Pictures and some tales

[Danaus29]

ALASKA 2008 pictures from friends & fun photos on webshots

Just a start on the pictures.

Now a tale, true as can be: The first night we spent south of Anchorage was by a little lake. We had to drive quite a way in, a long way past the place where you drop your fee envelopes. Tim parked and said he would walk back and drop the payment in the box. It was not totally dark but getting close. He took his little bright flashlight so he would have some light. As he was walking he would shine the light on this dark spot and that. The first several dark areas were just trees or low branches. One particularly dark area stood out so he shone his light on it. The dark spot had a funny shape and moved, revealing 2 glowing green spots, then ears and a muzzle! A BEAR!!!! And Tim was less than 25 feet away! He kept the light in the bear's eyes and slowly backed away until he felt it was a safe distance. Then he turned out the light and walked fast back toward the van. Walking and running he finally reached the van. Out of breath, he pounded on the locked door. "Quick, unlock the door!" he yelled. Being unfamilliar with the van I had a hard time finding the unlock button. "Hurry up, there's a bear!" he cried. I finally found the unlock button and he got in. We drove to drop off the camping fee, but didn't see the bear.

[greenasagourd]

Wow! I'm glad Tim 'bearly' escaped!

Nice pics, Rhonda. Aren't the big mountains beautiful?!!!

[NEIndiana]

Thank you for taking me "home" again Rhonda. I lived in Anchorage, Alaska for 11 yrs., raised 3 kids and led a very active outdoor life while there. The only thing I don't miss are the long, snowy, and cold winters that last 8-9 months. The wildlife can sneak right up on you and I'm glad Tim had a safe encounter with the bear.
Did you make it to Alyeska and see all of the waterfalls tucked into the mountains? Thanks for sharing your pics.

[Pburgh]

Thanks for the beautiful pictures. What an adventure. I could just picture the look on Tim's face when you were telling the scarey story.

[Dog Mom]

Beautiful pictures! it sounds like you had a memorable trip!

[deano38]

looks like a great place to have a reunion

[Danaus29]

Good area for you, Deano. For those of us this far east the round trip cost is close to $1,000 per person! Cheap hotels are $70 and up a night. Gas was $4.05 in Anchorage, one place we stopped had gas at $6 something! The scenery has no equal though. The ocean is just a short drive from some really tall mountains. Wildlife galore if you know where to find it. Food and pop are really expensive, a 20 oz pop costs $2.19.

NEIndiana, didn't stop in Alyeska. I don't (can't) do a whole lot of walking so anything more than 1 mile from the road isn't a great idea. You should check out my albums Alaska part 1 and Alaska from our visit last year. There were lots of pics from downtown Anchorage, including the bear and crow statue and shots of the Iditorod trail where it passes through town. We were going to walk the Tony Knowles coastal trail in Earthquake park, but had a problem there.

I haven't told you about our real close wildlife encounter. That will have to wait until I get those pictures posted. Otherwise some of you won't believe me.

Just looked at the map. We did attempt to get to Crow Creek mine, uphill from Alyeska and Girdwood. I do have some shots from the little bit of the trail we walked.

I'm not yet halfway through the pictures I took. Thank God for digital! The flim would have put us over the weight limit for the flight!

[Danaus29]

Time for another tale, this was one of the wettest, coolest summers on record for Alaska. It rained every day we were there except Friday. We did do a little panning, not an experience I wish to repeat. The one day we had was cold and drizzly. Gold does not sparkle under lead-colored skies. The temp did not rise above 45*f the whole day. Can you imagine 2 terribly near-sighted people peering into gold pans less than 2 inches from their faces? Well, that's the way it was. My hair was wet in front, both of us ended up with soaked jackets and jeans. Wood too wet (and we had no matches) for a fire. Did we find any gold? We don't know. I found one little tiny speck of something that sparkled in the one patch of slightly less cloud cover. Took 5 minutes to get it sucked up in the eye dropper. Try managing one when your hands are numb. We never did find the place where Bob claimed he would find little nuggets in every pan. (question arises though, if he truly did find so much gold, why does his widow claim she is so terribly poor?)

[NEIndiana]

Crow Creek Mine is a beautiful area and yes, there is still a lot of gold there. My kiids all found nuggets whenever they went there to pan. The best month to go to Alaska is June. It's a dry month, lots of sunshine, and warmer temps. The bugs aren't out at that time but the wildflowers and wildlife is in abundance.
As for prices of products....it's always been really expensive. Back in '87 when I moved there, gas was over $1.50 a gallon while a gallon of milk ran $3.25 and just a loaf of white bread was $1.75. I about fainted back then and know that I would probably do the same now with the higher prices!
The Iditarod trail actually starts in Palmer for the race. They use downtown Anchorage as a "starting" point for the tourists and town competitions that they run. It's a lot of fun and very noisy with all those dogs pulling the sleds. We used to watch it from where I worked so we stayed warm and dry.
Earthquake park is a very interesting place with a lot of sad history to it. Over the years, they've really made the park nice with information plaques all over the place. The coastal trail is also beautiful. You have to be careful on that trail though. Lots of critters get nosey and/or stand in the middle of the trail to make you stop in your tracks. I think they like to see just what a person will do when they cross with a bear or moose on the trail. LOL