Picturing Anchorage

Hillside: Rabbit Creek Greenbelt

picturinganchorage — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:53:48 +0000

Walk: Rabbit Creek Greenbelt Trail from Birch Road/Griffen Road Trailhead to Old Rabbit Creek Trailhead and back again

Distance: 2.2 miles round trip

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi

CAUTION: Black bear on trail.

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Rabbit Creek Greenbelt Trail

Well-placed signs mark every trailhead on the Rabbit Creek Greenbelt Trail. The trail is well-maintained, with occasional wooden stairs and short boardwalks. For those with knee issues, trekking poles are advisable for short downhill sections.

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Devil’s Club Patch

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Contemplating Beauty

Rabbit Creek at the crossing.

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Rosalee at Rabbit Creek

A sturdy bridge is a good sign of a well-maintained trail, which this one is.

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Chiming Bells and Wild Roses

The blue flowers are called Chiming Bells (Mertensia paniculata); leaves and flowers are both edible (it’s a borage relative). The flowers can be used as trail snacks or added to salads. The leaves are hairy, just like borage, but are fine cooked, particularly when used with other greens. Some people dry the leaves for tea. The pink flowers are Wild Roses (Rosa sp.). Wild roses have many culinary uses (its petals are also good trail snacks/salad additions); the shoots, leaves, petals, and hips are all eaten.

We ran into a black bear shortly after this picture was taken. As you can see, plants growing along the trail are very tall, making them perfect bear camouflage. We didn’t notice the bear, which was quite close to the trail, until after we’d walked past it. We kept moving and, luckily, the bear stayed where it was, sitting on a sunny bank. Meanwhile, our adrenaline levels were mighty high.

6/27/10 Update: We had dinner tonight with a man who lives along the trail. Of bears, he said a good-sized sow with two cubs, as well as a boar, are all living in the Rabbit Creek Greenbelt this year. He said none of the bears are particularly interested in, or fazed by, humans. As was our experience, the plants and bushes are so tall and thick he doesn’t usually notice the bears. He hikes the trail regularly, and attributes its good condition to trail defender Dianne Holmes who he said is on the trail multiple times a day. Extreme caution around bears is, of course, always warranted. He said a few years ago a man shot and killed a brown bear on the trail.

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Downtown: Westchester Lagoon to Coastal Trail

picturinganchorage — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:37:54 +0000

Walk: 15th Street to Minnesota to Westchester Lagoon south on Coastal Trail past Marston turn-off into Earthquake Park, and back again

Distance: 5 miles

Camera: iPhone

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Friends Meet

Anchorage Coastal Trail

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Kidz Running

Anchorage Coastal Trail

Kidz Running is an introductory running program for kids ages 6 – 12, of all fitness and skill levels, sponsored by Skinny Raven Sports. On this day, the kids were running from Lyn Ary Park to Westchester Lagoon and back again.

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Westchester Lagoon

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Variegated Hosta, White Bleeding Hearts, Blue Pansies, Orange Dahlia, Grey iPhone Narcissi

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Route Map

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Downtown: Bootlegger’s Cove to Ship Creek

picturinganchorage — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:28:07 +0000

Walk: Bootlegger’s Cove to Nulbay Park to Elderberry Park to the Coastal Trail to W. 1st Ave. to the Alaska Railroad Corp. to E. Ship Creek Avenue, and meandering back again

Distance: 4 miles

Camera: iPhone

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At the Oscar Anderson House

Elderberry Park, 420 M Street

In 1915, Oscar Anderson built Anchorage’s first wood-frame house. Now it’s a museum, open from mid-May to mid-September.

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Beautiful Flowers, Beautiful Fence, Beautiful Woman

North side of W. 1st Ave. between W. 2nd Ave. and the Railroad Station

Wild lupine and daisies in full bloom next to a fence covered with pink salmon; light posts with matching petunia baskets.

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Alaska Railroad Corporate Headquarters

327 W. Ship Creek Avenue

Empty space surrounding the Alaska Railroad Headquarters, combined with its unusual-for-Alaska brick structure, gives me the creeps. Is it the next Bates Motel?

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Packing Bowl-Shaped Cutting Boards at the Ulu Factory

211 W. Ship Creek Avenue

Every tourist town has specialty trade goods for visitors. Anchorage has the ulu, a short round-bladed knife traditionally used by the state’s Eskimos. When we lived in Bethel, I watched women fillet salmon with lightning speed using ulus. I never developed the knack. The Ulu Factory is jam-packed with trade goods of all kinds. It also has employees on display. They’re making knives and cutting boards and packing them into cardboard boxes and, no doubt, other equally exciting activities.

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Erin Pollock and Steph Kese, Artists

321 Ship Creek Avenue

Non-coherence, non-order, randomness: the gifts given walkers. We went to the banks of Ship Creek looking for a place Deb could take Janet fishing. To get back, we cut up to Ship Creek Avenue, heading west along a grungy warehouse-lined street. We passed a half-open garage door, noticed two women inside, and stopped to talk. Erin Pollock and Steph Kese are artists; the garage their workshop. They’re creating an outdoor sculpture that will eventually reside on the corner of Mountain View Drive and Commercial Boulevard.

In an interview , Pollock and Kese said they’re making cast masks of people’s faces who live in the Mountain View neighborhood for the sculpture. “The final casts, set in steel or some other durable material, will be made of fiberglass and illuminated from behind. They’ll glow.” Kese and Pollock call them “lamps.”

Pollock and Kese are taking their art in new and exciting directions. I highly recommend watching the fascinating documentary of 367 Pounds of Wax, their show at MTS Gallery last summer. Pollock’s personal webpage is here; Kese’s webpage is here.

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Steph Kese Working on a Mask

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Outside the KeseYPollock Workshop

321 Ship Creek Avenue

Expressive masks hanging on strings outside Kese and Pollock’s workshop. The license plate in the window belonged to Howard Pollock, Erin’s grandfather, who served Alaska in Congress as its lone Representative from 1967-1970.

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Route Map:

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Midtown: University Lake-APU Ski Trails

picturinganchorage — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:32:33 +0000

Walk: Start at AHFC Offices at corner of Tudor Road and Boniface Parkway, walk west through neighborhood past Castle Heights Park to University Lake Park (an official off-leash dog area), around the lake, meandering around the APU ski trails, returning to the lake trail, and back to AHFC

Distance: 3 miles

Camera: iPhone

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University Lake

East of Elmore Road, north of Tudor Road

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Sisters

Soccer Field next to University Lake

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Old Friends

Above University Lake Park

The view behind us is what APU’s president sees from his house.

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Beaver Damage at University Lake

All the stumps, and all the logs on the ground, are as a result of beavers chomping away. The wire fencing around the three trees on the left is placed there as attempted beaver protection. Beavers may be water rats with big teeth, but they cause an impressive amount of damage.

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“No wonder my teeth are bad.”

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Downtown: City Market to Anchorage Museum

picturinganchorage — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:19:17 +0000

Walk: Start at City Market (13th Avenue and I Street), north on I Street, east on 7th Avenue, to Anchorage Museum at 7th Avenue and C Street, and meandering back, zig-zagging to avoid 9th Avenue road construction

Distance: 1 mile each direction

Camera: Pentax Optio W60

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Park Strip Soldier with Purple Gun

West of I Street between 9th and 10th Avenues on the Delaney Park Strip

Veterans Memorial statue by sculptor Joan Bugbee Jackson of Cordova. How long the gun will stay purple is anyone’s guess.

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Habitat by Antony Gormley of London, UK

Sixth Avenue, just east of C Street

Good art challenges us to see and think about the world in ways beyond our everyday lives. Gormley’s monumental 24-foot high stainless steel sculpture of a squatting person does just that. Many in Anchorage are derisive about the sculpture. Having seen it in person, looked through it, walked around it, been in it, and watched how light and shadow play with its angles, I’m a big fan. Habitat was a “1% for Art” project as part of the Anchorage Museum expansion.

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Anchorage Museum, New Facade, reflecting Nordstom across C Street

C Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues

Opened to the public May 29, 2010, the highlight of the museum’s new wing is the Smithsonian Institution’s Arctic Studies Center, which returns to Alaska hundreds of Native artifacts that had been languishing in Smithsonian basements. In Latitude 61, an Anchorage Daily News magazine section, Sheila Toomey recently described how the artifacts came to be in our museum.

For those who can’t make it to Anchorage, a book accompanies the Smithsonian exhibit; it’s fascinating and has gorgeous illustrations of the most significant artifacts in the exhibit. For anyone interested in Alaska’s Native peoples, or just in amazing art, the book’s well worth buying.

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An Elevator as Big as a Barn

Anchorage Museum

OK, maybe not as big as a barn, but it’s the biggest elevator I’ve ever seen. This is the elevator in Anchorage Museum’s new wing. The weight limit is 18,000 pounds and the room (a cube that size can scarcely be called a cage) echoed when the door slid shut.

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Up Close and Personal with Ancient Artifacts

Anchorage Museum

I quickly jumped back when my friend zoomed in on a shaman’s mask, making its eyes bigger than my head. It gave me an inkling why the exhibition’s curator warned some might find shamanic artifacts disturbing; I did.

The blending of ancient and modern technologies in the Smithsonian exhibit is impressive. An interactive computer screen sits next to every display case, and has a complete description of each artifact, often including archival photographs and drawings.

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Picture Bait

7th Avenue, just east of C Street

Flowers around the museum have always been a draw for Anchorage visitors. These women disembarked with cameras in hand and started shooting pictures while most of their group were still on the bus. In the background, the Atwood Building reflects lovely clouds.

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Bone Music II by Leo Vait of Homer, Alaska

7th Avenue, just west of E Street

Reminiscent of ancient whale bone houses I once saw through a blowing snowstorm in Wales, Alaska, Leo Vait’s Bone Music II sparkles with life in the Atwood Building’s park plaza. The sculpture is made of 3/16″ steel, sandblasted, coated with zinc, and painted with marine-grade coatings; the boulders are cast concrete. This is the second incarnation of Vait’s Bone Music concept, the first having been done for Poopdeck Trail in Homer. Bone Music II was a “1% for Art” commission as part of the remodel after the state bought the Atwood Building.

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Focus on Statehood by Dan DeRoux of Juneau, Alaska

7th Avenue side of the Linny Pacillo Parking Garage between E and F Streets

Alaska statehood icons Bob Atwood, Bill Egan, Bob Bartlett, and Ernest Gruening are featured in a mural containing 512 individual paintings. The mural was assembled from 32 five-foot square aluminum panels and was the municipal parking garage’s ”1% for Art” commission.

In a Juneau Empire interview, DeRoux said, “It was a long time planning the engineering of [the mural] and the design of it and seven weeks to get it done … All the people in it were people who were involved with the constitutional convention and there are also Native leaders who were proponents of statehood and other people who were advocates of statehood” as well as other Alaska images.

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Reflections

7th Avenue between E and F Streets

The Atwood Building reflects the Linny Pacillo Parking Garage, Leo Vait’s Bone Music, and Dan DeRoux’s Focus on Statehood

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Reflecting on Reflections

7th Avenue between E and F Streets

Everytime I tried to figure out how it was possible for the east-facing wall of the Atwood Building to reflect the south-facing wall of the Pacillo Parking Garage my mind stopped working. Somebody with better spatial reasoning skills than mine will need to take on this puzzle.

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Wouldn’t Want to Damage the Gravel

Southeast corner of 8th Avenue and F Street

And keep off the weed while you’re at it. Sign outside a nondescript, signless office building.

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Route Map

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Savor Bristol Bay Salmon Cook Off

picturinganchorage — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:27:52 +0000

Where: South Anchorage Farmer’s Market, O’Malley Road and Old Seward Highway

When: Saturday, June 20, 2010

What: Four of Alaska’s best chefs met at a salmon cook-off sponsored by Trout Unlimited Alaska. Highlighting the unique flavor of wild Alaska salmon from Bristol Bay, the chefs brought attention to the threat salmon face from hard rock mining at the proposed Pebble gold and copper mine. To learn more about saving Bristol Bay salmon, go here. Clayton Jones, Executive Chef, Bear Tooth Grill, Anchorage, was the cook-off winner for his delicious Grilled Salmon with Porter, Honey, and Ancho Chili Glaze.

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi

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Clayton Jones, Executive Chef and Cook-Off Winner

Bear Tooth Grill, 1230 W. 27th Avenue

Chef Jones concentrates on turning his glazed salmon.

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The Winning Recipe

Grilled Salmon with Porter-Honey Glaze, created by Clayton Jones of the Bear Tooth Grill. Chef Jones let fresh salmon’s flavor stand on its own without distracting garnishes or side dishes. He seasoned salmon sides with salt and pepper, and started grilling. When they were halfway cooked, he brushed them with a glaze of equal parts Mooses Tooth Porter, honey, and rehydrated, pureed ancho chilis. The glaze was simple, but absolutely delicious.

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Mary, Waiting for Her Salmon Twins

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Luke Doherty, Executive Chef

Sacks Cafe & Restaurant, 328 G Street

Chef Doherty waits patiently for salmon to finish cooking, having already plated his Grilled Corn and Smoked Tomato Salsa.

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Chef Doherty’s Spice-Rubbed Salmon with Grilled Corn-Smoked Tomato Salsa, Chimichurri Sauce & Avocado-Lime Mousse

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Ladies Savoring Bristol Bay Salmon

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Reuben Gerber, Chef de Cuisine

Jack Sprat, 165 Olympic Mountain Loop, Girdwood

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Chef Gerber Spooning Brown Butter Over Shaved Fennel

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Chef Gerber’s Grilled Salmon with Corn-Wild Mushroom Salad & Shaved Fennel with Brown Butter

The salad mushrooms were creminis, dried porcinis, and fresh chanterelles.

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Lloyd Lawie, Executive Chef

Bradley House, 11321 Old Seward Highway

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Lloyd Lawie Entertaining the Crowd

While Chef Lawie reheated Southwestern Corn and Black Bean Salsa, he entertained the crowd with a highly educational lecture about traditional insults used by the Irish army, in which he served as an officer.

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Chef Lawie Plating his Grilled Salmon with Southwestern Corn-Black Bean Salsa

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