Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Alaska Travelog #7
Girdwood - Sat, 15 Jun 2024, 6:30pm

We paused on our road trip from Anchorage to Seward this afternoon to hike at Virgin Falls. Unlike the few stops we'd already made since leaving Anchorage at 4pm, this one was fully planned. ...Not that the others were unplanned. They were matters of, "We've got plenty of daylight, so we'll stop at roadside vistas as we go." I'll write about those in a blog when we finish this drive. For now it's just Virgin Fals, in the ski town of Girdwood.

Like Barbara Falls we hiked this morning, this trail wasn't well marked. I mean, the drive to the trail wasn't well marked. There were no brown traffic signs, nor even any green signs— heck, not even hand-written signs— directing visitors to the trailhead. There was just the end of a winding gravel road that threaded past wealthy people's ski homes with one small trailhead sign and lots of "NO PARKING" signs. Presumably the wealthy ski home owners don't want the riffraff here. Still, that one trailhead sign was one trailhead sign more than Barbara Falls. 😅



From the parking area a surprisingly short trail leads steeply uphill to and overlook above Virgin Falls. A foot trail also leads down to a spot near the creek. We lingered here several minutes before continuing on.

But Wait, There's More

When I wrote that this trail was surprisingly short, I meant that literally. The trail description on AllTrails.com— without which it would've been hard to find this hike, considering the seemingly deliberate lack of signage— says it's 0.5 miles roundtrip and 180' of ascent. Except the quick trail didn't feel like 0.25 miles of hiking, and it definitely didn't feel like we ascended 180'.

I consulted the AllTrails app on my phone to figure out how far we'd gone.... According it it we were less than halfway there, whatever "there" is.

The trail continued higher above these falls, so we continued higher.

It's not clear what the trail is supposed to go to. The falls we'd already seen are what almost everybody posts pictures on AllTrails about. Further up there are recent deadfalls on the trail, and at some point the trail becomes fairly indistinct. The trail seems to turn sharply to the side and climb straight up the side of the mountain, away from the creek. That seemed like the wrong way to get to higher up falls on the creek, if there even are higher falls, so we turned back.



On the way back down we spotted some falls higher up the creek than Virgin Falls. Call these... Upper Virgin Falls. Or maybe Middle Virgin Falls, if there's actually something higher up that we were supposed to see. These aren't at the "end" of the trail, so possibly there's something higher up we couldn't find. Or maybe natural changes like landslides and deadfalls have changed it. Either way, we enjoy these falls and the relative solitude we enjoyed at them. Most people turn around at the lower falls.



Here's a short video (above) of the upper falls. Enjoy the sights— and especially the sounds— of being alone with nature.

Alaska Travelog #5
Eklutna - Sat, 15 Jun 2024, 1:30pm

After hiking Barbara Falls this morning, we continued driving out from Anchorage to the northeast along state highway 1. We were going from Chugach State Park to... another part of Chugach State Park. Yes, it's a very big park. A quick map estimate is that it's 50 miles across.

The trailhead for Thunderbird Falls is way more official than Barbara Falls. First of all, there are signs on the highway for it. There's an official parking lot— with, of course, a parking fee required. But hey, at least Alaska has joined the 2020s here and installed a payment kiosk so we can pay with a credit card.

From the parking lot a steep fire-road trail leads up a ridge around the edge of the river gorge then more gently down to a viewing platform.



The views from the viewing platform are fine. Not great, but fine. To be great there'd have to be a slightly clearer view of the falls. Right now the trees are in full bloom so the view's a bit obstructed.

The trail here is shaped like the letter "h". It doubles back slightly from the upper viewing platform to switch back down the side of the gorge to the river level. Although lots of people around us on the crowded trail groaned about how steep it was, we looked forward to it for an opportunity to get a great close-up view of the falls, as we had at Barbara Falls. Plus, the steep uphill on this leg of the trail is on the return, so groaning on the way down is premature. 🤣



Alas the lower viewpoint did not provide us the vista we were hoping for. Only the very lowest part of the falls is visible from the bottom of the gorge. I tried climbing up a steep dirt slope to the right, working my way above the grassy outcropping on the right edge of the frame. The dirt felt very treacherous but I managed it in my new hiking boots. Even so, the view was no better up there. I'd have had to go even further up to see more... and as dicey as what I'd already climbed 20' up was, I was not going to go higher.

The way back up over the lip of the gorge was steep, too— though not treacherously so. I stopped to catch my breath several times.

"It harder coming up than going down, isn't it?" a stranger jibed.

"It's like going on vacation on your credit card," I responded.

In beauty I walk... and pay the bill in full at the end of the month.

Alaska Travelog #3
Anchorage - Sat, 15 Jun 2024, 10am

Last night as I learned our flight to Alaska would arrive 90 minutes late I rued getting to bed late and sleeping in late. It turns out only half of that came true. We did get to bed late— around 2:30am. But then I woke up at 7:30. I was still tired but could tell I wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep. I often refer to quick, no-frills hotel stays as "8 hours and a shower".... This one was 5 hours and a shower.

Oh, and while the hotel stay was mostly no-frills it certainly wasn't cheap. As part of how everything is expensive in Alaska, this room at a Hilton Home2 Suites (a limited-service brand similar to a Hampton Inn) cost over $300.

Just because I got only 5 hours of sleep, though, doesn't mean I checked out after 5 hours and a shower. No, after a relaxing shower I opened my computer (as did Hawk) to research places to go hiking today. We've found a couple places to stop on the drive from Anchorage to Seward and we've also found two waterfalls north of Anchorage. We'll take advantage of the ridiculously long days (sunset tonight is 11:40pm) by hiking those falls north of Anchorage after breakfast/before lunch then continue on our way south to Seward.

But we're also in no rush to start hiking, thanks to these ridiculously long days. After checking out from the hotel we stopped by a fast food restaurant for breakfast since I was famished, then visited a Walmart nearby to buy some groceries for the next few days. Oh, and a spray can of insect repellent. Multiple hiking blogs warned of hordes of mosquitos on the trails, and those pesky little blood-suckers sure love me. Well, now they're going to have to deal with my Cutter 40% DEET spray.

Alaska Travelog #1
Flying at 38,000' - Fri, 14 Jun 2024, 10pm

Things should have gone smoothly with our flight to Alaska this evening. We both got upgraded to first class... almost 36 hours ahead of time, even... and I finished up my work early this afternoon so we didn't have to rush getting up to SFO through rush hour traffic. We left comfortably at 4:15pm, anticipating not sweating traffic and still having enough time for an unhurried meal at the airport before boarding. And then, while we were in the car....



...United informed us our flight would be delayed. And it wasn't just a piddly 15 minute delay like Southwest informed us of 24 hours before our flight earlier this week (though that turned into 20-25 minutes late as systemic snags cascaded) but a 90 minute delay. Ah, well, so much for getting in to Anchorage at a halfway reasonable time. I was hoping to pick up our rental car around 11pm when the sun was still shining and see what an 11:40pm sunset looks like. Now we'll only get in at midnight, after sunset. And more importantly, getting in that late will make for a rough night with too little sleep and put us on the back foot for being able to enjoy our vacation. 😡

Well, at least we've got those first class upgrades. Not that first class is anything special. Service is still to United's "I'm sorry, did you ask for something? I was busy gossiping with my friend" standards. But at least it's a bigger seat for this 4½ hour flight.

This weekend I clicked into the place the final piece of our travel arrangements for visiting Alaska next month. I booked a rental car. I slept on doing this for a few weeks because prices with all the conventional car rental agencies (Avis, Hertz, et. al.) were absurd. Like, $1,000 for a 5-day rental absurd. Instead I booked with Turo, a C2C car rental arranger. Turo is like AirBnB for car rental.

I slept on booking with Turo for two weeks because I had doubts about how well it works. For example, our flight to Anchorage arrives at 11pm. We'd want to pick up the car around 11:30. But would a private owner be able to complete a business transaction at that hour? Ultimately the price difference was compelling— it's less than half the (huge) cost of a conventional rental, though for an older/smaller car— so I took the plunge and clicked "Buy".

The service suggested as my next step I install the app on my phone and message the car owner. "Hmm, good idea," I thought. I messaged the owner about the 11:30pm thing, explaining that if the late-night hour didn't work I could pick up the car early the next morning as we'd be staying in Anchorage that night.

"No problem with 11:30," she explained. The car would parked on a public street and have some kind of lock-box for me to get the key. "And the sun doesn't really set, so at 11:30pm you'll still be able to take pictures of the car."

Oookay, I wasn't expecting that, but it makes sense. Now I'm really looking forward to this trip into the land of the midnight sun!

Grand Cayman Travelog #18
Back at the Westin - Thu, 18 May 2023, 5pm

We often plan future trips when we're on a trip. Partly it's because we're in a traveling mindset while we're traveling, partly it's because being on a trip reduces by one the number of future travel plans we're juggling, open room in our priorities for planning something else.

On this trip in the Cayman Islands this past week we were discussing where to go in July. At the start of the year I'd penciled in a week-long trip to Alaska. As we've done nothing further to plan it since then, it's probably not happening. But maybe we could do a simpler, 4 day trip instead of a full week? And do it later than the holiday to find better availability? Yes, we're at a tropical beach and we're talking about Alaska.

Less than an hour ago my goal of visiting Alaska this summer became even less likely. That's because an email arrived from the King County prosecutors in Seattle that they're going back to trial with the defendant from that car crash 4.5 years ago. Yes, going back to trial because the previous trial ended in a hung jury.

The new trial starts June 12. I estimate that means we'll be needed either the end of that week or early the next. So it looks like our Juneteenth vacation will be, if we're lucky, staying a few extra days in Seattle.