Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
brought along to look for beluga whales feeding on salmon. We will know them when we
see them, their white backs stand out like flourescent lights against the grim gray of the
Knik.
The Knik is gray because it's filled with glacial silt washed downstream from the
Matanuska and Knik Glaciers. We keep going, past Elderberry Park to Westchester La-
goon. Shall we be seduced into staying by the view of the Chugach Mountains or that
little Hoby Cat sailboat scudding across the water? No, we pedal on, not running over that
pedestrian commuter, marching briskly to work with his briefcase in hand, and making
way for the power joggers in sweatbands and spandex shorts.
Another tunnel brings us back on the trail and to a riot of ragusa rose bushes that in
summer drench the air with their perfume. Watch out for those bladers, they take up both
lanes of the trail with their stroke. A little further and we come to the bridge over Fish
Creek. We park at the benches and get out the binoculars again. I've seen red fox, sandhill
cranes, a beaver, and countless mallards and Canada geese here. We look down channel
for more belugas feeding at the mouth of the creek. We stand in open-mouthed awe of the
view, Susitna, Foraker and Denali on the northern horizon and the Talkeetna Mountains in
the northeast.
All aboard and though you don't know it and I won't tell you where, we are passing the
homes of two ex-governors of the state of Alaska. Through the trees and up a little hill
and watch out for that malemute who is so happy to be off his leash that he wants to jump
up on the bike with you. A wide area opens into a fenced playing field with what looks
like one hundred screaming kids chasing after a soccer ball.
We come to another park with boulders and flowers opposite a set of benches. We stop
and say hello to the little old lady from Sweden and the Delta flight attendant from At-
lanta admiring the even more fabulous view of Susitna and Denali and now Spurr, and
maybe even Redoubt further south. A nice downhill slope, whee! but wait, we have to pull
over for thirty biked and helmeted fifth graders on their way to their class picnic, all of
them yelling “On your left!” at the top of their lungs as they pass by.
Over the hills and through the woods to Earthquake Park we go, where an exhibit illus-
trates the damage caused by the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964, when all these trees
