the Alaska Railroad

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Jon and I took the Alaska Railroad up into the mountains on the Kenai Peninsula- not bad for my first train ride ever! We caught the train downtown in Anchorage and headed out, the railroad follows the Seward highway until you get near Portage which is about an hour out of town. On the way out of downtown Anchorage the railroad runs through about thirty back yards that make up an airstrip. It's been grandfathered in since you'd never be able to get away with that now - really, it's like twenty five feet from these houses. We finally saw some dall sheep today, up on the cliffs near Turnagain arm. There were four of them, just hanging around and eating. It's insane watching them walk along these mountain ridges hundreds of feet in the air, they're incredibly stable which is good since if they fell they'd land on the highway.
It was a pretty rainy day so we figured it was a good one to take a train and stay somewhat inside, but then spent most of our time on the train hanging out in the open-air junctions between the cars. The air was amazing and the views were spectacular. The railroad runs a program with the local highschool and juniors and seniors narrate the trip, which sounds pretty lame but is actually fantastic. We learned a ton of stuff about the area, and when we dropped off 95% of the train passengers at a cruise port there were only nine of us left including the guide and the forest services guy so we all sat up in the dome car and chatted until we got farther on and the rain let up. We got to about 1100 ft elevation, there were these huge shelters all along the route that permanently housed WWII Howitzers to control avalanche activity in the winters.
We saw one moose and alot of birds, three marmots and some mosquitoes the size of small birds, but still no bears. Soooo, on our way back to town the next day we spotted a conservation area and cheated!! More tomorrow 😊

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Photos

jono and shan on the train
waiting to go...

Your Very Own Airstrip
I think most of the people on the strip owned at least one plane. It might be hard to tell from this photo but this is actually someone's backyard.

Waiting
It took a loooong time to get out of Anchorage.

Turnagain Arm Tide
The tide was just starting to come in - the silt looks mottled and puddly because when the tide comes in the seawater actually rises up from underneath (this maeks the glacial silt incredibly sticky dangerous)

Dall Sheep
Not a great photo - we had to crane and zoom a bunch just so they wouldn't look like teeny white specks on the mountainside.

Yikes!
Here's a better picture of what the silt can look like when the tides out.

Earthquake Trees
When the earthquake hit in 1964, parts of the area dropped as much as ten feet. When this happened, saltwater from the tsunamis flooded the bogs where these trees grew, killing and effectively preserving them. They expect these trees to stand for about sixty more years.

Mountains from the Highway
still following the Seward highway to Girdwood...

Jono with the camera #1
Every so often Jon will ambush me with the camera.

Jono with the camera #2
This is when I watched the entire train get off to get on the cruise.

Jono with the camera #3
This is when we realized that we were going to be the only people left on the train, another twelve or so were dropped off to raft (float, really since there weren't any rapids)down the river. Suckers. It poured.

The Alaskan Rainforest
No joke, it really is a rainforest. It's temperate (ie. cold), just like BC.

Outside!
It finally stopped raining so we hung out outside for the rest of the trip. The air was fresh, cold and damp and totally amazing!

End of the Line
Yep, that's really it.

Class 4
These rapids are a class 4 and the picture doesn't do it justice - they were waaaaay below us.

Next Glacier
I forget which one this is, we saw a bunch.

Comments

[Ingrid]

Great pics!! I love the view from the end of the rail line...gorgeous...it makes you wanna keep walking off into the mountains :) Happy Travelling!!

[Christine]

hEy Hey!
Hey Shan and Jon Shan you look fantastic in these pictures!! :) Alaska does you well!! Can't wait to hear all about it! and Don't forget my post card!! Or I will never forgive you! haha! right... :)

[Maurice Osborne]

Those Crazy Alaskans
Hey Shannon, I hope you and John are having good clean alaskan fun out there. Make sure to remember that polar bears are much less cuddlier in person. Anyways just messaging you to let you know that our contracts came through a day before D-day and have been extended for 2 months in order to sort a long term solution out. Just thought we'd let ya know that you have a job to come back to. ERMD misses ya. Hope you're having a blast.