My trip to Alaska

Looking across the bay one can see part of the Alaska range that extend all the way from eastern Alaska to the Aleutian islands. We also saw (from a distance) an active volcano Mt. Augustine which is part of the "Pacific ring of fire". After Skyline drive we drove to the Homer spit - a piece of land extending into the sea. Got a great view of the bay from the spit. I got talking with a local Alaskan who was fishing in the bay. As we were talking the line on his fishing rod suddenly went taut and he reeled in a fish. It was a Halibut.

Mt. Augustine	Alaska range	Another view of the Alaska Range

The halibut is an interesting fish, he explained. When it is born it has eyes on both sides of its body (like regular fish). But after a few years one of the eyes migrates to the other side and from that point on the halibut starts to swim with the side with out the eye pointing downwards (like a sting ray). He then threw the Halibut back int o the water!! I was surprised and asked him if he just fishes for sport and does not eat anything he catches. He said that the fish was too small for him to eat and at this time of the year fish is so easy to catch one could almost reach into the water and grab a couple out. Sure enough before I left he snagged another fish.

Glacier Lake trail head

Glacier Lake

After a good night's sleep at the B&B the next morning (9:30) we drove down to Homer spit and paid a water taxi (boat) to give us a ride to Kachemak Bay state park. Kachemak Bay park is on a group of islands about 30mins boat ride from the Alaskan mainland. The state park (natural area with trees and wildlife) is spread across the islands. The water taxi dropped us off on the beach close to the "Glacier Lake" trail head. We arranged it so that the water taxi would pick us up at 6pm at another beach on the island (Saddle trail head). We first hiked Glacier lake trail. This trail starts at the beach and works its way through shrubbery and ends close to a lake formed by a glacier (I forget the name of the glacier). The trail is more or less flat and the glacier is at sea level!! In terms of fun this was the worst trail of the trip. It was over used and very sandy.

Glacier Lake

Alpine Ridge trail

However, at the end it offered us an excellent view of the glacier and the lake right below it. We were within rock throwing distance of the glacier. After hanging around at glacier lake for sometime we headed for the Alpine ridge trail. This year spruce beetles had eaten through many spruce trees causing them to fall. Luckily just the previous day park rangers had cleared this trail and we had a fairly easy climb (no trees to jump over). This trail was another hill climb. We made it about half the way up until the snow line and then decided that the view from the top is not worth plodding through the snow. We walked back down (which incidentally take less than half the time to climb up) and headed for the Saddle trail. The saddle trail was a fairly uneventful and we reached our pickup point an hour early. As we hung around in the beach waiting for our boat we managed to spot an otter (the only animal we saw in the wild during this entire trip).

Saddle trail head

The next morning we drove back to Anchorage. This was a long drive and it was afternoon by the time we reached our destination. We had been traipsing around Alaska the past 5 days and we had seen no wild life (barring that otter). Almost everywhere we went locals/park rangers told us that wild life had been spotted on the trail regularly but we never saw any. You can't visit Alaska and see no animals. So we decided to visit the Alaska zoo at Anchorage. We got to see bears, caribou, moose etc. The zoo even had a couple of tigers and an asian elephant!! I wonder what they do with them in the winter.

Alaska zoo

We spent the next day also in Anchorage. Unfortunately it rained on the last day and we could not do much except for window shopping. We flew back to Austin that night (5th June).

Flat Top Mtn. trail head

Overall, the cities we visited in Alaska were fairly small. The Anchorage municipality is spread over a large area but downtown is only about 4 blocks. Seward and Homer are very small towns with a combined population of about 12,000. The population in Alaska is more or less like in the lower 48 states - caucasians, native indians, immigrants. Caucasians form the majority of the population. However I found that there were roughly equal number of native indians and immigrants. The immigrants are mainly orientals - Japanese, Chinese and Koreans though I did meet a few Mexicans. The natives in Alaska have fared no better than in the rest of the US. They have been invaded, first by the Russians and then by Americans. All accounts that I have heard seem to suggest the Russians treated the natives worse than the Americans (but then I have not heard the story from a Russian).

Here is a short history of Alaska -

View from Flat Top Mtn.

Many thousands of years ago people from Asia probably crossed over to Alaska via the Bering Sea (at that time it was probably frozen). Some of these tribes moved on to lands that are present day Canada and US. They probably evolved into the different native Indian tribes. Some tribes stayed back in Alaska. Why anyone would want to stay back in such a harsh land ? Beats me. Those that stayed back evolved into different tribes - Eskimos and Athabascans being two prominant ones.

Eons later Russian fur trappers started paddling across the Bering Sea in search of otters, seals etc and chanced upon the Aleution islands. A few years after that Czar Peter (the great) commisioned an exploration of this new land. This exploration was lead by one Vitus Bering (who incidentally was either Dutch or English not Russian). He managed to find the route to Alaska but died on the voyage back. Anyway he got a sea named after him. Shortly after the discovery of the route to Alaska lots of trappers moved in. It was much like the "wild west" in America. A few trappers got togeather and decided that they should control all trade. So they started a company. Russia was too far away (the big cities St. Petersburg etc) so they roped in a few Americans to supply them food and to buy their furs. The company was named Russian-American company. Like the East India Company it occupied land and mined resources (fur, fish).

One of the kings (or queens) after Czar Peter Russia decided to sell the Alaskan wasteland to the US for $7.6 million. Mostly to pay for the war in Europe (against Nepoleon). The modern history of Alaska is less fascinating (though it does involve an oil boom, and a gold rush) so I will stop here. For the inquisitive reader I recommend "Alaska: A history of the 49th State" by Claus-M. Naske and Herman E. Slotnick.

Overall, my trip to Alaska was fantastic. I hiked many miles and got 4 rolls worth of pictures (I will put them up as soon as I get them back from the photo lab). Someday I would like to visit Katmai national park in south-west Alaska - heard that bears can be seen from close up (distances of 15-20 feet!!).

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