The end of 2013

It's been several weeks since I've written in this blog.  It's been a busy couple of months with getting settled in Anchorage, starting work, finding an apartment and getting settled.  I was without internet for several weeks so I was unable to write and then needed to find the ambition.  In that time, I have been exploring this small portion of Alaska.  I've been to Whittier twice and Seward once.  Trips to Hope on the south shore of Turnagain Arm as well as north to Palmer/Wasilla and north of Talkeetna.  Talkeetna has so far been my favorite and I have hopes to head back that way later in the winter as well as in then summer.

Turnagain Arm sunrise

Hope, Alaska is a small village founded by the Russians as a trapping outpost hundreds of years ago. Today, there is nothing there except a few houses, seasonal cabins, a school and a few businesses that cater to tourism (hunting, fishing, hiking).  To get to the Hope, turn off from the Seward highway, one must journey along Turnagain Arm of the north Pacific then around the end of the Arm and through Turnagain Pass.  The pass is the gateway to the Kenai Peninsula.  Route 1 leaves Anchorage going south toward Homer and the end of the road.  Literally.  Route 1 ends on the Spit in Homer.  After Hope Junction, the only other major turn off the highway is the road to Seward.

Turnagain Pass

Turnagain Pass

The day after Christmas saw bright clear skies and freezing temperatures.  The temperatures had been holding steady below zero.  The lowest so far in Anchorage being -15.  That day it was a high of 5 degrees as I strapped on my snowshoes, bundled up and headed up a hollow in Turnagain Pass.  The sun had risen but at noon it still had not topped the mountains in the pass.  The path was well worn from cross country skiers and made for easier walking.  A couple of times I stepped out the worn path landed me in knee deep snow even with the snow shoes.  The snow was about 3 feet deep as I trudged up the hollow away from the highway through the evergreens.  It was quiet and serene for the hour I walked up into the mountains.  The sign at the bottom of the hollow warned of avalanches.  It was completely quiet and still as I walked through the pines and small fields.  It was dark in the hollow and the snow had a blue hue.  Despite the cold temperature, it still felt warm with the multiples layers of clothes and having only my face exposed.  Frost built up on my beard as I climbed into the hollow.  The cold here is different than back home.  It's much drier rather the bone chilling damp cold of the northeast.  When I first arrived here, I felt the cold hurt more as it had a bite to it but I quickly adjusted as my blood thickened.  At home, if it was below 15 degrees I didn't venture out much.  Now it has to be below zero to keep me indoors.

 Luckily, before the snow began to fall I was able to make the 100 mile trip south to Seward.  Again, around Turnagain arm and through Turnagain Pass.  Below Hope Junction the travel in winter can be difficult.  Through Moose Pass in the Kenai Mountains avalanches are common and getting stranded in Seward is a possibility.  Luckily, the snow arrived late this year as once it starts it never leaves until spring.  The road was dry and the trip to Seward revealed the tourist and cruise ship mecca closed down for winter.  It was a cold windy day on Ressurection Bay and the emerald green water was choppy.  Mount Marathon behind town was still rock and not snow covered.  A few fishing boats bobbed in the harbor but most had been placed in dry dock for the winter season.  I found an old wooden sailboat (my favorite) at the end of the pier to photograph.  A trip to Exit glacier was an icy walk but enjoyable.  The tourist glacier is close to the end of the path and you can feel the cold coming off the glacier ice.  2014's plan involves several more trips to Seward.  One involving an overnight hike to Lost Lake.  Another, a strenuous hike to the Harding Ice Field.  This is the ice field that Exit glacier spills from and separates the 40 miles between Homer and Seward.  A third hike includes hiking up Mount Marathon.  I can't wait for summer to get here.

Bald Eagle near Exit Glacier

Whittier

Prince William Sound in early winter

View of the Whttier and one of the towns apartment complexes

Whittier is probably the strangest place I've ever been.  The drive to get to Whittier in itself is an adventure.  The only entrance into the town by road is through a three mile long train tunnel.  The tunnel is a single lane and is only open for 15 minutes in each direction per hour.  During the winter months, the doors on either end are kept closed until the line of vehicle traffic reaches it.  The cars drive on the rail road tracks through the tunnel.  The rough rock walls drip moisture onto the smooth steel plate surface of the tracks.  This is kind of like driving on a traditional railroad crossing for three miles.  The only other way into Whittier is by sea via the Price William Sound.  As you emerge from the tunnel you are greeted with a view of the valley that ends in the Sound.  High mountains rise steeply above the road as you drive along the water toward town.

Abandoned Buckner Building

The town is laid out strangely with the main focus being the harbor and docks.  The small tourist area was boarded up for winter as I drove slowly into town with my mouth agape.  The town is dominated by the condemned Buckner Building. The huge abandoned apartment complex that once housed a thousand soldiers and offices gives the town a creepy feeling with it's empty windows and stairwells staring down on the town of 200 people.  The concrete and steel building was heavily damaged during the 1964 earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit Whittier.  The building is full of asbestos and if it was demolished the only way to remove the rubble is through the one lane railroad tunnel or on barges on the pristine waters of the Prince William Sound.  Instead it remains standing as a relic of the days when Whittier was an active Army Base and Railway head bringing goods into Alaska.

 The other striking thing about Whittier is it's lack of houses.  Whittier is a town without any houses.  None. The entire town resides in two apartment complexes.  A small two story complex
across from the hulking Buckner Building a and a larger 14 story building (the largest building in Alaska) farther up the hill behind the towns government buildings that are a row of old warehouses.  The town is strictly utilitarian and is devoid of anything man
made that is aesthetically pleasing. The sole purpose of the town is fishing, the rail yard and the marine highways ferry dock.  The rest of the town consists of shipping containers and the two large apartment complexes.  The wind whipped off the glaciers that sit on the mountains above the town and chilled the air.  The roads were covered with thick ice and was difficult to walk on let alone drive on.  I gladly left Whittier to return to the beautiful Bear Valley on the other side of the mountain.

Wind gusting off a mountain in Whittier

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

― George Gordon Byron