Earthquake!!

Today I was sitting at my desk, working away, minding my own business. I was listening to music with headphone because one of my office-mates was discussing his project with a coworker. All of a sudden my desk started to move around. I thought that the office-mate was kicking my desk, and I thought that this was very rude. But then I realized that the whole room was moving back and forth, side to side. It took me a good ten seconds to realized that I was in an earthquake.

The lights were swinging back and forth and the building was kind of groaning. I am on the 13th floor (lucky). I had never been in an earthquake before and it was very interesting to feel how everything moves, first up and down and then side to side. It felt as if I got up out of my chair too fast and got really dizzy. It went on for about a minuter or so and then everything was back to normal. My first instinct was to run to the window to 'see the earthquake,' like it was a tornado or something. Obviously, there was nothing to see.

The USGS later said that it was a 5.4 size earthquake on the Richter Scale, which is the largest one that Anchorage has had this year. The epicenter was 50 miles away. Luckily, it wasn't so large that we had to dive under our desks or anything like that. Evidently, the ConocoPhillips building is designed to withstand pretty sizable earthquakes without damage.

Happy Solstice in Alaska: Flat Top

I have a new holiday. June doesn't really have any good holidays, so now I will celebrate Solstice Day. So Happy Solstice to you all.

This year to celebrate, I climbed Flat Top Mountain with a couple of my friends. We started hiking in bright daylight, at 10:00pm. It was by far, the windiest conditions I had ever hiked in. In some places, I think it must have been blowing over 60 mph. My hands were very frozen all the way up and my checks felt like they were on fire. Part of our group decided to turn back early, and four of us continued to suffer up to the top. When I finally made it to the top, I knew why the wind was blowing so hard. There was a gigantic storm in the higher mountains to the west of us, and it was blowing rain all the way to us from more than 30 miles up the valley.

View of the sun starting to set from halfway up. 11:45 pm

At the top we joined a group of about 20 people just sitting around having a good time at the top. One said he planned to bring his trampoline up this year, but because of the wind, thought better of it. We sat a talked about our travels with the people, snapped some pictures, and decided it would be best if we headed down. It was about 45 deg and the wind was carrying rain from the storm, and I was the only one with a wind-proof jacket. Well my jacket is supposed to be wind proof, but it wasn't working quite as well as the name implies.

Me against the storm. The wind was blowing.

As we left, the people told us we had to wait just a little longer, until 12:15 am. When officially the sun goes below the horizon. We counted down from ten and then all screamed, "HAPPY SOLSTICE!" It was just like new years, except no kissing. After that we said our goodbyes, and everyone wished us a happy solstice. As we were going down, people were still coming up, and it was 12:30 am! Even though the sun was below the horizon, there was still plenty of light to see by, and I felt a little bit like a tourist because I was carrying a flashlight that I definitely didn't need. Although there was one guy that topped me in the tourist no-nos: one old man had a pick-ax for a mountain with no snow, and a pistol-grip shotgun in case he saw a bear. Nowhere else in America will you see people carrying shotguns on hikes within a city - or anywhere.

Wishing all in this picture a happy solstice, especially incredibly-loud-jacket-man (from Austria?) and Jeremy (in black with the beard)

Mayor's Marathon

Today I ran the Mayor's Marathon. Okay, not the whole thing, just part. They had options where you could just do part. I don't think that I would have difficulty doing a marathon right now, if I went slow enough, but I don't like running six miles, much less 26.2. I'll ride my bike incredibly long distances to feel accomplished. I also went on a 30 mile bike ride today, so overall I burned around 4000 calories. But it's not over....

This afternoon I did rest and watched Warren Miller movies, which is this guy that films skiers doing incredible things. A lot of the shots he does are in my backyard, Girdwood, which arguably has some of the best heli-skiing in the world. Or so the Alaskans say.

Tonight is the solstice! Hoorah. To Texans, this is not a big deal, but to Alaskans it's a huge party. I will partake, Alaskan style of course, by climbing one of the tallest mountains in the area (Flat Top) and then hanging out until the sun sets! The idea is that by going to altitude you can see the sun just a little bit longer. This is a bittersweet moment, because we are in the middle of summer, which brings relative warmth (highs of 70 deg), but now for the rest of the year, the sun comes out less and less.

I really want to swim and get some sun. I have seen some of my friends' pictures on Facebook, sitting out at the pool and getting a tan. No such luck here. I suppose I could always jump in Cook Inlet- for about 30 seconds before I start to get hypothermia. Maybe I can find an indoor pool with UV radiation lamps. As Warren Miller says, "You better do it now, or you'll be one year older when you do."

Hike over Anchorage and the missile base

I had another successful hike to the not so great unknown mountainous parts of Alaska. I had heard about some great views of Anchorage from the top of this hike and that it wasn't too hard, so I invited all the interns to go as a group. We ended up with seven people: Me, Kirsten, Joey, Aubrey, Mike, Mike's wife Jessie, and their baby Lilly. It was a good group. Joey and Kirsten were still in the mindset of hiking in Texas, so they both wore shorts. I know that there were times on the hike where I was a little cold wearing pants, long sleeved shirt and a jacket, so they must have been freezing! Really, it was the wind and lack of direct sunlight that made it cold. This was supposed to be one of the windiest parts of Anchorage.

Before we got to the top, the Mike Morgan family decided to turn back because the baby was heavy. I don't blame them. I don't think I would want to carry a baby either! The view from the top was very nice, and it was cool to see all of Anchorage as if I was looking at Google Earth.

Pictures!

Aubrey, Kirsten, And Joey hiking up

On the top with Anchorage behind us

On the top

Racing in Anchorage

I went out to my first Alaskan race today. It was great!! It was a TT on Fort Richardson, which is a US AMRY and Marines bases. My TT skills were definitely lacking because I have been going on 80+ mile rides at low intensity. Plus in general, I don't like TT's. I like the game that you play when you are in a large peloton or breaking away from said peloton. But it was fun to say the least.

Racing definitely got my competitive spirit going again. My drive for riding was starting to wane, but one good race and I'm back in it 100%. I guess I just love the competitive drive aspect of sports, biking in general. Also the friendships gained on rides are priceless.

I also thought that I might be better than everyone here because their season starts in May and goes to September, while Austin cycling season is pretty much year round. This is simply not the case. I forgot about cross-training with cross-country skiing! There are some fast guys up north, and there will be some great competition for me.

The next race is on Saturday, which is also the summer solstice. The plan is to race in the morning/afternoon, and then climb Flat Top Mountain to watch the sun set at 12:30 am. Should be fun!!

Casual Ride .... Maybe still interesting?

I went on a ride today that was pretty interesting. Of course, it rained.... again. I am getting used to the rain though. In Austin, I would never ride in the rain. I think I did it once. It rains so seldom that you can just wait for a nice day. Here it rains every other day at least, so you would never get any training in if you didn't want to be in the rain. Actually, today I didn't even expect it to rain, but sure enough it did. When I get back to Texas this Fall/Winter, I imagine I will be able to ride through anything.

I saw ANOTHER moose today. Actually, just about every time I go biking I see at least one moose. At first I thought this was really cool to see such a large animal, but actually they are quite annoying. This one was a bull that had just started to grow antlers and was straddling the trail. There was no feasible way that I was going to get around. I sat there pondering what to do for a couple of minutes until another biker screeched to a halt behind me. He said he knew another route and so I followed him around for a while, which was aggravating because A: he went incredibly slow, and B: he insisted on riding on the sidewalks, which I abhor. It's a sideWALK, not a sideride. That's called a bike lane. But no matter.

Not so paved..........

My goal today was to combine two routes that I really have grown to like. One kind of hard to get to, but I figured I could find a way around. I looked on Google Earth to try to find unmarked paved paths and/or roads and... was successful! On GoogleEarth, you can plainly see a path, or something, that connects the two roads. So I set out on my journey. Come to find out, the 'road/path' was not as paved as I thought. It was actually a dirt trail. HUH. Well I had no other option so I just went down this path on my road bike. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. So yeah. With the rain, though my bike got really dirty. Oh well, I guess I'll have to clean it again!

Not long after I hit the dirt, I wasback on the pavement and the rest of the ride went smoothly. And Wet.

I thought this sign was hilarious. Don't see many of these in Texas.....

Bird Ridge Hike

On Wednesday, I did the Bird Ridge hike, which goes to an overlook of the Cook Inlet. It is about a 15 minute drive from Anchorage, so it is a perfect hike to do right after work. Plus the sun is up until at least 1:00 am (haven't stayed up later...) so there is no chance of getting caught in the dark.

It's very comical to me, but I think that Alaskans have never heard of switchbacks. They probably think a 'switchback' is some sort of camel. Actually switchback camel has a nice ring to it. I joked with on fellow hiker something about how "you Alaskans don't know what switchbacks are, obviously!" He replied, "Ah yeah we don't need 'em." I said, " well you're going to have erosion problems on this trail soon," and he asked me what erosion is. This conversation brings up two interesting points about Alaskans that I find very interesting. One, they are convince their ruggedness translates to superiority, and two, they seem to love being in the outdoors but don't really care what they do to their environment.

To understand point one, all you have to do is mention something about the lower 48 to any true Alaskan. Anything that you bring up will be harsher, colder, bigger, pricier, or more hard core than it is in the lower 48. This, for the most part is true. Especially the price part. Food has to be about 1.5 times more expensive here. Also, it is much colder. I, in fact, am cold all the time, but I'm getting used to it. I would agree that Alaska is more rugged or hardcore than anywhere else I've been. Also the ruggedness is closer in proximity to major cities (major being Anchorage, pop. 250,000). An Alaskan's logic would say that the rugged climate breeds more rugged people. This might be true, but they also think that this means that they are superior, which is simply false. Everybody knows that Texans are superior to everybody.

Point number two: every Alaskan that I have met seems to love the outdoors, but doesn't really care about the environment. This is quite different from the lower 48 stigma that only hippies and environmentalists go on hikes to the mountains. Everyone enjoys the outdoors here. But nobody cares about erosional problems caused by not having adequate switchbacks on trails. If a trail went straight up a mountain in Colorado, someone would quickly make switchbacks so that there would be minimal impact on the environment. In Alaska, if you want to get to the top of a hill, you walk straight up the ridge until you get there. Nobody cares about erosion. I have a theory to why this is: its not that Alaskans are intrinsically uncaring, it's just that they have come to realize that there are so few people in Alaska, it doesn't really matter where you go, you still won't impact the vast spaces. In Colorado, if there is a magnificent view two miles from the highway, you will soon have to concrete the path because hundreds of thousands of people a week will want to do that hike. I guess in Alaska, if everyone in the entire state did the hike once a week, they might have to take the same measures.

Bird Ridge was no exception to the lack of switchbacks and went straight up a ridge for 2000 ft of vertical elevation gain in four miles. While we hiked, the Cook inlet tide was coming in. It was neat to see how the water rises from an areal point of view. The top of the ridge was breath taking and had 360 degree views of mountains and snow. I couldn't believe that we had just driven 15 minutes out of Anchorage for this! I still had 3G service on my phone! I used this in fact on the way down, to the dismay of my hiking buddies, to call Ally and my parents. It was funny because when you ask someone what they are up to at the first of a conversation, you never expect them to say, "Oh, just hiking down a mountain."

Anyways, here are some pictures below. It's supposed to rain the rest of the weekend so I'm sure I'll have some ridiculous story about how I rode my bike in the rain, which is really gross here because of all the sand they use for the snow in winter. I guess no one bothers to pick it up.

Sorry to nerd out, but this is a perfect example of a glacially formed valley. Notice the 'U' instead of the 'V' that you usually see with river formed valleys.


Bird that tried to attack me and then sat very still for a picture. Ptarmigan, I believe.


Turagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. This was soon full of water.


Beautiful Fireweed in the mountains.