Starr Treks: Alaska trip Friday 6/19/15 Valdez AK

STARR TREKS Friday 6/19/15 Valdez AK

We awoke to another lovely sunny day— the wind from last night had subsided. After we ate, we set off to do 2 short close by hikes recommended to us by the lady at the visitor center. The first was the Overlook Trail — it was only .4 mi round trip thru a wilow—alder scrub forest. It had 360 degree views of the area — the Port, Ruth Pond, and the city, so that was very nice.

We then drove a few miles to the Dock Point Trail. We parked near the Harbor, then hiked only 1 mi round trip. The first part was very steep, then went to a meadow with boardwalks. It had nice views of the harbor and Port of Valdez. We saw one bald eagle flying around. We then walked the length of the harbor — several little seafood restaurants, lots of pleasure boats and fishing boats. There are several fish cleaning stations, but it was too early in the day to see the fisherman coming in with their catch. There were several businesses that offered to pack and freeze and mail your catch home to you. Larry noticed that almost all the cars parked along the harbor have many dings on their windshield, or long cracks — guess they just live with it!

We then did the thing we did not relish doing— washed the motor home — it was pretty dirty, for sure. We stopped to buy a 50 foot hose, then set to work— did the front, the back, then the sides 1/4 at a time— it took us about 2 1/2 hours with a break for lunch. It was warm and sunny, and the best thing is that the water here is soft, so not streaky when we dried it. The people next to us recommended buying a power washer — they have been on this trip since January— they live in WI, but are gone so much, they think they’d like to sell their house. They towed a long white car/ toy hauler for their jeep and 2 motorcycles. Plus they had a canoe on top of the hauler. We compared stories at the Canadian border— they only asked us about guns, liquor, and apples. They confiscated their eggs, chicken from their freezer, and all their produce!! Guess it just depends on who is “on call” at the border each day.

After we got cleaned up from cleaning the RV outside (I also did the inside— does not really take too long), we drove over to the Valdez Museum Historical Archive — it is in 2 different buildings. It had a Fresnel lens on display from a former lighthouse, some old vintage fire engines, some eskimo quilted parkas that were made with sea mammal and bear intestines to make it waterproof(!), some historical displays on education (prior to the Gold Rush, the Russian Orthodox church had schools for the native American children— after the US purchase in 1867, missionaries were called to educate the kids— after statehood in 1959, native kids attended public schools), info on the earthquake of 1964, a Holland American cruise ship that caught fire in 1980 bringing passengers in lifeboats to Valdez, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. The other museum building focused mainly on the Good Friday earthquake and tsunami in 1964 that lasted 5 minutes. Anchorage had a lot of damage, but Valdez and Seward were wiped out. Valdez was completely rebuilt later, 4 miles from the old Valdez. They had some good videos about history of the area (Gold rush, mining, transportation routes since they were a harbor), plus the earthquake. They had many short videos featuring people who actually lived here and survived the earthquake and tsunami— it was very interesting. The docent (her name was Nancy Lethcoe) talked with us about some other areas to drive and hike to. She and her late husband were teachers in Anchorage, then moved here. She does a lot of birding, and loves winter here— loves to snowshoe and ski, but says last winter was mostly rain— it does not get all that cold here—usually 20-30 degrees in winter. She & her husband wrote a few books— History of Prince William Sound and Valdez Gold Rush.

We decided to go over to the Bayside RV park again to watch the nightly feeding of the bald eagles again. It had gotten windy and chilly again, but not as bad as last night. There were a lot more bald eagles tonight, plus one golden eagle, plus many pesty seagulls again. When the man threw a fish to a seagull, they would just swallow them whole! The eagles tended to peck and chew a little. Sometimes the man would throw the fish in the air, and the eagles would catch the fish in the air!! They seem to have very good eye-foot coordination!!

Tomorrow is our Columbia Glacier cruise. Hoping for good weather, calm water, and an interesting 7 hr(!) cruise.