Chugach Foothills Residential Area
  Anchorage, Alaska; 27 November 2009

Alas! The End Is Near!

The end of the semester, that is... And I probably don't have to tell you how exciting that is. Not if you've been reading the blog for some time. 

We're in the middle of the final week of classes now. It is... almost over.

We'll be heading to Florida on Wednesday, the three of us, to visit with family and to spend the holidays in slightly warmer weather. Though a part of me will miss the snowy white Christmas of Alaska, I'm greatly looking forward to getting away from it all for a little while -- and spending a solid month down south with old friends and family. We'll head up to South Carolina during the trip to visit with Lori's family and spend a good amount of time in central Florida. Hell, if the weather plays me right, I may even manage to catch a snake or two!

At the root of everything during this trip, of course, is our daughter. How exciting it will be to bring her to our respective home states, South Carolina and Florida. We can't hardly wait!

So, in the meantime, we've got a few extremely busy days of final grading and packing... So much to do. I'll actually have to work and grade quite a bit after we get to Florida, just to finish up the avalanche of this semester. I must admit, however, that I look forward to grading on the back patio of my parents' house, at night, listening to the sounds of the central Floridian night. 

Much activity to come -- and, my oh my, more free time! Thus, more photos! More stories! More... LIFE!!!

'Tis the season!

Christmas is starting to feel like Spring...

 Placer Creek at the Bear Valley staging area;
 between Whittier and Portage, Alaska; 22 November 2009.

It's the day after Thanksgiving and it's still snowing here in southcentral Alaska. We've picked up quite a bit of snow these past few days. Snow that's going to last well into 2010!

Last week, we had a little snow in Anchorage, but nothing compared to Portage Valley, a bit south of Anchorage. These photos are from Placer Creek at Bear Valley, a little nook and staging area between Portage Valley and Whittier, Alaska. Placer is a lovely creek cutting through the Chugach Mountains and terminating at Portage Lake. It's a picturesque, lovely, and rather haunting creek in the winter. Add to that the scenic backdrop of the snow-drenched Chugach Mountains and you've got a hell of an area to explore.

Water is still water up here. But the ice is starting to form and it won't be too long before Portage Lake becomes a giant ice rink. The creeks will end up being encased in ice as well, though many of them will continue to flow beneath their icy shells. I rather love the creeks when they're completely iced over. You can hear the water running from deep beneath the surface. And, of course, there will be weak spots in the ice. You need to be careful hiking around when the ice and snow is covering the running waters. A little slip and a slight crack can leave you drenched to the waist in no time -- and in Alaska that is not advisable during the winter...!

Looking out over Portage Lake, the snow flurry was obscuring the view of the far side of the lake. This really is a fantastic lake. Portage Glacier lies just around the (hidden) bend to the right, in the photograph below. A massive glacier, it's retreated significantly in the last hundred years. A while back, I hiked the Portage Pass trail from Whittier to check out Portage Glacier. A massive, thunderous system of glacial ice bordering the edge of Portage Lake. I mean, damn. It's pretty spectacular. Though I couldn't see it from Bear Valley, I knew it was there -- somewhere beyond all that washed out white and gray. Waiting for another long hike. Waiting for another long day. And maybe a clearer one?

For now, we are drenched in the white-out of the snow storms. The world outside and around us is sinking deeper into the Alaskan winter ethos. And we're just watching the snow fall, fall, fall. Winter is here.

The tunnel to the Bear Valley staging area
at Portage Lake, Alaska; 22 November 2009.

Good day!  It's Thanksgiving as I publish this post and my oh my, are we happy to get a tiny little break from the semester. We've only got a couple of weeks left after Turkey Break -- and then? Then we get a nice long winter break. We'll be heading to Florida and South Carolina over the break, to visit with friends and family -- and perhaps to soak up a little sunshine.

Up here, now, we're in full snow mode. The southcentral Alaskan landscape is one bathed in misty whites now. Just last night we picked up another five inches in our neighborhood from a lovely little soft snow storm. Indeed, the snow is brightening up the otherwise ever-darker (and shorter) days of the Alaskan winter.

These shots were taken a few days ago down near Portage Lake (a bit south of Anchorage, at the end of Turnagain Arm and just to the north of the Kenai Peninsula). Portage Valley is one of my favorite places to head to when I get the time -- and on the 22nd, my wife encouraged me to get out of the house and to just drive south for the afternoon.

It was a great little trip. I wasn't gone for more than five or six hours total, but it felt like a full-day trip. Extremely invigorating and refreshing. 

The snow was coming down pretty good in Portage Valley and the entire area looked like some sort of snow-globe fantasy land. I didn't see any wildlife (other than the standard bald eagles and ravens), but no matter. In Alaska, the landscape is even more impressive than the wildlife.

I've got a few posts lined up for the break, before we enter the final two-week mad dash to the end of the semester. It's pretty exciting outside right now. Lovely, fresh, and crisp.

I'm also switching over to a non-widescreen format for the photos. Thus, they're a bit larger than they have been, not in width, but in height. Not sure if it'll stick (I love widescreen), but it makes sense for the blog and how it's lined up and formatted. We'll see.

And on a closing note to this random, wandering post -- I had a great time shoveling snow off the driveway this morning. If you'd asked me four years ago if I would love shoveling snow, I would've laughed at you, taken a swig from my margarita, and perhaps kicked sand on your beach towel. (Okay, I wasn't that bad of an ass...) But you get my point. There are certain aspects about the Alaskan winter I love -- and I really didn't anticipate loving these aspects so much. There's a quiet joy in shoveling snow. 

Strange. Isn't it?

University of Alaska Anchorage main campus
 Anchorage, Alaska; 09 November 2009

Indeed, the snow is upon us! 

Shortly after my last post, the snow finally came to the Anchorage basin. I arrived at work the following Monday to find the campus immediately transformed into the Wintery Wonderland one might expect when one thinks of Alaska during the wintertime.

Yes, there's nothing quite like a fresh paint of snow to brighten up the long, dark morning hours early on a Monday.

Since then, we've had several additional smatherings of fresh snow. Though it's not quite deep yet, the snow is now here -- and here it will stay until well into the year 2010.

One less-romantic aspect of the arrival of snow each winter is the ice on the roads. This was also a week of ridiculously slippery and icy roads. Fender-benders are a common occurrence in Anchorage. An unbent, non-beat-up car just doesn't really feel... Alaskan. So, in a way, our own little fender bender this week was the final, last rite of passage in our long transition of becoming actual, bonified Alaskan residents. Nobody was hurt, thankfully -- and the damage was extremely minor (just a beat up fender) -- but finally, on the dawn of our third winter in Alaska, we christened the Jeep with a nice little bang.

Right now, as I type this on Saturday 14 November 2009 at 2:17 p.m., it's eighteen degrees outside. The sun rose at 9:01 this morning and will set at 4:23 this afternoon. I believe we're losing about five minutes of daylight each passing day. This is perhaps the hardest facet of the Alaskan winter for me -- the loss of daylight. Fortunately, the snow makes the dim and short days all-the-brighter. It's an odd sense of vertigo at times, perhaps, but I do find a subtle joy in the ground being brighter than the sky overhead. In many ways, despite the slippings, slidings and crashings, the snow is the saving grace for me during the winter up here. It brightens everything -- and there's nothing quite so crisp and refreshing as a fresh coat of snow. 

Incidentally, the portfolio-framed shot was from my phone. Not tooooo shabby...

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.