Seward

Whilst visiting my son in Wasilla, Alaska, we did a 271km overnight trip to Seward on Resurrection Bay. Highlights included the Resurrect Art Coffee House and investigating the Lowell Creek diversion tunnel. Apparently way back and before 1927 Seward authorities allowed premises to be built at the head of Lowell Canyon which is noted for flooding when snow thaws on the mountains either side. To mitigate the risk of flooding the Lowell Creek Diversion Tunnel was completed in 1940, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reroute floodwaters into Resurrection Bay outside the city limits. The tunnel is concrete lined 10ft in diameter and 2,070ft in length and replaced an earlier, failing timber flume built in 1927. Apparently the present diversion is only just good enough - recently the water level has reached within inches of the top of the dam, so plans are afoot to bore a second tunnel. 

The course of the tunnel is evident!

The tunnel starts here

A dam encourages the flow to enter

Also, the 5km Mount Marathon starts here

The tunnel ends here

Travelling a little further south we came to Lowell Point which is just about as far as you can get by car, but is the Caines trailhead which would take you to the ruins of WWII Fort McGilvary at 7.4 miles - that's if you have timed the tides right, because part of the trail is below high water. Needless to say we did not venture there!

Alaska Railroad

Somewhere in AK

I intimated that I might post more often whilst in AK but of course I have been too busy. The first weekend we took a trip via Fairbanks to Anchorage from from there to Seward (first syllable as in sewer) and thus followed much of the course of the Alaska Railroad. 

At the Fairbanks end the railroad extends slightly further than shown but only for freight as yet see here, although there is a talk of extending the passenger service right to Delta Junction. 

The gauge is standard, but the route is single track and sometimes tortuous so the average speed is slow.

We walked as close as the general public do to Seward's claim to fame, the Exit glacier, which is one of about 40 spawned by the vast Harding Icefield and one of the few that are accessible to ordinary mortals.

Exit glacier

Running south from Anchorage the road and railroad initially run parallel and hug the coast of the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet then, at Portage, the line splits with one branch running to Whittier and the other to Seward.

Turnagain arm of Cook Inlet

Although we did not make it to Whittier I later learned that it is accessible only via a 2.5 mile long combined railroad and road tunnel or by sea and yet it is a major port not only for cruise ships but also for freight.