ronveenstra.com::Alaska Day 2

Story Time: I've driven a stick shift car a total of once... during a semi-successful attempt to teach me how to drive manual. Adam and Lisa were going to let me use their car, but there was a mix-up or something, so the only vehicle around was the truck... a stick shift truck. So my task was to drive the truck from Wasilla to Anchorage, and then swap the truck for the car at Lisa's work, and then continue on my way. I actually started out okay, and managed to not stall it at all in Wasilla, and made it onto the highway no problem. I seemed to have a bit of trouble hitting all the gears, as I typically went from 1 - 2 - 5. I wasn't in a hurry, so it didn't matter much. Once I got into the city, things got worse. First off, there are a lot of traffic lights. I hit every single one red, and then either stalled or squealed the tires. Not great. Problem #2: I couldn't find the hospital. Well, that's not quite the exact truth: I couldn't determine which hospital was the correct one, so I ended up parking in 4 different parking lots before finally making it to the right one. Pulling out of the 2nd parking lot, I stalled it 3 or 4 times, while a cop waited for me, and then squealed the tires something awful right in front of him. Thankfully, my look of complete incompetence coupled with my "wha?" shrug probably convinced him it was not intentional. Finally, I arrived here, and parked it, and considered that adventure over.

I'm now in the car, and on my way to some fine hiking. The highway runs along Cook Inlet for quite a while, and the view is just spectacular. There are a number of scenic parking stops along the way, and I think I stopped at most of them.

So here is one of the first stopping points. It was a little overcast, and was supposed to rain art of the day, but it still looked gorgeous.

It's Me! See that hoodie? We'll be seeing a lot of it this week. FYI: Alaska is kinda cold.

I got pretty good at setting the timer on my camera, then running into the shot and posing just in time for the click.

So I'm driving to a trail that's by the Alyeska resort. I've already gotten lost once, but I'm getting close now, and it's begun to rain.

I've now arrived, and I'm beginning the hike.

One thing I noticed while out in Alaska was that they don't really have big, thick-trunked trees. They all look like this here.

The first part of the trail was fairly monotonous, with fairly thick forest on both sides.

Then I arrived at Winner Creek. It was beautiful.

I hung out by the river for a while, taking pictures, and just sort of enjoying the view.

I went down for a closer view.

A dude with ski poles caught up with me, and we took each other's picture. I've got a backpack filled with granola bars and batteries. I'm also jangling my keys so a bear won't show up and try to steal my wallet.

Ski Pole man told me (and this girl I met on the trail) that there was an overlook if we headed off the trail a bit, and so I've headed up there.

The creek picks up speed a bit here.

Here's a shot from the top of that overlook. (the other pictures were from around that bridge)

artsy.

I'm back on the trail, and approaching the hand-tram.

And here's the hand-tram. You pass over the creek in this little car, and you either pull yourself along, or if dudes are hanging out on the wides, they can help out.

At this point, the creek is a long ways down.

Here's that tram.

Off it goes.

I'm using that Chrome setting all the time now. I think it made this photo pop.

Just beautiful.

I'm now on a small bridge along the creek. I've made it to the end, and am on my return trip, and ventured a little ways off the trail again.

I love this picture

Go Cubs!

This is the very start of the trail.. I've almost made it back to the Resort.

And here's the view up the mountain

Here is the Tram that'll take me up the mountain.

Here's the view while riding on the tram.

The view back down the tram line.

This is the complex atop the mountain.

You can see we're quite a ways up.

Also, I might blow up.

The clouds are starting to roll in, but there are trails headed further up the mountain, so that's where I was headed.

That girl in red there was the girl I met on the trail. I dubbed her "Cute California Cruise Girl", because she was cute, from California, she came to Alaska on a cruise with her family, and she was a girl. Also, I enjoy alliteration.