Oh, Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth, The road to Valdez, AK, May 31, 2011

Valdez, AK, May 31, 2011. It keeps getting better and better. I thought the Seward Highway along the Cook Inlet would be as good as it gets. I was mistaken. The Glenn Highway and the Old Richardson Highway through the Mat-Su Valley past the Matanuska River and Glacier were just the beginning and that was spectacular enough. However, at the Glennallen Junction we turned on to Old Richardson Highway for the most spectacular drive to date. Bordered on the east by Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, we were in the shadow of bold, rounded, snow-covered peaks reaching to the sky. On the right was one glacier after another. In between, the most water falls I've seen anywhere other than Hawaii added to the excitement with innumerable displays of pure cascading mountain water. The water fell toward earth throwing off sparks of sunlight as the rays reflected off the mist and droplets. You need to make this trip.

We saw no wildlife today other that an occasional soaring eagle. Today, it was the landscape which provided the entertainment. We left Soldotna at 9:00 this morning and drove 530 miles to Valdez. Yes, there is a ferry which would have saved us about 400 miles and seven hours. But, we'd have missed much of the evidence of God's handiwork.

Most of you will remember or have read about the oil spill in Prince William Sound, just off the coast of Valdez in 1989. It was America's introduction to massive oil spills, soiling the coastline for hundreds of miles in every direction. The spill absolutely devastated the local economy here which depended upon tourism and fishing. The fish kill was horrendous, as was the effect on waterfowl and other wildlife. The cleanup took years. When we visited Valdez in 1998, most of the damage had been remediated. There were still lingering effects then. Some of the lawsuits resulting from the spill are still alive today, more than 20 years later.

Valdez is, of course, where the Alaskan Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay ends. Environmentalists opposed the construction of the pipeline and delayed its construction for many years. Ironically, the spill only peripherally involved the pipeline. The Exxon Valdez, the tanker which spilled the oil, had just loaded oil which was transported via the pipeline to Valdez.

Valdez, today, a sparkling little village of about 4000, shows no signs of the 1989 disaster. It sparkles, in part, because the entire town was moved four miles and rebuilt after the Good Friday Earthquake in 1964, a topic I've discussed in an earlier post. The remnants of the original town are still open to public viewing. There isn't much to see. The town was totally destroyed by the 9.2 earthquake whose epicenter was about 45 miles from here.

We don't know yet how long we will be here. The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park beckons to the north. We may spend some time there before our final leg to Haines.

The Big Fish Story, Anchor Point AK, May 30, 2011

Anchor Point, AK, May 30, 2011. I wrote yesterday about the majesty of a soaring eagle. This morning as we prepared to depart aboard our charter boat, The Independence, down on the beach, this eagle was tearing at the flesh off a fresh breakfast kill while defending his meal from several gulls - takes a little shine off the pumpkin, doesn't it.

There is no dock at Anchor Point. Boats are launched by a tractor which shoves the trailer hauling the boat into the water. When sufficient depth is achieved, the boat powers off the trailer in reverse. The trailer is then pulled buck onto the beach to await the boat's return. Later, the process is reversed with the boat powering onto the trailer, then pulled onto the beach for where the passengers unload.

The captain of the boat was Aaron, and his first and only mate was Trevor. Aaron is the son of another captain, legendary in this area for many years. Trevor is from Sand Point, ID. Aaron is the older of the two and Trevor looks like he just graduated from high school. Both were highly skilled fishermen.

We were joined on board by two brothers, Joe and Boyd and their wives, Amy and Heather. Joe is a Captain in the Army, fresh back from his fourth tour in the Middle East. Boyd is a state trooper in Alaska. Joe and Boyd are avid hunters and fishermen. In fact, Boyd moved to Alaska because of the hunting and fishing opportunities there.

It was a good day, fishwise. The temperature stayed in the low to mid fifties all day, the wind blew and the water was choppy. But the halibut were hungry. The eight of us caught more than thirty. Each could keep only two, so we kept the sixteen largest, of course. Annie landed the first keeper. It was the third largest caught all day. Modesty prevents me from revealing who caught the first and second largest.

The Independence rose and settled with the heaves of the water, churned by the wind. The water wasn't all that heaved. Heather got sick twice and another passenger got sick once. I won't embarrass him by revealing his name. I will say that he justified his actions by referring to it as an sacrificial offering of breakfast to the halibut gods to insure a good catch.

After catching our limit of halibut, we moved closer to shore to fish for king salmon. The fishing cooled substantially. Only one king salmon was caught. It was a team effort between Annie and Malachi. Annie saw the rod jerking and called to the others. Malachi picked up the rod and landed a 22-pound salmon. We fished another four hours, caught a trout and two cod, but no more salmon.

It was a good day. Any day you can fish improves if you fish successfully. We did that. It was cold and unpleasant on the water, but the success of the outing compensated for the discomfort. We took our catch back to Homer for processing and shipping to Kansas City. I was surprised to learn how little of the total fish weight is eatable. We caught about 110 pounds of halibut. Its shipping weight was 33 pounds. The 22-pound king salmon was reduced to only 8 pounds of salmon fillets. However, that should be plenty for a family fish feed when we return to Kansas City.

We are back in the Fred Meyer parking lot tonight, headed north again tomorrow. Our time in Alaska is half spent. It has gone both slow and fast. It seems to take forever to get from one place to another. That part has been slow. However, looking back over the time we've been here, it seems like we just arrived. But, there is more to enjoy before boarding the ferry on June 6. We intend to do just that.

Homer Spit and Soaring Eagles, May 29, 2011

Soldotna to Homer Spit, May 29, 2011. Harvey had a light day today. We drove about 90 minutes down to Homer. The scenery is, as usual, beautiful. Bounded by Cook Inlet on the west and several rivers on the east, the highway provides an amazing panorama of the Alaska Range across the inlet. We turned out at Ninilchik, a tiny fishing village on the inlet. Ninilchik must be Russian because there is an Orthodox Russian church there. There is also a mysterious house on stilts built into the side of the hill. It reminded me of the house on the hill above the Bates Motel in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, "Psycho." The stream feeding into the inlet was rimmed with fishermen and fisherwomen.


One of the local bush pilots demonstrated his skills for us, dipping to 40 feet above the water along the shore of the inlet. It allowed for this interesting photo of the plane in a no parking zone.
Today was eagle day along our route. We saw at least six in various activities. One was nesting alongside the highway. I turned around and got a couple of shots out the window of Harvey. If you enlarge the picture, you can see a piece of carrion in its mouth. I assume he\she was feeding a newborn. As we approached Homer, there is an overview of the inlet, Homer Spit and many sitting and soaring eagles. The two in the tree fooled me. At first I thought they were real. However, they remained so motionless, that I concluded they were decoys, put there by the local tourism group to cause motorists to stop and look. Annie thought that was a ridiculous theory. One of the two flew away confirming her assessment of my theory. There are few sights as majestic as a soaring eagle. With fixed wings and silent, effortless flight, their keen eyes survey the earth for their next meal. I watched with a sense of awe and pride in this great country.



We will catch a charter boat at 7:00 in the morning and try to land some halibut and king salmon. Ours is a "combo" outing in which we will fish for both. Many of the charters focus on one or the other. We chose one which gives the opportunity for both. The limit is 2 halibut and one salmon. The catch, if there is a catch, can be flash frozen and shipped to Kansas City. Wait for tomorrow's report.

Not Quite to Homer, Yet, May 28, 2011

Soldotna, AK, May 28, 2011. Angie, Mikki and BJ came with us to Alaksa in 1998. Casey was employed and didn't feel she could take the time away from work. We drove to Seattle and flew into Anchorage. We stayed at a bed and breakfast owned by Jack and Rosemary Hansmeyer. We also rented their RV for about ten days to drive around the interior.

Jack had just retired as an architect at Elmendorf AFB just outside of Anchorage. Jack and Rosemary were very nice people and we enjoyed our stay with them.

Today, we thought it might be fun to look up their address and drive by. I searched the Internet for Jack's name. I was saddened to learn he had died in 2006, at the age of 78. I found his obituary. Jack and Rosemary had eight children, fifteen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Jack was involved in the lives of his children and grandchildren, serving as scoutmaster for his five sons and attending the activities of his grandchildren. He was also active in his church. I forwarded the obituary to the girls and asked if they remembered him. BJ wrote back and observed that his was a life well lived. I couldn't agree more.

We visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center today. Did you know that Alaska was originally inhabited by five different groups of native people? Those you may know about are the Athabascan and the Inupiaq. The former inhabited the vast interior of Alaska and the latter, the extreme north.

The Alaskan natives don't seem to have the same social problems as those native Americans in the lower 48 states. I don't know why. There does seem to be a strong emphasis here on preserving the native culture and many of the original groups remain intact. Maybe there is less effort here to "Americanize" them. In any event, it is heartwarming to seem them thrive and doing well.

We attended a performance of native dancers, took an interpretative tour of dwellings representative of the five nations and wandered among artifacts which were well preserved and well presented. Our guide was Sandy, a well-spoken member of the Athabascan people. You will see her above holding a native baby carrier fashioned from birch bark. The arches shown are the ribs of a whale. It was worth the time and modest cost of admission. However, we were late leaving Anchorage and decided to stop in Soldotna tonight, 60 miles short of Homer. You will see several pictures of the Cook Inlet, approaching the Kenai Peninsula. It is a beautiful drive, perhaps the prettiest we have had to date.

Fred Meyer stores compete with Sam's and Cosco in Alaska in attracting the frugal shopper. Fred Meyer started the chain in the 1920's in Oregon, spreading to Washington and Idaho. Meyer died in 1978 and twenty years later, the chain was purchased by Kroger. However, while it operates as a division of Kroger, the stores maintain the Fred Meyer name. I've told you that so I can tell you this. Tonight, we are camped in the Fred Meyer parking lot in Soldotna. The store promotes the use of its lot, even providing a sanitary dump station and designated spaces. I wonder if Fred Meyer learned from Walmart or the reverse? We are learning, too. This free parking only cost us $72.00.

Make-up Pictures from DNP - May 27, 2011

Anchorage, AK, May 27, 2011. I found the first picture above on Wikipedia under "Ptarmigans." The two lovebirds shown there look just like Tommy and Gertie. At least, they look like I wanted Tommy and Gertie to look after we left yesterday. They appear to be in love to me. That is how I envisioned Tommy and Gertie.

As I was finishing last night, I lamented that I didn't have better pictures of the moose and calf that walked through our campsite last night. Annie cured that deficiency this morning. As we left the campground, a moose and two calves were standing beside the road. Ever ready with the snappy, Annie began shooting away. She took a dozen pictures and the best are displayed above. Unfortunately, she was unable to capture the mom and two calves together.

Then, as we drove out of the campground onto the paved road, another mother and her two calves crossed in front of us. As you can tell by her gaunt and angular appearance, it appears that she had delivered the calves very recently. That conclusion was confirmed by the mother repeatedly licking one of the calves, to "clean" him\her. Shutter clicks, this time from both Annie and me, produced some pretty remarkable pictures. You will see one of the calves attempting to nurse in the middle of the road. Wow.

Driving south from the park toward Talkeetna gave us some breathtaking views of Denali. The first several are from the north. At one of the turnouts, we met Gary and Holly Davis from Powhatan, VA. Gary is retired from Sunbeam. His last station was an eight-year stint in Hong Kong. They arrived in Anchorage last week and rented a motor home, similar to what we did in 1998. DNP was their last stop before flying home. Nice couple.

The second set of pictures show Denali from the south, taken from an overview just outside of Talkeetna. Talkeetna was the model for the television show, "Northen Exposure." The show was a comedy\drama with a set of quirky characters which included Rob Morrow, Jeanine Turner and John Corbet in the cast. In real life, Talkeetna is a staging community for delivering travelers to remote parts of DNP, including those who intend to climb The Great One. Keith and Lara Birkes trained there before their assent of Denali.

We stopped briefly in Wasilla, not because it is the home of Sarah Palin, but because there is a Curves there and Annie wanted to exercise. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Curves was closed. I don't think Governor Palin was home anyway. I read that she is on a "Freedom Tour" which began in Washington and will end somewhere in New England. I assume New Hampshire, home state of the second Presidential Primary, is on her itinerary.

As you can see, we decided to stay a night in Anchorage. We will look around tomorrow, then head down to Homer on the Kenai peninsula. We may try our hands at charter boat fishing.

Photo Ops at Denali Natonal Park, May 26, 2011

Day 2 at Denali, May 26, 2011. I told you about the town of Chicken in an earlier post. When we passed through, there were three businesses and the town enjoys a population of seven according to the 2010 census records. What I didn't tell you was that the early settlers wanted to name the town Ptarmigan, but none among them could spell it. There were ptarmigan aplenty in the area, so many in fact that the settlers called them "chickens." Since ptarmigan was unspellable to the locals, the town that would be Ptarmigan became the town of Chicken. I tell you that now, because you will hear more about ptarmigan later.

Everywhere we turned today, there was another scene which begged to be photographed. It was the majesty of Denali herself, caribou lounging in the sun, Dahl sheep grazing on the hillside, a fractious ptarmigan jealously defending his territory and protecting his lady friend, a momma moose and her mooselette wandering aimlessly through the campground and within twenty feet of Harvey. If you can't find a picture to take in Denali, you should give your snappy to the Salvation Army. There are so many opportunities for pictures, you simply can't miss taking one or two good ones.

We drove on the Park Road as far as private vehicles are permitted this morning. The turn around is at Savage River Viewpoint. Along the way we could see "The Great One" standing as a silent sentinel over her kingdom. In the first photo you see her from a distance of fifty miles or more, shrouded in white, looking like a cloud, ghostlike against a pale blue sky. Denali peaks at over 20,300 feet above sea level. Long's peak is 14,256 for comparison. Denali is nearly half again as tall. "The Great One" is what the early Athabascan called her over 10,000 years ago after crossing from Asia on the Bering Land Bridge or seasonal ice bridges.

Here, Denali is Queen. All below are her subjects; the wildlife, the flora, the fauna, the glaciers, the streams, the forest and, yes, man. In the Rockies we say that the mountain just doesn't care. That is true, too, with Denali. She stands alone, aloof and majestic, caring little what happens below her summit. She has been tested by time and the elements. Animals, forest and man have come and gone. Still, she reigns over all that fall under her shadow.

We stopped for a while at Savage River. We walked a short distance up the trial, then sat, silently and listened to the quiet. The river gurgled in the distance and gulls soared along its length. We looked for Dahl sheep on the distant hillside and were rewarded by sighting seven. You will see, if you look hard enough, three in one of the photos above. One is in the lower left and two more are laying in the upper right portion of the picture. They appear as tiny white specks in the photo, but they were easily discernible through our spanking new 15x Bushnell binoculars recently purchased as part of our parking fees for the Walmart parking lot.

For a while, the news of the day involved a peevish ptarmigan, Tommy. I have seen many ptarmigan while hiking in the Colorado Rockies. They have been cautious, fearful creatures, running when approached by hikers. Tommy, however, announced himself from atop a pine tree. He clucked, cooed, chuckled and hummed. Instead of displaying timidity, common to his species, he thrust out his chest and challenged all comers. Odd, I thought.

Later, as we returned to the parking lot, Tommy was perched atop the trash container. I squeezed off a couple of pictures from a distance, expecting those would be the only pictures I would get. Wrong. Tommy held his ground as we approached. He became more boisterous and belligerent. I kept taking pictures from 100 feet to three feet. Tommy gave no ground and seemed ready to defend himself and his territory. Then I discovered why Tommy was so single-minded and determined. A small brown ptarmigan hen trotted across the parking lot to some tangled bushes near the river. I followed to try to photograph her, too. Tommy also followed. The closer I got to Gertie, the more bold Tommy became. Finally, Annie insisted that I withdraw. "That chicken will whip you," she said - not a great expression of confidence in my self defense skills.

So, we left Tommy and Gertie to nature's yearnings and wished them well. "Tommy, I hope fortune smiles and you have a dozen children," I said as we drove away. And, I do. The park is all the more beautiful because of the Tommys and the Gerties. I hope they go forth and multiply.

That was going to be the big news story of this day until we returned to the campground. We were sitting in Harvey before dinner when I looked out the window and saw a man in our campsite. That is a breach of camping etiquette, not that I would have made an issue of it. Then, I noticed another man on the other side of Harvey. I looked in the direction they were looking and there was a mother moose with her baby moose walking through our campsite. I grabbed the camera, but by the time I got outside and in position, all I could see was the two of them walking into the woods. What you see above is what I got. I wish I could have done better for you.

We move on to Anchorage tomorrow. Anchorage contains about 40 percent of the entire population of Alaska. Sounds crowded to me. We originally planned to spend two nights there. Now, I find myself longing for more of the quiet and space. Anchorage may get us for one night, or maybe none.