SCHOLARSHIP DAY 3: First Moose confrontation!

I forgot to mention yesterday, that on the way back from the Captain James Cook Monument, I found a $1,000,000 note on the ground, and for about an hour, I felt very excited. What would I do with the money; maybe I could extend the Scholarship and travel all over every state in the US? When I 'google searched' whether there was such a note, it turned out to be a fake. Apparently, it is legal to print such notes, but illegal to use them in a 'transaction'. All my hopes and dreams were shattered!

I awoke, today, to what I would describe persistant rain. There was no rush to get out, though, so I decided to take a shower and re-organise my bags. Waiting for an available bathroom at the hostel took longer than expected, and so I only managed to leave at just after 10:15am. My first job was to find the railroad station for tomorrow's train journey to Girdwood. I was surprised to find en route and quite near to the hostel, a man worse for wears, who had quite clearly slept outside in the cold all night. It was quite hard to believe as the hostel I'm staying at has available beds, at quite good prices. Oh well, you can't win them all.

The Train Station was very easy to find and so I proceeded to the next port of call for this morning; the Market Place. According to my guidebook, a Saturday Morning Market is something to see, and whilst my breath wasn't necessarily taken away by it, I did find some of the stalls quite interesting. There were about 3 or 4 aisles of market traders and one of these was clearly devoted to those who were peckish. People like me, as it happened!

It was all there; freshly squeezed lemonade, giant cookies for $3, reindeer hotdogs and Alaska fudge. I did, however, manage to resist the temptation of visiting and purchasing from each one, until the stall entitled: "All things Banana". I was very curious as to what was on the menu, and so I enquired. Essentially, a banana is clamped under two belts, and is made hollow by forcing a tube down the centre. Then, a sauce of your choice is pumped into the cut out tunnel in the middle of the banana, the banana is removed from the clamp, and one peels and eats this modified banana as they usually would do. I thought it quite an ingenious idea, and went for a strawberry sauce, although while eating considered whether nutella chocolate would have been even better!

After the excitement of 'All things Banana' I realised that it was lunchtime, and so proceeded to the mall on 5th avenue for lunch. On Floor 4 , there are fast food outlets galore, but the first that caught my eye when the lift doors opened was 'Subway'. I went for their 3 inch grilled flatbread egg, veg and cheese meal. Incidentally, the man serving me was then grilled himself by the manager as to why my meal was placed in the wrong bag, and memories of being a waiter and being grilled by restaurant managers returned. It was a pleasant surprise, however, to see 'Dr Pepper' on tap; not something I see often in the UK, although I'm not a regular visitor to the fast food outlet, let it be known now!

I wrote up my notes after my 'sub' and continued down 5th avenue to Pablo's Cycle Hire, to do the Tony Knowles 11 mile cycle trail. Tony Knowles, if I'm not mistaken, is the mayor (or was the mayor) of Anchorage and so a cycle path that follows the coastline south of the city for 11 miles is named after him. Pablo's Cycle Hire unfortunately wasn't open but there was an alternative across the road. For 3 hours, a bike was mine. (No helmet as I was advised the trail was on a safe marked out concrete path, although I was also advised that my bike was particularly comfy, and let's just say I wouldn't have wanted to try an uncomfortable one!)

The Tony Knowles Cycle Trail, as I said, runs for 11 miles, but it isn't a circular trail so those who dare go 11 miles, must also dare doing another 11 back! The path meanders mostly around a deciduous woodland, with dense vegetation, red-berried plants, and some of it edges very near to a vertical drop of about 15 feet. It's popular with walkers and runners, cyclists and simply those who want to get out the hustle and the bustle of the city. Through the trees, on a clear day, the views of the mountain ranges would be enough to do all 11 miles and back; today though, the raincoat hood was on, and my view was restricted to what lay straight ahead of me.

Along the trail, is Alaska's Earthquake Park; a park devoted to explaining to visitors about the 1964 Earthquake, which left many injured, if not dead, buildings shattered, roads twisted and vehicles leaking oil into precious ecosystems. The information boards really did cover the earthquake well and warned of the dangers of a repeat in the future. The only criticism I would have is it's explanation on the Richter Magnitude Scale where it states "5.0 Richter is 30x greater than 4.0" Well, the shaking amplitude as it is known is only 10x greater, but the energy released is 30x greater. Not of massive significance, but inaccurate and annoying to any geologist!

Following the Earthquake Park, the numbers of joggers, walkers and cyclists decreased, and I suspect many just use the trail to visit the earthquake park, before returning back to the city. The vegetation gets more dense and the paths are more sinuous; surface run off loaded with humus makes the paths quite dirty, and eventually my jeans were very muddy. It was about 8 miles along the trail that I had my very first moose confrontation. I was coming round a corner, and all of a sudden, there it was in the middle of the path. I am not joking when I say it was my height, with antlers. I quickly remembered the procedure mentioned in my guidebook; stay still and let it pass. I did, and it did eventually pass me; obviously well tamed by the numbers of cyclists it has probably seen. Deciding it was safe enough to do so, I cycled on but turned back to try and see the moose again, this time armed with my camera. Well, I did pass it again, but it was quickly making its way into the woodland and so I never got my photo. Having said that, my moose encounter was enough for one bike ride and I returned back to the city. On my way, I passed a man who is a keen photographer of Alaskan Wildlife, and apparently has seen quite a few moose in his time! His company is Freeze Alaska and from his website, I think his name is Shane. Apparently, if a moose's antlers are propped back, they are angry and might charge. I shall remember that!

I returned back to the hostel to get clean, and to write up my notes. Getting into my room however proved difficult, and it appears that over the course of the day, my key card had lost its magnetism, which meant a bit of a wait in the queue at the hostel office, over the road.

The next and last on my itenary today was to watch the 'Aurora Documentary' at the Anchorage Theatre. I just made the 5:00pm performance, and managed once again to get a student price without ID and also an extra $1 off by being a resident of the Alaska Backpackers Hostel! The film was very good; featuring collections of some of the most wonderful auroras since 1981. It's a project that has been managed by Dave Parkhurst and I do recommend checking out his website: www.TheAlaskaCollection.com . There is also some wonderful music playing in the background that sent many of the audience asleep- but not me, surprisingly! It has certainly made me more excited to see the auroras for myself, when I get to Fairbanks in a few weeks time.

It was a nice way to end my few days here in Anchorage. One more night at the Backpackers Inn, and then tomorrow, I'm off to Girdwood!