The Great Outdoors!

The other day we went hiking on Alyeska Mountain. It was great. There were local reports of a black bear and a moose on the pathways. The trail was well marked and was labeled "easy to moderate." Who decides its easy? Easy to an experienced mountain hiker is different than a South Georgia couch potato's easy! Hike wasn't that bad, but it is demeaning to be passed by three and four year olds hiking with their grandparents! We hiked down to a beautiful gorge. The water was so fast and a blue/gray color. The color is from the glacier. The gray color comes from glacier silt. We got to the hand tram that crosses Crow Creek. Walter and I thought that we would do it together. The sign said, "Weight limit 400 lbs." There blows the idea of Walter and I going together. The hand tram is very high in the air and if the cable were to break, you die! Walter got on the tram and realized that the door lock was broken. That cemented in my mind that I wasn't going! Walter got out in the middle and said the views were great. Two streams going into one creek. He also said you could see a hanging glacier from the tram. A hanging glacier is a glacier that hangs on the side of a mountain and doesn't go down to water. I was building up my confidence that I was going to go until a family of 15 came up and pushed me out of the way. They made it perfectly clear that they were next. How rude! Then the mother had to rub it in my face that she was 110 lbs. I could have crushed her with my foot! Walter came back and we went and sat for awhile overlooking the gorge. I decided to try out the hand tram. I was going to work past the door not locking and the tram tipping to one side. I went for it. I got about a quarter of the way out and couldn't handle it. Who monitors the cable? How do I know it will hold me up? I begged to come back in. We finished our hike without seeing any wildlife but did get to see amazing views. The ground is so weird up here! It is mossy and squishy to walk on. When you walk in the forest you king of bounce up and down!
Yesterday was beautiful in Anchorage. We went to the World Eskimo International Olympics. BORING! Not what I expected. Silly, silly white person.....I thought the contestants would be dressed up according to what tribe they were in. I thought it would be organized and very cultural. Nope. We were there during the arm pull competition. Four matches were going on at once. Two people sit in front of each other, lock there arms, and pull. The first person who has their arm straightened is the loser. The matches last about 1 minute. We stayed for maybe 10-15 minutes. Maybe it is different at night, but I was unimpressed at the day competition. And, some of the competitors didn't even look native. Turns out you only have to be 1/4 native to compete. Crazy! We went on our way. We went to Subway for lunch. I begged for a Bacon-a-tor. I love the commericals!!!!!!! Walter said no. What a punk! We went again to Alyeska Mountain and hopped on the tram to the top of the mountain. Walter was thinking of paragliding. The tram was very short, not long at all. A little bit of a steep climb. Another guy on the tram started talking about the tram in Albuquerque and how this one (Alyeska) was much longer and steeper. Uh, no!!!!!! The one in Albuquerque is the longest (or use to be the longest) in the world! The guy didn't know what he was talking about. Walter held me back. He didn't want a fight starting in the tram. Walter says I need to work on my rage issues. What? The top of the mountain was nice. We watched some paragliders taking off. There was a German film crew doing a reality show. So, anyone in Germany, watch for Walter and I in the background of the girl in white jumping off! We hung out at the top for a little while. We then went on to Portage Glacier. Portage Glacier is about 5 miles from Whitter (Yuk!) on the other side of the tunnel. We had coupons, so we went on the tour boat in the lake to go and see the glacier. The glacier grows and shrinks every year. It takes about 5-7 years for snow to turn into Portage Glacier. It takes 9 feet of snow for 1 foot of glacier. Pretty interesting! The glacier wasn't calving at all. No noise. No big pieces dropping off. The guide said that is because it is not over water right now, it is over bedrock. Active calving glaciers have water under them that undermines the structure. Didn't know that either! It was interesting to see where the glacier would grow to through out the years. There were little gravel deposits on the shore- a mini terminal moraine. A terminal moraine is at the end of a glacier and it is a build up of gravel. There were mini ice burgs in the lake from previous calves. The captain thought it would be cute to try and run them over. Made for a few nervous moments on the boat. Wonder if the Titanic captain was doing the same thing? While we were on the boat, we spotted a black bear wondering around on the mountain side. Too cute! We decided to take another hike to Bryan Glacier. Rumor had it that a brown bear sow visited the trail. Once again, no bear! Walter picked up some neat rocks along the glacier creek. We went on our way back to Anchorage and stopped by this amazing tree carving stop. This family carves wood on the side of the road. The dad is building a log cabin himself. The cabin looked awesome! The animal carvings were beautiful! Walter wanted to buy the big Shamu, until he found out it was $5000. The bear carvings were too cute and we will probably be back. We decided to stop by the Brown Bear Saloon. It was a biker bar. We had a healthy dinner of corn dogs! We decided to walk it off by going down to Bird Creek to see the sliver salmon running. We also have heard that a brown bear comes out to fish in the creek. We have been to bird creek several times and have yet to see a bear. We have seen bear tracks. Lots of silvers running. How frighting for them to swim up stream past all of those hooks! I have often wondered what would happen if there was a wreck on the Seward Highway. The highway is two lanes snuggled up beside the mountains and the water. People drive like crazy on the road! I had my question answered! We drove by another restaurant and a women was changing the marque to say, "Accident Ahead." Hmmm.......... sure enough, there was an accident. We never saw it. We were stopped about 2 1/2 miles behind. We didn't know whether to turn around, hang out, or what! We turned on the radio to find out more info. Nothing! You would think that if one of the two roads in and out of Anchorage was closed, the radio would say something! Walter got out and walked around. I finally got through to the highway patrol phone line after an hour of waiting. All it said was highway was closed at mile post 111 because of an accident. Duh! Walter walked on up about a mile and overheard people saying that the radio said it would be a couple of more hours. What do we do? Turn around? Go back to Brown Bear? Wait it out so we don't lose our spot? Where are the dall sheep to keep up entertained? After waiting 2 1/2 hrs, a line of cars from the other direction passed us. One of the cars was the medical examiner's truck. That doesn't look good! After about another 20 minutes we started to move. It took us a while to get up to the accident. Most of it was cleared. It involved motorcycles and a really big truck. We read in the online paper later that someone crossed the center line and a motorcyclists was killed. Hopefully it wasn't one from the Brown Bear Saloon that we just saw! We got back to Anchorage hours after when we thought we would. Do we go out? Do we go home? We decided to go home. On our way home we passed a moose. I turned around and pulled over. It was the biggest bull moose I have ever seen! It was Walter's first bull moose!!!!! It was huge! It was bigger than the Colbalt! It was probably 8 feet tall. It was eating, having dinner. Didn't care about anyone. Everyone was very respectful towards the moose. No one started shooting the moose or tried to pet it. There were probably about five or so cars pulled over. I think we were all afraid that the moose was going to walk out into the road so we turned on our flashers so people would slow down. The moose started walking towards us. He got into about five feet of us!!!! A car pulled up and had a dog in it. The moose did not like the dog barking. His eyes got really big and walked faster. That car was told it had to go! What a site! We got home and continued reading our books. I am reading a wonderful book about the Rwanda genocide- "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" by Immaculee Ilibagiza. If you believe in God, you have got to read this book! This girl, a Tutsi, lived through the slaughters by hiding in a very small bathroom with 6 other people for 3 months. They couldn't talk or move! For three months! All of her family except for one brother was killed. Sad book, but very powerful! Christina and Brian come in today! Wahoo! I have to start cleaning for them. I know, I know, I am a bad wife. Walter is gloating today because evidently he is a weather man. I wanted to go to Portage Glacier today because they are having a festival. He said it would rain today so we should go Saturday. He was right! What a man! Ok, seriously I must go! Later!
PS- you will see that one of the pictures is at sunset of a mountain top way in the distance. To the right of the mountain top is some trees. You may be able to see another mountain top behind the trees. That is Mt. McKinley. I know that there are some doubters out there. But, I have asked people who are from Anchorage and they have said that you can only see the top of Mt. McKinley from Anchorage. I also consulted with a diagram that shows mountains from Anchorage. Once in for all, the Princess bus driver was wrong about this one. :)