Nature Ahoy!

Last Sunday we went on a series of mini-adventures that added up to a pretty cool day. We started out at the crack of dawn (OK, 10 am) and set out to the south of Anchorage. For those of you playing along at home, we followed the Seward Highway south to the Turnagain Arm. It was a cold gray day, with the sky intermittantly spitting rain at us - not too much, just enough to spot my glasses and make seeing difficult.

Our first stop was Beluga Point, a scenic overlook by the Turnagain Arm where you can pull off the road. It is a pretty popular spot for watching aquatic life. We stood there for a while and were not having any luck. Just as the wind and rain were getting to be too much and we were about to pack it in, an older couple in an RV cruised through the pull-off, telling everyone they had just been about 2 miles up the road and there were whales all over the place. We looked at one another and ran directly to the car, or as we called if for the next hour or so, the whalemobile. A few minutes later found us two miles up the road, squinting through the steadily worsening conditions trying to see some whales. A guy a few feet away spotted us for newbies and filled us in on what to look out for. We had been looking for those spectacular leaps out of the water like you see in the nature documentaries...that's not what you will see at this location. Instead you see a quiet little bump of white whale back as they briefly surface. Sometime a short waterspout. They are a bit easier to spot than you might think as they tend to hang in a consistent area for a while. The stranger and Art and I spent a happy half hour sharing watching duties on the four whales in our immediate viewing area, calling out to each other when one of them surfaced. We were later told these are Minke whales.

One of the many nice things about Alaska is that there is almost always someone around like that...someone who is happy to help you discover the wonders of the place. Every time we have been lost or confused or missing out on something, someone always very kindly helps us out.

Anyway, after some whale watching, Art and I went on to our next destination, Indian Valley Gold Mine. I had been hoping for either a good historical experience or a heaping helping of hoke, and sadly, got neither. It started out promising on the hoke front, as there were scary mountain-folk photo ops and miner statues all over the yard, and we were greeted by an authentic eccentric lady in a funny hat. However, it went somewhat downhill from there. Our admittedly modest $1 entrance fees entitled us to poke around two smallish sheds full of authentic settler junk, much of which looked like what we hauled out of my grandfather's garage-barn after he passed on. No comical story or guidance enlivened our "tour" of the grounds. Also, the original mine is in view, but pretty much blocked off from access. I have clocked quite a few hours in the tourist-trap commercial caves (and a few mines) of eastern and central PA, as well as central Virginia. I have a deep love for that particular kind of hokum, and this place was a sad disappointment. To have a cavern dangled in front of me like that and then be denied...I feel the sting of it still. I have the urge to buy the place from the owners - a little showmanship and thought could turn the place into a figurative - as well as literal-gold mine. Anyway, disappointment turned back to interest as we finally got around to what we had come there for - panning for gold! We bought some dirt (salted with minerals) from the owner, took possession of our pans, and got our lessons in gold panning. The lady expertly showed us how to dip water into the dirt-filled pans and swirl everything around until the dirt washed away and the interesting stuff came out. The gold in our dirt was in tiny little flecks, but it was surely there. We also had bits of amethyst, garnet, and other interesting minerals. It turned out to be quite relaxing and also quite interesting.

Then we stopped at the trail head for McHugh(?) trail and walked around a bit, enjoying the scenery and the bear-aware signage. After that, it was off to the last major stop for the day - Potter's Marsh!

Potter's Marsh was artificially created marshland, inundated when the railroad was built. Since then it has evolved into a great resource for bird and wildlife watchers. The neatest thing about it is that there are long boardwalks built over the marsh, so you can see quite a bit of it up close without a)disturbing the nature or b)getting your shoes all icked up. So it is very popular. I am told it is well worth going back to at different times of the year, as of course different things are happening. Anyway, we walked the whole length of both boardwalks, and saw lots of birds, none of which I have the faintest idea what they were. ( I can reliably identify magpies and ravens here in Alaska. In all fairness, I didn't know more than 5 or 6 in PA either.) The most interesting thing were the salmon, which were coming in to spawn. As it is late in their season, there were all kinds, not just one kind like you would ordinarily see. I had previously thought that spawning was something salmon did a couple of times, but as it turns out, they do it at the end of their lives, and die after they do so. So more than a few of them are in pretty bad shape as they come in to spawn, and these are pretty rough looking. So it's kind of poignant, but interesting to see.