Day 348: Hand Tram at Alyeska Resort

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Ben

This morning I tried to straighten out the rear staircase damaged by the wheel departure last week by lashing it to a tree and then stepping down on it. I did get it straighter, but it still won’t fold out:

On the way up the Seward Highway we passed some beautiful views:

We turned off the highway and headed up to the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. While Trish was making lunch, I spotted a pair of free flight paragliders come in for a landing, so I rode my bike over to talk to them. They take the tram up to the top of the mountain, then fly down. Some day I’ll have to try unpowered paragliding.

After lunch, we headed out on our hike. The goal was to hike three miles in on the Winner Creek trail to a hand tram that’s used to cross an otherwise impassable river gorge. The hike starts by walking around the main resort building:

The trail starts off as a boardwalk:

After a couple miles we reached the junction for the hand tram:

We crossed a creek via a bridge:

Finally we reached the hand tram. The tram hangs from a steel cable and is moved along by pulling on a rope loop that runs through the tram cage, then around a wheel on each side and attaches the the tram on top. This design allows both the tram occupants and others on “shore” to help move the tram along:

After riding the tram across and back, we stopped at the bridge over the creek:

At last we returned to the resort:

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off the tracking when we drove away, so only the first half of the track is of the hike:

Since it was getting late, we decided to overnight at a pullout on the Seward Highway just outside of Girdwood. The bottom of the RV is protected from road spray in places by tarp material, and this tarp was torn in spots as a result of the tire departure. Before dinner, I repaired holes in the tarp by gluing on tarp scraps over the holes:

See the trip map for driving details.

Day 347: Seward and the Exit Glacier

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Ben

We started the day by practicing for M’s bar mitzvah Torah reading portion. We use Kol Koren software to practice:

We headed East today, seeing great views along the road:

When new reached the junction of the Sterling Highway and the Seward Highway, we followed the Seward Highway south to the end of the road, at Seward, Alaska. Seward is the access point for Kenai Fjords National Park, which is mostly reached by water, so the town has an extensive marina:

Not a bad view from our parking spot while in Seward:

We stopped in at the Kenai Fjords visitor center in Seward, then headed back up the Seward Highway to the Exit Glacier Visitor Center. Here, visitors can hike up to the Exit Glacier. We received our Junior Ranger workbooks and headed up the trail. We had also checked out a green “discovery backpack”, which had as one of its activities to measure the water temperature of the creek flowing from the toe of the glacier. We measured the temperature at 35 degrees, which makes sense:

The kids pulled this chunk of ice out of the water as it floated by:

We continued up the trail:

Eventually, we reached the toe of Exit Glacier. The glacier is four miles long, and is hundreds of feet thick along its center line. It’s amazing to think that this massive flow of ice is made up of snow that fell on the Harding Icefield long, long ago. This viewpoint was adjacent to the glacier a few years ago, but the glacier recedes hundreds of feet a year, so the glacier is no longer accessible from this point:

The hike down was beautiful as well:

Back at the visitor center, the kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks:

They also did additional activities from the discovery backpack:

The ranger insisted on swearing the kids in outside next to the flagpole, much to M’s chagrin:

The kids received their badge, as well as a “Junior Glacier Ranger” patch for their discovery backpack work:

It was getting late, so we decided to overnight at a pullout on the access road to Exit Glacier. Not a bad view!

More views from the pullout:

M and I did some math on his wall, which is floor to ceiling whiteboard:

I finally finished the wall by diving the bookcase in the rear of the bunkhouse:

See the trip map for driving details.

Day 346: So Long, Homer

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Ben

This morning we drove down to the end of the spit and walked by the various businesses there, many of which are built up on pilings:

We also walked through the marina:

Next we visited the farmer’s market, which today featured a marimba group:

We headed North out of Homer (the only choice) and stopped at a large open wayside to photograph the view:

We could see Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna, both of which are active volcanoes:

The winds were gusty and the field ends in a 150 foot drop to the ocean below, so I wasn’t comfortable flying, but I figured I could at least get in some kiting practice:

The winds got to be pretty strong, so we put away the wing and continued North to Soldotna. M checked out a rod again, but the Red Salmon run still hasn’t picked up, so we again left empty handed:

They did have a cute bench out front at the visitor center:

We’re overnighting again at the Fred Meyer here. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 344: The End of the Road

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Ben

We were startled out of bed this morning at 3:45AM by Fred Meyer staff. They needed us to move our truck so that they could bring a semi into the parking lot. Thankfully, we had unhitched from the RV, and they didn’t ask me to move the RV.

After getting up the second time at a more reasonable hour, we drove South to Homer, at the Southern terminus of the Sterling Highway. This is literally the end of the road. We found a spot at the city campground which is located at the beginning of the Homer Spit. $15 a night gets you parking lot-style camping with no hookups:

Our neighbor is using his boat as an RV:

Down of the beach, we could see a couple guys setting up to do some kitesurfing in the distance:

We dropped off Trish at the Laundromat and I took the kids to the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, operated by staff from the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge:

The visitor center was very well done, and the Junior Ranger workbook was quite challenging as well:

The kids received their badges. Because it’s a wildlife refuge, the patch is for “Junior Biologist”, not Junior Ranger:

Homer humor:

In Homer you can stand on the beach and see glaciers across the bay:

I went for a bike ride out to the end of the spit, where the harbor is:

I then rode up to Skyline Road where I could look down on the spit and the mountains across the bay:

Homer is a wonderful little town, in the summer anyway. Good Shabbos from Homer, Alaska! See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 343: Fishing and Baseball

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Ben

Last night Trish finished making the wall hangings for the Junior Ranger badges and patches the kids have earned at the National Parks, Monuments, Historic Sites, and Wildlife Preserves we’ve visited:

The local chamber of commerce visitor center allows kids to check out fishing gear, so M checked out a pole and I fished with my own pole:

Most of the other folks fishing here took it quite a bit more seriously than we did:

The Red Salmon run hasn’t hit full swing yet, and neither of us caught anything, but we still had a nice time on this beautiful day on the river:

Speaking of full swing, we next drove North ten miles to Kenai where we surprised the kids with attending a baseball game, a family first! It was the Kenai Peninsula Oilers versus the Anchorage Bucs. These teams are made up of college baseball players from all over the US who come to play in the Alaska League for the summer: