Basher Road Trailhead
Anchorage, Alaska; 07 November 2009
Alas, an actual post with new photos! Yes, things have been mighty slow here on Floridana Alaskiana. This semester has proved to be the most difficult of our careers thus far and we simply don't seem to have the time (or energy) to get out there and just walk around. To just take in the sights.
Today, I finally hopped out for a little bit and cruised up through Far North Bicentennial Park to check out the edge of the Chugach Mountains towering above Anchorage. It's one of my favorite areas and it's quite literally just to the side of our neighborhood.
The road heading up from the basin was rather slippery. We had a nice dusting this morning -- the first light bout of snow to actually stick this year. For Anchorage, this is quite late. They like to say that Halloween is D-Day when it comes to snow. Well, it's been a week since Halloween and we just now got a light smathering of snow. It was enough to slick up some of the roads, but hardly enough to change the tone of the landscape.
Of course, the Chugach Mountains (on the east-side of Anchorage) are already thickening and adjusting to the snowy whites we'll see through May of next year. This first snow, the draping whites over the mountains, is called Termination Dust -- a signifier that the dry times are hereby terminated. Any last thoughts or lingering feelings of summer are slowly whited out by the ever-creeping and descending Termination Dust.
Looking northeast from the Basher Road trailhead, you have a fantastic view of the Anchorage basin. The mountains far to the north, beyond Cook Inlet, provide a backdrop to our modest city. It's a hell of a sight and one I never grow tired of.
Today's view was, of course, shrouded in a blanket of gray and purplish tones. The sky is overcast, the weather is chilly, and one can almost feel the forthcoming onslaught of snow that is sure to arrive in the next few weeks. This view, the one photographed below, is probably the last time I'll see Anchorage relatively clear of snow until April or May of 2010.
Winter up here is serious business. It's long, it's hard, it's dark -- but it can also be quite romantic, quiet, and relaxing. It's when you get to wear the cool gloves, the heavy boots, the thick coats, the awesome scarves. It's when the kids throw snow balls at each and when the dogs bounce through the towering snow drifts. It's when the moose move into town for the long, cold haul and when the wolves grow more audacious and daring.
We're right on the edge of this. It won't be long now.
But hey, in Alaska, you never know... The snow could come this week or it could somehow hold off until December. But once it arrives? It'll be here to stay. For a long, long time.