Lucky Monkey

That's the name of the cafe I'm sitting in right now. I paid $4 for a disgusting overly sweet smoothie so I could come use the free wireless internet here. At least its fast and the connection's strong!

Ok so I shall get on with the post.

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*many pictures ahead*

Sorry I haven’t posted for so long again! I’m having problems getting internet access. I’ve just moved to a new place called the Anchor Arms cos my previous place, Anchorage Downtown Rentals, became way too expensive after their summer rates kicked in. Some pictures of where I’m staying now:




As you can see, I've unpacked quite a lot. Its definitely not as clean as the previous place cos this is a motel-ish place whereas Anchorage Downtown Rentals was actually a home and the couple who owned it were renting a floor out. Here’s a picture of their uber-cute baby:




This place is ok… I’m just lacking pots and pans so I can’t do anything with the stove and oven here.

*Tip: How to make the best out of a not-so-good/safe motel: Request to stay on the upper floors. Ground level rooms mean people can knock on your windows and doors and such, or even climb in if they are so inclined :p

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Tuesday was my day off so I went to explore the much talked about Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Its like the most famous trail because of its easy accessibility from downtown Anchorage. It winds along Knik (pronounced kuh-nik) Arm 11 miles from downtown to Kincaid Park. I rented a bike for 24 hours for $30 and set off after a very good breakfast at Snow City Café (another famous place). There were 2 entrances to the trail, one at Elderberry Park and one at West 2nd Ave, but the bike rental guy told me the first mile between W. 2nd and Elderberry Park wasn’t nice so I skipped it and started at Elderberry. See pictures!

Started off with some nice views of the mountains. There are several tunnels along the way at the sections where the trails goes under the Alaska railroad.














After this I came to Westchester Lagoon, my first favourite spot. The lagoon is really nice and blue and placid, with the only gentle ripples coming from some solitary ducks which dove down time and again to look for fish, I presume. Perfect for the mountains-reflected-in-the-water effect. I really wonder how much those houses cost, being both beside a lagoon, and being on the coastal trail. Westchester Lagoon also marks the point where the trail branches off to the Chester Creek trail. Shall explore that next time.








Next, I passed a lot of bridges and small lakes, mud flats, river meanders and Earthquake Park. You musn’t ever step onto the mud flats, you’ll sink in and not be able to come out. If the tide rises you drown. If the coast guard needs to come save you I think you need to pay them a bomb. Apparently this happens every year so they put the charges in place.
























Point Woronzof was also a very nice picture spot. The wooden stakes made for a very nice effect when they were reflected in the water.






The entire trail was 11 or 12 miles long and Point Woronzof was 5 miles in. I was deciding whether to continue all the way to Kincaid Park (another 6 or 7 miles) and I did. The remaining part of the journey was through entire sections of forest so I couldn’t really see the coast. But I did manage to see some wildlife and plants. I also had lunch at a very nice spot with a sunflower bench. There was a bonus too! If you walked right to the edge where the bench was, you could see that there was a small creek down below that wouldn’t be visible from the bike trail. Very pretty.






















The bike ride to Kincaid Park was horrible. Uphill a lot of the way and I really mean uphill. I had to push the bike up several times. When I reached mile 9 or so of the trail, I came to a place called Kincaid Outdoor Center. I took a rest here, filled up on water and used the toilet. The toilet’s pretty interesting. It’s a normal toilet bowl looking thing, just that it isn’t connected to any sewage pipes. People just pee/poop into it and they empty the tank underneath once every 10 days. The tank thing is full of blue liquid mixed with (use your imagination) but what I can say is that it doesn’t smell as bad as you would expect :) Some kids were playing happily on the grass fields and I lay down on the grass for a while. I really miss how people used to lie all around UCSD and read a book or sleep! You don’t see that very much at all over here. Maybe its still too cold.













I would have wanted to continue on to Kincaid Park but here the bike trail stopped and I would have had to go on the same road as the cars and trucks. There’s supposed to be lots of moose in there but I thought I’d better head back. If I was tired now, I still had to go the same distance back so I should conserve my energy. (The road leading into Kincaid Park was uphill)

Now the bad stuff happened! I was cycling back on the bike trail when this woman came up from behind me and overtook on my left. That’s ok, but I sort of swerved to the right a little and fell off the bike trail. I toppled over and landed hard on my knee. Got jabbed hard by the bike in several areas on the legs too. And best of all, the bike got spoilt! The Alaskan mosquitoes were swarming around me. I tried to stand up and was wondering what would become of me because I was in the middle of nowhere. Amazingly, I managed to fix the bike. (People do gain amazing abilities under trying circumstances) I rode back with the injured leg and got home. By this time, my knee was very swollen and I was hobbling around. Couldn’t go to work on Wednesday too. Just hope it’ll get better quick so I can go do other stuff! Think I cycled 30 km that day, phew. This is one of those things that I can’t tell my mom or she’ll nag me to death. Wonder what will happen when I go white water rafting (and I will)…





Inadvertantly caught the back view of a muscular roller blader haha. The main focus is supposed to be the downtownbuildings in the background. Also, click on the moose signboard to see how to deal with angry moose.

Ok, I'm almost crazy from uploading so many photos. Feels so good to sit in this cafe and listen to the music. Gonna sit back and relax. Out!