June 29, 30, 2013 Anchorage

Saturday, June 29

Cloudy day, starting around 60 degrees.  We went first to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail and walked. The trail goes along the arm of Cook Inlet, and the tide was out, leaving lots of flats.  This area (all of Cook Inlet) has a huge bore tide which can change up to 30 feet in a few hours, so the flats we are seeing will be covered tonight.  

diver at Westchester Lagoon

 Walked from Elderberry Park  just past Westchester Lagoon.  Saw gulls and ravens and quite a few ducks with ducklings. A good number of walkers, joggers and cyclists.  Good way to get the blood flowing.

 From here we went a few blocks to downtown Anchorage for their Outdoor Market.  Anchorage is Alaska's largerst city, with 53% of the total state population. Lots of food, crafts, some clothes, jewelry, photography, etc.  Food ranged from salmon chowder and reindeer sausage to funnel cakes and corndogs.

Looks like you could find just about anything in Anchorage, from Sushi to Theater, Universities to Dog Sled stores.  Since we didn't need any of that,  we said farewell and headed south, down the Seward Highway toward the Kenai Peninsula. The road follows the curve of Turnagain Arm, part of Cook Inlet, and offeres some great scenery and stops, like Potter’s Marsh, Beluga Point, Bird Point, the Chugach Mountains, and across the water the Kenai Mountains.  Stopped at the Arm Pit Barbq (despite or because of the name?) “where northern exposure meets southern smoke”.  Smelled like home J and the food was pretty good – pulled pork and brisket.

 We exited at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which had been recommended.  Lots of Alaska animals like Elk, Moose, Bear, Lynx, Bison in spacious enclosures.

 

Lynx

  The road to Portage Glacier was next, with views of several glaciers along the way, and beautiful lakes – this one had chunks of ice floating in it.

 

Walked a bit and then found a campsite at Black Bear Campground, a US Forest Service campground with minimum facilities.  Campgrounds nearly full this weekend!  There has been a marked increase in traffic and campers since Denali – school’s out and lots of families traveling. Turned in early and slept late – catch up!

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Passed the Welcome to the Kenai sign.   Slow going with traffic and Roadwork. We had read good things (salmon, bears, etc.) about the Russian River, so decided to stop there.  We parked at Russian River Campground and hiked about 3 ½ miles on a good trail to the Russian River and Falls.  Though we saw bear skat and heard about several bear sightings, we didn’t see any.   The Falls were a series of smaller falls but we didn’t see any salmon jumping.  We did pass a few fishermen on the trail, and later saw lots of them at the Russian River Ferry crossing.  Best I can tell, we are at the end of the first run of red salmon.

There are five or six kinds of salmon and that many different runs (when the salmon head up river from the sea), beginning in June and ending in September. The salmon don’t eat on their journey, so catching them is sort of luck and the fishing is extremely regulated in order to ensure enough of them reach their final destination and spawn.  Residents who do subsistence fishing have more leeway.

  We decided to take a side ride, the Silkat Loop, which is gravel but used to be the main road.  Within the first few miles we spotted this black bear, a moose, rabbit and assorted birds.

 Road not too rough.  It winds through forests and lakes, with several campgrounds and lodges.  We are entering popular hunting and fishing territory but there was very little traffic.  Some gorgeous views.

We got back on the Sterling Highway and ended up at a Fred Meyers store in Soldotna.  Mike and Eileen, from our group, were there, along with a lot of campers, so we shopped and parked there for the night.