Going Home/Anchorage to Kenny Lake, AK (7/7/2017)

Day 24
1964, the Plan: Winnipeg, MB to Duluth, MN.
1964, the Actuality: On Sunday, August 9, the Explorer Scouts continue on their way home, trying to do in 6 days what they had planned to do in 10 days.

Friday, July 7, 2017
We departed from Anchorage, AK, taking Glenn Highway/AK-1 north and east.
A detour on South Birchwood Loop Road to the east:

St John Orthodox Cathedral (1984) has a geodesic dome;
this Church community is an example of those who are
returning to the faith of the early church

A short detour west on Eklutna Lake Road to the Eklutna Historical Park.

Old St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (1830 or 1870),
the oldest standing building in greater Anchorage

Eklutna is a Native Alaskan village, where traditionally the Natives cremated their dead. When the Russian missionaries arrived in the 1830s, they did not allow cremations. The Natives adapted by creating spirit houses to house the spirit for the 40 days it may take for its passage from the grave to the "high country."

Eklutna Cemetery

Spirit houses are painted in clan colors, and are not
maintained but allowed to rot and crumble back to the earth

Eklutna spirit house

The clouds are lifting to reveal mountains

A breakfast stop at the Noisy Goose (serves breakfast all day) in Palmer

Palmer, AK was established in 1916 as a railway station. In 1935, the New Deal relief agency, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, planned an agricultural colony in the Matanuska River Valley. Social workers picked over 200 farming families who had been devastated by the dust bowl and/or the Depression. They arrived in Palmer, and although many failed, others had descendants who still live in the valley. The growing season is short, but the unique micro-climate produces giant vegetables.

Mat-Su Giants (2013, by Patrick Garley)
(a Roadside America attraction)

The Colony Inn (1935, as the teachers' dormitory for
the Matanuska Colony project)

Church of a Thousand Logs or Trees (1936-1937),
a United Protestant Church (Presbyterian)

A fancy espresso shop in Palmer, AK

Can you see the musk ox heads with lateral
downward pointing horns in this pattern?

The above photo is of the Nachaq (sort of a knitted buff with its many uses) of our guide at the Musk Ox Farm. In 1954, when Vibos moschatus/Musk Ox were close to extinction, John Teal developed a project to start Alaska's first domestic musk ox farm and provide a means for Natives to earn a living. It became reality in 1964, in Fairbanks. Later the farm was moved to this 1930s Colony farm in Palmer.

Each year five females are bred; here are some moms and calves

A baby only a mother could love?

There are several pastures with musk ox, all of
them female; we did not go to see any males 

They are accustomed to humans, and have been
trained to tolerate the hand-combing of their underwool

Our guide, Gaylord, shows us the plop of summer
poop, and pebbles of winter poop

The enrichment pasture

Qiviut is the underwool of musk ox, and items made from that wool are frightfully expensive. It is softer and finer than cashmere, is non-irritating, does not shrink, dries very quickly, doesn't pill or felt, is eight times warmer than sheep's wool, and is stronger and more durable.
Back to Glenn Highway/AK-1.

Matanuska River

Matanuska Glacier, which 18,000 years ago reached
the area of Palmer, 53 miles away

A long and winding road

Sheep Mountain topped with clouds,
apparently gypsum gives it its color

View from Eureka Summit of the Chugach Mountains, with Nelchina Glacier in that gap

The Fireweed 400 Race was in progress today, a bicycle
race from Sheep Mountain on Glenn Highway to Valdez
and back, a two-day event

Starting to see Mt Drum ahead of us

Basin Liquors in Glennallen has topiaries of native willow and birch shrubs

In Glennallen, AK, we turned south on Richardson Highway/AK-4.

Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve Visitor Center,
with a stationary container showing glacial river water where the
silt has settled and another you can shake to see how the fine
particles called glacial flour make the water murky

The Ahna Cultural Center was not open, but the fishwheel was outside

The fishwheel runs by force of the river current,
scooping up fish that then slide to the opening
on one side into a wooden container.

We took a detour on Old Richardson Highway through the community of Copper Center.

We thought we would find a museum here (KSS)

That shed has a sign that says "Copper Center City Hall,"
or was it an outhouse?

Chapel on the Hill (1942)

The George I Ashby Museum and Annex

We had lunch at the Old Town Copper Center Inn & Restaurant, which was rebuilt after a 2012 fire.
Then back to Richardson Highway/AK-4.

A stop at the Alyeska Pipeline

Willow Lake Viewpoint of the Wrangell Mountains

Finally we turned south on Edgerton Highway/AK-10.

Looking down seven miles of Edgerton Highway

At Mile 5.7, we turned into the Wellwood Center Bed & Breakfast, where we had reservations for three nights. The host and his wife lived in half of the duplex, and guests had the other half.

Our bedroom at Wellwood Center B&B; we shared a bath with
 group of three, and the third bedroom was empty

Our host told us about the hiking trails on the property, so we went in search of beaver.

Part of the trail was on boards

The creek with a beaver dam hidden on the right

Yep, beavers have been at work here (KSS)

We found a couple more beaver dams, but no beavers

Kent took a walk down Edgerton Highway.

Farmland? (KSS)

A new log cabin (KSS)