Short Hike Along the Kenai

August 30. We left Seward and drove to Cooper's Landing, along the Kenai River. Our hotel was right along the river on a bluff, and we took a short hike, then snapped some photos from the hotel.


We saw some interesting mushrooms on the hike:



The Kenai River is a pretty greenish-blue. Here are some views from the hike...


And from the hotel:


Mountain across from the hotel - I forget the name of it.


Another view of the Kenai River with a rainbow for luck.

Alaska Sealife Center

August 30. Our second day in Seward consisted of a visit to the Alaska Sealife Center before we headed north up the Kenai. The construction of this center was funded largely by Exxon as part of the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement. It has some features of a zoo and museum, but mostly it is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release injured, abandoned, and ill marine mammals and other sea creatures. They also do a lot of research there. 4 R's - rescue, rehabilitate, release, and research.

We paid extra for a behind the scenes tour, and a nice young woman gave us a 1 hour tour going through many of the labs, rescue tanks, research areas, and engineering space of this impressive facility. I took a few photos of some of the animals in the exhibit space. My favorite exhibit was the seabirds, where you could even see some of them diving and "flying" underwater.

The puffins are really cute. We saw many of them yesterday on the Kenai Fjords cruise, but not this close.

Horned puffin Tufted puffin
Horned puffin spashing around in its pool Murres

A Few More Photos of the Kenai Fjords

I decided to throw a few more photos from our August 28 Kenai Fjords cruise out there. I will let them do the talking ....

Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise

August 29. This all day cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park was one of the most heavily anticipated things we had planned on our trip, and we couldn't wait. When the day dawned partly sunny after the previous day's soaking rain, we could not believe our good fortune. I am mostly going to let photos do the talking, but it was amazing. We saw bald eagles, sea otters, Steller sea lions, a fin whale, a humpbacked whale, Dall's porpoises, tufted puffins, and horned puffins, among other creatures. The scenery was beyond spectacular, and my photos don't do it justice. I easily could have put 50-60 photos out here, but don't worry - I didn't do that to you! But I was tempted!

The boat had barely left its slip when we saw this bald eagle with an unlucky gull in its talons. Right after this, we saw our first sea otter!

The scenery along the fjord was astounding, with huge mountains rising from the sea.

We had been out an hour or so, when we ran into a great area for wildlife. Within a few feet, we saw rare Steller sea lions hauled out on this rock...

Cormorants...

And horned puffins.

Then the boat went out into the choppy Gulf of Alaska - several people got seasick. We saw these amazing black and white Dall's porpoises shooting in front of the boat like torpedoes.

We also saw a fin whale, the world's third largest animal, but I could not get a photo. After a while the boat entered more sheltered waters in another fjord, and the amazing scenery started to pop up again.

In the distance, we saw a huge glacier end its slow journey to the sea.

Then we approached Aialic Glacier, where we were going get as close as possible and watch for a half hour or so.

A curious sea otter obliged for a photo. At one point the millions of otters were reduced to a few thousand because of mankind's greed. The near extinction of sea otters was a major reason that Russia sold Alaska to the USA in 1867 for about two cents an acre. The otters dying out had been like a gold mine going dry.

The groans, snaps, and crashes from the glacier were amazing. When it calved, it sounded like cannon shots. This glacier is something like 600 feet thick where it contacts the sea. It made this good sized boat look like a toy.

I was able to capture two airplanes doing flight seeing in tandem along the glacier's edge. What skilled pilots!

All too soon, we headed back for Seward. I thought this spruce covered rocky island was pretty cool! One can imagine a thin soil slowly building up over thousands of years until trees could survive.

This is Bear Glacier, formed when two glaciers merged. You can see the moraine being squeezed between them to form a dark stripe.

More spectacular mountains and glaciers.

This mountain almost looks like a volcano with the clouds at its peak.

What a day this way! For much of the trip, when Mary asked me "what was your favorite thing so far?" my reply was "The Kenai Fjords cruise." Ultimately though, even this day was surpassed by another experience.

Seward, Alaska

August 29. Our first stayover was in Seward, Alaska for a couple of nights. It is a beautifully situated town, and was badly damaged by the huge "Good Friday" earthquake and tsunami of 1964. There were a dozen deaths from this catastrophe. The town is at sea level, but mountains rise up to a mile high from here - the height of the tallest mountain in Maine where I used to live. The visitor center for Kenai Fjords National Park is in the town. Here are some photos of the area:

Mount Marathon is right next to the town. From sea level, it climbs to just over 3,000 feet. Every Fourth of July, there is a race to the top and back - no trails, just right up the mountain. I actually met the 2005 winner about 10 days later. He won the thing in 47 minutes, round trip, which I cannot conceive of. I think it would take me a couple of hours just to get to the top of that mountain, and I am not in terrible shape. I think it is the second oldest US foot race, next to the Boston Marathon.

Beautiful mountain ranges and glaciers ring Seward.

We spotted this waterfall near the top of a mountain.

There are plenty of pleasure, working, and tour boats in the picturesque harbor.

The large cruise ship pulled into town during the night and left at the end of our first day here. It is with Holland America lines.

View from the rocky beach at the southern end of Seward.

What Good are Mosquitoes?

What good are mosquitoes? I’ve always asked that. Now, I know they are an important part of the food chain, being consumed by all manner of things such as bats, many birds, and many insects. But when you are being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and becoming part of the food chain yourself, that seems like a fair question.

Alaska is renowned for its mosquitoes. I saw few of them, other than these two, and I was lucky to escape with my life, let me tell you.
But other than that, mosquito season was pretty well past, although I was frequently nibbled on by animals that looked like black flies. They seemed to enjoy the experience far more than I did, although for a few of them, it ended up being their last supper.

But I did learn another purpose for mosquitoes, one that seems quite obviously valuable. At least in the tundra and arctic regions, they are a vital pollinator. The males eat nectar exclusively, and the females eat it except for after they have mated and need blood for their eggs to develop. So in the process of eating nectar, those untold billions of mosquitoes are pollinating all kinds of plants, such as blueberries, cranberries, and soap berries, which are all vital foods for grizzly bears and many other animals. There are bumblebees in Alaska, but I think honeybees are rare or absent – as they seem to be becoming in the lower 48. So the humble and annoying mosquito does serve an additional vital purpose in the web of life, at least in the far north, and I would guess down this way as well. After all, even here, they must be pollinating flowers in their quest for nectar. Maybe in the future, if bees continue to decline, mosquitoes will be vital to our food chain in commercial agriculture – who knows?

Hike to Exit Glacier

August 28. It poured all the way from Anchorage, Alaska to Seward down on the Kenai Peninsula. The drive down along the Turnagain Sound was still impressive. It felt amazing to be back in Alaska. Late in the day, the rain slackened and then stopped, and there was time to do a short hike to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. This one mile trail is the only part of this large park accessible by auto - watercraft is the means of transportation to see this park up close. It was amazing to be so close on foot to a large glacier. The glacier itself was named because it was a way for explorers to exit the vast Harding Icefield, the largest icefield that is completely within the United States.

As we drove along the road, we suddenly saw Exit Glacier a few miles away and took a couple of shots, zooming in for the second one:

Welcome to Kenai Fjords National Park, our first of three new national parks for us this trip!
The trail is about a mile long, and you don't see a lot of the glacier, until suddenly, there it is:
Exit Glacier has melted several miles back in the last 150 years. There are signs every so often marking the point that it reached in that year. Even in my lifetime, it has receded about a half mile, not to mention the lateral distance lost. Pretty sobering, whether you believe in global warming or not. By the way, most Alaskans I talked with definitely believe that the climate is warming sharply - keep in mind that Alaska is a very conservative state. But they are living with the evidence.
This was an interesting glacier high on a nearby (relatively speaking) mountain:

The Great Land

My one and only prior time in Alaska, in June, 2005, it was about 54 degrees F and pouring rain. At age 53 and as a 3 year cancer survivor, I did my first marathon in Anchorage that day, crossing the finish line 26.2 miles from the start with a smile that might have covered most of this huge state. It was maybe the proudest day of my life. But I was only there for two days and saw little beyond the marathon.

Saturday, August 28, 2010 we stepped off the plane in Anchorage. It was 54 degrees F and pouring rain. “Nothing has changed in five years,” I jokingly said to my wife, Mary.

So the last two weeks were spent in Alaska, “The Great Land.” I have so many photos to download and organize, so many memories and adventures to get my mind around and write about, that it will be several weeks before I get it all into my blog. But that is what is coming here in “Oh to be hiking” in the next few weeks.

We did some hiking, kayaking, a float trip, a trail ride, an all day boat ride in Kenai Fjords, explored a ghost copper mill town, watched sled dogs train, and did some touring by rental car and tourist buses. We went into three national parks. We reached the Arctic Circle. And we had a great time. And got home yesterday, totally worn out after coming in on the “redeye.”

Alaska is a huge and scenic state. It is bigger than the next three biggest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. If its eastern-most part touched the Atlantic in Florida, its western-most part would dip into the Pacific in California. It is closer to two other countries, Russia and Canada, than to the rest of the United States. In two weeks, we could see but a fraction of it – but we sure tried to see as much as possible. And around every bend, it seemed that there was another jaw-dropping vista that was more incredible than the last one!

For starters, here are the wildlife species we saw (in the wild) on the trip (* means first time ever seen by us). I may have missed a few, and may update this later when I cross-check my notes

Bald eagle
Sea otter*
Horned puffin*
Tufted puffin*
Dall’s porpoise*
Steller’s Sea Lion*
Fin whale*
Kittiwake*
Hump backed whale*
Beluga*
Moose
Gray wolf
Dall sheep*
Caribou*
Grizzly bear
Arctic ground squirrel*
Porcupine
Canada lynx*
Willow ptarmigan*
Silver salmon
Coho salmon*
Trumpeter swan
Some type of arctic loon*
Snowshoe hare
Various gull species
Chickadee
Junco
Red squirrel
Some type of cormorant
Magpie
Northern harrier
Raven

Taking a Blogger Holiday

No, I am not stopping my blog, but I am taking a little holiday until about mid-September, both from this blog and my other one: Racing for a Cure. I’ve been blogging continuously (especially on my “Racing” blog) for more than two years and would like to take a short break. Plus, the time off will give me a little time to think about what to write about next on that blog, now that my Seattle event is in the rear view mirror.

It’s possible I will post something before September 15, but I doubt it. I hope to do a couple of really interesting hikes between now and then, but I will probably just post them after my self-imposed blogger holiday. Anyhow, I wanted people who come here to know so they don’t see anything new for a while and assume that I gave up on this blog.

The Ideal Hiking Group Size

Between the extreme summer heat and just having too much going on lately, I have not been able to hike in about a month. And extreme computer problems have made it very difficult to blog. But today, I decided to write a post about hiking group sizes.

A while back, I got a question on this blog about whether I prefer hiking alone. The answer is (usually) “no.” I actually prefer hiking with other people, but more often then not end up making a last minute decision to go for a hike and just do it by myself. Of course, in Washington, I was there by myself once the race in Seattle was over and the rest of the team left, so I did all those hikes by myself. My original plan was to find a guided hiking group and hike Rainier NP with them, even if I had to pay the guide. But the only such trips I could find were about a week or so long backpacking trips, and I only had two and a half days. Plus they were later in the summer, once the snow was gone at normal elevations and the wildflowers were in bloom.

I believe three or four is the ideal size for a hiking party. You have companionship, but it is a manageable group and some possibility of seeing wildlife. If someone gets hurt, one person can stay with the injured party while the other(s) go for assistance. The longer and more remote the hike, the more important this is. I have not been on a group (six to 15 people) hike in a long time, but those can be a lot of fun too, although they tend to get noisy. Last year, I encountered a group of at least 50 people hiking together, which was amazing. That is too large, in my view.

There are advantages to hiking alone. You can select the pace without holding anyone up or going to fast, and I usually see wildlife at some point when hiking alone. But a lot of the reason for hiking is seeing beautiful sights or even the simple but wondrous things of nature, and it is human nature to want to share that experience with another person. Plus hiking alone can be risky in addition to feeling lonely at times.

Bottom line though, while I think it is best and more fun to hike with a few others, the important thing is to get out there and do it! Whether I am by myself or with 10 other people, I always enjoy going for a hike.

What do you think? I decided to try a poll. I will leave it up for a few weeks since I don’t get a ton of traffic stopping by. And of course, feel free to comment!