Northbound Train

After a couple of days to relax by ourselves, we rejoined two other couples from our group and boarded the Alaska Railroad for Talkeetna.  Train travel is one of our favorite modes.

Good views, good food and drink, and room to stretch and walk around, what isn’t to like, especially compared to air travel? Our favorite viewing spot on the train is at the back of the caboose where a person can stand outside the car and breathe fresh air, while taking in the expansive views of Alaska’s terrain.

We didn’t see much wildlife, but we saw a lot of mountains, lakes, and rivers. We also saw sled dogs.

We stayed at a lodge outside if Talkeetna where we enjoyed almost unobstructed views of Mount Denali. Only 30 percent of visitors get to see Denali which is usually behind the clouds. We stayed up late for the sunset which finished up at about 11:30 pm

Eagle River, Day 2

We are staying in a studio VRBO in Eagle River for a couple of nights. Monday morning, we fixed breakfast in our small kitchen and then drove to the Mount Baldy trailhead for our morning hike.

The Mount Baldy trail is about 4 miles the way that we hiked it. The trailhead is not marked at the road at all. There are no trail maps or information desk. There is a gate at the end of the road and a bunch of footpaths leading around the mountain and up the mountain.  We weren’t too sure what was the right path so we ended up following 3 hikers who were climbing straight up the mountain on what felt like a goat path.

I didn’t take any photos of the goat path because the trail felt too steep to screw around with my camera. The photos below are before we started the ascent and from the summit.

Once we made it to the top of Mount Baldy, we could see that an alternative path led around the back side which was much easier with actual switchbacks. Before heading down, we lingered for awhile on top, enjoying a brief rainbow and hiking on along the ridge another half-mile or so before hiking back down.

Next, we drove to Wasilla for lunch at The Last Frontier Brewing Company. The beer was decent (Stout for me, Hefeweizen for Julia). The fried halibut sandwich and French fries proved to be a little too much fried food for my stomach, but Julia loved her seafood chowder.

After lunch we drove to Hatcher’s Pass Public Use Area along the Little Susitna River. We didn’t find any trails calling us to hike, but we found an excellent spot to enjoy the river rushing down the mountain from its glacier source.

On the way back from Eagle River, we decided to take a couple of short hikes at Thunderbird Falls. There were lots of families also enjoying this easy walk to view the falls.

That concludes our time in Eagle River, Alaska. On Tuesday, we have a train to catch. I’m not sure about the possibilities of the internet over the next couple of days so my short posting streak is likely to be broken.

Eagle River, Day 1

After checking out of the hotel in Anchorage, I stopped at Sixth Avenue Outfitters to pick up my bear spray. We then picked up our rental car at Avis and drove to the Eagle River Nature Center. Staff was very helpful, recommending appropriate trails, consistent with my paranoia about becoming brown bear food.  She told us to run away if we see aggressive moose but to never run from brown bears.

All of the bear mauling stories made me very nervous as I walked the trails. My bear bell was jingling away as if my life depended upon it. As it turned out, the mosquitoes were a bigger problem than the bears or moose. Still, it was a great hike with amazing mountain views.

We did have one small adventure involving my wife Julia above. After taking an amazing panoramic photo, she reached for her hiking poles and flipped her iPhone over the side of that railing and into the stream. Somehow the phone landed on a little grassy rise that was not under water. I jumped (awkwardly climbed) over the rail and managed to retrieve the phone.

We hiked the Rodak Nature Trail, a small portion of the Iditarod Trail and the Albert Loop Trail.

Afterwards, we celebrated our survival at Eagle River Alehouse with a Mediterranean Pizza and Glacial Cask IPA.

Anchorage, Day 3

Saturday was the last day of meetings and a non-hiking day. Having the morning to myself, I ate breakfast at the White Spot Cafe (eggs, reindeer sausage, fried potatoes, and toast with local jam). Definitely not an ambiance spot, but the food was delicious.


After breakfast, I wandered through the streets and alleys of downtown, which had some murals that made me stop and linger.

I made my way to a new coffee shop: Dark Horse Coffee. They only had one drip coffee available, but it was an excellent freshly brewed Ethiopian Sidamo. I appreciated the indoor space with comfortable small tables, last week’s Sunday New York Times, and good music, but this sign caught my eye on their deck.

Julia and I met up at noon and walked over to the Anchorage Farmers’ Market and then to the 49th Street Brewery for a bite to eat and a beer. I ordered a dunkelweisen while Julia ordered a Hop Juice IPA. Both beers were good but the dunkelweizen had a nice toffee caramel flavor, so Julia stole mine without asking.

We had a group dinner that night on top of the Hotel Captain Cook. The wine and food were delicious. Sunday, we will check out of our hotel and drive to Eagle River.

Anchorage, Day 2

Friday and Saturday are both meeting days for Julia. During the afternoons and evenings,there are organized activities. There are also morning activities for the wives, ahem, spouses.  This is not my first rodeo, so I generally become hard of hearing, forgetful, and lose my spousal agenda for the morning activities, which often include shopping.

I generally sleep in a bit, go find a local place for coffee and a newspaper, and explore the surrounding area. Friday morning, I wandered around downtown, had some coffee and a pastry at Kaladi’s, and spent some time learning how to blog using WordPress and my iPad, having left my laptop at home.

Shortly after noon, we all boarded a charter bus and traveled to the sculpture studio and home of V Rae Art. This was a delightful space that was the product of 14 years of hard work by the artist and her husband. The inside was filled with works for sale, but my favorite parts were the outside spaces.

The artist’s husband explained to me that the pond liner needed to be replaced that spring after being torn up by a bear sow and two cubs.

After lunch on the studio premises and time to browse the pieces inside and outside, we climbed back on the bus and drove to the Alaska Wildlife Conser-vation Center.  This was a great opportunity to safely view Alaska bears up close– separated by both fence and electric wire.The animals are well fed and have large habitat living spaces. Feeding time was at 3:30 pm, and we arrived during a light rain at 3 p.m. There were multiple brown and black bears, along with a single grizzly.

There were quite a few people viewing the bears, but there were enough places along the fence to watch that I didn’t feel crowded.

Then it was back to the bus with the group and on to the Alyeska Ski Resort. We took the tram up to the top, dined on salmon at the restaurant, and took the tram back down to the bus. We were back to the room by 10 pm.  Still plenty of daylight, but we were worn out and had no trouble falling asleep after pulling shut the blackout curtains.

Anchorage, Day One

On Wednesday, we drove to Milwaukee and treated ourselves to an urban lunch in Walker’s Point at Bavette. We then flew on Alaskan Airlines to Seattle and then to Anchorage, arriving at our hotel at 2 a.m. There was still a bit of light in the sky.

The sun seemed to be coming up around 4ish a.m., which didn’t give us much sleep heading into the day. We started with coffee at Kaladi Brothers and then hiked over to the Coastal Trail which we accessed at Elderberry Park.

After a late breakfast/lunch, we arranged for a hikers’ shuttle to take us about 40 minutes away to the base of Flattop Mountain. This was a good call. The shuttle for both of us was cheaper than renting a car, and the van driver had good hiking tips for the trail and pointed out local points of interest on the route. He must have told us five times that everyone needed to be back at the van by 4 p.m. (more on that later).

Flattop Mountain  is a relatively short hike but with 1300 feet in vertical gain. Julia was a trooper, but for someone with bad knees, the hike down is especially tough.  The first third passes quickly up through low pines and alpine moss. The second third climbs more steeply up many railroad ties/steps. The final third is an even steeper rock and gravel scramble requiring the use of hands and feet. We made it up and down in about 150 minutes, including 30 minutes of walking around at the summit.

Two of our group had not returned to the van at 4:10 p.m.,and the van driver left without them. Several of us had observed the two still climbing when the rest of us were well on the way down. They knew they were running late but chose not to turn around. The driver suggested calling a cab and did not offer a refund.

I highly recommend this hike to other hikers in reasonably good shape and would also recommend using the shuttle services from the Downtown Bicycle Rental on Fourth Street ($22). It’s a great hike with just enough challenges to make it interesting. Just don’t be late.

 

View from the top of Flattop Mountain

Two other hikers on the summit

Still some snow in pockets

That little black dot is a moose

A great day

That night we went to a reception at a private home overlooking Cook Inlet. Not really my kind of gig.  After a couple of glasses of red wine, I stood on the deck and could see Mt Denali and the Alaskan Range. I’m warming up to Alaska.