Despite the rain and fog, in fewer than 24 hours we already have a very
favorable impression of Seward -- and we've barely seen the
mountains yet! Imagine how beautiful it will be when the sun is shining.
I'll be including more photos from town in the
next few days. That's why I called this "Part 1."
Seward is named for William H. Seward who was
Secretary of State when he negotiated the purchase of the land that is
now the state of Alaska from Russia. The town is surrounded by an
ice-free port to the east and scenic mountains to the north, south, and west.
It is a lush green rainforest at sea level in
the summer -- with snow remaining on the peaks (and pretty low on
the slopes this summer) and a huge ice field a few thousand feet
above it to the west and south.
I can't wait to start hiking in these mountains!
Monument
commemorating the founding of the town of Seward
Since Resurrection Bay remains ice-free all year
long, Seward has been an important transportation hub for rail and
shipping since its establishment in 1903. It has served the mining,
exploration, fishing, and trapping industries even longer than that. It
was also a strategic military post during WWII.
We arrived at the Seward Military Resort campground just before lunch
this
morning. After getting set up in our
site we explored much of the small town by truck. Even without a map
it's easy to find your way around the place.
About 3,000 residents call Seward home year-round. Since tourism is one
of its two biggest industries (fishing being the other one), its
population swells in the summertime with visitors from all around the
world.
It appears that we can bike all over town on the city streets pretty safely
while we're here, especially since the hordes of visitors are mostly
gone from the July 4th holiday.
There are also bike trails along the Seward Hwy. out to about MM 5 and
along the harbor.
There are fewer city streets than in Valdez but we can also explore several little roads
leading out of town to Lowell Point State Recreation Area, Caines Head
State Park, Kenai Fjords National Park at Exit Glacier, and some other
roads north of town. We’ll do some riding tomorrow if it isn’t raining.
Our first stop today was the visitor center, about half a mile south of
our campground.
Jim poses
next to a stuffed grizzly bear at the visitor center.
Bald eagle
on display at the visitor center; it was electrocuted
when it hit
some power lines near the small boat harbor.
I got several trail maps and discovered that two of the trails I thought about hiking
are either under water or buried in snow because of the high snowpack this year
and late melting. That's OK. There are others I can do.
Next we passed two gas stations ($4.64/gallon for diesel, definitely
higher than in Anchorage) and the Safeway grocery store. They are about a mile
from our campground.
We stopped at Safeway for a few items on our
way back to the campground. Milk wasn’t as bad as we expected --
$3.39/gallon compared to $2.89 at Sam’s Club in Anchorage (by far the
lowest there). Produce was pricey but looked pretty good.
Just about all the real estate near the harbor is paid parking so we stayed half
an hour or less there. We'll explore it more thoroughly on our bikes and
on foot for free.
Jim found a parking spot across from the Kenai Fjords National Park visitor
center (above), where we picked up more information about Exit Glacier
and the Harding Icefield.
I want to go back to see some of the films at the Kenai Fjords visitor center.
There’s a continuous loop every couple hours with 6-7 different topics.
While parked we also went inside the two cruise line offices nearby to ask
questions. We haven’t decided whether to get tickets with Kenai Fjords
Tours or Major Marine Tours to see Resurrection Bay and some of the park
fjords and glaciers. We can get a good discount at Seward Military Resort
so we’ll buy our tickets there.
Each company has a variety of tours. Some include a meal. Some include a
stop at Fox Island. So far the only thing we’ve decided is to do a 6-hour tour because the
ones lasting 6-8 hours go to the fjords; shorter trips stay in
Resurrection Bay.
We'll get more opinions from the staff and other visitors at the Seward
Military Resort before deciding which company and which cruise to take.
And we'll also wait to buy tickets until we know a sunny day is coming.
Above and below: misty small boat harbor scenes
We also visited a bakery across the street from the plaza with the
harbormaster building, cruise companies, and other shops. We bought some
delicious whole wheat bread that was baked this morning and a huge
raspberry muffin we shared. Yum! That would be a good place for
breakfast or lunch.
We drove all over town – through part of the residential area, along the
length of the harbor to check out camping options, boats, and
shops located there, and past the Sea Life Center:
One side of the Sea Life Center
I'll have a separate entry after we visit the
Sea Life Center, one of the activities on my long list of "Things to See
and Do in Seward."
There are several city campgrounds along the
harbor. Some sites have water and electric hookups and some are dry
camping sites. None are anywhere near "dry" right now, as you can see
from the puddles of water. I'm guessing these sites will look more desirable when
the sun comes out!
I like this decorated trash bin in
one of the campgrounds by the bay:
We
noted Mile 0 of the original Iditarod Trail and read about its history
on interpretive signs:
According to The Milepost (2011 edition,
p. 568), "The Iditarod Trail was surveyed in 1910 as a mail route
between Seward and Nome. It was used until 1924, when it was replaced by
the airplane. The 938-mile trail -- now a National Historic Trail
-- is probably best known for the Iditarod Trail
Sled Dog Race
that is run each March between Anchorage and Nome."
Even though the famous sled dog race doesn't
begin in Seward it was still very interesting to see the beginning of
this historic mail and mining route. Miners blazed some of the original
trails from Seward to the gold fields in central and western Alaska in
the late 1890s. A whole system of pack and sled trails, wagon roads, and
rail beds became the famous Iditarod Trail a decade later.
This sculpture on the bay, entitled "Trail Blazers,"
celebrates the centennial of the Iditarod Trail:
Seward is known for its bright painted murals on the sides of buildings
throughout town.
We saw about eight of the fourteen murals this morning but I’ll wait until
I’m on my bike to take pictures of those and present them here.
This looks like a very interesting town that deserves a much closer look
than we were able to give it today. I’m hoping it clears up enough
(stops raining, at least) so we can ride/walk around more in the next
few days and really enjoy it. I'll share a lot more photos after those
rides.
RUNNER MIA
We heard something sad on the news this evening.
A 66-year-old civilian employee at JBER, Michael LeMaitre, is missing
after the popular but grueling
Mt. Marathon foot race held yesterday
in Seward.
Although he’s an avid hiker and camper he’s never done this race before
(about 1½ miles up/1½ miles down a very gnarly 3,000+ foot elevation
trail) and planned to just walk it. He was the last one up the mountain
in the men's race, per a volunteer who was coming down. He told the volunteer
he planned to go up another 200 feet to the turnaround, then come back
down. No one has seen him since then.
Photo of Mt. Marathon from an interpretive sign at
one of the trailheads
Seward is sandwiched in a fairly narrow strip of land between Mt.
Marathon and the bay. That's pretty apparent in the photo above.
No matter where you are in town, it's right
there looming above you.
We could hear helicopters searching for the missing runner by air all
day. Because of the rain and fog rescuers were having a lot of problems
with visibility from the air and with traction on the wet ground.
We sure hope LeMaitre is OK. As former avid mountain trail runners we
have a lot of empathy for this man. We know how many things can go wrong
in the mountains, even on a course as short as this one. Despite its
proximity to town, it's wild and dangerous with steep cliffs, snow, ice,
cold temperatures -- and bears.
Looking west
past the harbor shops to Bear Mountain and Mt. Marathon
Another runner is hospitalized with life-threatening brain injuries
after a bad fall as he was coming back down the course yesterday.
Injuries are common in this long-standing race but so far no one has
ever died. This year two lives are in jeopardy.
All entrants are thoroughly briefed about the
risks. I haven't seen the waiver of liability they have to sign but I
bet it's as graphic as the one at the Hardrock Hundred in Colorado! I
hope these incidents don't jeopardize the future of this historic event.
Check out the Chamber of Commerce
website for more information about the
race itself. I'll be following post-race developments re: the
missing runner on the Anchorage Daily News
site.
Next entries: lots more scenes from Seward on our
first bike ride through town, and our hike to Exit Glacier
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