Barefoot Alaska runs

This post may not be very interesting, but is at least a record that I did run while visiting my son and his family his summer... I declare that Wasilla is not barefoot jogging friendly, leastways not if you insist on starting from home as I do.  There are plenty of very interesting trails around, but none within striking distance from where I was based. It seems that Americans expect to have to drive to get to do anything: shopping, leisure or hiking / jogging.

Although there are adjacent service roads that are OK for running, some are unpaved and many are cul-de-sacs (they say "no outlet"). The best circuit I could muster on these roads is shown below.

Run-4

To go further afield you have to venture onto the very busy Bogard Road. There is no side-walk or cycle-track, but it is sort of OK to run on the hard shoulder, although the white line that demarks it has been worn away in places where vehicles consider it to be part of the thoroughfare so one has to be alert, and anyway the hard shoulder is very gritty so is hard on the feet.

On my third run I just about made it to the nearest trail complex in the wooded area behind the Mat-Su college, but beat a hasty retreat because of the large bug population there, including mozzies.

Run-3

Their house is near to Finger Lake which is divided from Cottonwood lake by a narrow strip of land. There must be at least a footpath connecting the north side to the south across this strip, I figured, and so explored the options on my second run. I even asked a house owner who thought about my question for a while, as if it was a very strange thing to ask, and then said "no".

Run-2

Thus in my first run, exploratory in nature, I was forced to run around both lakes, most of the time on busy roads.

Run-1 - over 10 miles

I could have include some pictures, but they wouldn't mean much to most of you. Oh - but I did run once whilst in Denali, and got some cool pictures of the rail-road bridge there.

Inconsolable grief

Non-family readers of this blog may not realise that a great family reunion is taking place. C&L with three of our grandchildren and J&S both live here already. J&R with four more of our grandchildren are visiting from Alaska, and K is visiting from Oz. Not only that but we also have an (unrelated) family with four children visiting, and a single woman visiting. So we are full to the gills. And things get noisy too.

So strange to think that my wife, four children, and seven grandchildren would not be if I had not (as a butterfly) flapped my wings those 40 years ago or so. Of course, in this story of life we are never told what would have happened.

The other night I dreamed that J and his family were leaving, I know not where too but I knew I would not see them again, or at least not for a very long time. And I was overcome (in my dream) with inconsolable grief. I felt like I would go on crying for ever, or at least for a very long time. And yet, curiously, another part of me knew that I could to some extent control this grief, that I was choosing to wallow in it and, given time, I would get over it and life would proceed as normally as it ever does. And it made me wonder what grief was made of.

Vast numbers of pictures are emanating from this reunion some of which and will, I suppose, appear either in this blog or on social media at some stage but frankly it is rather busy here at the moment and I don't know how I am even finding time to write this.

Third run

I overslept which I put down to jet-lag. Besides, getting up at 6 a.m. for a run in this weather is not exactly pleasurable. So I ran at lunch time when the temperature had risen above freezing. But I have to say that I felt colder, and in particular my feet felt colder, than when I was running on compacted snow in Alaska.

Back home first run

Just the 4.3 mile loop - and Meg came too. There is a smattering of snow and the temperature is just above freezing. And debris on the roads because of the recent heavy rainfall. Not nice running. The higher humidity makes the temperature here feel no better than in my Artic Run post and I would prefer running on compacted dry snow than freezing wet roads any day!

Arctic run

Actually the temperature here has been relatively warm for this time of the year (about -5 degC) so finally I braved the ice and snow.  Packed snow under bare feet all the three and a bit miles way.

The key is to get warmed up first on the treadmill - this gets the circulation going, especially important for the feet.

Two layers on top, usual shorts, scarf in case I needed it (I didn't) and gloves. No problem at all running in these conditions, although I grant my feet were cold on getting back and I did another 1/4 mile on the treadmill to warm up,

Barefoot Alaska

The temperature here has been around 0 degF (relatively warm for this time of the year) and there is, of course, snow on the ground. At a humidity of around 20% a shirt and padded jacket suffices for walks between buildings unlike in Ireland where, wearing this much, you might feel cold at 40 degF.

So far what running I have done has been on the treadmill (which I hate), but I have been experimenting with outdoors. It is several hundred metres from this house to a nearby building. Today I managed this distance barefoot. The key is that one's feet stay relatively dry in this climate.

Morning

Morning Alaska

Long time ago my father ran a DIY shop in Alresford and I was granted the task of re-modelling the shop window. Having recently learnt in school how to do a flat wash and possibly inspired by scenes from the film Oliver I decided to cut out a silhouetted city sky-line from ply-wood, paint it matt black, and place it in front of a colour-wash sky. Suitably lit by coloured flood-lights of course. And probably littered with a few choice DIY products in the foreground. It was a success, by which I mean I enjoyed doing it and liked the final product.

The sky this morning at Big Delta, Alaska brought back these memories.

Advice to would be AK barefoot runners

So... I was in Alaska for three weeks and have to admit that I did not maintain my usual 3 to 4 runs per week. Partly (a) because I was visiting so had alternative priorities.  Partly (b) because the bits of AK I visited are not particularly barefoot friendly.

In Anchorage the sidewalks are not swept and are strewn with small, sharp stones. In Delta Junction the grass is dry and spiky and one bit ended up as a splinter in my foot. During my stay in AK it was very hot (over 90 degF) and this restricted me to running during the only cool period - first thing in the morning, but there were not many of them (see (a) above). The climate is dry and there is much alluvial dirt around -together this dries out one's skin and worsened the cracks in the soles of my feet, necessitating the frequent application of moisturiser cream.  I offer these facts as advice to would be AK barefoot runners coming from fairer climes.

Short run, barefoot, 2.8 miles, near Delta Junction

My fourth and last run was, perhaps, the most adventurous being in the AK outback. The photo is from Bing maps which, regrettably, has to be opened in Internet Explorer as the "Import track" feature is not displayed in Chrome. The track was imported from a realtime GPS track using Orux on my Android smart phone. The GPS positioning accuracy is very poor in places - I wonder why?

Now back home I have done the forest route (about 5 miles) twice this weekend and greatly appreciated the soft Irish climate (overcast, drizzle) and soft grass. Floreat Ireland! (at least for barefoot running). After her argument with a car before I left for AK, I am glad to report that the dog is back running.

Ober Creek

Coal mine road, Delta Junction, AK

Coal mine road is a rough track that branches off the Richardson Highway some 15 to 20 miles south of Delta Junction and roughly follows Ober Creek.  Most of it is accessible only by foot or ATV. We camped at the cabin at Coal mine #5 lake, fished in the lake and scorched in the sun.  We four-wheeled to the coal mine at the southern end of the road where we found a geocache in an abandoned digging machine. The link says the coal mine was operative up to 1960 and supplied only local needs.

Track from our cabin (at top) to the coal mine: map courtesy Bing

According to here there is silver and gold placer deposits in the area but we didn't find any. But the wild flowers and the backdrop of the Alaska Range are stunning.

The remains of the coal mine

Fishing on the lake

One of the many lakes with the Delta river in the background

Artic lupines and white Mountain Avens flowers

The Alaska Range

Fording the Ober Creek

Coal digging machine inners

Alaska and N.E.

A trip to Alaska coming up - this may mean more than my usual only very occasional posts - or it may mean the opposite if my family keep me busy!  But there will be a post coming up on N.E. - more than that I cannot yet divulge.

Yesterday I managed most of the day barefoot, starting with mulching nut trees in the morning, then the forest route run with the dog in the afternoon. Remember I said forestry machinery had churned up the tracks? - they have calmed down a bit since then but still uncomfortable under barefoot. I'd like to meet these people who claim they can barefoot on any surface without pain!