Alaska Part 3

The last of the Alaska pictures that I will put up:

On our day off - not paddling - we hiked about a mile in to a gold dredge.  There was a self-guided tour that took us all over the boat.  It was cool to see how things were done.  Many of the tools for the operation were left on the boat when mining stopped.
The above picture is the pilot house of the dredge.  Each of these levers did something.  One was for forward another back.  The pilot would stand behind these levers and watch the buckets dig the dirt and mud - and hopefully gold - and carry it to the back part of the dredge where everything was sorted and the gold kept while the rest was deposited out the back.
After our walk to the dredge - and short naps - we took another short walk, this time down the river.  I don't know what this thing is on the bank, but it's not important.
When I was living with Kristen and Sam, my favorite reading material was the book "Outhouses of Alaska."  This was the one at Slavens Roadhouse.  It didn't make it into the book but I think the birches in the foreground make it look picturesque.

That's it of the good Alaska pictures.  I have been pretty busy with the new house and haven't gotten to take many pictures lately.  However, I am hoping to have pictures of the new place soon to add to the blog.

Fall in Alaska

Fall in Alaska.  It comes early there - the end of August.  It was great to see the birches and spruces change from green to yellow on our trip.  These are four pictures from our time spent at Slavens Roadhouse and on our hike to the gold dredge.

At least one more set of pictures to come.  Stay tuned.

Alaska Part III

On our way to Seward, we stopped at Whittier, a town that is very isolated. The only way to reach the town is via boat or through the one-lane tunnel pictured below. The cars and trains share the tunnel. Every half hour the direction is reversed - plan accordingly.



Whittier is very mush a town that is built around fishing and industry. The entire population of Whittier seems to live in one building above the police and fire department. Evidently it was a pretty big base during WWII. There are some old barracks above the town that look like they were abandoned shortly after the war. Now the cruise ships come in here and people can then take the Alaska Railroad to other places in AK.



All around town there are old fishing boats and cranes along the water. It was a sad little town while we were there - rainy, windy, and very few people. I am sure that the summer months bring a lot of people from the cruise ships and railroad.

It was a short little side trip but we enjoyed our time in Whittier and on our way there.

On the Way to Seward

So I am finally sitting down to go through and select pictures for some updates.

We'll start with the first day that we were there. We drove down to Seward from Anchorage. The first part of the trip was along the coast and, as you can see, we had some great views of the mountains coming right out of the water and disappearing in the clouds. The tracks of the Alaska Railroad ran parallel to the road at this time as well. It was unfortunate that it was not running yet. We would have liked to enjoy the ride on the rails.

I hope that you enjoy the pictures. More to come!!

Alaska Part I

Here are the first couple pictures from our trip to Alaska.

The first one is a little hide and seek, but not very hard. On our biking trip to Sable Pass in Denali National Park, we were greeted by these funny little ptarmigans along the road. The males had funny little orange eyebrows that made it easy to spot them, once they made some noise.



Below are some moose. We saw lots. We saw one or two a little closer than we wanted, but for the most part we were able to enjoy and laugh at them.
Evidently - according to our trusty guide - it is rare to see a mom with two calves that have survived. One of these two could have a difficult time later because it did not want to get it's feet wet and jumped over the little stream that they were feeding by.



Alright, I give you one landscape picture. This was our last night in Anchorage at about 1100 at night. Yes, the sun is still up.