August 30: Blitz Visit to the Alaska State Fair

The Alaska State Fair (In Palmer)... I had heard of it, again and again: "You have to go to the Fair!"  "You have to check it out!" "You have to see the veggies! They are huuuuge!"  All of the above were stated with a little irony, though.  The idea was that since I was new to AK, I had to know what the Fair was like. That was something to maybe just do once, because this is kind of a big deal for a lot of Alaskans.

The first weekend of the Fair, I realized what my friends meant when they were saying it was a popular event.  That Friday night, I was trying to get out of town to go to the Nenana River for the weekend.  Little did I know I was going to run into my very first (and only) traffic jam since I had moved away from DC.  Instead of 20 min, it took me over an hour to go from Anchorage to Eagle River.  Past Eagle River... more jammin'!! Yikes!  I first thought the congestion was due to two rather minor fender benders I saw on the road.  But after passing Palmer, not a soul on the road!!  Basically, all of Anchorage was going to the Fair that night!

The next weekend, I decided go see the Fair. Well.. I kind of had to.  It was a crisp clear day and I drove to Palmer early to beat the crowd.  I arrived before the opening but a line had already formed.  I could already tell I was not going to stay there for very long.  I took this as "a mission".  First year in Alaska, I could not NOT see the State Fair or I was going to remain a Cheechako... even after my first winter!! Noooo!!

So to summarize my experience, I bought my ticket and started my "Fair marathon", that took me at top strolling speed through the alleys of the fairgrounds, only occasionally stopping for an art gallery here and there.  I quickly walked through the reptile exhibit, passed by the RV's sale, flew by some camouflage clothes stores (even though the pink camo clothes were very appealing), zoomed through the farm machine exhibit, skipped the farm animals and finally made it to the veggies and flowers exhibit.  This is where I spent the most time, amazed by the size of the specimens (flowers or veggies) I was seeing.  For the longest time I did not know that the cool Alaska climate could allow for anything to grow here.  But veggies do grow alright! Those long summer days probably make up for the lack of warmth.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Not so small cabbages

 

 

Who wants a 42+ lbs zucchini?

Big and ugly

 

 

 

1,182 lbs pumpkin... just another way to make the paper.

 

Dahlias

By the time I was done with the veggie exhibits, the grounds were noticeably more crowded than when I had arrived in the morning.  I explored the last alley I had not yet seen: the one with the rides and the "Weeees!!" and "Aaaaaahs!!" and "OMG! OMG! OMG!s." At that point, I could not wait to get out of there.  OK, the State Fair was kind of fun but I had had enough.  I realized I was walking towards the exit with a sense of urgency.

I'd take a river or a mountain over this at any time.

On the way back I found the tent exhibit below.  The rivalry between Alaska and Texas always makes me smile.  It can pop up anywhere at anytime.  Even the keynote speaker of a conference I attended last week alluded to it.

So there we were. Two hours later, the mission accomplished: I had seen the Alaska State fair.  My friends and colleagues were right:  it is a fun thing to see... Maybe just once! :)

August 26-28: Work Trip to Yakutat

Since I moved to Anchorage my blog posts may make is sound like I am on vacation here. But I do work some!  Actually, I work quite a bit but I love my job and do not mind going the extra mile if needed.

Without going into any details here, one of my projects involves some health risk assessment and health communication work for members of the Tlingit Tribe living in Yakutat ("The place where canoes rest" in Tlingit), a little town located on the coast of the Gulf of Alaska, about half way between Anchorage and Juneau.  Little did I know but Yakutat is both a popular fishing and surfing spot in Alaska.  Traveling there, I had a good taste of its reputation as a fishing spot. 

My colleague and I flew to Yakutat, via Juneau.  In other words, we passed our destination to go to Juneau and back tracked to land in Yakutat (why does this make sense? I dunno!).  I must have been the only woman on the flight between Juneau and Yakutat.  Most of the passengers were bearded guys in their 50's and above, carrying fishing rods and wearing baseball caps. We landed in the tiny Yakutat airport and as we were walking from the tarmac to the terminal, my colleague pointed to a log cabin  and said "that's where you are staying.  Pretty convenient, isn't it!"  I had booked my room at the last minute, which was a mistake at the peak of fishing season, and had found the last room available at the "Yakutat Lodge" a popular fishermen hangout.  The place was about 50 feet (I am not exaggerating) from the airport.  So it was indeed, convenient.  On my 30-second walk between the airport and the lodge, I caught a glimpse of my first tsunami warning sign.  Alaska is at rather tectonically active spot and I was on the coast so it made sense.

My colleague was staying at another lodge, maybe slightly more fancy than mine but the bottom line is: there is no hotel in Yakutat. So fishermen lodges are the way to go; just a bit more rustic than what I was used to in my former job.  I ended up in a room with four beds, a full size freezer (yes, if you are a fisherman, you need to store your catch!) and a horrible smell of heating oil that ended up stinking up all my clothes.  Other than the smell, it was all I needed.

Yes, I had aaaall these beds for myself!

Among other things, the trip gave me the opportunity to learn about the Tlingit Tribe and to realize how attached these people are to their traditions.  If it is successful, the project I am working on in Yakutat should help the members of the Tribe with the preservation of their traditions and of their subsistence way of living.  Although challenging, this has been a very interesting and rewarding undertaking so far and I hope the collaboration with the Tribe remains fruitful. 

Tlingit art

The three days I spent in Yakutat were busy as I had to give four talks including one to the Tribal Counsel and one at a public meeting. But thanks to my colleague who knew the area and to the generosity of the Tribe who let us borrow one of their maintenance trucks (pretty sweet ride!! See below) I had a chance to visit a couple of very pretty places.

This was our ride for the duration of our stay

First, we went to Harlequin Lake.  We drove 30 or 40 miles on a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere.  I could have taken a nap at the wheel as we did not encounter a single curve in the road.  We parked by the "Dangerous River", a large volume stream, fed by Harlequin Lake and emptying close by in the Gulf of Alaska.  This river appeared to me as a freight train.  I was amazed by the speed of the water, making its way undisturbed like a fast conveyer belt: no rocks, no eddies, just a straight channel leading an enormous volume of water to the ocean.

The Dangerous River coming out of Harlequin lake

 After crossing the river, we hiked in the woods for about half an hour.  I was expecting an encounter with some Hobbits as everything was so green, mossy and lush.  This is area is part of the Tongass National Forest, a temperate rain forest, and the trees were covered with thick moss.  I thought that if there was a tree equivalent of stuffed animals, that how they would look.

A glimpse of the Tongass National Forest

What a "stuffed tree" should look like

We finally emerged out of the wood onto the shore of Harlequin Lake.  And there... WOW!!  What a sight! The stillness of the lake covered with icebergs and surrounded by mountains, the sun piercing out of the gray clouds and the barely perceptible murmur of what sounded like a tiny stream (that we could never identify) made for a breathtaking scene.  Once or twice, the silence was disturbed by a loud "Crack!!" that had us expect some big wave making it to shore.  But the surface of the lake remained undisturbed and as still as a mirror.  The reason for this remains a mystery.

Aside from its pure beauty, this place is very interesting for multiple reasons.  Harlequin lake appeared around 1850.  It is 1,000 feet deep in places. The icebergs floating at it surface come from the Yakutat ice field, a glacier large enough  to cover the five boroughs of New York City.  Sadly, because of the rising of temperatures, this immense expense of ice melting fast and ultimately is bound to disappear.  A particularity of this glacier is its low elevation, with a high point at about 2,000 feet above sea level. 

But what I will get out of this spot is its magic and even though they do not do it justice, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Harlequin Lake

After Harlequin Lake, we made our way to the beach. It was so strange to leave a mountainous landscape, drive for 45 minutes and be by the ocean.  But what a beach!! Immense, with fine sand and clear light green water forming perfect waves.  I understood right away why this was the Alaska surfing Mecca.  We stayed there for a while, with our eyes glued to the huge sky, the ocean as far as we could see, and the evening colors changing in the setting sun.  I did not want to lose a second of it.  I felt like a kid walking towards the waves and running away from them as they roll towards the beach to not get my feet soaked. It was a very pretty evening and the perfect way to release the tension of the past two days.

After this, my colleague and I went back to the restaurant of my lodge and decided to celebrate a good day of professional success and beautiful sightseeing with a beer and a feast of local Dungeness crab.  I have had crab before but never was it that good and never was the crab so HUGE!  Dungeness crabs can be up to 8" in diameters and they taste so buttery! DE-LISH!!Totally worth the work you put into getting to that meat.

This Yakutat trip lasted only 3 days but it was dense with new experiences and discoveries (professional, cultural...etc.).  This page only relays a quick glimpse of the whole stay.  But I can say that it was pretty satisfying for a "business trip" and I am hoping for many more to come.

August 23-24: Nenana River

First, a little bit of geography. The Nenana originates in the Alaska range, out of Nenana glacier, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks.It forms the eastern boundary of Denali National Park and Reserve.  The Nenana flows North into the Tenana, which itself flows into the Yukon river.
The name "Nenana" is derived from the Lower Tanana word "Neenano", meaning "the stopping-while-migrating stream". Lower Tanana is an almost extinct Athabascan language.  Today, only 30 people speak the language and all live in Minto on the Tanana river. OK, enough trivia knowledge for now.

I was pretty excited about that weekend on the Nenana for since my move, I had not ventured very far from the Anchorage bowl.  I was supposed to meet a group about 5 hours north from the city, passed Denali National Park, close to the small town of Healy. Coincidentally, we were all going to stay at a cabin right by Stampede road.  Does this ring a bell?  Stampede trail? Anyone? Anyone? Hint:  "Into the Wild"? Stampede trail is where Christopher McCandless starved to death after getting trapped in the Alaska "wilderness" after the Teklanika river (which flows in the Nenana) rose and prevented him from getting back to civilization. I put "wilderness" in quotes, because as far as Alaska goes, there are much much more remote places than this place.  In fact, even after having read the book and seen the movie, I was surprised to realize that this whole drama unraveled at a stone throw from civilization. 

This bus is from the movie "Into the Wild" not the original one.

Anyway, I left Anchorage on Friday night around 6 pm.  That time of the year, it is still light until 10:00 or 10:30 pm so I was looking forward to a drive, which I knew was going to be spectacular.  I am now used to the fact that wherever you are out of a city, nature puts on a show and it never disappoints.  And this time again, it delivered.  It is impossible to described but the scenery was simply amazing all along the way.

One particular image will remain engraved in my memory for a very long time.  I was driving along in a wooded corridor and in front of me was blue sky and some white clouds.  I was listening to some tunes, singing along when suddenly, I realized what REALLY was in front of me.  It was no white clouds! It was Denali! Denali was right there is front of me, covered with snow, towering over all other mountains, looking imposing and massive.  It had obviously been in front of me for a while but when I realized it, the road made a turn and it vanished.  "Nooo!! Well, I am sure I will find a better view".  Nope! Did not happen!  This was THE view.  I stopped later to take a picture farther down the road but it was not nearly as good.  Even though I could not capture this image on camera, it made an impression that I will not forget any times soon.  All I have to do is think about it to see this magnificent mountain in its absolute greatness.

Time for more trivia knowledge!! Yay! Do you know that Denali is the tallest mountain from base to peak on earth with an elevation of 20,237 ft and 18,000 ft from base to peak (compared to only 12,000 ft for Everest).  Pretty cool huh?

Denali towering among other peaks after missing my one opportunity at a great shot from the road.  Disappointment...

 But I am getting sidetracked.  I made it to Stampede road  around 11 pm and met with my friend at a very nice isolated cabin.... or so it seemed.  That night at 1 am, we were woken up by the creepy sound of dogs howling.  And when I say "dogS"  I do not mean two dogs.  I mean a pack of dogs or what I found out the next day was a "team of dogs".  Yes, quite a few people practice mushing in Alaska and for that, they usually need 15 or 20 dogs (or more?).  It so happened that our distant neighbors had a dog team and they all decided to go nuts in the middle of the night.  That was priceless. Only in Alaska... and Canada maybe? :)

The next morning, after working some logistics, we met with some local paddlers.  One of them was quite a character.  Louis is 13, about 5 ft tall and... an amazing paddler.  His parents own a raft company that mostly operates on the Nenana and Louis paddles this river 4 to 5 times a week.  He know it like the back of his hand.  Louis is not only a gifted paddler but also a ski champion and above all, a great kid.  He was excellent at describing rapids and guided us lie a champ' through the last part of the river after his parents had to take out.

Louis, briefing us about Twin Rocks rapid

The Nenana is a big volume river (about 8000 cfs that day) with only a few class III rapids but TONS of play spots.  This river is a long fluid ribbon sprinkled all over with play waves and holes.  The features are big but friendly and at the end of the day, I felt like I had been paddling the whole river backwards, trying to catch surf after surf after surf.

Chris catching a nice surf

We went down at a relaxed pace, playing as much as we could and enjoying the nice weather.  Apparently, this weekend was the nicest weekend of the entire summer, which had been cold and rainy.  We certainly lucked out as it could not have been better.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here goes:

 By the end of this long day, some were tired, some were sore, all were all happy and also famished!  We decided to go to the 49th State Brewery where we all had some delicious pie-size burgers and good Alaska beer to toast to "a great day on the river with new friends".
After dinner, we played a few games of corn-hole, horseshoe and some other super hard game where you are supposed to throw a string weighted by two balls (one on each end) to wrap it around some distant metal bar. I have no idea what it is called and it seems like a rather primitive concept but... it is hard! And since I am kind of stubborn when it comes to these stupid challenges, I probably would still be there now if my friends had not pried me away from this game.

With our bellies full and our minds also overflowing with happy memories of the day, we drove back to the cabin where the perfect night cap was waiting for us. No... not mosquitoes, although they were there too... But a gorgeous sunset.  I probably took 15 pictures of the sky trying to capture this ever changing moment but none of them did it justice.  What a nice array of colors nature gave us that evening!

The next day, only three of us paddled the Nenana again.  One of us, Matt, left in the morning as he had to be back to Anchorage early in the afternoon.  But by the time we took out (around 2 pm), I had received a text from him asking me for a ride back to the city as his old VW van had broken down about 15 minutes from Healy.  So much for getting back early!  So I picked him up and we drove back chatting the whole way.  This made me truly realize the full potential of the Anchorage area in terms of outdoor activities.  I knew there was a lot there. But Matt told me about all these creeks, which are fairly close to the city.  He told me about lakes, about skiing options, mountain biking, hiking...etc.  All right there, at the city's door step.  Good thing his van broke down (I hope he never read this) as this conversation considerably broadened my horizon in term of what can be done and made it much more tangible.
Hopefully over time I will find out how to get the most out of this gigantic and beautiful playground!!

August 10...etc: Six Mile Creek

It took me a while but I am finally starting to meet some members of the whitewater community.  A couple of weekends ago (In July) a group of local guys were nice enough to invite me on their Six-Mile Creek paddle. It was about time for me to get on some whitewater after close to three "very dry" months!! We all had a great time and fortunately I remembered how to paddle, surf and roll.

At the levels at which I have paddled it, Six Mile is a nice class IV run: a succession of three canyons increasing in narrowness, difficulty and intensity. The run is supposed to become a class V at higher flows, which makes a lot of sense as the third canyon is sometimes so narrow that higher flows must make it very intense and pushy. Overall it is a very fun run, with pretty light blue/green water running through a steep canyon and guarded by mountains.  As a bonus, bald eagles have that nice habit of coming and say hello towards the end of the run, something that seems as extraordinary to the locals as pigeons on Saint Marks Square in Venice.

The weekend of August 10 was the Six Mile Creek whitewater festival.  I could not make it to the Fest but on Sunday, I paddled with a very nice group of women.  All of us floated down the first canyon and some took out after the first or second canyon.

Seventeen Enders in the First Canyon of Six-Mile Creek

The Gang

 Before the third canyon, our group, that was down to four paddlers, blended with a large group of guys and our happy flotilla, clearly under the influence of some whitewater euphoria, proceeded down the river with cheers and hollers.

Down the Third Canyon

I had the chance to paddle Six-Miles two more times after that but somehow these must not have been meant to be documented as for one of them, I forgot my camera and for the second one I did bring the camera but forgot to put a memory card in it.  At this point I suspect I might have paddled that creek a few more times but probably forgot my brain at home.  This said (and as far as I remember) I am starting to know the river but cannot wait to paddle it at higher flows, which should fully bring out the personality of that third canyon.

So stay tuned for an update about a high(er) water Six-Mile run and hopefully more pictures!