July 30, 2007

Just another weekend at home. Of course we haven’t spent many weekends at home this summer and even when we do, our weekends still seem rather fun.

Saturday was pretty casual - to start. We relaxed. I got caught up on some photography work on the computer.

In the afternoon, we went for a bike ride. We went to the little ski area a few miles from home. Numerous trails lead from there into the parklands along the edge of town. We explored a little. We have ridden some of the trails before, but always with a group. It is different when you have to navigate. We rode some of the reputedly more advanced trails. A couple of the trails have some significant root obstacles that are quite challenging and reminiscent of some of the trails in West Virginia we have ridden. One trail was just wicked steep for a long stretch. To add to the challenge, the trail surface was loose. By the time I had a chance to think about it, I was already so committed that the only way off the bike was to fall. I sat back as far and as low as I could, resting my gut on the seat with my butt inches above the rear wheel. I haven’t ridden anything like that in a long time. I was glad to see I could still do it, but it wasn’t exactly fun.

We were surprised at how few people were using the trails so close to town on a beautiful summer Saturday afternoon. We saw a few hikers, joggers, and bikers. A true sign that we have become locals, we knew one of the people we ran into.

We didn’t see any wildlife. It was a bright sunny day. We did see a few relatively fresh and relatively large bear tracks on one of the trails.

We took another walk down to Taku Lake after dinner. It gave me a few more attempts with my new lens, taking pictures of geese, grebes, and the loon. The lens doesn’t work miracles. The birds are still always too far away or the lighting is just inadequate. These things come as no surprise. So far I am pretty happy with it. We saw no furry critters on this evening, unless you count dogs or a hideous muskrat.

We actually got up early on Sunday and hit the ground running. We were already packed up on Saturday night. We stopped for some donuts and headed south to Whittier. We caught the 9:30 opening of the one way tunnel. We had three short trails we wanted to check out. The first trail was over Portage Pass. This leads back to the other side of the long tunnel, overlooking Portage Glacier. We had seen Portage Glacier before when we took the glacier viewing cruise boat that tours Portage Lake, so we were familiar with the area.

We quickly climbed to the pass to an impressive overlook. The view invited us in. We decide we could hike the other trails on our next visit to Whittier. Our hiking book told us that we could get to the lake from the pass, but warned that the trail could be a little overgrown. We started on the wrong path and quickly found ourselves in the slow going tangle of alders. When things started getting steep, we backtracked, eventually finding our way to the correct trail. The trail wasn’t too bad. It was overgrown in places. We made a few wrong turns. We eventually found our way to a narrow rocky dry creek bed. This led us down the final pitch to the rocky beach of the lake.

We watched the tour boat come and go a few times. We hiked as far as we could around the lake, eventually being stopped by a fast moving creek pouring off Burnes Glacier. The skies were bright and sunny and we just hung out at the lake enjoying the scenery. A few kayakers and a couple other hikers made it back to the isolated area in the afternoon.

The glacier was mildly active. We heard a couple of thunderous cracking sounds. We saw the glacier calve twice into the lake. The first episode was mostly out of our view but the sound was incredible. Then came the wave. We could see the water running high up the opposite shore. The tour boat provided some scale. Along the shore the wave was at least 20 feet high. It took forever for the wave to hit the boat, which always maintains a safe distance for this very reason. The big boat rocked noticeably, but the wave was much smaller in the open water. We were on the beach a significant distance away. I began to wonder if the wave would even be noticeable on our side of the lake. I had long decided that the wave must have dissipated when the water surged onto the beach on our side. It was a small set of waves by that point in time, but with the flat beach, the small waves broke and ran onto previously dry land. I don’t really know the distances, but I think we were several miles away from the ice fall. Dozens of small icebergs worked their way out into the lake as we meandered around enjoying our afternoon.

We hiked out, just barely missing the 4:00 tunnel opening for the return trip. Knowing that lots of boaters would be returning to Anchorage on a Sunday evening, we quickly departed the trailhead and got into line for the tunnel. We were the first in line, but the line quickly grew. We had to wait almost an hour. We ate our lunch that we had left in the car since we were planning to do three trails instead of one long one. Finally we were allowed into the tunnel. While we have driven the tunnel before, we have never been at the front of the line. I was surprised to find out that the 2.5 mile tunnel is dead straight. It was like looking through a rifle barrel. At 25 MPH, the light at the end of the tunnel only gradually increases in size. The railroad tracks down the middle of the road force you to chose one side or the other, an uncomfortable asymmetry. The road surface provides a rhythmic bumping, similar to a train going down a track. It is just weird.

Well into our third summer, I am still amazed by our surroundings. The mountains, glaciers, rivers, vegetation, and wildlife are still captivating. I suppose I could get to the point that these things are routine obstacles, perhaps annoyances interfering with the efficiency of life. I am just glad I am not to that point yet.