Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
we're standing in the middle of used to be a subdivision. If we follow the spur to the park-
ing lot, there are wild strawberries to be picked, if I show you where.
Back on the trail, it's all uphill to Point Woronzof, where when we've rounded the
curve it's not Knik Arm anymore, it's Turnagain Arm, so called because when Captain
Cook arrived here on June 1, 1778 and anchored up between Fire Island (that's Fire Is-
land) and Possession Point on the Kenai Peninsula (that's the Kenai Peninsula beyond Fire
Island), he thought that at last he'd found the elusive northwest passage. When he found
he hadn't after all, he had to turn again.
The brakes are off and zoom! down a steep hill you fly, beneath the Alaska Airlines 737
on a short final into Ted Stevens International Airport, past the parking lot full of cars
driven by those who aren't smart enough to be on a bike, and back into the woods. Watch
out for moose, and watch for eagles and if we're very lucky, lynx. If we're unlucky, we
will annoy a northern goshawk, who will swoop down and make off with our caps and
maybe even our jackets. But usually they only go after skiiers, so relax.
The sun filters through the trees and glitters off the water of Turnagain Arm and there's
nothing but you and me and the bikes and the trail and the lovers embracing on the
benches as we flash by. The trail turns inland and upwards. A stop in the shade to breathe
and we emerge at the end of the trail behind the Kincaid Park Chalet, eleven miles since
Second Avenue. We go past the chalet to the top of the old World War II bunker, dismount
and get out our water bottles. The view in panoramic, revolve in place and see the Kenai
Mountains, Turnagain Arm, the Kenai Peninsula, south all the way to Redoubt and some-
times even Iliamna, Fire Island, Susistna, Denali, the jets landing at Stevens International,
the Talkeetnas and the Chugach Mountains.
I've sat on the roof of that bunker for hours at a time, filling my eyes with the view. If
you do one thing in Anchorage when you visit, do this.
Okay. So we didn't have winter this year. I'll leave my skis in their hangers and my
skates in their bag. There's always next year.
For now, there's my bike and me and the Coastal Trail. On your left!
