Ptarmigan Creek and Mt. Marathon

Three days of 50F and periods of everything from drizzle to full-out rain and I can say, without a doubt, I'm glad that I don't live in Coastal Alaska. The cold dampness is awful! The drive from Portage to Seward was nice. It was rainy and foggy, so the mountains were almost non-existent. Good thing I've seen them all before, right? We stopped briefly at Moose Pass Summer Solstice Festival. As it was only noon, the festivities had only begun. I thought of the Fairbanks festival, which I've never been home to attend in the three years that I've lived there. The festival is a big deal. Lots of free music, food and a 10K race people dress up in costume to participate. Maybe next year.

We hiked the Ptarmigan Creek trail. It was muddy, but heavily wooded, so we didn't get as wet as we could have. We didn't get as far as the lake because I got hungry and sick of being muddy, also the spot overlooking the lake would surely be a let down. It was nice to see some different wildflowers--some not found in the Interior. I couldn't get over the amount of lush greenness everywhere! The trees were HUGE and towered above us in a great canopy. Lower bushes, grasses and moss blanketed the forest floor. Rainforest-esque.





By some miracle, we found a covered and enclosed picnic shelter in SE Seward. It provided us a dry lunch spot! I was exceptionally grateful. A spot of less-foggy sky convinced us to abandon our rainy plan of the sea life center for a stroll downtown. We had cherry cheesecake and hot chocolate at the Bakery Cafe. Good, except tourists looked down at our muddy pants and boots and gave us dirty looks.

We decided to brave the rain again at Mt. Marathon. Each July 4, brave runners climb this 3,000 ft mountain, 3 miles straight up and then straight down. too steep to run much of it at once, above treeline it was all a scree slope. We began on the runner's course, but switched to the waterfall spur trail when the trail turned to a river of mud. Also, the fog was too thick to make the trek to the top very rewarding. I suddenly had a new found respect for the people who DO run the race.



The waterfall trail was steep too, but didn't summit the mountain. The waterfalls weren't steep, but gently rolled for half a mile along the trail.







Look how thick the foliage is!! ^^

We spotted several avalanche paths. some even had snow mounded at the base of the slope. Buried in the snow, we found many trees, pulled down the hill in the deluge of snow. Scary. Nobody stands a chance in an avalanche's path. The highest point we got to was about 1,500ft, and halfway up the mountain. It offered modest views of town, veiled in fog, of course. Would have been breathtaking on a clear day.