I went 20 miles north of Denali Park east of Healy and biked on what I think is Alaskan single track...ATV trails. Heading for the grassy ridge on the right. The top of the grassy ridge.
This is all near where a young man tried to get Into the Wild but died trying.
Put in about 3 hrs. which included a good hike-a-bike to the top of the ridge. The wind was blowing 30-40 mph up there, so didn't stay there long.
Started out from the far tip of Otto Lake. View from the top of grassy ridge.
Fireweed. After the ride found a restaurant that served a good local beer and also Alaskan Sea Scallops....yum, yum! Saw this in the restaurant, a painting of Mckinley under a full moon.
After lunch we got on the coach for a 4 hr. ride to Anchorage. Got to see some neat mountains near Wasila and Anchorage.
Didn't see Sarah anywhere!
The second to last night we were in Ketchikan, staying in the Gilmore downtown, about 10:30 or so we started to hear a lot of loud voices outside in the street. We were on the top, 3rd floor. I split the window drapes and I could see a guy standing almost below us.
He was standing right across from a bar that is next door to the Gilmore, called the Totem. The totem was the only bar we were told to stay away from when we first came to town and we talked to the person at the Visitors Center. Seems it gets a little rowdy at times.
I had popped into the Totem earlier in the day, about 5PM. While there, I got the feeling you get when you know people are looking at you. A very friendly guy sitting at the bar next to me told me that the locals hang out there and they have been known to get a little feisty at times. I left after 1 beer.
So, back to the guy in the street. I couldn't totally understand what he was saying, so I opened the window. When I looked out, we weren't the only ones who wanted to get a better listen. People from 4-5 of the rooms had their heads sticking out their windows.
A few of the people were heckling the scene below. I just notice we looked like Hollywood Squares and spoke out "Circle Gets the Square" which brought a few laughs.
Seems the guy on the street got thrown out, either by the management or another patron and he was told not to return. The guy stood in the middle of the street yelling he could go and do whatever he wanted and anything he pleased. About that time another guy came bolting out from the bar and it looked like he meant business. As he raced toward the middle of the street, the first guy turned and ran, away from the Gilmore and the spectators down a side ally with a not so friendly looking guy on his heels.
Within seconds, 3 police cars came up on the scene.
Well, we thought, that was interesting. We had an uneventful night from then on.
The next morning, due to wifi issues on the 3rd floor, I was having a cup of coffee sitting at a table on the landing of the 2nd floor. They had a public PC there, as well, but I was using my laptop.
A couple guys in their mid to late 30's were online and talking about issues with an airplane.
After a bit I started talking to the guys and asked them what the issue was, curious because we were going to be flying out the next morning.
Seems these guys were from lower Michigan. One had a private plane license and they flew up to Alaska and like us, Ketchikan was their last stop before heading home. When they landed a day or so before, one of the engines stated making noise and they were basically waiting for local mechanics to take care of their airplane problems.
I asked them if they heard the ruckus the night before and they asked what time, I said 10:30 or so and they said no, as they had been out checking out the local bar scene.
I asked how that went and they told me that had gotten kicked out of 2 bars. The first because the boyfriend of a gal that wanted to play pool with them didn't like that idea. They were told BYOW (Bring Your Own Women) and were asked to leave the bar.
After a couple words were exchanged the 2 guys left. Seems after a bit the boyfriend, with backup, followed the 2 guys to the next bar and had them tossed out of there, as well.
The guys then told me that they came back to the Hotel and they had talked a couple gals to join them. That's when the fun started. Seems a couple hours into the "getting to know you" routine, they fell asleep and the gals took all their cash and snuck out of the room.
But, that wasn't enough, they stopped at the front desk and called the cops to report they got raped!
The guys were cleared of the rapes but weren't able to get their cash back.
Hope they made it home ok.
Later that evening, while talking to the hotel manager, she informed me that the night clerk, who she went to HS with and she knew well, wrote up a detailed, very professional report as they are sometimes used as a court document. On a separate sticky note he wrote:
"I know that gal, she does this kind of stuff all the time!"
The gays out number the gals 10 to 1 in Alaska. But, as the women say up there: "The odds are good, but the goods are odd"
Final shots of Alaska.
Escargot anyone? Taken on my walk to the totem village near Ketchikan. Raining like hell! A real off road bike. Shots from the totem village in Saxman. I guess it's only fitting that we needed to take a ferry from downtown Ketchikan to the airport, which sits on a separate island than the island Ketchikan is on. 6:30 AM Over looking the Ketchikan harbor from our Hotel room at the Gilmore, our last night in Alaska, Nuff' said...... THE END
Art we ended up purchasing in Anchorage, Ketchikan and Juneau.
All pieces are native items, which includes: petrified mammoth bone, petrified moose/reindeer antler, current age reindeer/moose antler, walrus tusk (ivory), jade and marble.
The natives can kill walrus and use the ivory/tusks. Jade is the state gem-stone of Alaska and they have numerous varieties/shades of marble.
There is always a supply of petrified bones and antlers due to the gold digging in the mud and permafrost that has preserved these items for thousands of years.
We have the names and villages of the artists. All are up near Nome.
Ok, the Alaskan Amber beer bike jersey was not make in Alaska, got me there!
I liked the flow of this piece. The kayak appears to be at the top of the wave (petrified wolly mammoth bone.) The expression of the kayaker seems to be "oh shit!" The kayak is walrus jawbone and kayaker ivory. Beaver skin surrounds the cockpit opening.
The artist that did this piece is from Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. Lynn picked these out. She liked the smiley/contented face of the Eskimo. We didn't see any green polar bears, though. This small piece was neat in it's simplicity. A carving of a kayaker with a speared seal. The base is petrified whale rib bone (appr. 2,000 years old) and the carving was done on petrified caribou antler. (appr. 200 years old) Couldn't seem to get a real clear pic of it for some reason.I think we did some decent negotiating on all of the pieces above, except for the jersey (it was priced decently, anyway). Basically got 30-35% off list price. Cash.
This Eagle was on display as a way to raise funds for an animal shelter associated with the Southeast Discovery Center in Ketchikan. The Eagle had gotten it's back talon cut off when it stepped in a trap. Without it, it couldn't grasp it's food or perch too well. Eagles and other raptures frequently go after the bait in a trap and get wounded or even die. Look left. Look right. Look down. Look OUT!
Ya gotta click on this pic and expand it then center it on your screen. Feel free to use it...but don't sell it!!!
They had a Screech Owl there, as well. It was raining when we were watching the birds.
If I've got my numbers correct, Alaska has 1/2 of the total number of Eagles found in the 50 United States. Of that number, 50% of them live in SE Alaska. As it rains 220-250 days a year in and around Ketchikan, it was no wonder that the Ranger was making a little fun of the women who thought him cruel a few days previous who felt he should have an umbrella the eagle could sit under. When it rains too hard, they take them back to the shelter.
We went to a museum that housed a number of original totems, all sealed in glass to keep the Western Red Cedar from rotting. The Natives felt that as the totems were made in large part as memorials, they should only last as long as a human life, which is about how long it took a cedar to rot once cut.
Many of the totems one sees outside in SE Alaska are replicas or were made by the CCC back in the 30's to make work and to try to preserve the art of totem making, the designs of the old totems and the stories they told.
Some, like the one below, are left to the whims and designs of nature.
Ever wonder how the South Eastern boundary line was developed between Alaska and Canada? The major one in the north, which follows the 141st meridian was established as mining was beginning in earnest. That line seems pretty straight forward.
The boundary in SE Alaska is what got me curious. How was it developed, as it certainly does not follow a straight line. What was behind it?
Well, it all started in 1493-94, only a couple years after Columbus discovered American.
" in 1493 the papal bull Inter caetera and rights contained in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas; these two formal acts gave Spain the exclusive rights to colonize all of the Western Hemisphere (excluding Brazil), including the exclusive rights to colonize all of the west coast of North America."
Later in 1513 "Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean for the Spanish Crown, as well as the lands touching it, including all of the west coast of North America. This action of Balboa further solidified the Spanish claim of exclusive control over the entire west coast of North America."
In 1774 Juan Perez was commissioned to head north to re-establish Spanish ownership, as Spain hadn't really done much to secure their lands for the 250 years between the Balboa and Perez journeys.
They sent Perez north to re-establish ownership as the Brits and the Russians were basically taking over the land. Due to bad weather, Perez could not get past current day Queen Charlotte Island, which is part of Canada today....54 degrees 40' north.
This documented position became the south boundary of Russian ownership and held when Russia sold Alaska to the USA.
Now, how did the interior line moving up from 54 degrees 40' to 141st meridan get settled?
Bottom line, it was settled to be the line made from the highest peak to the next highest peak along the north/south coast range of moutains, but the boundary line along the mountain summits was never to be farther inland than ten marine leagues (about 50 kilometers) from the ocean, until such place the line hit 56 degrees north, then the 141st meridian took over.
That was all well and good, but the Americans claimed the 50 kilometers should start at the head (furthest inland) and the Brits/Canada felt it should be from the mouth (at the ocean).
If the Brits would have won the decision, Skagway and Haines would be Canadian towns and Canada would also have had a seaport north of Vancouver. Those damn seawater "canals"!
Blue: USA claimed line
Red: British claimed line
Yellow: Current boundary
This map of Wrangell/St. Elias Park gives an idea how that worked. If you go to VIEW MAP on the website and zoom just a bit then look at the southern portion of the park, you can see the boundary line as it goes from peak to peak between Alaska and Canada. Cool!
The Grand Compromise:
Back in the late 60's, when the richest oil field in North America (on state-owned land) was discovered at Prudhoe Bay, decades old land ownership issues had to be settled once and for all. Why? The Alaskan pipeline. Who owned the land the pipeline was going to be built one?
The Native Alaskans knew that the Reservation/land ownership method in the lower 48 did not work with those Native Americans, so the Native Alaskans wanted to come up with a different and better "solution" before they were forced on Reservations. They had a unique situation, in that their law-suits and claims were being recognized in Federal court. They were being heard and won't just be forced to Reservations like what happened in the lower 48 in the 1800's.
Then Pres. Nixon was getting pressure because the pipeline was going to have to cross millions of acres of land of which ownership was in dispute. The Dept. of the Interior could not grant permits, due to the court claims by the Native Alaskans, due in large part to Secretary of the Interior, Morris Udall, who, under Pres. Johnson, installed a "land freeze" that the courts upheld until ownership and the claims by the Natives could be determined.
So, to get off of 50 years of law-suits that the Natives started in the 1920's, Nixon, the Native Americans, Conservationists and the oil industry "compromised".
Conservation and pollution was just getting to be a big deal and only Congress had the power to resolve the issue of land ownership due to the Udall law of freezing federal lands pending resolution of Native American claims.
Nixon and the oil industry knew they needed a different approach and got behind the Natives cause. The Democrats, under conservation and it's possible effect on the local ecology, opposed the pipeline outright.
Nixon agreed to veto anything the Natives did not agree with. A grand compromise took shape. For oil and the State, Congress then passed a law providing right-of-way to build the pipeline including all environmental lawsuits and policy requirements. In exchange the Natives got 44 million acres of land and $1 Billion which was entrusted to a newly formed corporation whose stockholders were all Alaskan Natives.
For conservationists, 80 million acres eventually became all the national parks we now have in Alaska. Even with all this, Congress tied on the vote and then Vice Pres. Agnew had to cast the deciding vote to make it happen.
The book spent a number of pages on the topic. The same book, by the way, that Lynn bought last year and gave to me last Christmas with a note inside that read "We're going in 2009". The book was the basis of where and how we'd travel and the sights we wanted to see.
But it wasn't over. ANILCA marked the end of who owns over 100 million acres in Alaska. In the end, the answer of ownership of a large part of Alaska became, "We do" meaning all Americans.
The impression I got from the book, and from actually asking questions and listening to the locals the 3 weeks I was up there, is that because so much of Alaska is controlled by Washington D.C. because so much of the land is public (parks) and National lands, National control and government influence is everywhere which over rides local decisions and possible local needs.
Some of the locals resent this and some don't, as Alaska has become the playground for the lower 48 to some. But, other States have National Parks, as well.
68% of Alaska is publicly owned. Over 200 million acres. For reference, the state of California is approximately 100 million acres.
It's an interesting history.
Public Lands in Alaska
Alaska contains over 200 million acres of federal public lands - lands owned by each and every American. Your lands in Alaska include 15 National Parks, 16 National Wildlife Refuges, and our nation's two largest national forests.
Alaska's public lands offer incredible wildlife habitat, opportunities for solitude, and spectacular scenery.
Current Land Statistics in Alaska National Public Land Ownership
National Park Lands:
52.9 million acres (68% of nation’s total acreage)
33.5 million acres in wilderness
National Wildlife Refuge Lands
72.4 million acres (83% of nation’s total acreage)
18.7 million acres in wilderness
National Forest Service Lands
22.5 million acres (The nation’s two largest National Forests – Tongass more than 3 times larger than any other)
5.8 million acres in wilderness
BLM lands: Approximately 70 million acres
Alaska contains 365,500,000 acres of land
Reference Point: CA is approximately 100 million acres
Heading for the grassy ridge on the right.
The top of the grassy ridge.
After the ride found a restaurant that served a good local beer and also Alaskan Sea Scallops....yum, yum!
Saw this in the restaurant, a painting of Mckinley under a full moon.
