Tuesday 30 June 2009
Drake Passage
The Drake Passage or Mar de Hoces -Sea of "Hoces"- is the body of water between the southern tip of South America at Cape Horn Chile and the South Shetland Islanda of Antarctica . It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean Scotia Sea ) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the Southern Ocean . The passage is named after the 16th century English privateer Sir Francis Drake. From what I can gather it is around 600 miles long.
Kathy Griffin
Blogging - Dry Spell
Saturday 27 June 2009
Crossing Knik Arm to Fire Island
Are these people crazy or what !!!
About 20 members of the Anchorage Adventurers Meetup Group, with a handful of others tagging along, trekked across the mudflats from Kincaid Park to Fire Island and back Friday afternoon. Most hikers crossed the mud barefoot; a couple brought rope and life preservers, and one latecomer carried snowshoes. The group appeared to near Fire Island in just over an hour, still before low tide, and returned just before 6 p.m. on the same tide cycle.
Friday 26 June 2009
Turnagain Arm - Anchorage - Bore Tide
Bore tide, which basically is what you get when the incoming tide is funneled into a narrow area, producing a distinct difference between high and low tide, which is a wall of water, with tremendous force.
Turnagain Arm is approximately 45 miles long.
The shot above is the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, Alaska which looks like a harmless shallow body of water, and its mud flats may look good for walking, but they’re not. Just like quicksand, the flats can grab and hold the unwary .
With some of the fastest tidal changes in the world, Turnagain Arm’s famous “bore tide” comes in - with a unique and deadly 6-foot wall of water, traveling at 15 mph,there’s no escape. Bore tides come in along Cook Inlet after low tide in a rolling wave. You can often hear a bore tide before you see it. It has a low, thundering roar, and is caused by narrow, shallow channels. The tide takes around 5.5 hours to get to the end of the inlet.
The Anchorage Bike Trails
I lived in Anchorage for 26 years of my 49 years in Alaska. During those years I have walked and bicycled these trails. I do not recall running into bear or moose...thank heavens!
