Girdwood and the trip back to Anchorage

Well, woke up this morning to rain (again - I think you'll notice a pattern here) but decided that on my last day on the road I wouldn't let the rain get to me. After all, and as a metaphor for life, everything always dries out, right?! Grabbed coffee (another pattern) in the Hotel Alaska, a beautiful, upper-crust hotel located right below the ski slopes of Mt. Alyeska. Sat there in the nice plump leather sofa chair for a good 30 minutes or so sipping my coffee and enjoying the high life.

But then I decided to run/hike up to the top of the Tramway. This was fantastic. Very steep and snowy but I made it, and it was SO nice to be moving my feet again freely rather than my feet being locked in rotary movement, against their will. I made it to the top and it was cold and foggy, snow everywhere still.

I then bombed downhill like a skier, free like the wind. Grabbed my bike and BOB trailer and was on my way to Anchorage. Miles flew by along the Turnagain Arm. Crazy area. Second highest tidal fluctuations of anyplace in the world (the first is somewhere in Canada). That means that every 6 hours the tide will fluctuate up to 30 feet! Because of this (especially when there are forceful tides like when the Earth, Sun, and the moon are all aligned) there can sometimes be a 6-foot tall "bore" tide that is just a standing wave that propagates along the inlet and moves at 15 miles an hour. Apparently a kayaker tried to surf the bore tide last summer but the forces of the tide stripped off his clothes from the waste down and he had to be rescued by a helicopter. Tragically, his swim trunks were never recovered. Also, the silt deposits in Turnagain Arm are like quick-sand. More than a few people attempting to walk in them have been caught and drowned when the tide came it. Passed by the avalanche slopes that have actually swept snowplows into Turnagain Arm and they have been eaten by the silt deposits. Rumor has it that a plane had to emergency land on the silt when the tide was out. The passengers were rescued but the plane was eaten, still down there in the mud somewhere...

I raced this tram car up the mountain and through the clouds...

... and I won, see!

Mud/silt flats in Turnagain Arm. Snowplows and planes are out there buried somewhere...