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These are the Chronicles of Famous Surf Writer Ben Marcus and his trip into the Wilds of the Alaskan Frontier.
Latest Update:
September 30, 2000


(Tidal Bore Photos Click Here)

12:28 AM ROOM 117, MARINA MOTEL, SEWARD ALASKA

Wow, another Alaska day, from Valdez to Anchorage to Seward. Lost my ATM card but saw a tidal bore, x-ing off another Natural Phenomenon from the list of must-sees.

In between those extremes, I saw some surreal, glacial landscape, then plunged from that into the lush Matanuska valley. In Anchorage I found the Reeve Aleutian Airlines desk at the airport, but arrived too late to see our plane take off. I did buy a Reeve Aleutian Airlines lapel pin though, so it wasn't a total loss. But the tidal bore was the highlight. It was sheer luck, and I felt lucky. Now I'm in Seward, in a room with phones that don't work properly, but I feel good.

But let's roll back to last night. After successfully walking out of the Pipeline Club with my laptop without getting rousted, I looked up and saw some eerie, ethereal lights shining up from behind the mountains, like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They were throwing a weird glow directly over the Big Dipper. Being the international traveler that I am, I knew what was up. My friend, the Aurora Borealis.

There was too much light in Valdez, so I drove to the other side of the bay to get a clearer view. Turns out I had my directions all wrong, but when I figured out what north really was, I got a pretty decent Northern Lights show. Not nearly as intense as what we saw in Norway, but still pretty good. The Northern Lights are great. If ever there was a natural phenomenon to make you think the Gods were active, that's the one. How else to explain it?

Chasing the Northern Lights also gave me an excuse to drive around with the heat on, before sacking out in the van. I slept okay that night in the RV park, although I couldn't get the cable to work. It wasn't overly cold in the morning. But Valdez probably stayed in the 40s all night. Like I said, it's tropical here by the sea.

First thing I did when I woke up was go to an ATM at Alaska Bank. I got $100, but left my ATM card there, I think. Shit. It might be in the van, but I think it's in an ATM in Valdez.

Drove out of Valdez without further ado, and retraced my steps over the Thompson Pass, which was just as big and craggy and snowy and spectacular in reverse.

After a long road out through fall color, over many creeks and rivers and past Mount Wrangell and Mount Sanford, I turned left at Glenallen, which put me on the highway toward Anchorage. Mount Sanford stayed in my rear-view mirror for a long, long time. Hours, it seemed like, and the terrain to my left got surreal. There was a long, deep valley with snow-covered mountains on the other side, with a glacier here and there. It looked surreal, like a set for a Wagner opera, or a Star Wars movie. It looked like a special effect.

I stopped for lunch at a diner with a view up one of the glaciers, the Tazlina Glacier, with Mount Valhalla and Mount Marcus Baker looming over it all.

That went on for many many miles, but eventually that valley sloped down to Matanuska Glacier, which dribbled brown and yucky out of a long valley. This was the start of the Matanuska Valley, an agriculture area renowned for nuclear cabbages and carrots, and lethal marrywanna.

Once again, Alaska went from arctic to lush in 100 miles. The fall color came back, and it was actually hot outside.

This place. Sheesh.

The Matanuska Valley rolled into Palmer, and I started seeing fancy cars like Jaguars and a convertible Volvo. Civilization was near.

Anchorage kind of gave me the creeps at first: strip-malls, fast-food stands, used-car lots. I was ready to be overwhelmed and revulsed by a big, dopey American city, but it turned out to be not so bad.

I drove around looking for the International Airport, hoping to take a photo of that Reeve Aleutian flight to Petropavlovsk as it took off.

I found the small-plane airport first, which kind of reminded me of San Jose. Then I saw some jets taking off farther along, so I drove around through streets and neighborhoods and industrial areas that reminded me of Anchorage and found the International Airport, which also reminded me of San Jose. At some point I decided that Anchorage reminded me of San Jose, or old San Jose, I should say. Same size, same feel, similar kinds of houses, traffic, etc. And that's not a bad thing. There are worse places in the world than San Jose, believe it or not. Try Santa Ana.

I found the International Airport and then walked into the terminal under the Reeve Aleutian sign. The guy at the desk told me the Petropavlovsk flight had taken off at 13:50, so I was a couple hours too late. I bought a Reeve lapel pin for one dollar American, and vowed to be back next year.

While buying gas at a Chevron Station I realized my ATM card was missing, and after tearing apart the van and swearing a little, I figured I had left it back in Valdez. Crap. All I needed was another financial hangup.

So I had accomplished my goal of making it to Anchorage and finding Reeve Aleutian Airlines.

Now what? I had options: North to Denali Park or south to the Kenai Peninsula.

I decided to head south, for Seward or Kenai or Homer, whichever one caught my fancy or presented itself first. I drove out of Anchorage on the Old Seward Highway, wondering where the New Seward Highway was.

In the back of my head somewhere I had a memory pf an e-mail from Jaz Kaner, about a tidal bore somewhere in the Anchorage area. Here is the e-mail.

"OK, (Are you reading MY stuff?) once again, It's actually in Anchorage, like a 20 minute drive down along Turnagain Arm (Make it an hour and your at the Portage glacier -- overrated). Turnagain Arm runs directly along Anchorage, narrowing a good deal right near the whale watching area, forget the name of the point, there's a scenic pullover there. The last bore was the end of August, which leads me to believe it'd happen again in Sept same time? I got some info from the visitors bureau, but maybe a good marina, or boatyard..?

"It's supposed to be the only other tidal bore in North America (Fundy in NS is the other)."

Jaz



Driving along the Old Seward Highway, with the Alaska Railway on one side and Turnagain Arm on the other, I stopped to read a tourist sign with all the local history. Captain Cook had been through here on one of his voyages, looking for the Northwest Passage. When you think about it, Captain Cook and a lot of other guys must have done and awful lot of poking around, looking for that thing. I mean, Vancouver thought Deception Pass was the exit to the Northwest Passage, and Cook thought it was up here. Neither of those guys were even close, and there are thousands of coves and inlets between Deception Pass and Anchorage, and another several thousand beyond here.

I digress.

Cook was way off, but during his exploration he sent out Lieutenant Bligh in the longboat, but they got spooked by a weird tidal current running through one of the sounds. Cook called it Turnagain Sound because of the current that almost wrecked the longboat.

I didn't really pay it any mind, until I realized I was at that place. There was another sign which explained that Cook Inlet and Turnagain Sound have the second highest tidal range in the United States, second only to the Bay of Fundy. The tidal range is 35 feet, which is pretty dang extreme. The tide range under the Golden Gate Bridge is more than 11 feet, and I have seen some serious current come running out of there.

Because of the extreme tidal range and the narrow, shallow shape of the inlets, the tide comes in as a bore.

I thought, "Cool. That would be worth seeing." But I had no idea what the tide was doing, or where the bore formed. I wanted to see one and check it off my list of Natural Phenomena.

As I drove along the Old Seward Highway, running along Turnagain Sound, I saw that the tide was way, way out. I thought about hanging around until the tide changed, but didn't know when that would be.

While driving, I thought I saw the bore, although it could have been a shadow or some other current. Something was moving, though, so I jumped out and took a photo of what looked to be a six-inch wave running along a sandbar. There was a lot of current running inland just off the rocks, and it was spooky to think it was only tide.

I got back in the car, drove a little ways along and what do you know, there it was. This was a for-real tidal bore, a two-foot wave moving eerily along, powered by the tides.

It was creepy, to tell you the truth. Scary, even though it was only a two-foot wave. I stopped the car, jumped out and took some photos as the wave approached. It was only two feet, but it had the entire Pacific Ocean behind it, and it would easily have been surfable. I had my board and wetsuit, but even if I'd wanted to, I wouldn't have been ready.

I shot the wave as it approached and then bubbled up on the rocks and broke, and then watched it passed with a couple of other gawkers. The tidal bore broke up and disappeared just after it passed me, and left a bunch of warbles and gurgles in its wake.

I was jazzed. It was like stumbling across Sasquatch or something. My timing was just perfect, and it's always nice when that happens, like you've done something right for once.

I was so jazzed I stopped at the next phone and called Steve Hawk. I thought I had a scoop, but he topped it with the story of the guy getting nailed by the shark at Mavericks.

Apparently a photographer was paddling out for the first time on opening day, and got nailed by a 12-foot teenager. It hit the board but not the guy, who rode out the attack on the shark's snout. It ripped his wetsuit, but no skin. There were other guys in the water who were unaware of the attack until the Harbor Patrol came out and got them. Now everyone is bumming, because that paddle out the back at Mavericks just got a lot longer.

From that phone call I drove on, around the back of Turnagain Sound at a place called Portage. This is a place that had dropped nine feet during the 8.5 Anchorage earthquake in 1963, and was inundated. The town had to be relocated.

The earthquake and the tidal wave got me thinking about the tidal wave that hit Crescent City, inspired by that same earthquake.

Having been through Crescent City several weeks ago, and then having driven all the way up to Anchorage, it is mind-boggling that an earthquake here could cause so much damage down there. Look on a map. Unbelievable.

So, now I am in Seward, having driven here in a state of confusion, pissed about the ATM card, but jazzed about the tidal bore. That's Alaska for you, and that is traveling. Never a dull moment.

Now I'm watching an Elvis movie in a $55 motel room. I checked in to use their phones, but their phones don't work. Apparently Seward has an antiquated phone system, and you have to go though operators to get an outside line, even an 800 number.

Whatever. My list of Internet cafes has one in Seward. I'll get a good night's sleep, send this tomorrow then push on to Homer or Kenai tomorrow, which ever strikes my fancy.

Stoked about the tidal bore. If we try the Kamchatka trip next year, it might be cool to have some guys try to surf the bore. I'd like to see what Flea could do with it. Call the local news. Call CNN. Make it an event. It'd be worth it. Get a swell.com banner, if indeed swell.com exists next fall. Hope so.

 


PREVIOUS ENTRIES

October 1, 2000
September 30, 2000
September 29, 2000
September 28, 2000
September 27, 2000
September 25, 2000
September 24, 2000
September 23, 2000
September 22, 2000
September 21, 2000
September 21, 2000

September 20, 2000
September 19, 2000
September 19, 2000
September 18, 2000
September 17, 2000
September 16, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 14, 2000
September 13, 2000
September 12, 2000
September 10, 2000
September 10, 2000
September 8, 2000

September 8, 2000

PHOTOS
October 1, 2000
October 1, 2000
September 27, 2000

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