Anchorage

 

Anchorage is the population center of Alaska, it has a population of 290,000. We moored in the industrial port, one of only 4 ships that will moor here this summer. This led to a problem: our bus driver had to find his way in and out of the port. Many roads dead ended in stacks of storage. We had the same driver as we had in Valdez, a talkative guide named Patrick.

Bear at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Our first stop was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, where they have kept most of the big animals native to Alaska. On the way we encountered a moose and her calf. Here we saw Musk ox, black and brown bears, caribou, elk, buffalo, and an arctic fox. We initially drove by most of the enclosures but since we were running late. That left little time for a closer look at the animals. We ended up leaving 20 minutes late, missing our scheduled boat at the next stop. So, we visited the Begich Boggs Visitor Center, which told the natural story of the area.

At Portage Lake

The highlight of the day was the boat tour of Portage Lake, which in 1911 was completely ice. The Portage glacier has retreated over time, leaving the lake with lots of waterfalls.. We approached the 4 ½ mile long glacier. It is ½ mile wide and 600 feet deep. We had several large icebergs in front, big enough for the blue color to stand out. Our commentator was funny and informative. We made a wrong turn trying to return to the ship again and ended up about 20 minutes late for dinner.

Portage Glacier

Kodiak Island

 

Going crazy after all the fog days

We are extremely tired of hearing the ship’s foghorn. The last four days have been foggy for most of the day. The temperature was between 43 and 47 every day. We are eager to get off the ship. The last few days, we’ve played a lot of trivia, enjoyed the dinners each night with our table mates and had a show each night. 

Carol, Sue, Ray, John, and Mary 

Today I went on a rainforest hike in Abercrombie State Park on Kodiak Island.  This is a Sitka Cedar forest with moss everywhere. 

Sitka Cedar Forest

This part of Kodiak island is protected from the wind. We hiked around Lake Gertrude, which pours into the ocean. Some managed to spot puffins and other water birds. Two-thirds of the island is within the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, home to 3500 Kodiak bears. The town itself was quiet. It is another big fishing center.

View of ocean shoreline

Arctic Circle

 

Crossing the Arctic Circle

We sailed north from Nome and at 8:10 AM crossing the Arctic Circle, about 8:30 we started heading east, and then turned south, leaving the circle a little after 9 AM. The wind was about 40 mph, the temperature was in the low 40’s so a very cold day. Mary woke up about 2 AM, I woke up at 4 AM and took a picture out our balcony door. Yes, it was light, but very cloudy, so not very impressive. We had a Arctic Circle crossing ceremony at 10 AM, where you could officially join the Blue Nose Club by diving into the aft pool which they filled with ice. Most everyone stayed in the pool for quite a while since it was 66 degrees, much warmer than the air outside.

Nome Alaska

 

Nome at 11:00 AM

I got up this morning to do a hike near the town of Nome. In 1898, gold was discovered here and the town grew to 10,000 people. Today, it only has 3700, but gold mining remains it’s primary economic driver. This is a tender port and the tenders started running at 8:15 in the morning. A few excursions made it to shore and then we were told that a tender had hit an unmarked dredging pipe at the mouth of the channel and was blocking the channel. They eventually towed the tender off the pipe, but then the fog rolled in. You could not even see the harbor from the ship, which made it unsafe to operate the tenders. At noon, they cancelled tender operations, but that left 14 crew members and 229 passengers in the town of Nome. The fog lifted about 2:30 PM, and we saw 3 tenders immediately leave for the harbor to ‘rescue’ the passengers. They had been well served snacks and well cared for in one of the churches waiting for the fog to clear. We caught a glimpse of the town, but within a hour the fog came in again. Two days later, they were doing some cosmetic repairs on the bottom of the tender. It was totally operational.

Rescue fleet for our Nome passengers at 2:30 PM

Dutch Harbor, Amaknak Island

From the fog to Dutch Harbor

 Since leaving College Fjord, we’ve sailed in foggy conditions until we reached Dutch Harbor, where the sun broke out and we were greeted by several sea otters in the water. The harbor is the top fishing port in the U.S. We walked 2 miles into town to visit the Museum of the Aleutian Islands. The winds were blowing and we could smell fish from the nearby canneries. It told the story of the native people and how they lived as well as the Harbor’s World War II story. The Japanese attacked the harbor on June 3^rd, 1942 to destroy the oil tanks here.  

Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor

On June 6 and 7, the Japanese attacked Kiska and Attu islands and occupied the islands. In August 1942, the U.S. established a naval base on Adak island and managed to block almost all the supply ships to the Japanese held islands. In May 1943, the U.S. retook Attu island and after bombing Kiska island, they found it deserted by the Japanese. Unfortunately, we moved most of the native population in this area to warehouses in the Juneau area. The roofs leaked, there was no heat, and the water was unreliable. Another terrible example of how we treat native Americans.

Cannery barracks 

On the way back, we encountered lots of bald eagles, feeding off the nearby waters as well as the leftovers from the canneries.

Eagles soring 

College Fjords

 

We entered the College Fjord with lots of fog around us at about 6 AM. I woke up about 7:30 and we were at the end of Fjord, staring at Harvard Glacier. (All the glaciers are named for U.S. colleges.) The blue ice burgs surrounded the ship.

Icebergs in the Fjord

Valdez

 

Coming into Valdez

Valdez is most well known as the end of the Alaskan Pipeline, which we could see across the Bay. The pipeline begins in Prudhoe Bay on the shore of the Arctic Ocean.  The pipeline is over 800 miles and crosses a major fault line. Because of the huge temperature variations, the pipe is designed to stretch and shrink without breaking. They also have radiators to disperse the heat from the oil in the pipeline without affecting the permafrost underneath the pipeline.

Horsetooth Falls

The town started thriving when the Richardson Highway was established connecting this ice-free port to Fairbanks, Alaska, providing a supply route to the interior of Alaska.  Since 1950 the highway has remained open in the winter. We did a bus tour along the highway. We stopped for two beautiful waterfalls: Horsetail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls in Keystone Canyon. Then we went over the pass to Worthington Glacier, one of the few accessible by road. This glacier has been retreating for the last 150 years. On the way back we stopped at Thompson Pass (elevation: 2600 feet) for a beautiful view of the Sawtooth Mountains.

Worthington Glacier