TrailBlog Season Three: Alaska Edition

I suppose an update is in order.  I'm writing now from Eddie's Fireplace Inn in King Salmon, Alaska.  All people and supplies have to be brought in by plane, which is why the turkey sandwich I'm eating costs fifteen dollars and a case of Rainier runs thirty.  It's pretty quiet here right now, but once the salmon start running, the town will swell with fisherman and cannery workers.  I'm here, however, to work in nearby Katmai National Park, another plane ride away.  Although officially set aside to preserve the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, the site of a colossal volcanic explosion, the park's main draws are the fish and the bears that come to catch them.  If you're not a fisherman and you've heard of the park, it might be because it's where Timothy "Grizzly Man" Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed and eaten in the fall of '03.  For my mother's sake, I'd like to stress that bear-related injuries in the park are exceedingly rare and, in fact, the Treadwell incident was the first fatality in over twenty years.  Moreover, we'll be carrying a portable electric fence to set up around camp when we're in the backcountry.  I still have yet to see the park, as we've been in training here in King Salmon all week, but I will be flying out on Friday for boating class.  More about the town and the park later, but in the meantime, enjoy these images from my stayover in Anchorage.  

I'm not sure this flower has my best interests in mind.

When you want to get around "down South," you drive; in Alaska, you fly.

Here in Anchorage, the bears are kept safely within glass boxes.

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