by bw
I’ve traveled to 49 states. This summer I decided to complete the list and booked a Backroads bike/hike/raft/cruise trip to Alaska. The trip starts in Anchorage. Over the next week we travel clockwise around Prince William Sound to Valdez. From there we take a short boat trip from Valdez to Girdwood, then bike and shuttle back to Anchorage. There will be lots of shuttling given the long distances between points of interest.
July 13: Reston to Anchorage – I flew in to Anchorage late Monday July 13. The hotel, Salted Roots, was a self-service place that worked out fine; clean and downtown.
July 14: Anchorage – The next day I rented a bike at Downton Bicycle Rentals from Pete who was surprised that someone wanted to ride in the rain. He spent a while with a map and points of interest to guide me on my route.
I rode the Moose Loop, a route in the shape of a Moose that connects several greenways in Anchorage, with the main trail being the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail that follows the shoreline of Knik Arm. The first stop was the massive Hernandez Fish Hatchery where large salmon were returning to where they were raised. A highlight of the ride was encountering a large moose with her calf standing next to the Coastal Trail. Turning around would have meant a long detour so I waited about 15 minutes until another cyclist approaching from the other direction suggested we walk around, ensuring that a line of trees was between us and the moose. I would share a photo but my phone died a few days later and I lost those early photos. More on that later.
Anchorage was originally thought to be settled by a group of Alutiiq people around 5,000 years ago. Captain Cook explored and mapped the area in 1778 at Anchor Point that later became Anchorage. After having to turn around while exploring several inlets he named the last one Turnagain Arm that is the south boundary of Anchorage.
Kerie and I used to kid about Backroads trips; whenever we would see the van there would always be bikes on the top, implying that there was a lot of shuttling on their trips. Most of trips with other tour companies would rarely need to shuttle. On this Alaska trip the distances between major attractions were long and many of the roads were not safe for riding.
July 15: Anchorage to Wasilla – On the first day of the tour, after meeting in Anchorage we shuttled through the town of Palmer located about 45 miles NE of Anchorage to a reindeer farm where we started an out and back ride then rode to Palmer. It rained throughout the day. It’s not often that I am in full rain gear: booties, pants, jacket, helmet cover, and neoprene gloves. Did I mention it was cold? The high for the day was around 50 degrees. In Palmer I tried to take a photo of a giant cabbage sculpture when my phone stopped working. Despite having a protective case, when I dropped the phone a while back I hadn’t realized that the back of the phone had cracked and water got inside.
After we arrived at our hotel in Palmer Lucy kindly dropped me at the local Verizon store while she shopped for groceries. I was there for a couple of hours and ended up buying another phone to use for the remainder of the trip.
July 16: Wasilla to Glacier View – The next day we shuttled to the 27 mile long Matanuska Glacier where we donned crampons and followed our glacier guides for a couple of hours, avoiding crevasses with help from the guides. It was a unique experience. From the time we left Anchorage we were nearly always surrounded by mountains and I never tired of gazing out the windows of the van.
July 17 & 18: Glacier View to Valdez: On Friday after a 3 hour shuttle we rode 43 miles into the town of Valdez that included a side trip to the local salmon hatchery. The hatchery was developed after bitterly cold winters in 1971-73 that killed off most of the natural Prince William Sound salmon runs. Of course the Sound was devastated by the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and wildlife have still not fully recovered.
After dinner we strolled along the marina to watch the sport fishermen clean the catch of the day. We stayed in Valdez for two nights at the Totem Hotel. The following day we met with our river guides who would lead us on a whitewater rafting trip through beautiful Keystone Canyon through which we had ridden earlier. There were waterfalls everywhere you looked. At one of the largest waterfalls I accepted the challenge of walking through the cascading water to touch the rear wall, stumbling on my way back, in part due to the strong breeze generated by the falling water.
Knowing I was a novice, I think our guide made a point of heading our raft into the larger waves to ensure I was drenched by the end, although our dry suits worked well.
July 19: Valdez to Girdwood: Our last full day of the tour was planned to be a small boat trip through Prince Willam Sound to Whittier. The foul weather we’d experience throughout the week continued and the boat trip was cancelled due to small craft warnings. Instead we drove 6 hours in the van, stopping to view Dall sheep on the mountainside at appropriately named Sheep Mountain Lodge. Later we caught a glimpse of a black bear scrambling up the hillside at Turnagain Arm as we drove to our hotel. We stayed at Alyeska Resort, the largest ski are ain the state. We had time for a 5 mile hike behind the resort before dinner.
July 20: Girdwood to Anchorage: We did another out and back ride on the last morning of the tour, from our hotel in Girdwood to Bird Point. I continued to look for Beluga whales but we never did see them. A large pod lives in Cook Inlet. They are considered critically endangered. As you might suspect, it rained almost the entire time, ensuring that we would be packing our wet gear before we shuttled back to Anchorage.
I had an excellent time on the tour with a very congenial group and great guides. Highly recommended.
July 21: Anchorage – I planned to stay an extra day in Anchorage. I was blessed with a near perfect day of warmish, sunny weather for my ride along the Coastal, Chester Creek, and Ship Creek Trails where I saw another moose munching vegetation next to the Ship Creek Trail. For dinner I tried the 49th State Brewery but there was a massive crowd and after waiting about 15 minutes at the bar to be acknowledged I left for Glacier Brewery where I had eaten the night before and had another excellent meal.
As I was checking out my bike from Downtown Bicycle Rental, a couple wanted breakfast recommendations. They mentioned the very popular Snow City Cafe. With echos of Yogi Berra, Peter the owner said “no one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.” I did go there a couple of times and had great meals. During the trip I’ve discovered one of the benefits to eating along; sitting at the bar in a crowded restaurant.
July 22 & 23: Anchorage to Dulles – My flight the next day was schedule for 8:40pm. I had hoped to catch the Flattop Mountain shuttle at noon for a 2 1/2 hour hike, returning around 4:30 with plenty of time to get to the airport. Unfortunately the shuttle was cancelled due to predicted bad weather that never materialized. Instead I caught a Lyft to the airport to drop my luggage, then walked a couple of miles from the airport to the Coastal Trail and walked along the trail for a couple of hours, stopping to view two Sandhill Cranes I had seen earlier.
After a late lunch/early dinner watching float planes take off from Lake Hood Seaplane Base, the busiest seaplane base in the world, I walked back to the airport and discovered that my 8:40pm flight was delayed to midnight. I was bleary-eyed upon arrival at Dulles the next day, not having slept on the flight.
All in all it was a great trip despite the bad weather.