Anchorage

Last morning between Portage and Anchorage

The last half day is absolutely splendid. Seeing the finish line now, we accelerate to capture to the maximum what the sunny Sunday offers. We leave before 7 and only stubbornness takes us to Portage for the third time. Today too there is no sun because this place, to which the sight of the blue sky is averse, is covered by haze. But what haze! While we go back up and the sun begins to take possession of the surrounding peaks, on the horizon a low mist appears to us, it will be at most twenty meters.

Portage, Potter Marsh and breakfast in Anchorage

We approach in a Dantesque environment, with the sun's rays that illuminate it, cutting it every now and then. It seems like smoke and when we enter more into its interior the sky becomes overcast. On the lake formed by the Harding Glacier the haze is reflected on the waters while the spaces free from fog let a mirror of colors shine through which in turn are reflected on the lake. While the area begins to fill with Sunday fishermen we return from where we came without failing to stop at the points that most inspire the gaze.

This morning we did not have time for breakfast and we keep postponing it waiting to find the moment to perform the formality. On the outskirts of Anchorage it is still obligatory to stop at Potter Marsh, the marshes that seem like a mirror. Finally we enter the city and, when it is 9:30, we realize that we still have to have breakfast. A pastry with hot coffee from Starbucks serves the purpose, while among the counters of a shopping center we fish pieces of salmon. In Alaska all salmon is wild since farming is prohibited. This to preserve the quality of the product.

Anchorage and the farewell to Denali

Now there is little time left to visit Anchorage. A city that alone would not deserve the trip, but which is nevertheless worthy of being seen. And to think that a hundred years ago in Anchorage there did not yet exist the tent city that four years later gave life to what today has the appearance of being the northernmost metropolis in the world. It was in fact founded in 1915 on the occasion of the construction of the Alaska Railroad. It grew thanks to the armaments of the Second World War and finally oil made it a metropolis at least in terms of extension. There are just under 300,000 inhabitants, but the American life-style and the riches brought by the oil industry have made it an opulent city despite the surrounding environment. The 1964 earthquake, one of the most disastrous that human history remembers (9.2° on the Richter scale), has sadly contributed to urban renewal.

First of all we look for the Salmon Viewing Area, not so much because we have not seen enough, but it is still one of the places most sought after by locals. In reality it makes more news because a place so rich in salmon is located almost in the city center than for the interest in itself. We go downtown where it is all an intertwining of perpendicular streets. Being Sunday traffic is reduced and one can move around more easily. Attracted more by what surrounds it than by the city itself, we go to Resolution Park, a hill from which there is an enchanting view that ranges to infinity. The statue of James Cook stands out with the navigator attentive to scrutinizing the horizon.

There are still some precious minutes left before the maximum time we have set for ourselves to return the car and complete the departure formalities at the airport. It so happens that in the vicinity is Kincaid Park: it is Sunday and the inhabitants of the capital are jogging in the beautiful sunny day. The basin of Cook Inlet is below us, while at a distance several snow-capped mountains appear. To the west are those of the Alaska Peninsula, already framed recently. Instead there are two elevations to the north that attract our attention, clearly distant but seeming close.

We ask a tired cyclist who has just arrived, who with a fatigued voice identifies them with McKinley and Fraser Mt., also surprised by the day so clear as to authorize the view of the two peaks hundreds of km away. We only needed the confirmation but we already knew, those giants could only be them. In the end it was as if the Mc had come to say goodbye to us before leaving and could not have given us a more welcome surprise.

The sight of such imposing profiles we want to consider as a pardon from them, after they had not shown themselves in their entirety during the two days spent in Denali. Not that they have the habit of revealing themselves frequently, but I wanted to see in their reluctance a resentment for having dared to approach them on the plane tour from Talkeetna and thus violate their silence and their privacy with commercial means. Obtaining their pardon was important, like reuniting with a friend. At this moment one would want to tear up the plane ticket and run to meet them, but unfortunately the rational aspect prevails in us. Their profiles seem not to want to leave us. Shortly before departure the silhouettes appear in the background of the runway while the plane goes to take the takeoff position. But at this point, even if one wanted to, one can no longer tear up the ticket.

The flight that follows the polar route grants some views of the pack ice and fragments of ice adrift like so many pieces of shattered glass. From this altitude one cannot identify the polar bears. But they are there and are preparing for winter.

Final considerations on Alaska

The trip to Alaska represents the final destination for those who find themselves at ease with open spaces and wilderness in general. A true apology for the majestic and the wild. It is therefore difficult to establish a frequency on which to tune in and with which to relate, so that expectations are not disappointed or simply overestimated.

I realize in retrospect how difficult it is to establish a relationship with this territory and how in the end I did not fully succeed. Too vast and wild to visit it as a tourist and the time available will be infinitesimal to fully experience its emotions. I do not believe I was able to find a compromise, assuming that was possible. Traveling only the main roads and some dirt roads is not enough to give an idea of what you have in front of you. In some cases it is even necessary to compromise with tourist organizations to access certain places (see the Dalton Hwy), accepting to share the trip with tourists whose attitudes are diametrically opposed to ours.

Unspoiled nature should not only be seen, it should be lived. At the same time excursions must be selected with criteria of caution. The natural environment so imposing requires a prudence not necessary elsewhere. First of all for the presence of bears, whose dangerousness is all to be ascertained, but the fact remains that one is alone and defenseless in their regard. There are few people around and it is better not to find oneself in the condition of having to ask for help. On the other hand, not knowing its real dangerousness, one risks exceeding in the attitude of prudence. Added to this is that the trails are usually little beaten when not absent altogether, thus dispersing the hikers. Something that at our latitudes would be quite an advantage.

With this, the risk of not understanding each other with Alaska turns out to be quite high. One would need to live there for an entire summer and not make the success of a visit to a place depend on a day of adverse weather. The constant sensation is in any case that of finding oneself precisely in the “last frontier”, as even the slogan written on the license plates of the cars claims. And here man returns to being an animal integrated with all the others, and like all must earn his living with intelligence and strength. But always and in any case with his own means, conscious that his fate cannot depend on others.