AUGUST 25-26, 2010

8/25-26/10
On way to Valdez we passed thru Wrangell-St Elias National Park-the largest Ntl Park in US- (6 times size of Yellowstone). Onto Valdez, traveling past glacier mountains, along the Alaskan pipeline into the city. Scenery breathtaking at each turn in road, can’t get over the sights. (History lesson on glaciers for G-Kids to follow.)

Valdez was an interesting place to stop, have to mention a wonderful sea life ceramic installation/art at ferry dock, (check out post card pix). Boarded ferry for Whittier, the trip down Valdez bay was full of wonderful sights going into Prince William Sound-lots of I wouldn’t have expected-small icebergs and close up whale sightings. Departing the ferry in Whittier a picturesque town, but only exit out of Whittier thru a one lane train tunnel, seemed odd as cars/rvs are kept in line waiting till oncoming traffic and train are moved thru. Next direction to Kanai Peninsula and stayed overnight on Russian River state camp grounds at the junction of Kanai River, took a great (first one) hike along river loaded with salmon swimming upstream and laying eggs, and fly fishermen. So many interesting things to see, and trying hard to get them all in...

If this blog seems more like a log, it is due to the consistant amount of driving. We have a very bad habit of just moving to the next stop. Gotta slow down.................

Now that we have arrived at the furthest point of Kanai Peninsula, called the Homer spit, the end of the road, I hope we begin to slowly trace our way back. Across the Kachamack Bay we are looking out at wonderful snow covered and glacial mountains, just next to a commercial fishing dock, and enjoying the sights of a quaint fishing village.


TRIVIA: Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population was 5,364. One of Homer's nicknames is "the cosmic hamlet by the sea"; another is "the end of the road". Tiller digs indicate that early Alutiq people probably camped in the Homer area although their villages were on the far side of Kachemak Bay.
Coal was discovered in the area in the 1890s. The Cook Inlet Coal Fields Company built a town, dock, coal mine, and a railroad at Homer. Coal mining in the area continued until World War II. There are an estimated 400 million tons of coal deposits still in the area.
Homer was named for Homer Pennock, a gold mining company promoter, who arrived in 1896 on the Homer Spit and built living quarters for his crew of 50 men. However, gold mining was never profitable in the area.
Notable people from or living in Homer include:
Tom Bodett, writer, known for the Motel 6 "We'll leave the light on for you"
and book about Homer, As Far as You Can go Without a Passport.

Homer has long been known as the "halibut fishing capital of the world" and halibut and salmon sport fishing, along with other tourism, commercial fishing, and logging are the dominant industries in the Homer area. Homer co-hosted the 2006 Arctic Winter Games. The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve co-host the visitor center with displays such as "Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center"

GLACIERS - Glacier Heaven - Southeast Alaska
Alaska has hosted a glacier-favoring mixture of climate and topography for the last 12.5 million years. During the Pleistocene age, when the climate was 3 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit colder than it is today, an ice sheet covered a large expanse of the earth, including the islands of southeastern Alaska. Today there are still over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska, although ice covers only 5 percent of the state. The icefields and glaciers of the Tongass National Forest are some of the few remnants of the once-vast ice sheets.

In Southeast Alaska, maritime climate and coastal mountains work together to create favorable conditions for glaciation. The icefields straddle the Coast Mountain Range on the United States-Canadian border, directly in the path of the Pacific Ocean's prevailing winds. Moist air flows toward the mountains, rises, cools, and releases snow and rain. Annual snowfall on the Juneau Icefield exceeds 100 feet, and mild Southeast summers assure that winter snow accumulation exceeds summer snowmelt at higher elevations.
As the Earth Turns - Changes Affect Glaciers
Weather and terrain are not the only factors that make glaciation possible. One widely accepted theory suggests that Pleistocene glacial and inter-glacial periods resulted from the Earth's orbital-rotational cycles. Swings in the tilt of the Earth's spin axis and the shape of the Earth's orbit interact, varying the amount of seasonal sunshine that the Earth receives in certain areas. These changes in seasonal intensity may affect ocean currents that ultimately influence the climate.
What is a Glacier?
Glaciers, perennial accumulations of ice, snow, sediment, rock and water, respond to changes in temperature, snowfall and geologic forces. Several components make up a glacial system: the ice and sediment contained in the glacier; the valleys, fiords and rock features it flows over, on, or around; and the deposits left by its retreat or advance.
New snow layers create pressure on existing layers of snow and ice. This process, "firnification", changes snow to firn, a dense granular snow (like corn snow). After the first season's melt, snow becomes firn. As it is compressed further, firn becomes ice.
As the snow collects over many years, an ice field forms. Ice flows down the valleys and slopes of the mountains to the lower elevations, and glaciers are born.
Anatomy of a Glacier
Glaciers form where more snow falls than melts. A glacier's accumulation area, located at higher elevations, accrues a wealth of snow and ice. The ablation area, located at lower elevations, loses ice through melting (downwasting) or calving. A glacier's terminus or face advances when more snow and ice amass than melt, and it retreats when melt exceeds accumulation. When melt equals accumulation, a glacier achieves equilibrium and its face remains stationary. Whether the glacier's face is advancing or retreating, glacial ice persistently glides down-valley.
Coerced by gravity, ice pursues the path of least resistance. Ice depth and bedrock angle influence the rate of glacial flow. Glaciers contain two zones of ice flow. The zone of plastic flow, ice closest to the bedrock, experiences extreme pressure from the weight of the ice above and conforms to the anomalies in the bedrock. The zone of brittle flow, the upper 150 feet of glacial ice, lacks this pressure and reacts inelastically to the bedrock features, forming elongated cracks called crevasses which fluctuate with the glacier's flow. Tubular chutes or moulins drain surface meltwater, and formidable spires of ice called seracs reach skyward. Ice plummets over particularly steep terrain creating ice falls. One theory suggests that differences in seasonal flow rates over an icefall create the convex bands called ogives at the base of the falls, which undulate down glacier. The erosive power of glacial flow changes the landscape and scrapes much of the soil and rock from the valley walls that channel its irrepressible flow.