Fine weather again - drifting, Alyeska and Anchorage

A spell of wet weather sure does make you appreciate the sunny days when they return and we made full use of them. Our first stop was at the small settlement of Cooper Landing on the Kenai River. Jenni’s friend Travis is a fishing guide in Cooper Landing, and although the fishing season was not yet under way, he offered us a float down the river in his ‘drift’ boat. No motors allowed on this section of the Kenai so we drifted down this quite fast flowing river with Travis at the oars negotiating the occasional rapids. We brought along a bottle of NZ white and Travis supplied the cheese and crackers and coffee. A beautifully relaxing way to spend an evening.

Still keeping an eye on the weather forecast we headed towards Anchorage stopping overnight (in the RV) at the Alyeska Resort. We took ourselves up the tramway to the top of Mt Alyeska at 2,300 ft. and enjoyed an early birthday dinner in the posh restaurant at the top. Fantastic views for miles in all directions – a great night. More bear sightings too – a mother and two cubs as we went up the tramway and a very guilty looking black bear scavenging in a dumpster in town.

The beautiful views and fine weather continued as we drove back to Anchorage along Cook Inlet and settled ourselves once again at Cabela’s store parking lot. This time in Anchorage we were able to take down the bikes and pedal the long coastal trail into town, explore a weekend market and visit Earthquake Park. The 1964 earthquake in Anchorage must have been truly terrifying. It was magnitude 9.2 (Kaikoura was 7.8), the second most powerful ever recorded, and generated huge tsunamis which wiped out several coastal towns and were responsible for most of the deaths. In Seward, where we stayed earlier, the first tsunami ruptured oil tanks on the waterfront setting the water ablaze. The next even bigger wave carried in a huge tide of fire ashore.

We have now moved on from Anchorage on our way north to Chicken and the music festival. It is not going to be a fast trip as it is only 636 km and we have 5 days to get there. At the moment we are sitting in a café in Palmer with good wifi. Our day's travelling plans are slowed down as we have just been joined by a nine-piece bluegrass band and we will sit and enjoy the music! For the first time, the blog is up-to-date and in real time!!

Beautiful Cooper Landing 

Our boat barister

The second mate

Russian River Ducks (taken by Travis)

Birthday bar view

View from  Mt Alyeska up Cook Inlet

Dumpster diver!