Monday, July 30, 2018

June Seattle/Anchorage Trip

by Tom

We started early on Wednesday, May 16th, 2018, taking an Uber to Dulles for a non-stop to Seattle. Everything went smoothly and we landed in Seattle ½ hour early. We did not take bus or train, but rather we Uber-ed straight to the Fauntleroy ferry terminal to take a ferry over to Southworth. We barely caught the ferry and catching it saved us about 40 minutes. Once aboard, we settled in for a pleasant relaxing trip that stopped at Vashon Island. En route, we split a bowl of chowder. My friend Steve Anderson from Metron days met us when we got off the ferry and took us to his house.
Steven’s house overlooks Colvis Passage between Kitsap Peninsula and Vashon Island. We watched birds and admired the water and plants. Steve has a hummingbird feeder set up and we saw several hummingbirds. We saw a lot of birds and Steve could identify them; he’s quite the birder. There are power lines running near his house and they serve as both a reference point while looking through binoculars and a resting place for birds. The yellow goldfinch and the red-tailed hawk were my favorites. Warblers, sparrows, and others. They all made an appearance. After a while, we walked past the blackberry bushes and Scotch Broom down to the beach.
The beach is very rocky and a little wet; the tide was out. It felt good, and the day was beautiful. After chatting and strolling, we went back, and Steve drove us back to the ferry. We caught an earlier ferry than we thought we would; it was running late. That ferry did not stop at Vashon Island, and we saved a bit of time that way. We got off and walked out to the bus stop; a policeman told me that I shouldn’t make my “daughter” drag that luggage. My 61-year-old wife got a kick out of that. It made me smile.
Our luck continued and we caught a bus almost immediately for Seattle. After about ½-hour, it dropped us downtown where we considered walking down to the market, but instead decided to have a bowl of pho. Then it was off to Myla’s office where we waited in a very comfortable waiting area while Myla finished some work.
Myla then drove us straight to the car rental place where we picked up a small Chevy Cruze and drove back to Mary’s place. Mary had everyone over for pizza, followed by a little word game and we, with bodies still on east coast time, and looking at an early following day, settled into Steve and Myla’s spare room, and went to sleep.
On May 17th, we wished the twins and Peter Happy Birthday and went over to Mary’s early. Dad was ready and waiting for us and we loaded everything into the car and took off. Traffic was surprisingly heavy for 5:30 AM leaving town as we headed north. It thinned out soon enough and we experienced no significant delays. The day was gray as we cruised past Everett and on to Anacortes.
Our ferry was about 20 minutes late, but we were in no real hurry anyway. The ride was again nice and we landed at the Orcas Island stop with plenty of time. If you tell the ferry staff that you need to park next to an elevator because of a wheelchair, they are very accommodating and we had no trouble getting to the passenger decks. Again, thank you to the Washington State Ferries. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with them in Edmonds, Kingston, Anacortes, and Orcas Island.
The day was gray but pleasant. Orcas is a small island roughly horseshoe-shaped, with the horseshoe opening to the south. The ferry landed on the southwest end and we started driving around the horseshoe to the east side.
We stopped at the post office for directions and the postmistress there told me that this was her 3rd island; and one of them had no ferry service. On such an island, the post office serves a big receiving function. I didn’t ask how the post office got all those packages there.
Our first stop was Eastsound, a town at the north end of the island. We poked around a bit and went on to Rosario’s for brunch. We had a very nice meal in a very nice resort, and we overlooked the bay that is the interior of the horseshoe. Dad had eaten there before with Mom, many years ago, and Tran and I enjoyed hearing him reminisce about those times. We walked around a little, and Tran and I visited the upstairs museum. The owner of the place made his fortune building ships, including the battleship USS Nebraska, which was built in the early 20th century, and there was quite a lot on the Nebraska. Also on display on the top floor were the pipes of the organ, although I didn’t see the organ itself. I am told that during the summer, there are concerts held around the organ.
Mr. Moran was the founder and he also was instrumental in the formation of Moran State Park. This is a very large park on a very small island, and the middle of it is Mt. Constitution. There is a road to the top of this mountain. We drove up there, but the weather was uncooperative and there were no real views through the fog and clouds. Still, the park was pretty and the road was impressive; it is very very steep!
There is a small giftshop at the top and an observation tower. Tran and I climbed to the top and gazed at the fog. The cool weather and the lush scenery still made for a very nice day.  
On the way back, Tran and I walked to Rustic Falls, one of the very pretty waterfalls in the park. A quick drive back to Eastsound where we poked into some stores and I went down to the beach. The tide wasn’t quite low enough to walk out to a nearby island, but the beach and day were still nice. The fog was lifting and, late in the afternoon, the day was turning into a very nice cool sunny day.
We continued to the west side and we went over to the hamlet of Deer Harbor. There is a pier that sells ice cream and, with the sun breaking through, we sat outside and enjoyed a scoop of local ice cream. We poked around a shop or two in Orcas Village, near the ferry dock, and boarded the ferry. By now, I was pretty sleepy and we simply watched the waves go by. Again, we were parked next to an elevator and had no trouble getting up or down.
It’s quite a way from Anacortes to I-5 and I drove until we found a restaurant. Again, Dad recommended that we stop there, remembering it from years gone by. We had a nice meal and I stayed awake only long enough to make sure that Tran found I-5 south.
On the 18th, we picked up Dad and made our way through some moderate traffic to Snoqualmie Falls. It rained off and on, but we got to Salish lodge and sat down for another brunch. We were seated overlooking the falls and ordered meals. They served the “honey from heaven,” something I had tried to describe to Tran before. When I was growing up, we had Confirmation breakfasts here. It has changed hands at least once, but they still drop the honey onto biscuits from high above.
After breakfast, we drove to the lower parking lot, and took Dad as far down as we could. There are significant steps by the power house so we stopped there. But we weren’t far from the falls and Tran and I took turns going to the end of the trail. There was a lot of water going over the falls and it’s really amazing that such a beautiful spot is so close to Seattle.
Then we drove through the towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend before heading home. We swung by 222 Lake Hills Blvd which is practically unrecognizable. We went north on 165th and Tran called her friend who lives somewhere near 6th and 171st, not far away. They invited us over and we sat on their driveway overlooking Lake Sammamish for a nice snack and chat.
We drove back past what is a completely different high school than the one I attended, but it is at the same spot and bears the same name. Tran was driving by now and we took I-90 and I-5 back to Edmonds.
My brother Steve was home from a long business trip by then and he helped me gas up the car at Costco and return it. Mary again had us all over for dinner, serving tacos, followed by a round of Jeopardy. Tran and I left to pack and Steve and Myla, taking heed of worsening traffic reports, took us early to the airport. We did arrive early for our 9:30 flight from Sea-Tac to Anchorage. Because of the season and latitude and longitude change, we left in the dark and flew into daylight.
A “dusk-like” atmosphere greeted us in Anchorage. Thal and Julie picked us up and we went to their house. We fell asleep quickly.
On the 19th, our first day in Alaska, we stopped for coffee and scones on the way to the train station for our train trip to Whittier. Arriving early, we walked up to an open-air market where Julie’s dad Paul was setting up a tent for his outdoor equipment.  
The Chugach mountains were visible and quite spectacular, but that became normal for Alaska. The 4 of us occupied an upper deck booth with a table between us. We were given a narration as we went, that included a spot that was preserved by a teacher, a town called Spenard, a stretch where many of the homes had airplanes parked in the back yard, and other sights. Waterfalls and views of Cook Inlet were pretty constant. We did see Dall sheep on the hills across from Cook Inlet.
When we got off at Whittier, it was raining off and on; we walked through canvas tunnels and out to our boat for our tour of Prince William Sound. We were at a similar table as the train, but it was bigger and there was another couple that we shared it with. We saw a rookery, sea otters, some seals in the distance, a bald eagle, and a humpback whale lifting itself completely out of the water. The glacier was spectacular and we think we heard it calf, but didn’t see it.
The tour boat served us a nice meal, and a nice dessert. They also fished some glacier ice out and made margaritas out of them, but those cost extra. During the cruise, we could go out on the upper deck on the back. I did that whenever I felt like getting some air. It was not terribly cold and the rain was not intense enough to really get soaked, so I spent several times out there. The captain also slowed for any wildlife sightings and people streamed out.
We thought we saw a bear, but since it didn’t move, the theory was that someone put a stuffed bear out there to play with the tour boats.
This was the first time I’d seen a bald eagle in flight. It took off from a small iceberg, flew fairly low, and crossed in front of us less than 100 yards away. I was thrilled; Julie, having grown up in Alaska, not so much.
The train back to Anchorage was pretty much the same in reverse. We went through 2 tunnels both ways, one of which serves both the train and the cars. We got back to Anchorage around 10 and found a parking ticket stuck on Julie’s car. Nothing to do about that now. We went home for our 2nd night of sleep in Thal and Julie’s house.
On the 20th, I got up and walked downtown. Thal and Julie live on the edge of downtown (4th/10th) and I found a little coffee shop. It was a pleasant walk through a baseball field and past an ice rink that is now serving as a basketball court. Tran and I loafed and the young couple slept in. Eventually, we walked to a grocery store that had a sandwich shop inside, got some sandwiches (mine was a Reuben), and went off to the nearby walk called “Eagle River.” There was a nice visitor’s center there, a nice walk along a river, and some placards along the way.
At this time of year, one can start the outings at pretty much any time of the day; it’s almost impossible to run out of daylight. But fatigue does set in, and we headed back. We met Paul, his wife Jacqueline, and their son David, and ate pizza at “Anchorage’s finest pizza place” “Bear Tooth.” Paul suggested we take his truck (a 4-door F150) the following day, which we did. Near the end of that dinner, I admitted that what I really felt like was brushing my teeth and sleeping. Jacqueline understood my feelings exactly, so we all called it a day.
On the 21st, I walked back to the grocery store, and refilled Thal’s growler of cold-brewed coffee, and got some day-old pastries. Soon enough Thal and Julie got up, arranged for dog care (they take care of Bella, Thal’s dog from Virginia, Molly, a German Shepherd mix that came with the house, and Brendal, a boxer-mix that they inherited from Julie’s mother), and we took off for Denali.
Julie did all of the driving.  We went slightly past the Denali highway, stopping at a restaurant (Healy(?)) before coming back to a campsite in the park but close to the road between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Although it was late for normal camping, there was so much daylight that we were in no rush. We got the tents set up and slept well. My senior pass came in handy!
On the 22nd, we packed up the tents, which were slightly damp and made a quick camp breakfast. We went to the ranger station where we signed up for “Area 26.” In Denali, there are no designated backcountry campsites, only areas. They are careful not to put too many people in a single area. But first we decided to ride the park-run tour bus as far as it went. Denali is a huge park with one road that is all but closed to private vehicles except bicycles. This road is used by tour buses only and simply runs from AK 3 (the road between Anchorage and Fairbanks) approximately straight west into the park. It is a very long dead-end with practically no roads branching off of it. It was only open to Toklat, about 60 miles in. We went all the way in and then back to Area 26.
The plan was to backpack, but here I was caught by my own assumptions and errors. The rules are simple; you must camp at least ½ mile from the road, and you cannot camp within sight of the road. That sounds simple. But it isn’t. Denali backcountry is unlike any other national park that I’ve been in in one crucial regard; there are no trails. This means, for example, that there are no bridges across streams. It also means that you have to fight your way through underbrush. This is very hard hiking and it makes the other “trails” (eg Pacific Crest, Appalachian, Wonderland, etc.) all seem very nice and very similar. Denali is different.
The 2nd aspect that is far different in Denali is that there is relatively little tree cover. What tree cover there is, did not seem suitable for camping. Hence, “getting out of sight of the road” is very difficult. One really does have to climb over the nearest ridge.
Another difference is the presence of wildlife. We did not see bears or moose, but we were concerned; fresh scat seemed to be almost everywhere, and our bear bells were not working very convincingly. In short, as opposed to other national parks, we were told not to walk single-file or stay on a path (since there are none), and to make a lot of noise. As the older couple of our group grew more and more tired going up a steep climb through underbrush, we decided to concede and head back to the road. There was an NPS campground about a mile from where the bus left us off, and we headed for that. But first, we had to get back to the road. We wound up in a steep forest and eased our way back down. But there was a fairly fast knee-deep stream running between us and the road. We tried to go around it, but the bushwhacking was taking a toll and we finally found and settled on a fordable crossing. It wasn’t a big crossing, but the stream’s depth was uncomfortable when combined with its speed and the shaky footing. It was one step at a time. I don’t think there was any real danger but we could easily have gotten a lot wetter than we did. As it was, we ended up soaked up to about the knees.
Thankfully, we were spared almost all of Alaska’s famous mosquito swarm; we were a few weeks early for that. But while slashing through the brush, we did get caught in showers, one of which was heavy, lasted over ½ hour, and included hail.
Because we gave up around 8:00 PM, we did manage to catch the last park bus back to our truck at the visitor’s center, which we took, so we didn’t even camp at the NPS site. We left the bear can at the visitor’s center and decided to go on to Fairbanks that night. Although we arrived around midnight, it was all daylight driving anyway. Therefore, we checked into our AirBnb a day early.
The 23rd was supposed to be a hike out and drive up, all of which we did not do on the 23rd, so we had a day in Fairbanks that we hadn’t planned on. There’s an informal museum there and a more formal one. In the informal one, we watched most of a film on Mary Shields, the 1st woman to compete in the Iditarod. She really lives outside of Fairbanks, enduring the brutal cold with her husband and taking care of her dogs. There were other exhibits about dogs and dog racing. I enjoyed it but got a little anxious that we were staying too long in one place. We walked to the official museum and I enjoyed that as well. I read every poster on the Iditarod winners. I remember Susan Butcher, but didn’t know that she died at age 51 of Leukemia. I remembered Rick Swenson as well, but I didn’t know the story of the ’91 Iditarod. It’s worth looking up. I read every word of the following article: http://www.farnorthscience.com/cold-quests/butchers-last-great-race/ There was much on the history of Fairbanks, but I remember the most about the dogs and the races. It was getting whatever passes for late on a day that doesn’t get dark, so Tran and I started to walk back to our lodging after a quick snack. A little rain, but nothing to fret over.
On the 24th, we wished Mary a happy birthday and … Julie was sick. Oops. So we left her behind where she got another place to stay and slept until we got back the night of the 25th. With our driver laid up, Tran drove the 3 of us in the truck over to the airport for our tour of Coldfoot. Our tour started and ended at the airport, but we were driven in a van for 6 or 7 hours (with no night, it’s harder to keep track of daylight) up to Coldfoot. Coldfoot is a truckstop along the pipeline and was indeed a work camp during the pipeline construction. Before that, it was a ghost town and before that it was a flash-in-the-pan gold town. Now there’s an inn there that is built from the temporary housing of the pipeline, and a small diner across the muddy road. It really is a working town. In addition to the tourists, truckers running between Fairbanks and Prudhoe. During the long drive, each of the passengers at one time or another slept, but the driver kept a steady stream of chat going. We stopped at the Yukon River crossing, the Arctic Circle, a pump station near the pipeline where it is above ground, a rock outcropping (called a “tor”), and a place we could touch and feel the permafrost. We also stopped at an abandoned house where a couple had raised many adopted children and fostered even more.
Coldfoot has a diner, a place to stay, and a visitor’s center run by NPS, BLM, and US Fish & Wildlife. The town has a dirt airstrip, which is next to the Koyukuk river. Like almost all of the rivers we saw in Alaska, the Koyokuk has a pretty impressive flow; there’s no need to toss a stick in to see which way the river is flowing. It’s readily apparent.
It was late afternoon by the time we arrived, but we had time to peruse the visitor’s center and walk down to the river. There are some old cabins in the woods from the prospecting days. We watched a presentation about a “year in the arctic.” The speaker was really a 2nd generation arctic citizen; her father had trapped when she was young, and she and her husband raised their two children in the remote area. As for me, despite the comfortable temperatures, the place (yea verily, the entire state) made me shudder for I couldn’t stop imagining how bitterly cold and dark it gets for such a long time. Our speaker did mention that it can be miserable, and they do leave for stretches each winter. She had a real ring of authenticity to her and I enjoyed her talk.
On the 25th, Tran and I walked up a dirt road that was called the Chandalar trail. We saw plenty of scat, but no animals. The trail followed the river and was flat and muddy. The river was high, and we got to a point where we’d have to cross it. A cable was strung across the river as an aid, but we declined to wade through hip-deep water, ate our lunch, and ambled back. Along the way, we met our driver from the day before. He was with 2 other people and they seemed to be birding. He was quite the expert on birds.
We got back to our room and went out with Thal on a short walk through the woods to the visitor’s center, and walked the trails near there. They are short and pleasant; no mud or hills or any real length for that matter. Again, we walked down to the river, this time not crossing over the runway; I think we were legal this time. Thal and I skipped rocks and threw rocks. I’ve always enjoyed doing that.
We walked back to the diner, ate, and boarded a van that took us back to the airport. Our plane seated the pilot and about 10 passengers. Thal, Tran, and I sat in the back, and we flew back to Fairbanks in about an hour. I like small planes for short rides; we could see the Yukon and some big mountains. The plane rocks a bit, but nobody got any motion sickness.
We landed, walked over to the truck, and drove back to the AirBnB, where Julie had returned; she had to vacate it for the night of the 24th, but was back to where we stayed on the 23rd. We cooked some camping food and called it a day.
On the 26th, Julie and I drove us back to Anchorage, stopping a couple of times for gas and stretching. We got back in the late afternoon; Anchorage is perpetually in late afternoon in late May. Julie’s mother Kate came over and we had a very nice conversation. Among other things, she asked me if I knew what I plan to do after I retire. Sometimes, work is so frustrating that I just want out, but she suggested that I have something lined up for afterwards. Probably a good idea. Also, I learned about Larry and the dogs. It was nice. Thal and Julie fixed dinner that night, with Thal manning the outdoor grill, grilling salmon, and Julie fixing pasta with an attachment for her stand mixer. This particular mixer is found in all of our homes; Austin, Honolulu, Anchorage, and Herndon. It weighs a ton and there is a place in front where you can attach well, attachments. I’d never seen anyone use the attachment before, but Julie used it to make pasta. All good. Lots of fun.
On the 27th, we got up and went to Gwennie’s, an Anchorage institution, for sourdough pancakes. Well, these are not IHOP (or IHOb) pancakes. They were light colored and they were sour! I really like sourdough anyway so I like it. Then off to a beach with big jets taking off on the other side of a ridge. I saw several with the “hump” of a 747 and others with FedEx markings, so I’d guess that these were cargo planes. They were fun to watch. Rocky beach; had to skip a few rocks.
Back to Thal and Julie’s we went, and then Tran and I took Julie’s Subaru to Thunderbird Falls. It was very crowded on this very sunny day, and we really had a nice walk, going down to the falls and snapping some pictures. The streams I saw in AK all seemed to be moving fast with lots of clean water. This was no exception. We took a few side trails before heading back to Thal and Julie’s. We all went out to a Korean restaurant, and then off to the airport.
Six hours in a middle seat later, we waited a while in Chicago, and flew into Dulles late afternoon on the 28th. Uber-ed home, and relaxed. We discussed the highpoints and it’s hard to mention anything, because we really enjoyed everything, and each contributed its own style; Orcas with Dad, Snoqualmie with the lodge and the mist and again, Dad, Denali is Denali, Coldfoot is the Arctic Circle, the drive up was the pipeline, the Yukon, permafrost, … I’m grateful for each day we had on this trip. And of course, as is the case whenever I’m in Seattle, it was a treat being spoiled by my sister, brother, in-laws, and dad. And I was so happy to be able to spend time with Thal, Julie, and Julie’s family.
It took me a week to muster any enthusiasm for work. But I’m grateful that Tran took so many pictures and we can relive this trip.










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