Billy Goat Travels: Day 55- Anchorage

We continued to sift our stuff to try and reduce the # of bags we’re hauling to TX.

Travis and I weighed the fish we need to transport, and it all won’t fit in a single cooler, and even if it did, it would be well over the 50# limit to avoid “heavy bag” penalty. This is the very definition of “first world problems”. J We’ll have to use two coolers (which, we have) and they will be partially full, so we’ll pack the excess cooler space with gear. Since one of the coolers has a spot to “lock” it, I’m going to try transporting the pistols back in the cooler with the fish. Doing so would allow me to NOT check a separate bag just for the pistols, which had been my plan. J Alas, the folks at the airport may or may not allow this.

Someone asked me, “How many fish did you catch on this trip?”, and the truth is, I have no idea. More than I needed to feed us, but less than I wanted? J Fish volumes shipped to TX so far as follows:

· 67# shipped via Alaska Air cargo from Juneau

· 80# shipped home with Erik and his family

· 72# shipped home with Lynn and Brek

· 50# (appx) going home with us on Saturday

Total of 269# of meat being sent home on this trip. That’s about how much meat we got off the elk last fall. In addition, I’d estimate we’ve eaten fish in some form just about every other dinner meal. Lake trout, all 5 varieties of salmon available in AK (king, silver, red, pink and chum), dolly varden, halibut, flounder, crab, shrimp, etc, and all of it, delicious.

Then we went over to Harvest Motors and sold “Big Red”. Transaction was smooth, and suddenly, we found ourselves travelling in a minivan, as if we were just going across town to have dinner with friends. Our trip assets now will fit (somewhat) in the back of the minivan.

Big Red's last trip with the White family

On the way back, we headed to Kincaid Park, which is on the southwest side of Anchorage, bordering Cook Inlet. A search for “cheap stuff to do in Anchorage” identified a huge sand dune to play on at the park. Just before getting to the park, I noticed a young black bear leaning against a tree in someone’s front yard. Similar to the way I have squirrels in my yard, but bigger, and a bit more challenging. Of course, there was a struggle for cameras and yelling from within the van, so he ran off. This would turn out to be the last “big wildlife” spotted on the trip. It was a bear, inside city limits, in the largest town in the state. Last Frontier, indeed. J

Kincaid Park is huge and covered with trails for mountain biking, hiking, dirt biking, ATV use, cross country skiing, etc. it was just fantastic, and FREE! To use the trails, just park, get out of your car, take a hard look at the map, and go. I do recommend taking a GPS though, cause of the parks size. It’d be easy to get lost if you didn’t pay attention to the trail map.

Deanna was more than a bit concerned with going on such a hike in clear bear country unarmed (poor planning on my part), but the trails were easy to follow, and we traveled in a pack. Shortly, we came to the sand dunes. The dune was huge, and really cool to climb. The view from the top was really nice. you could see a big dirt bike racetrack just south of the sand dunes and the shoreline tidal pool flats to the west. A crew of 5 people was out in the tidal flats playing in the mud. In short order, an eagle flew over, searching the area for a late lunch. It was a bunch of cool things, all in one place, and all for free to be used. No tour guide, no fee charge, very few restrictions, and all of it just outside the largest town in the state. Cool.