Bird Creek Ridge

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at 3700 feet

Bird Creek Ridge trail is about a 40-minute ride south of Anchorage along the Seward Highway, which hugs the Turnagain Arm, which, at 10am when we drove out, was one giant reflecting mud flat with a few deep channels of gray water coursing through it. We climbed from just a few feet above sea level to 3,700+ feet in a very short distance. Awesome Chugach Mountain and Turnagain Arm panoramas all the way up, and piles of fresh bear scat. We saw the Tarmagin -Alaska's state bird- going up, and a bald eagle -the national bird- riding a jeddy on the way down.

One of our party had recently returned from 3 years of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he found the steep incline no problem -"no Taliban or Al Queda, no problem." He filled the often gruelling ascent with story after story of the most horrifying -and amazing- tales I've heard in a long, long time.

This daytrip was arranged by UAA's student activities center, and we're going out for another one next weekend. Only three people showed up for this (including me), so in addition to the activitie's director and his friend, there were only 5 of us in all. Nobody else on the trail. Hoping next Friday is the same.

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Photos

rugged mountain vistas
found this angle, which is a deep zoom, on a short side excursion while breaking for lunch.

The lovely Chugach Mountains
I stare at these mountains from campus every day, which is nice, but getting up in them makes me remember why I wanted to come to Alaska.

Turnagain Arm
sun reflecting off the Turnagain Arm at low tide.

lunch time
stopping off for lunch about 3/4 the way up

bear food
most of the bear scat we saw on the trail contained these berries.

the trail continues
In theory, we could have followed this ridge line back another 5 miles, deep into the Chugach, to the actual "Bird Ridge." But that an over-nighter.

on the way up
trekking over sometimes rocky surfaces

Seward Highway
Here's where we came from. Up that road, Anchorage.

Comments

[Dad]

Awesome
Greg, Glad you are experiencing these travels and sites. The site of the bear dung would have had me back in the vehicle!

[Dave]

Next time please go into greater detail about that scat; no matter the species. Color, smell, taste... Thanks.

[HSU, HSIU JU]

Great Shot!
I like the photo "Turnagain Arm" a lot! I hope one day I can see that kind of view, too.