Continued from the previous page.

SCENIC PORTAGE LAKE:  "BEFORE & AFTER"  

When I got done hiking at Byron Glacier I moved the truck to the Begich Boggs Visitor Center and took updated photos of Portage Lake and the surrounding mountains and glaciers:

Low mountain to north of the visitor center; the tunnel to the town of Whittier goes through there.

Nice day for a cruise to see Portage Glacier, the only practical way besides an airplane  
to see it because it's receded so much;  this view is looking east across Portage Lake.

By now most of the icebergs from Portage Glacier have melted.

View to SE side of Portage Lake

View to SW end of Portage Lake

View across Portage Lake from inside the visitor center

Those are the "after" photos -- after much of last winter's snow melted. The 2011-2012 winter snowfall set records in Southcentral Alaska.

If you have the time it'd be interesting to compare those photos in a sort of "time lapse" from our first (June 27) and second (July 15) visits to the visitor center and lake. There was less snow on the mountains and hardly any icebergs in the lake today compared with two months ago.

Here are two June 27 photos ("before" a lot of the snow melted) from about the same perspectives as a couple of those above:

 

Inside the visitor center I watched the featured video again about glaciers in the Chugach National Forest. The movie is excellent and the surprise ending is spectacular even though I’ve seen it before.

I didn't take any more new photos inside this handsome visitor center today, just outside. You can read more about it and see several photos from our June 27 and July 15 visits.

Lobby of the visitor center  (6-27-12)

There is no cost to watch the video or tour the exhibits if you have a National Parks Pass (the visitor center is run by the National Forest Service).

I highly recommend touring the whole place even if you have to pay the small fee -- it's a very nice visitor center.

If you don't want to pay to see the exhibits or watch the video you can still go to the gift shop and walk down the sunny, arched ramp to view Portage Lake from inside the building:

One of the photos I took today shows a view of the lake from the end of this ramp. 

When I went back outside to the truck Jim was just finishing up his 20+ mile bike ride. He rode 128 miles last week and didn’t need a whole lot today. He plans to rest a couple days, then do a long ride at Denali National Park when it’s supposed to be sunny.

SALMON VIEWING 

After we ate our sandwiches we drove back out Portage Valley Rd. to the Williwaw fish viewing platform.

Here's a map section that shows the location of the viewing area and its relationship to the two NFS campgrounds (Black Bear on the left and Williwaw on the right) and the Williwaw Nature Trail:

When we visited the viewing deck in mid-July the salmon weren't running here yet but we enjoyed reading the interpretive panels about the four kinds of salmon that come upstream to spawn in this valley each summer and it was interesting to hike right next to the big and little streams on the nature trail and Trail of Blue Ice. Check that entry for more information and photos about the viewing platform.

The fish are definitely running through all the streams in this valley now.

I'm not sure which of the four species we saw today -- red (sockeye), chum (dog), pink (humpy), and coho (silver) salmon -- but it was fun to watch the various kinds, colors, and sizes of fish in the streams at the viewing platform and along the trails. We saw all three colors of salmon -- silver, red, and pink.

 

After we watched the fish for several minutes at the viewing platform I walked out with Cody on the Williway Nature Trail about one-half mile to see more salmon in the narrow man-made streams that have been built to enable the salmon to spawn more easily in this area.

I kept Cody on his leash so he didn't jump into the water and disturb the fish:

I highlighted the fish in the water.

I was very irritated when a group of adults in their 30s came up with three big dogs they allowed in the water right past me. The dogs chased the fish downstream to my location. I yelled at the dogs AND the people but didn’t say what I really wanted to say because I was outnumbered.

How stupid of them to encourage their dogs to chase spawning salmon! For good reason, no salmon fishing is allowed in these creeks while the fish are spawning:

If you know anything about salmon, you know they have a tough life cycle over about three years. It's a wonder the species still exists, with all the challenges facing it.

FISHING BEARS

One of those challenges at spawning time is getting caught by bears.

Where there are salmon in Alaska, there are usually bears. The only critters allowed to fish for salmon in this area are the bears (birds and other animals get the scraps, if any, left behind by the bears).

There are signs warning people about both black and brown (grizzly) bears in the area. The latest warning attached to this sign was dated just yesterday:

 

I saw some fresh scat on the nature trail today but no bears:

Note the berries in the scat; no bear bells, though!

While I was walking along the nature trail I talked with an older man who is staying at the Williwaw Campground with his wife. He told me he saw a grizzly bear in the stream last evening, catching fish.

That would be so interesting to observe -- from a safe distance. It was fascinating to watch the mama grizzly and her two cubs at Russian River Falls last month when she was salmon fishing in the river below the observation deck.

We were hoping to see Dall sheep and beluga whales along Turnagain Arm but we didn’t see either species today, either. We have seen sheep on the rocky slopes here previously. The tide was very low outbound and not appreciably higher on our way back to Anchorage. I think the whales are more easy to spot when the tide is higher.

Here's a link to an Alaska Fish & Game Dept. web page about wildlife viewing along Turnagain Arm:   http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=viewinglocations.belugapoint

LOTS OF TOURISTS

There was a lot of traffic on the Stewart Hwy. today, which is typical of summer weekends. It's reported to be even worse on Sunday afternoons when residents return to metro Anchorage after spending the weekend on the Kenai Peninsula. We were glad it was Saturday.

Valley below Twentymile Glacier in the Chugach Mtns., about MM 80 on the Seward Hwy.

I was surprised to see so many tour buses today. One stopped at the fish viewing platform as we were leavingg. There were two at the Portage Glacier cruise boat center. Only a handful of people were in the noon video showing at the visitor center; no buses were there when I got there. We also saw several tour buses yesterday at Earthquake Park and Woronzof Point on the Coastal Trail.

So they aren't all at Denali National Park! Sometimes it felt like every tourist in the world was there while we were. Of course, we were tourists, too!

 
Closer view of Twentymile Glacier; Alaska RR tracks in foreground, close to the Seward Hwy.

We stopped at Walmart and Sam’s Club at Dimond and Stewart Hwy. on the way back through the southern part of town this afternoon. We were amused to see a Japanese tour group boarding their bus in front of Walmart!!

Too funny. Guess it’s on their itinerary.

MOOSE & BEARS, OH MY! 

Although we didn't see any moose along the Trail of Blue Ice where they often hang out, this was the afternoon and evening when we saw Mama Moose and The Twins in/near our campsite at JBER twice in one day. I already talked about it in a recent entry where I showed other "city moose" photos.

 

The next story isn't so pleasant.

A lone male hiker taking photographs at Denali National Park was mauled to death yesterday by a grizzly bear, the first such death since Denali became a park about 95 years ago.

In all four bear-moose-wolf (BMW) warning speeches by rangers before the campground talks I attended the rangers proudly mentioned that no one had ever been killed by a bear in the park, although some visitors have been injured by mauling when they surprised a bear or got too close.

 
Drowned trees in the Twentymile Glacier valley

Too bad they can't say that any more. I found two articles about the tragedy this evening:

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/grizzly-kills-lone-hiker-denali-national-park-first-fatal-mauling-park-history   

http://articles.ktuu.com/2012-08-25/bear-attack_33390461 

Bird Creek at MM 101 on the Seward Hwy. is a very popular salmon fishing spot.

I’ll have to be extra cautious when I’m hiking alone in the park next week. Jim already worries that I’ll be busy taking pictures of a bear and get mauled – which appears to be what happened to this guy (end of second article).

Sobering thought. I know I took too much risk -- on several levels -- when I went through so much high brush on the way down Mt. Margaret several days ago. If I go up that trail again I’ll return the proper way, although the real trail also goes through some tall brush and short trees like the off-trail section I was in.

 
Fishing at Bird Creek

Jim hooked up the camper this evening and we made other preparations so we can leave early tomorrow morning for Denali National Park. We're psyched for more fun adventures there!!

Next entry:  our first day back at Denali NP

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the ultra Lab

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© 2012 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil