Alaska Journey Day 41 / by Dave Hileman

The Extra Day 

We decided to spend one more day in Valdez. It was still likely not long enough. Both of us loved it here. Streams, trees, birds, mammals and mountains towering over every vista. Breathtaking - today in more ways than one as the smoke from Alaska fires drifted more fully into the valley obscuring the views. Still warm and dry here but welcome rain expected end of the week. We explored the town a bit, a nice museum as part of the small college here was well done and showed off a collection of artifacts collected by one woman over a 70 year time frame. We poked in a couple of shops, bought canned salmon from the same place we purchased our fresh seafood and then we went out to the salmon hatchery. The sea lions had taken over the inlet six, eight, twelve of them at a time catching salmon. We also bumped into another Oliver owner - nice folks. He is a legend in the Oliver forum for helping folks. After dinner in the trailer we were off to the other side of town to walk the Shoup Bay Glacier trail. We went part way just to a meadow and then to the beach across from where they store the crude from the pipeline, about a 2.6 mile round trip. Very pretty and I got a nice shot of a Yellow Warbler. Not a first bird but a first photo. Nice day. Oh, and we got ice cream at the two places in town. One small cup split and one messy sundae split. Good ending for the day.

Cadillac’s Most Correct Viewpoint

No ice today on the Human People Observation process but the kind Guide did buy a Tee-shirt. I think it is a critical ritual of the HPs. How to incorporate that into Moose Rights. 

BdB still not back, not that I am worried or anything I mean if he doesn’t come back I’ll be fine. Yup, not worried at all about him and his poor manners and his grunts. 

We did little movement today so it was a good day for HP-O in the town. Lots of HP with long poles in the water, sort of obsessive about it kind of like the peering device the Driver uses. Seems to take all of the HP’s attention. Not unlike some Moose back home and the salt lick on the road side. Disgusting habit. 

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I did observe some huge non-antler animals in the water whose grunts remind me of BdB but even worse, maybe I ought not to be so hard on him. Where is he? I did end the day with a fabulous ice cream cone of Wildberry. 

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