The Rest of the 4th of July, 2011

So when we last left off me and Rudie had about forty minutes to drive to Seward for the fireworks display at midnight.  Would we make it?!  We had no idea!  We'd never been to Seward, but we thought we might make it in time...

Well, not exactly.  We were just driving into the little town of Seward when we saw fireworks come into view, it was still fairly bright out at midnight it being Alaska, but we could see the pyrotechnics fairly well.  Unfortunately we only caught the tail end of the show, but what we saw was nice and sort of better being in the car, listening to music, watching the sparkling lights over the road.  Beautiful, if a little shortlived. 

Now came the real adventure.  Seward is a town of almost 3,000 people (according to Wikipedia), but during the Mount Marathon race the town swells to almost 4,500 people.  Most of them camping out in tents and RVs scattered throughout the area, a great majority of them down by the beach.  We hadn't made prior arrangements, imagining instead in a state of this size one could pitch a tent in the woods (something we have lots of here!) without complication or compunction.  Well, I wouldn't have had any compunction regardless.  But every damn campground was full.  The woods were full.  How was this possible?  It's Alaska..  the state is twice the size of Texas, larger than all but 18 sovereign nations, with a fraction of the population.  In a place so free, so wild...  you're not allowed to camp just anywhere!  Apparently you have to be packed onto a tight little area of private land less than ten feet from your neighbor's tent, fire, car, or RV.  It seems camping in Chugach is not allowed, at least as far as we could find at that late hour.  At one point we were sure we'd found a spot, but apparently it was in a tsunami AND rock-avalanche zone, so that was a no-go.   It was late, I was slightly tipsy and it was the 4th.  I was working myself into a patriotic frenzy of pissiness and frustration over exercising our right to assemble on national lands.  I'm pretty sure that's why they have those damn Rainbow Gatherings!--of which, I am a fan.  Before I upset Rudie too much with my ranting and political rhetoric, I took it upon myself to pipe down on my pipe dreams and rolled over in my seat and took a nap.

Abrubtly, I awoke.  Rudie had pulled in somewhere a little outside of town and parked.  It was a campground.  Okay, really it was a yard.  A yard that someone was co-opting as a campground to make some of that sweet, sweet cashy money for the fourth.  Nothing celebrates America quite like some good old fashioned capitalism!  All our neighbors were tucked in their tents and it was almost actually dark..  probably around two am or so.  Rudie quickly set up the tent, climbed in, and collapsed and I followed suit.  The sun rose two hours later and I slept in an hour after that..  it was five thirty and all sorts of birds were making a commotion.  I laid around listening to the songbirds I had missed all winter long, and then around seven o'clock a cock crowed and I felt good being up before the rooster.  I read Billy Collins' The Art of Drowning, entirely, laying in the tent bundled in sweaters and coats and hat and many, many blankets, laughing often and once overcome with that creeping choked-up feeling one gets in one's throat during poignant moments.  And then I crept off into the woods to take a piss.  When I came back our neighbors had risen and were making coffee and smoking cigarettes.  I badly wanted both, but we had no coffee and I've given up cigarettes.  I listened to their conversation, I felt no guilt about eavesdropping, probably because they were speaking German.  Finally, at ten or so, Rudie rose and we packed up camp and headed back towards downtown Seward...  

The Mount Marathon race is one of the most grueling footraces in the world, and it's also one way Alaskans celebrate Independance Day.  Spectators come from all around the state, country, and as witnessed by our German neighbors and a few festival attendees, the world.  It's an awesome experience, not only to marvel at the physical capabilities of the human body and the sheer tenacity of will, but to be able to do such while eating cotton candy, ice cream, and a philly cheesesteak.   I felt truly American.  Even though I was eating a gyro. 

But that's enough about food!  Back to the race.  The race originated as a bar bet almost a hundred years ago, between two "sourdoughs"--or Alaskan tough guys/oldtimers...  I like to imagine them drinking heavily and one, being inebriated and a bit cocksure, fires off something truly insulting and degrading about the other man's virility or some such, to which he replies "Oh yeah, well I could beat you up that mountain" at which point he stares around himself completely and points to the tallest, steepest, closest mountain... and there it began.  Oh, and the loser had to buy the crowd a round.  In reality, this is a bit of folklore further embellished by me, but the official race records have the first in 1915.  The race is a mile and a half up the mountain and then a mile and a half back down. 

Here's a map of the race route with some helpful tips.   Larger version here.

Note:  Not all men are dressed as sensibly as the

gentleman in this diagram!  We saw Gumby doing the race and he wasn't wearing anything at all!  So along with this insane footrace, the small town of Seward turns out the town for a street festival of sorts.  There was food, everything your heart--oh, I mentioned that already?  Sorry..  Tents serving beer and playing music, live bands, stands selling useless knickknacks for the kiddies like inflatable rubber horses on wooden sticks..  All shops were open and taking on tourists with great joy!  We even caught an aerial ballet and acrobatic routine put on in the streets by the Aerial Angels.  I had a frontrow seat!  Indian style in a circle surrounded by thirty children under the age of 10.  I quite enjoyed their comedic schtick, as well.

I'd love to catch one of their shows in Anchorage sometime, I imagine it's fire and fun with a bit of burlesque as well. 

Anyway!  After taking in all the fair had to offer me and Rudie walked up (past the hospital, which Rudie observed was just good city planning) to the base of the trail where tons of people were gathered to watch the runners ascend, and in 45 minutes descend.  You crane your neck back and look almost straight up to watch with amazement--or at least we did.  This is just another day, another race, another marathon for Alaskans.  I forgot to mention there is a juniors division and when we were walking around downtown I saw wee preteen girls hitting the finish line to the joy of their families.  Someone was on duty the entire race at the finish line with a hose, which I believe served well in a few different functions.  Cooling runners down, discouraging crowd members from wandering anywhere near the finish line, quickly dispelling any post-race vomit so the next finisher has a clean place to do the same..  hey they just ran three miles through tough terrain, 20 degree temperature change, and an average incline of 35 degrees--they deserve a clean-ish place to puke.

We were only at the bottom for the end of the men's division, gathered with one of Rudie's coworkers and her friends.  Apparently, his boss' son (and the coworkers boyfriend) was taking on the mountain and lots of friends had turned out to support him.  Everyone chitchatted until the first runner descended, whereupon I repositioned myself to get a better view of the descent.  I kid you not, some of these men tumbled down the last 30 feet, into rocks or trees or whatever.  Some of them skipped.  My favorite was the young man who jumped, clicked his heels together and when landing from that little antic fell, rolled head-over-heels and then popped back up to do another heel-tap.  He fell with finesse and grace, and for that, he got my biggest round of applause.  A good deal of the gentlemen made it down the last leg of the trail without any problems, not even a slight mistep, but that doesn't mean they didn't bite it somewhere on the trail.  A few men were bruised and bloodied up fairly badly, and I'd read accounts of a few snapped ankles in years' past.  These people were serious.  One guy had a headwound and was using his shirt as a bandage. 

After most of the racers made it down we walked back to Seward with the aim of visiting the Alaska SeaLife Center.  For such a small town, it's an incredibly nice facility.  The displays are all extremely well thought out and developed with a concentration on local species.  The most fun part, though, was probably the "bird room."  It was an aquatic enclosure with an open ceiling, so there was plenty of sun and fresh air for everybody and the birds, and you could walk right up to the glass aquarium where the birds bathed, swam, play.. basically, their habitat.  I got splashed a few times by one little guy who was aggressively doing laps at high speeds.  It was hilarious to watch, he looked like a little racing boat!  Back inside the building, you could go down a floor and observe all the rockfish and other types that lived in the same 'habitat,' sometimes the birds (puffins and the like) would dive down but not as deep as the fish.  The SeaLife center also had a beautiful touch tank with starfish, anemones, sea cucumber, etc.  A beautiful adolescent octopus was positioned nearby, but s/he might've been sleeping..  still gorgeous to observe.  In fact, it was such a nice facility that even the wild sea creatures were hanging around!  Rudie and I walked outside onto an observation deck and down in the water, quite close, was a sea otter bobbing in the waves, laying on it's back, perhaps nibbles on some shellfish.  Very funny, otter! 

Shortly after leaving the aquarium we both decided it was time to head home to Soldotna.  We'd walked quite a bit that day, all over Seward a few times, and the hike the day before had been exhausting.  I'm still not sure if it was the festival atmosphere or all the people in the downtown during the day, but I was enchanted with Seward..  the sailboats in the marina, the centralised layout of the city, something about it charmed me quite a bit and I look forward to another trip there, sometime.  Even if the Campground Is Full. 

If you'd like to see more pictures from the race, the aquarium, or the Aerial Angels: Here!

Beware, there are adorable puffin pictures within.
Here's an article from the Anchorage Daily News with awesome galleries of the race.

Happy trails and safe travels...

Skyline Trail

This last weekend being July 4th weekend and a long one, there was lots going on and lots to write about!  But I believe I'll start with our hike up Skyline Trail Sunday afternoon because it was so beautiful and I'm a little proud of myself.

The trailhead is located on Sterling Highway between mile marker 60 and 61, and when we pulled into the parking lot there were plenty of cars there.  Why not?  It was almost seventy degrees and a beautiful sunny day.  We started rather late, I don't remember the time but I'd hazard to say it was somewhere near 4:30 pm, which we weren't too terribly worried about because it gets dark (if you can even consider it dark) so late here and we had no place to be until midnight (Seward for fireworks!).  So we headed off towards the trail and  I wish I had a picture of the information board about the trail to share with everyone, but alas and alack...  But basically the trail was labelled as being a mile long (though we ended up going up the full length which is more like two miles) with the difficulty as strenuous, which caused me some pause as I'm out of shape and only recently quit smoking.  I jokingly mentioned to my hiking partner this would help clear all the junk out of my lungs, ha ha ha!  There was also lots of useful information about bears and how to act to avoid any run ins (whistling is the most frequently mentioned advice I've come across.. I suppose the bears appreciate a nice jaunty little tune as well as anyone else...) with them and what to do in case you crossed paths.  Rudie, my companion, was perhaps more prepared for that situation as he had brought his .357.  Exercising his right to bear arms against bear arms on the Independence Day weekend!

The trek was one of the most grueling hikes of my life...  I was wheezing too hard to whistle within the first thirty minutes, and the whole thing usually takes 3-5 hours to complete.  The path was fairly steep going for probably two thirds of the way, and we encountered many people coming back down on our way up, half of them strapped and ready for the revolution!  .. Err, I mean, bear encounters.  A lot of people coming back down the trail were also running.  Running on incline grades I had no concept of running on.  There was also a lot of water on the trail, yet it didn't slow the runners down.  I was consistently inspired and impressed by the nimbleness of some of our trailmates. 

Just to give y'all an idea of the incline the trailhead starts at 450 feet and the true top is at 3,295 feet elevation.  In two miles.  We went through so many different levels, the shift in elevation altering our landscape dramatically..  The beginning was verdant and wet with lots of rich black soil and thick, sweet air and plants growing everywhere.  The growth began to thin out some as we got  closer to the treeline, we could see the ground clearly and there were lots of evergreens.  The last species before we hit the treeline was probably the "squiggly trees" (so called by a trailmate, and without realizing this is what she meant I commented on how funny the wavy trees looked to Rudie once we reached them) or a species of willow I'd been pointed out on an earlier hike near Anchorage.  Unlike the weeping willows back home, these willows have fairly normal branches that grow up instead of listlessly trailing on the ground in that beautiful, romantic way weeping willows are wont to do.  I'd thought people were fibbing about the bugs here but after this hike I can ascertain that the mosquitoes are the size of what I imagine Mesozoic mosquitoes would look like.  And they were hungry. 

After the treeline we entered a beautiful section which was my favorite part of the hike, rather rocky with plenty of lichens and moss and little flowers.  I was reflecting on the beautiful alpine scene, imagining the Swiss Alps when Rudie's voice rang out and he stated that it looked like a mountain he had hiked on in a small village in Switzerland.  Huh, how about that.  Once we reached the very top there was still snow on the ground!  And lots of rocks.  And we found a little box of trail magic, unfortunately neither of us had brought anything to put in it.  We each put down our mark in the trail log and I asked Rudie "Will you take a box of the orangered for me?"  Translation:  Will you take a picture of the box?  Apparently the elevation or exhaustion or both were effecting my speech.  We both had a good giggle at that.  I found more giggles in the pages of the trail log, my favorite entry by far being:  The woman who lets me live with her wanted her ashes spread on this mountain.  But she is sneaky and keeps breathing I will try again later."  Oh brilliant anonymous satirist, I'm sorry I don't recall your name as well as your wit!  At this point I had already put on my sweater, the temperature at that elevation was much colder (about 45 degrees, maybe?) and some dark misty cloud were rolling in laden with moisture..  In fact, on our way back down it started raining.  Which made our adventure even more exciting.  No lies, I wiped out at least three times.  But it was exciting!  My first attempt at earth surfing!  I cannot begin to say how treacherous the trail was on the way back down with that incline and rain, needless to say I was bouncing from tree to tree for stability and sliding sideways through long swaths of mud.  Certain legs of the trail will forever be known as slip-and-slides for me.  But I was grinning like a fool and so happy, it was such a trip.  At one point coming down we were above a rainbow!  It was really magical.  But as our conversation ran coming down the mountain, we got out alive and so we won!  (Though Rudie didn't know the mountain was trying to take our lives...  The fool!)  All the rain on the trail and us being unaccustomed to such insane downhills it took us significantly longer to reach the bottom!  We loaded up and were in the car by 11 pm and we still had to make it to Seward by midnight for 4th of July fireworks! 

Stay tuned for the next episode of Weekend Alaska to discover whether Rudie and Mary make it to the fireworks in time!   

Here's the photos from the hike!  Enjoy!  Skyline Trail Gallery
And an awesome article about Skyline from a local paper!  Read more!
Safe travels and happy trails...

Mission Statement:

A simple effort to document weekend excursions, day trips, or other adventures that take place in--but not limited to--The Last Frontier.  I've been living in Alaska for almost six months now and I've been toying with the idea of a record of my experiences here and I just can't ignore the urge any longer!  I will try to update with each new adventure, as well as include some retrospectives from the first six months.  Enjoy! 

Safe travels and happy trails...