Gull Rock

I spent this past weekend in the woods outside Hope, AK.  The time was absolutely incredible.  We (me and Arnie) hiked about six miles in and set up camp next to a cliff overlooking Cook Inlet.  The weather was okay the first day and the views were still incredible.  Waking up there this morning with sun out in full bloom was something else entirely.  An entire pod of Beluga Whales swam through the inlet, passing right below me.  The sounds and sights of the whales made it an experience that is difficult to describe.  I did my best to catch some pictures, but the whales surface only briefly and in unpredictable patterns.  You can see what I have below, along with the rest of the pictures from the trip.

The key to proper outfitting for any trek is the right adventure hat.  Sure, food, water and shelter are all important, but you can last without them if need be.  The adventure hat not only serves as a deterrent to bears (creates an intimidating look), it also increases sperm count, so if one is left is some sort of doomsday scenario, it is easier to repopulate the earth.  It also looks cool. 

Practicing my "bear glare."  I am looking at nothing.

 View of the mountain side of my campsite.

Cliff side.

This is the best I could do as far as the whales go.

He steals my beef jerky, I take it away from him and somehow I'm the bad guy.



Flattop Mountain

Flattop Mountain is a few miles outside of Anchorage and a pretty nice, short, hike up and down.  We somehow failed.  Between the rain and Arnie's decision making we made it about halfway.  He saw a couple of other dogs at the bottom of the mountain that he really, really wanted to play with so he run full speed down the slope - I didn't actually think he could run that fast.  Anyway, by the time I caught up to him, we we're both pretty wet and had backtracked about a mile, so I decided to thrown in the towel.  Still, good time overall.

The Adventures of Arnold Beauregard Baynard

 I recently adopted a basset hound from Anchorage Animal Control.  His origins and exact age are unknown.  All we know is that he was found wandering around somewhere outside of Wasilla.  I call him "Arnie" for short.  Of course, in more formal settings, he prefers Arnold or Mr. Baynard.  We've been going to less black tie events recently, however, because Arnie really, really likes to pee on stuff.  He's housebroken, but considers anything that's not the inside of my apartment outdoors. 

Arnie is a surprisingly good hiking partner.  We went about four miles and though he got a little tired towards the end, considering the terrain and the incline he did pretty well for a basset.  And, he's got a great heart.  He'd start to lag behind a little bit, but as soon as I turned around to look at him, he'd put on a smile and jog right up.

Dall Sheep and Turnagain Arm

I was talking to a friend of mine earlier about different animals that you can hunt in Alaska and I mentioned dall sheep.  Of course, the idea of tracking and killing these animals reminded me of some pictures I caught of a sheep and her lamb, but neglected to post.

These were taken along the Turnagain Arm area, off the Seward Highway, which as one might figure, connects Seward and Anchorage.  I went to Turnagain to do some biking and stopped on the side of the road when I saw these two.

I hiked up a little bit toward them until it seemed like I was going to scare them off.

This is after taking my bike up a hiking trail.  The trail distinctions are not arbitrarily made to inconvenience me, like I assumed.  As it turns out, some of the hiking trails become very difficult to ride.  This is at the midway point on Bird Ridge.  About five minutes after this, some old hippie b-word came by to lecture me about the trail distinctions - I had pretty much figured things out when I almost killed myself.

Bird Creek.

You really only have to travel about 20 minutes outside Anchorage to get to what everybody considers the real Alaska, which is incredible.  In the summer, a '97 Honda Accord travels fine.  And for that matter, you could ride a bike if you had the energy and time (I don't).

Golf (Alaskan Style)

Notwithstanding the facts that I've only recently taken up golf and have visited only a select few golf courses, I can say with confidence that golfing in Alaska (for the brief season it's available) is unparalleled.  There are a few things that you just don't get anywhere else.  The mountain views, rivers and streams, and of course, the wildlife are out of this world.  I heard a guy say that "God really rolled up his sleeves when he made Alaska."  Religious beliefs aside, the sentiment captures the atmosphere perfectly.

There are a couple of black bears that live on Moose Run Golf Course.  Here is a mom with her two cubs, the first one is hard to make out, but is right ahead of her.  Considering the luck I've had with animals and golf (both frisbee and club), I feel fortunate not to have hit one of the cubs.  I hit a goose the other week and it led to a very serious confrontation.  One of the guys I was golfing with did give one of them a scare and the little guy climbed straight up a tree.  My friend decided not to play the ball, because the momma bear had noticed us by this point and seemed to be keeping a keen eye on us.  He dropped another ball in the middle of the fairway and shot with some alacrity, though I still felt he should have counted that as a penalty stroke.  Anyway, when we got up to the green, the bears made their crossing.

Seward, Close Encounters of the Moose Kind...

Seward is a small town about two hours south of Anchorage.  The fishing there is world-renowned, though I struck out pretty handedly.  "Snagging" is allowed in salt water in Alaska, but not freshwater, save a few exceptions.  It's a little less sporting, but considering the difficulty I had with it, I have a hard time seeing it as cheating.  The friend I was with picked up three silvers though.  The area here is where the ocean water meets the inland waterways, so once you walk out about a half-mile out it's considered salt-water.

 The eagles have little trouble with the process.

Not really sure.

To overcompensate for the lack of fish I caught in Seward, I went to the store and bought a three and a half pound king salmon fillet - it took the better part of a week to eat.

Frolf is a pretty huge game in Anchorage.  This was the first hole at the Kincaid Park course.  My frisbee landed about three feet from this adolescent bull while he was eating a tree, in a fashion I can only describe as wholesale.  Needless to say, it held up the game for a few minutes.  You can't rush a moose, so the only real move is to hang back until they feel like leaving.

My frisbee is out of the frame - it's close to the bottom-right corner.

Earthquakes

One thing I didn't know about Alaska before moving here is that it is very seismically active.  I found this out earlier today, when in the middle of a meeting, the building started to shake ever so slightly.  I was sitting next to my boss who started smirking a little bit and when I looked quizzically at him, simply said "earthquake" in a soft voice, so as not to disturb the meeting.  The earthquake was actually far south of anchorage, but we felt a few little shock waves for a couple of minutes.  It was kind of cool.  There was no real apprehension among my colleagues - only a few jokes and people trying to mess with me, saying we needed to get up.  No one left their seat, except for coffee.  Apparently little quakes are a fairly common occurrence up here.

Daily listing of Alaska earthquakes:
http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/Seis/recenteqs/index.html

I'm heading to do some Salmon fishing this weekend down in Seward.  So, hopefully I'll get some nice pictures and tales of adventure to share.