Matanuska Glacier

I've thought for a long time that my bed is too soft, so I went north this weekend and spent Saturday night on a glacier.  Though I subsequently found out there is a much easier way to access the glacier, my route took me about five miles through the bush.  Of course, those who know me well, will tell you that I never have a problem diving into the bush.

The glacier is the giant ice slide on the left.



That's actually a pretty impressive fire, considering I'm camping on a giant block of ice.

This (hole in ice) was where I almost fell into freezing water of unknown depth with no one around to help except my Basset Hound, who is a complete wimp, by the way.  Fortunately, I caught myself on the sides of crevasse and only submerged most of the lower half of my body.  Needless to say, I was glad to have extra socks.

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

The Conservation Center is about 45 minutes outside town and a good place to see a lot of the animals Alaska has to offer.  The animals get a lot more square footage than they would in a zoo and live in a space that more closely resembles their natural habitats.  That said, they are all pretty domesticated - the Brown Bear pictured below gnawing on some giant bone is also trained to do tricks. 

A pair of moose in their formative years.

You can't tell from this picture, but this eagle only has one wing.  He was rescued by some very heroic people in some incredible circumstances that I can't remember at all right now.  Point of the story, don't feel bad that he lives in a cage - it's a pretty big cage too.

Black Bear pining for his long lost love.  If you look behind him, you'll see a rut that he's worn into the mud by pacing back and forth.  I don't hang out with a lot of bears, but it seemed like odd behavior.



Denali with Mom

My mom, by happenstance, came up to Anchorage for a business conference.  Before diving into her professional responsibilites for the week we took the train up to Denali National Park and stayed there for the weekend.

Mom, me and Denali in the background (Mt. McKinely to you, whitey).  In addition to the name being a source of great contraversary, Denali is also the tallest mountain in North America, standing well above 20,000 feet. 

Another view of the mountain, taken from the train on the way back to Anchorage. 

Bull Moose.

The famed Alaska Railroad.

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).