Tag Archives: anchorage

Alaska Ends Holdout

And then there was one…

An era will officially come to an end in Alaska, as the final two Blockbuster Video stores will close by the end of August.

Alaska is currently home to two of the final three Blockbusters in the United States, with a store in both Anchorage and Fairbanks. The two stores have the same owner, and are still making a profit, but with the profits in continual decline and the leases up at both locations, ownership has decided to close down.


Blockbuster Video, Fairbanks, Alaska

In 2013, the state still had 13 Blockbuster locations, but that has dwindled to the final two holdouts over the last five years.

Both locations will open at noon on Tuesday with an inventory sale that will last through the month of August.

With the closing of the two Alaska stores, the last Blockbuster in the U.S. is in Bend, Oregon.


The Alaska Railroad

Anchorage Depot AKRR
Anchorage Depot

While in Anchorage, we took a tour of the Anchorage Depot of the Alaska Railroad. Founded in 1902, the Alaska RR first hit the rails in 1914. Today, the railroad is owned & operated by the State of Alaska.

Interior of Anch Depot
Inside the Anchorage Depot

The rails extend from the south eastern towns of Whittier and Seward, through Denali National Park, and north to Fairbanks and Eielson A.F.B. The main line has 470 miles of track.

Alaska RR
Alaska RR train getting ready to leave the station. Probably the Glacier Discovery run.

The Alaska Railroad is one of the last flag-stop routes in the country. The Hurricane Turn run allows any passenger to get on or off the train along the route. Just wave a white flag at the engineer, preferably while not standing on the rail.

AK RR cars

In 2015, the Alaska RR hauled 4.29 million tons of freight, and carried 475,034 passengers.


Bear on the run

A black bear led Anchorage police officers on a high speed gallop through downtown the other night. It took 3-1/2 hours to corral the male bruin in the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.

The 200 pound black bear was tranquilized by Alaska Fish & Game officials, and then released outside of the city at “an undisclosed location”.

According to Fish & Game spokesman, Ken Marsh, “It found itself downtown and probably was a little confused. He was doing his bear thing, and before he knew it he was in the city.”

The above video was posted by the Anchorage Police Department on their Facebook page.


Kincaid Park

Kincade Park trail

A beautiful day on Friday in Anchorage. So I headed out to the 1500 acre Kincaid Park to walk some of its 30 miles worth of trails. From Kincaid, one can take the Coastal Trail, which ventures 11 miles north to downtown Anchorage, hugging the coastline.


Anchortown

The Sleeping Lady
“The Sleeping Lady” across Cook Inlet

Down in the Big City of Anchorage for the start of the hockey season.


Slushy Start

Ceremonial Iditarod start
Photo credit: Erik Hill/ADN

The ceremonial start to the Iditarod Sled Dog Race took place in an extremely slushy and very brown Anchorage today. Snow had to be trucked into town and a slim trail formed on Fourth Avenue for the 78 mushers and their teams, who attempted to get to Wasilla. The temperature was above freezing for the start, and quickly rose to 40 debs. One Canadian musher, Brian Wilmshurst, decided to head out in shorts. That’s the right attitude!

2015 Iditarod start - Anch
Photo credit: Bob Hallinen/ADN

Mushers will now load up into their trucks and drive the 360 miles to Fairbanks for the official restart on Monday. We do have more snow, and we received a welcomed snowfall this weekend, but even the Fairbanks start has it’s warm-weather related challenges. In 2003, the last time Fairbanks held the start for The Last Great Race, the teams left for Nome from the Chena River just downstream from downtown. The thin river ice in 2015 will have the mushers take off from the road system heading overland.

The total purse for this year’s Iditarod is $725,100 with the winner of the race getting $70,000, before dog food.


Downtown Anchortown

Anchorage @ Night


Turnagain Arm

Beluga Point

It’s a wet one down here in Anchorage. Not unusually wet, mind you, but somewhat unwelcome just the same.

I drove down the Seward Hwy towards Girdwood, looking out over Turnagain Arm. There wasn’t a whole lot that the low clouds allowed me to see, but it was still a nice drive. Surprisingly, not a lot of people were on the road.

I did stop at Beluga Point. It’s a good place to watch the tidal bore come ripping through the inlet, as well as watch the beluga whales when they are eating their way through the area. Every once in a while, you can spot a beluga or two surfing the bores as they race across the Arm. Turnagain has some amazing tidal bores. When the high tide comes in, the bore can be a wave 6′ high, with a speed over 5mph. A park ranger once told me how he was watching a large bull moose out on the tidal flats, when the tide came in, and the 60″+ moose was lifted off its hooves and disappeared in rising tide, never to be seen again.

Looking back into the Chugach
They still have leaves on their trees down here!

On the cliff sides across from Beluga Point, one can often see Dall Sheep clinging to the rock walls, but I didn’t get to see any through the mist today. Just trees that still have their leaves, and an awful lot of raindrops.


Anchorage

For a city, Anchorage isn’t too bad. I spent the day doing all sorts of things that Fairbanks just doesn’t have in its bag of tricks to offer.

Things I miss about living in Anchorage: The water on one side of the city and the mountains on the other. I loved hiking in the Chugach when I was here. It’s also nice to have so many restaurants that serve edible food. The many local breweries are nice too.

But the traffic! Oh my is there traffic here. Probably due to the fact that the city is hemmed in by the ocean on one side and those beautiful mountains on the other.
I prefer my traffic jams to consist of 5-6 cars.


Kendall Hockey Classic

– Anchorage –

Alaska had faced Wisconsin 7 times previously, and had lost all seven, but the teams had not faced each other since 1993.

Friday night, the Nanooks played a great defensive game, giving up only 14 shots on goal, in pulling out a 1-0 win over the Badgers.

Anchorage also looked good in a 3-1 win over Maine.

Not a bad night for the two Alaska programs.