot a third nest with fledgling eagles in it and I mention to Carl we’ll stop on the way back. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it going in the opposite direction and when we pass by the nest nearest the road where one of the youngsters had been testing it’s wings, it was gone. We missed his first flight and the one remaining juvenile was looking pretty lonely. So all together, that was four nests, two with two juveniles, one with three juveniles and one empty nest and three single adults all day. It was a pretty good eagle day. Tomorrow, we head for Valdez. Carl says it’s a very long drive so we will probably stop in a parking area for the night. I wonder where it will be this time. It certainly won’t have internet so this will be my last post for a couple of days. I’ll catch you up later, though. Oh and it’s the end of our 7th week and we’ve traveled 8,555 miles and loved every minute of it.

Day 46- Two Lakes Trail

The hard drive on my new laptop is about 240 GB of memory. The last time I checked, I had filled about half of it so I’ve begun burning my images to DVD. It’s a good back up system in case something happens to my laptop as we travel, too. Now, you might think I should just back off from taking as many photos. That thought never crossed my mind. That’s why I brought 39 blank DVDs with me. Earlier today, I watched the RED SOX play the white sox. The game started at 10:00 here in Seward. That is so cool, I still get a kick out of it. It took us a while to find the Two Lakes Trail after we had lunch. The trail head was behind a technical school building with no signage to direct us. The first lake and a nice picnic area was within sight of where we parked the truck. The easily laid out pathway led us around the second little pond as well as a rather marshy depression. The forest on either side of the trail was thick with vegetation, mosses, bushy ferns, skunk cabbage and lots of other mid level browse. The canopy was made up of several types of spruces with some smaller deciduous trees mixed in. We not only heard but saw numerous red squirrels although we would have known they were in the area anyway because of the huge piles of cones collected at the bases of many of the trees. They’ve been gathered as a winter cache. The squirrels with gather thousands of cones, hauling them underground so they can be found when the snows come. We even saw evidence of where millions of seeds had been eaten as they worked. A ranger in Denali described it as “ if it looks as if a Spruce tree exploded” which is exactly what it looked like. Those ranger talks are starting to pay off. We actually knew what we were looking at. Those squirrels were the only wildlife we saw during the 2 mile round trip although we found quite a few clear impressions of moose hoof prints in the mud and lots of scat in and along side of the trail. I have to confess I am not an expert on scat but if I were asked, I’d have to say I saw lots of dog and even some horse manure. The trail was perfectly adapted to be ridden with horses with the possible exception of low limbs in one section. Even though the day was overcast, I mentioned the other path, the Tonsina Point trail and Carl said okay. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t find where it began. We found ourselves on the beach near Lowell Point watching about a dozen people salmon fishing in the low surf. We splurged and had some really great ice cream downtown across from the Major Marine office and then we fueled up for our trip to Soldotna tomorrow. Supper was fresh salmon caught on Carl’s trip yesterday. He didn’t catch it but when no one claimed it, he decided to give it a good home. I hope we’ll have plenty of our own caught on Tuesday.

Carl's Edition Of The Blog.

We have been in Seward Since Monday. I went fishing yesterday Friday the 29 th. Up at 530, over to the front desk to pay for the trip and get a boat assignment. Arrived at the boat around 730 and ten minutes later were off to the fishing area. Everybody is wearing sweatshirts and jackets over them, cause it's still chilly out. A 3 hour boat ride the Ocean is very calm and by the time we get to the fishing grounds, its tee shirt weather. No fish here so we moved after 30 minutes. Second spot no fish here. Third spot it's now 1 PM and we are on the halibut. The limit is 2 per person, plus what ever other fish you catch. Ended up with 2 halibut and a cod. All 15 of us on the boat got our limit on the halibut. Three hours back to the dock, then back to the resort. One of the deckhands came with us to the Fish House at the resort. She proceeded to fillet all the fish for those who wanted her to do it for them, for tips. Some guys chose to do there own, not me no clue how to fillet fish. So now everybody from 4 boats has claimed there fish and there is still a Silver Salmon maybe a 4 pounder, I ask around nobody claims it, into my tote it goes. Were having salmon for lunch tomorrow. What we are going to do with the rest of the fish that the girl filleted for me? No idea yet, so into the deep freezer at the resort it goes to get very cold after we portion it up and seal it in vacuum seal bags that they just happen to sell at the front desk. My arms are sore from reeling cause the Halibut swim at the bottom over 2 hundred feet below the boat. It's a lot of reeling with a 2 pound weight and the fish. Valerie went shopping while I was fishing, but she still spent less than I did for the fishing trip. The resort charges you based on your rank for the accommodation and for the fishing. The Colonel next to me paid 12 dollars more than me. On Monday we move to the Kenai area for three days. On Tuesday we are flying across the Cook inlet to bear and salmon country for the day. Valerie is hoping to get some good Grizzly Pics and I will fish for Salmon from the boat, not on shore with the bears.