Saturday, 8 June 2019
Seward, Alaska, USA
Have to leave Whittier on the hour to take advantage of tunnel access. Low cloud and dreary weather as I leave Whittier but after driving through the mountain, find blue sky and sun the other side.
Brief stop at the Portage Glacier visitor centre but you can only see the glacier from a boat on the lake as it’s hidden behind a mountain. Having seen enough glaciers, forego the pleasure of a boat trip.
Shortly after rejoining the Seward Highway, see many cars lining the road. Only when I cross the bridge across the river do I realise why. A dead beached whale lies on the mud flat. Closer inspection required. Can smell it before I see it. Its rotting flesh stinks. Assume it’s a humpback whale though unable to tell why it’s ended up here. Probably got caught out by the tide.
One side of the whale is open and not sure if it’s because of human interference or by animals. Plenty of ravens feasting on titbits strewn about the river bank. Busy taking photos with the woods behind me, suddenly realise this may be prime territory for a bear. Do bears eat whale? Keep watching my back nevertheless.
Seeing a sign saying ‘Historic Hope’, turn off the main road and drive 15 miles to the dead end village of Hope. What a little gem of a discovery. The joys of busking it are rewarded. Reminds me of Hornby Island or Wiseman. Chilled out and relaxed vibe about the place overlooking Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. Anchorage not far as the crow flies.
Hope is where the first Alaskan gold rush took place in 1895. Hope actually got its name by a group of prospectors agreeing to name it after the next person off the boat. And that was 17 year old prospective prospector Percy Hope. You’re still learning stuff on this blog, after all these months.
Hope became a thriving gold rush town until 1898 when the Klondike gold rush and all its riches were discovered and Hope gradually became less important as all the prospectors packed up and proceeded eastwards.
Many of the houses, stores and community hall still stand exactly as they did at the turn of the last century. It’s a fascinating insight into the gold rush. Having diverted all this way at lunch time, was rather hoping the cafe would be open but it’s not. So no hope in Hope of a hoagie.
Or so I thought.
Quite by chance see a sign directing to another area of the historic village and chance upon another small café. And an interesting museum across the road. All these little gems just hidden away there to be discovered.
Museum curator is an elderly woman but she has a young volunteer. And by young, I mean young. He’s about 10 years old so assume it’s her grandson. It’s not, she has volunteers of all ages come down to help her. He’s one of them. Either that or he’s under parental pressure to do a good deed. Or he’s done something wrong and this is the penalty. Given a quick tour of the buildings along with a very brief narrative by the lad. Along the lines of, “This is the bunkhouse.”…”This is the school. The teacher used to sleep upstairs.” Bit more meat on the bones required, lad.
Still having some time available, nip back to Cooper Landing. So enjoyable was my panning for gold experience a few weeks ago at Prospector John’s, I’ll have another go. My inner kid demands it. Well, dear reader, the last time I did this I ended up with enough gold for a cup of coffee. So you can imagine my delight when I pan for gold and discover much more gold than last time. This time I have enough for five cups of coffee. 25 small gold flecks appear from the dirt. Each worth about 75 cents apparently. Exciting stuff to see the gold appear as you wash the dirt away.
Some lucky people will be getting a small souvenir of my soil sifting.
Back again to the Harbor 360 Hotel (https://harbor360hotel.com/) in Seward. Need to fill up with fuel before returning hire car. All the cars I’ve hired throughout America could be filled up with about $30 of fuel. The tank is more than half full so assume it will be about $10-20 to fill up, given that I’ve only driven about 150 miles.
Well, dear reader, you’ll be as surprised as I was to find out how thirsty the 5.7 litre engine was. $50 of fuel for 150 miles.
Crikey.
There’s only one place to eat in Seward, and that’s The Cookery. Where I went last time I was here. Remember? Last time was May. Seward wasn’t very busy. Low season. It’s now June. There’s a halibut fishing competition in Seward all month. And the salmon are swimming in. Seward is heaving with fishermen. And there’s a cruise ship in town.
Which means I have to queue to get a table. 50 minutes waiting. But it’s actually quite pleasant sitting on ‘queue chairs’ by the door with a beer. People watching.
Food is again excellent.
Pop into the liquor store to see me old mate who served me before. He scowls as he sees and recognises me. Buy a beer and he asks for my date of birth.
Here we go again…
