Monday, August 7

I had thought that Fairbanks would be my furthest point from home on this trip but, when I measured the distance to Soldotna, I discovered it is almost 200 miles more at 3,404 miles. However, my reason for visiting Soldotna was to take a flightseeing and bear watching tour over, and in, Lake Clark National Park. After the short drive to the airport I was joined by five other passengers for two and a half hours of low altitude sightseeing overlooking volcanoes, glaciers, lakes and ocean and topped off with a beach landing to watch bears. There were a few clouds around the tops of some mountains but, most of the time, we had excellent views all around.

Tim, the pilot, was skilled and knowledgeable  and took us close to Iliamna and Redoubt volcanoes which are both a little over 10,000 feet high. Iliamna is almost dormant but Redoubt erupted violently in 2009 with 19 ash explosions over a few days, followed by a dome collapse. The eruption disrupted local aviation for nearly 2 months and closed Anchorage airport for a day when winds blew the ash in that direction. We also flew just 500 feet above the huge Double Glacier that flows off Mt. Redoubt although it is almost black, not white, due to the volcanic ash. He also flew low over an ice fall, where the glacier flows over a steep drop, which is something I had not even heard of, let alone seen.

The highlight, however, was landing on the beach near Silver Salmon Creek and then walking through sticky, ankle-deep volcanic mud to watch a female bear and her two cubs clamming. They took absolutely no notice as we walked to within 40 yards and they actually moved closer to us as we watched. It was a wonderful experience.

Unfortunately, the spell of great weather I have enjoyed appears to be ending and returning to the normal “liquid sunshine” as they call it here. When I left the airport, to drive to Seward, grey clouds started forming and it started raining hard in the evening.

The map and video, with a couple of photos from the flightseeing, is here.

All of today’s photos come from the air tour. The first two show general views of Lake Clark NP.
Mt. Iliamna, a dormant volcano, rises above the clouds.
We landed on the beach after spotting these bears out on nearby mud flats.
We were warned before the flight that the mud could be sticky and quite deep. I brought some slip-on overshoes on the trip precisely for this moment but the bears seemed happy to get down and dirty looking for clams.
Up close, the cubs were not as cute as I had imagined they would be.

but they were almost as focused on the job in hand as the mother.
We got very close to the collapsed dome on Mt Redoubt
and flew just above Double Glacier as it slides slowly down the mountain.

Tuesday, August 8

Yesterday’s drive to Seward had been somewhat disappointing as the road was less scenic than I had expected and the weather worsened but things continued going downhill after I got there. This was the first hotel I have used on this trip where the Internet connection was so slow it may as well not have existed. A text page, such as an e-mail, took up to a minute to display and anything more complex timed out. Clearly, I was not going to be able to upload my video or add a blog post.

This morning I tried to turn on my old Android tablet that I use to read the news over breakfast and nothing happened – it was completely dead. Then, when I went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, I found that it was woefully understaffed and it took well over an hour to get my meal – with nothing to read. Not only that but my waiter clearly hated his job, was inattentive and, literally, skimmed the plate of food across the table towards me while not even stopping. When I asked for my bill he rolled his eyes.

I had planned to visit the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward and then Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords NP before driving back to Anchorage but the weather forecast suggested rain later in the day, I was running late and I now had to buy and set up a new tablet so I got out of town and went straight to the glacier.

Exit Glacier is unusual in that you can get closer to it than most. If the circumstances are right you are allowed walk up to the toe (leading edge) of this glacier but, due to recent warm weather and rain, that was not possible today. The flow of meltwater was swift and deep and it was impossible to safely wade up to the ice. There is another trail, called the Edge of the Glacier Trail that documents where the glacier’s leading edge was over the past 100 years and ends up very close to the current edge. The position is close enough to feel a strong, cold wind coming off the ice and hear it cracking as it slowly moves forward.

The rain held off and the drive back to Anchorage was quite pleasant as can be seen in the video here.

After getting to Anchorage I went to Best Buy and bought a replacement tablet which was only $40 but is much faster and more capable than the old one. It seems like electronics are the only thing that are the same price in Alaska as the rest of the US. The cost was the same as on their web site and Anchorage has no sales tax 🙂

The Edge of the Glacier Trail starts where the glacier was 100 years ago, over a mile from the current position.
You can get very close to the ice here
but not to the toe today because of the rush of meltwater.
The recession of the edge over just the last 7 years is significant.
An atmospheric image of Kenai Lake taken on the drive back to Anchorage.