Our Alaskan Vacation made simple: in point form with pictures

• Fredericton to Anchorage is a bloody long way to go and excellent use of your air miles, especially if you go south to Philadelphia and then north to Anchorage.

• There are loads of interesting animals in Alaska and you can get quite close.  Here are moose, ruffled grouse, a sea otter, a young eagle and its irate mother.  I might have had a whale if it had surfaced on my side of the boat and a black bear and 4 cubs if I'd had the camera turned on at the appropriate time.

• We enjoyed the outstanding scenery everywhere we went.

• Alaskans love to fish (so do I, but I'm clueless)

• You could never be too careful.

• There were also smaller animals to see, like this Hoary Marmot.

• That's got to be the work of one big beaver!

• Lots of these.  I spotted 15 in one day.  Can you tell that this is one of Fran's photos?

• We also saw some interesting flora.  The first one is cottonweed.

• When driving the highways some signs were puzzling.

• Others made more of a statement.  Shot-up signs were the norm.

• While we really enjoyed hiking the trails, I found some of them hard to follow.

• Potter's Marsh is an excellent place to spot birds (on some days).  Over a kilometre of boardwalk with hides, etc.

• Homer had some interesting pubs and the home brew was good.  It's no Picaroon's, but it was not bad.  Thumbs up for Fin's Pizza.  The Salty Dawg Saloon was another experience.

I was left wondering about a few things:

1. Why is the US still holding on to gallons, miles and ounces?  The rest of the world has moved forward. 
2. Why are they sticking with the same coloured bills?  Wouldn't it be easier to have the 1s, 5s, 10s and 20s in different colours?  Coins.  Get a coin bigger than a quarter. 
3. Helmets.  If you want to ride a Harley, but no helmet, you should have to pay any medical bills related to a head injury yourself.
4. Vehicle inspection rules in Alaska are either very slack or non-existant.  Rust is not a concern.
5. Why is there virtually no news from outside of Alaska?
6. Why is Rush Limbaugh allowed out in public?

All in all and excellent vacation. 

But the thing I like about Homer, is it's not Sellmore, USA

Yesterday it rained all day. I did attempt a hike, but the less said about Homer and it's trails the better. In the afternoon we wandered around. We didn't go to the Mall, because there isn't one. In fact, there's a noticeable lack of Big Business, USA.

Homer has a McDonald's and a Subway. There's no Wallmart, Starbucks, Pizza Hut or other big name stores. There also seems to be a notable lack of 'in your face' advertising. Most of the signs are hand painted and if you don't have your glasses on forget it. Obviously, there's good and bad to this low key way of doing things.

Fran and I have been hitting the various small coffee shops. I've had great coffee, warm coffee and one place where the coffee ran out half way through my mug. I was also pleased to get my coffee in a locally made compostable cup, although would have preferred my trusty travel mug. We also got coffee from Starbucks in Anchorage. The service and friendliness of the independent coffee shops was always better than Starbucks, even if the coffee was not.

Yesterday, as it was raining, we decided to check out Homer's microbrewery. It was hard to find and spot even once we were there. Inside, the brewery bit was right next to the merchandising and you could smell the hops and fermenting barley. The only thing we couldn't see was beer for sale. I enquired. They did indeed have beer, but they only sold it in a returnable bottle, returnable growler or non-returnable plastic pop bottle. Everything was on tap. They also showed us a list of the restaurants that had their brew on tap. I noted a pizza place that I had read a very positive review about. We made a selection, bought some coasters and moved on.

We also visited an outward bounds store that only sold gear made in Alaska and a good deal of it was made on the premises. Fleece socks, fleece sweaters, kit bags and a range of other gear. To be honest, the quality looked questionable. Fran bought an animal spotting check list and on we went.

We also stopped at a couple of other stores where we found a sign in the window that simply said, "closed until Monday".


In the evening, I wanted to try out the pizza place - Fin Pizza. We could not find any ads telling us where it was located. There's no phone book. We went on-line and found a review of the place and it mentioned that it was on the Spit. Off we went, up and down the Spit. With the hunger clouds gathering, I was ready to give up on our search for Fin Pizza. However, we parked the car and walked along the spit until I saw the postage stamp sized painted wooden sign. Over we went. It was a small place that could only accommodate about 20 people, but it was packed. There were only 3 staff including the main pizza dough kneader and cook, and two others who did everything else. It didn't help them that the kitchen was downstairs and the restaurant upstairs, but they had a system which they made work.

The pizza was excellent. I'm not ashamed to say that we polished off a 16 inch 3 cheese, mushroom and onion between us. We also enjoyed a Homer Porter beer and great service, the view of the Bay was great too. There's just something different about the service at a place where the people serving you own and operate the business.

It's nice not to be bombarded with inane ads telling you that you need products X Y and Z. Although, it would be nice to have a bit more information on services. It's as though the owners are content with the size of business they have, it provides enough income for what they want and so why bother expanding and trying to do more than that. We can enjoy it for another day.

Hiking trails need to be signposted.

The day started with me dropping Fran off at the eagles nest and heading off in the opposite direction for a quick hike up and down a steepish hill. I calculated that I would have to move fast if we were to make it to the boat to Seldovia, but felt up to the challenge.

I found the road to the trail no problem, parked the car and set off with a purpose in my stride. The first mile was down a dirt road and I made good progress. The wildlife was dominated by rabbits. After 13 minutes I reached the trail head. Oh, there are two trails. The trail guide does not mention 2. I pick the one on the left and start to descend. 7 minutes later - beach. Well at least we will not be late for the boat. It was supposed to be a mile and a half. Back to the car, pick Fran up and away we go.

Catch the boat to Seldovia, we stand outside in the hope of Seeing some wildlife. It's freezing, but sea otters, bald eagles, puffins, common mures and cormorants keep things interesting. We arrive at Seldovia and plan to do the Rocky Ridge Trail. Hike in direction of trail, guess right direction and voila, we are on the trail. Up and up we go - presumably to the ridge. Fran's knee does not like the climb. We come to a fork in the road, but no sign. Left or right? We pick left and the trail rises and rises. We end up at a water pool and have lunch. The trail has ended. As we go back down, we note the trail on the right denoted by a bear's head. Some form of code, perhaps. Not wanting to take another chance we go by. As we get towards the foot of the trail we encounter other hikers who let us know that the bear's head was in fact the Rocky Ridge trail.

If this was not the first time this had happened, it would hardly be worthy of a mention. Alaska is riddled with excellent trails, but every one we've been on has been poorly marked and included other trails to confuse a hiker.

In Seldovia we sat watching an eaglet eating a seagull while mum and dad stood guard. They did not like the fact that Fran and I were in the vicinity and were calling out to warn the youngster. In total, today I saw 15 bald eagles.

On the return journey, we lucked out and saw a hump backed whale and her calf. Fran has some great photos. I would have got some video if someone hadn't blocked my view at the critical time.

We checked out the Salty Dawg Saloon, but kept going and enjoyed more clams, halibut and fries.

The next two days are supposed to be rainy. It could be interesting. Homer could close down. There is, however, a Homer brewery. I wonder if they do sampling tours. I did have to pick up some more beer and they were selling Moosehead Green at the liquor store. Guess what, despite its New Brunswick origin, it's selling for $11.99 in Alaska. That's considerably cheaper than in NB, go figure.

A hike, a bike, bears, Thai food and Hop Dog ale

It was Fran's big day as she was flying to an Island to observe and photograph bears with a group of about 10. The meet time was 8am and so I dropped her off and had decided to go for a bike ride. I scouted out a bike shop that I thought might have a road bike, but it didn't open until 10am, so in the meantime, I decided to see if I check out another bird watching venue. The first time down East End road, I missed the trail, but I decided to drive to the end of the road. It is a road that literally runs along the Bay and then comes to a halt when it hits the beach.

The road was about 20 miles long, so there and back would be 40 and multiply that by 1.6 is 64 kms - a decent ride considering there wasn't a flat spot on it.

I found the trail to the bird viewing deck on the way back and decided to take a gander. It was not well maintained or used in that I had to walk through long wet grass to get there and by the time I did, my feet and shorts were soaked. I loitered long enough to determine that there were few birds to be seen and that by the time I returned, the bike shop would be opening up. "do you have a road bike I could rent." "no." "Do you have any bikes with clip-in pedals?" "no, we don't have anything like that". "right then". So I returned to the bike rental place close to where we are staying and rented a Trek hybrid. Don't let the Trek bit fool you, this was a garden variety commute to work hybrid. Then I set off back for East End road to do some hills.

I had not realized that there was one super long hill on the way out. It took me 17 minutes to summit. On my road bike, it probably would have been at least 3-4 minutes less. The scenery on the ride was spectacular as I was basically riding along a ledge looking across the Bay at the mountains and glaciers (when I wasn't avoiding cracks in the road). I have to admit that by the return leg I had started to seriously dislike this hybrid, even though it was functioning as intended, it was a heavy hog that was uncomfortable to ride. After almost 3 hours in my possession, the bike was happily returned.

It was almost time to pick up Fran. Hopefully she had resisted the temptation to poke the bear. I grabbed a coffee and a blueberry cheesecake roll and went to the designated pick up spot. All was quiet and so I waited. An hour later, the plane showed up, but it had been a successful trip. I have stolen one photo for Facebook.

After a bit of a rest, we decided to go to the Thai restaurant for dinner. We enjoyed fantastic yellow curries in traditional Thai style.

Upon returning to our room, we put on our hiking boots and headed out for a stroll along the beach. It is always interesting to see stuff on the beach. It was not a sandy area that people would normally inhabit, yet Fran found a quarter. I also found a rock that was a unique shiny amber colour, after it dried out, its colour changed to something less interesting and I threw it in the sea. There was quite a lot of erosion on the cliffs and we could see trees hanging on for dear life. There was no wildlife of any interest and we returned up the steep hill back to our Motel.

For three nights I have been looking forward to a Hop Dog IPA (made in Alaska). It's super hoppy. If you know anything about hops and bitterness, this one is 100ibus. That's a lot. Not sure how it compares to a Yippee Ale, but it is a mighty fine beer. Another full day. Tomorrow - Seldovia

Anchorage to Homer via Potter's Marsh

So it was a travel day. We had to drive 211 miles down the Seaward highway. That's about 338 kilometers for the rest of the world. Anyhow, we decided to get up early and hit Potter's Marsh along the way. We were there by 7:30, but someone forgot to give the birds the memo. It was also overcast so the light was poor. Nevertheless, we I stuck it out for 90 minutes. We did spot some sand cranes and kingfishers, which caused a stir, but that was about it, other than the drama of a seagull pecking at a floundering fish. The fish eventually freed himself from the shallows and died in the pool next to it.

On the road to Homer, there's lots to see. We pulled over numerous times to check out a view of the volcanoes, mountains or potential birds. At lunch time we went for a short hike, it would have been longer if one of us had not been bricking it a bit leery of the fact that we had seen very fresh bear scat - see photo on Facebook - a bear scratch and a bear print. We had lunch high above a fast flowing bluish river and spectacular scenery, but the incessant ringing of a bear bell spoiled the romance somewhat. Nice photo of a rabbit on the way back.

Safely back to the car and off again. We reached Homer, no problem and checked in to a rather more pleasing room than the last one. It has a great view and the other amenities generally associated with a hotel room, which our last one was lacking.

Homer has a long spit of land jutting into the sea where most of the touristy businesses hang out. Fran checked in for her bear expedition which is tomorrow. We also checked out the cost of a boat taxi to take us across the sea to the national park. $75 per person sounds reasonable for the 30 minute trip. The other main attraction is Halibut fishing. I fancy that. It's $150 for a half day. If you are lucky enough to catch something, it will cost extra to have someone filet it and someone cook it. I don't think I can do that alone, even with a better equipped hotel room. I also saw a place to rent bikes, that might be on the cards for tomorrow.

One of the main current attractions in Homer is an eagles nest with two large chicks in it. Everyone is waiting for them to try and fly. Fran waited too, but to no avail. She will post photos of the chick summoning up the courage.

We had a fish dinner at the well renowned Captain Patties. We both had halibut, it was good, but over priced.

The plan now is to enjoy our view and finish off the rest of the bottle of yellow label Shiraz that I bought for $8.99 - that was for 1.5 liters. How could I resist.

Alaskan animals can play ball.

Fran had a great train ride and cruise, despite having to to stand for the whole train ride to avoid the nausea of sitting back to the direction of travel and not being allowed out on deck except in special circumstances. She did get some good shots of sea otters, glaciers and baby eagles. That said, I could sense that she was a little jealous of my close encounter of the moose kind. We decided to go back to Kincaid Park to see if more moose would show themselves. We wandered the trails for an hour, but with only sightings of moose poop and moose prints. Fortunately, we still had to find our way out of the maze of trails - another 30 minutes. Alas, no moose. Within a minute of driving out of the car park, there are two moose - mother and calf - munching in the field. We stop and take many photos.

After the moose, we went to Potters Marsh, renowned for it's variety of birds. Upon arriving, we were skeptical. However, it did not disappoint. Eagles catching fish, kingfishers and best of all, watching a northern harrier hunting. Fran has the photos, I have the visual memories.

After the birding, we decide to take it easy, do laundry, recharge the batteries, etc. Tomorrow, we head to Homer with plans to hit the Marsh early.

Fresh Alaskan Air

On Saturday, Fran had decided to go by train to Whittier to take a cruise in the hope of photographing some wildlife. The trip ended at 9:15pm, so I had the whole day to kill by myself.

First stop, the bike rental place. I decided to rent a mountain bike and cruise around 'checking stuff out'. I started on the Coastal Trail which is paved and quite pleasant. It was quite funny when I came up behind a guy on a road bike chatting to a guy on a hybrid. Not wanting to startle them, I slowed down and waited for them to notice me. After a few seconds, I had to apply the brakes which screeched a little, and the guy on the road bike looks back, sees me and rides off the trail. He rides onto a pile of loose rock and loses control. He stayed up, but slid to a stop. I was like "easy buddy".

A few more kilometers up the trail and "oh oh" feels like a flat. Sure enough, flat as a pancake. The bike supplier did provide tools and a patch kit. After quite a bit of searching for the puncture, trying to get the pump to work and inflating the tire with a 8cm pump, I was back on the road. By this time, Mr. Off road road biker had passed me and I dreaded catching this guy up again. I rounded a corner across from Kincaid Park, which is a cross country ski facility (in the winter). I noticed a couple of cars loitering and two moose meandering into the park. I quickly dismounted and dug out my camera and video camera. By the time I had them, the moose had nicked off around the corner - so I followed and I did get a couple of snaps.

Since I was on the park and the trails were there, I decided to check them out. By now, the on again off again squeal of my back disc break was better than any bear bell. I randomly rode around a few trails. Oh that's interesting an archery range. "Woah, big bull moose". Well worth a stop. How much of a buffer zone does a moose need? I parked the bike about 20m away and grabbed the cameras. The moose was just the other side of some fencing - but not enclosed. I took a couple of photos and then the moose walked around the fence and took a stride towards me. I hastily jumped on the bike prepared to leave the backpack and helmet and cycled a few meters away. The moose stopped and proceeded left. I was relieved and got a few more wary shots and some video. The video will go on Facebook when I return.

After leaving the park, I saw 4 more moose in fields close to Kincaid.

By this point, the mountain bike was squeaking badly, the back brake was rubbing, the tire was holding about 40 Psis and the gears were skipping badly. Nevertheless, across town to Anchorage's second set of cross country ski trails. There, I had lunch and cycled around a bit more before returning the bike. I'd paid for 3 hours and returned the bike after 5.5, but they let me off the extra hours. I told them I would have been back on time if not for the technical issues.

I returned to the motel and cleaned up. It had suddenly turned into a really nice day and so I decided to check out the ski hill. Maybe there's a good view from up there. It was a 5 metre climb up a dirt road towards where I thought the ski hill was. There had to be something up there as I kept seeing all these cars coming down the hill. When I finally got to the top, there was indeed a ski hill, and a wedding and about 50 people all over the mountain taking advantage of blueberry season. I did have a chance to sample some blueberries myself and they were small and bitter compared to the ones found on the East Coast. In fact, to

confirm the superiority of the Canadian blueberry, Fran looked at the blueberries in the store and sure enough, they were Canadian.

At the ski hill, you had to pay to park, but once again, it was the honours system. The Brit in me was telling me to just fake it, but the Canadian in me persuaded me to do the right thing. I noticed a hike up the mountain in the offing- so up I went. The view from the top was amazing in both directions. It was 2 hours well spent. All over the hill were these hoary marmots. On the way up, all I heard was squeaking, but by the time I returned it was about 8pm, the cheeky little beggars were running all over the place. One posed for photos.

After the mountain, I went to pick up Fran from her adventure. I had 40 minutes to kill and decided to snooze (without paying for the parking this time). We went to the Ale House close
to the hotel for the second time and were again, disappointed. While waiting for our table, they closed the kitchen (10pm). What is this "Hell's Kitchen"? So, we went to a Mexican Place around the corner. The food was good, but more importantly, plentiful. A good way to finish off the day.

Flat Top Mountain Day

We bolted down to Anchorage early this morning to see if Fran could catch the wildlife watching full day cruise. It was fully booked. We went to the bike rental place and decided that fran would take the bus to Flat Top and I'd bike there and then we'd make mincemeat of the mountain together. After some negotiation, the owner told us that we could just drive ourselves there. o.K. That's $22 saved, so we drove there and then climbed it. It wasn't too long, but it was quite steep. I love it when my foot slips out in front of me, which it did about 10 times due to the grade and loose stones. Nice view from the top though - no complaints.

Interestingly, you could pay $5 to park at the top and get a parking sticker, or you could just write on an envelope that you had paid $5 to park, place the empty envelope in slot and a self written receipt on your windshield and go with that. The honors system, nice.

I also noticed on the drive up that the road to the parking lot that this was a stinking hill. I had to try to bike up it. So, in the afternoon, Fran went to look around downtown and I took a sleek hybrid for a ride.

I would not describe Anchorage as bike friendly. True, there are lots of cycling paths and they are not clogged with foot soldiers, but if you have to stop every couple of hundred meters and deal with right turning traffic, what's the point? The roads were very dodgy with constant "right lane must turn" situations. That plus no restrictions on cell phone use and plenty of road works and you get the picture. Nevertheless, I made my way to the mountain and started to ascend. And ascend. And ascend. This bugger was steep and long. My heart rate was about maxed out and I had to try and slow down my cadence to survive and still it went up. I stayed with it, but started to doubt my ability to make it to the top. Where did this end? Would I have time to clip out if I could go no further?

With the end getting close and the heart rate stuck at max, I turned a corner to find the road increasing in grade. Only a few hundred meters left, the legs were dead, the lungs were dead. My speed had deteriorated to 5 miles an hour. I started to weave and finally with the end in sight, I clipped out and stopped - a beaten man. As I gasped for breath leaning over my bike, I realized that I was in the big ring. How did that happen? After a couple of minutes I finished the climb and then it was brakes on all the way on the decent. I mapped my ride the climb, but it did not give me the climb data. I will find out the details of that hill, and perhaps try again tomorrow.

Alaska - it's a long way off

The journey to Alaska was longer than I anticipated, I guess I didn't think about it too much before leaving. I mean, i know that it's on the far west corner of the continent, but I did not realize that it would take 465 pages of a book, two cracks at the Globe and Mail sudoku, a good stab at the cryptic crossword, lunch, a couple of short naps and more to get there.

For the most part, the journey was uneventful. In Philadelphia, i did notice that, unlike Atlanta last year, the airport was not filled with obese people. Further, there was also lots of healthy food on offer. There is hope for the US. We were fortunate that the Liberty Bell was on display in the airport. It may not have been the original as it was made of Lego.

Upon arrival in Anchorage, I was happy to get upgraded to a Toyota Camry and we found our hotel easily enough after stopping for supplies. We wisely booked a room with a kitchenette. We were a bit disappointed to find that the kitchenette consisted of a fridge and a hot plate. Not even a spoon, bowl or pot to be found. Today we bought plates and cutlery, but I'm still using a pen knife to cut cheese.

After breakfast at Starbucks, we picked up more supplies and prepared to hike in Chugach national park. Bear bells at the ready and off we went. We walked along the Crow Pass Trail
and for the first 8 kilometers there were loads of tracks that looked bigger than deer, but smaller than moose. I had my eyes peeled hoping to see some wildlife and after a few hours of hiking we did.

We also saw evidence of bears, waterfalls, etc. By the time we ended the hike, about 21kms later, we were both ready for a good rest. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Packing for Alaska

Well the time is nearly here. It's been summer for some time now and our trip to Alaska is finally, finally getting close. Don't get me wrong, I cannot complain on the vacation front, far from it. I went to England back in March and of course, a small trip to South Africa and Zambia last summer. Truthfully, I should be good until about 2015. That said, after 7 years of collecting air miles, Fran and I finally had enough to go anywhere in North America. The first choice of the Grand Canyon was nixed when we found out just how hot it was at this time of the year, but we wanted to 'parlay' these points as much as possible, so Alaska was chosen.

Soon after booking the tickets we set about reserving accommodatons and renting a car. It turns out that while the flights would be free, everything else would be expensive. Thankfully, the Canadian dollar is strong. I've rented cars in France, England and South Africa and it's usually around $220/week. For 12 days in Alaska, the quotes were around $1000. I persevered and got one for $900. Rooms were also expensive. Nevertheless, we were kind of committed.

I made myself a list of things to take and so far I have 60 items, not including doubles. I've packed a bear bell, but I think the pepper spray will have to wait until we get there. Not sure how pepper spray goes over at customs and security.

This is my first post using Fran's I-Pad. It's a test as I plan to blog frequently about the
trip. Hopefully, the trip will supply more action than preparing for it.