The First One

This being my first post on this blog, I'll warn you right off of the bat that there will be lots of pictures.

My wife Ruth and I decided after brunch to go to Ship Creek and see what's there today. We started at the old power plant dam. The power plant is now used as a warehouse and a large shop. However, the damn is still in place. During the summer you'll find all kinds of tourist from all over looking to see what they can see. There were a few spawned out salmon, and lots of seagulls.

We worked our way down towards the railroad bridge and we came upon a Harbor Seal. This was a pleasant surprise. We have never seen or heard of one up the creek this far.

We hung out near the railroad bridge for a while and determined that the seal had moved on and so should we. This time of year is nice because most tourist have already visited. This is considered the end of the main tourist season for the year.

As we made our way towards the Bridge Restaurant, there were several Mew Gulls and immature gulls (which are hard to identify)eating at fish carcases. There is plenty of fish carcases or heads there for them because it is a popular local fishing spot right in town. Things have slowed down for the season though.

You have to be careful walking along the banks of the creek. The glacier mud is very slippery. However, the Greater Yellowleg was making it's way along just fine. It could care less that I was there.

We walked back to the dam where on our way to the truck we came across a Northern Pintail that was doing some serious eating. She didn't care what was going o around her. Our interest attracted a lot of attention, but when the people came near they couldn't figure out why.

We left the dam and drove over to the Elmendorf State Hatchery. It has seen it's better days, but there's rumors of a big overhaul. It's still a neat place to visit. Earlier in the season you can come see King Salmon trying to jump up the weir. This time of year it's good for the scenery. Ruth also enjoyed feeding the trout.

The older and larger part of the hatchery isn't used anymore. Their free heat source from the Air Force Base has gone away and they have had to scale back. It's a common situation in the lower 48 and now here also. But because of the situation it has become a nice little marsh type area.

There is a bike trail that goes all along the area I wrote about today. Parts of it is still under construction and should be completed next spring.

I'll be there!