Day 16: Seward local hikes

Holly was quietly up and out before I was awake in the upper loft.  She was gone by 4:30am and Doug had just left the lodge for his job with the National Park Service at 6:30am when I got up.  I was now alone.  I let the dogs out to pee (no surprises this morning!), finished the last of the coffee, washed a load and uploaded my blog.  I'm still so far behind, especially with adding photographs to my hikes.  I finally left the lodge at 10:45am

Holly told me today would be the last of the sunny days.  Which hike would I try?  Mount Marathon in town sounded interesting.  While steep, the loop around is under five miles with views of Resurrection Bay.  That was tempting.  I wanted to do something short and scenic that wouldn't be too exhausting after yesterday's long hike. This will be my last full day in Seward before I head back north, stop for a few short hikes, return to the Knik area and hike with Nina if she has time, and then head back down the Alcan at the end of the month.  I want to see the towns of Kenai and Valdez as well.  Rain, however, will return tomorrow for the rest of the week.

Today was a smorgasbord of short local hikes.  I started with the Mount Marathon hike.  The trail head off Monroe and 2nd Ave was easy to find and I found a spot right across the street to park.  It turned out Zeke was getting restless, pacing in the back of the van.  He will only do that when he has to go, and go he did, just outside the van and on the edge of someone's garden.  It was the same diarrhea from yesterday.  Now I know who the culprit was!  He didn't show any other issues the rest of the day, so hopefully whatever gave Zeke the squirts is now on the mend.

The trailhead is near the historic southern part of Seward so I decided to walk around here.   I even went local and kept my sweater and rain jacket in the van and just wore my red DriWeave shirt.  A local bank marquee said it was 59F out; it felt more like 33F!

I also went tourist. I kept the dogs resting in the van while walking along the waterfront, former start of the official Ididarod race.  It's a nice little walkway, with historical markers along the way.  One could watch whales and otters but today I saw neither; just a lot of annoying seagulls.  A tent and RV campground managed by the city of Seward is near the northern end of the park.  It's $10 to tent, $20 to dry camp with an RV. It's not a bad deal at all if you can get a spot.



I had a quick lunch at the Thorn's Showcase and Lounge for a quick patty melt and Alaskan Ale.  The lounge is also a restaurant that seems to be stuck in the 1970s.  It was dark inside and I sat at the bar near the entrance.  The place was busy during my stay.  The prices were reasonable for what I got in Seward.  Seems like you can't get a plain cheeseburger for under $13.

After my walk in town, I drove to Two Lakes park near the base of Mount Marathon to walk the dogs through this small park.  The trails all run north-south and aren't marked, but one would have to be completely directionless to get lost here.  A homeless man jumped out of the bushes when I parked, ran up to the neighboring picnic area to watch me, and waved.  That was a tad creepy.  The man was not there 45 minutes later when I got back from the walk.  It started drizzling as I drove off, and the mountains around Resurrection Bay were slowly getting shrouded in fog again.  Looks like the usual rain is back.

My last walk was around the commercial marina, where fisherman were cutting up their day's catch. Salmon and other ugly fish lay dead in wheelbarrows waiting to get filleted. By now the rain clouds were concealing the mountains.  One cool thing I saw was a giant chalkboard with "Before I Die" and people were encouraged to write something down that they still want to do.  I wrote "Hike around Alaska."  I guess this road trip has fulfilled that dream of mine.

My daily walking mileage came to 5.5 miles. My driving mileage was under 23.6 miles:  to and from and around Seward. Grand Total so far is 4491.5 miles.