A Surprise on Today's Walk

6:37 PM

Sunrise at	10:39 AM	in direction	148°	South-southeast
Sunset at	3:18 PM	in direction	212°	South-southwest

Duration of day: 4 hours, 38 minutes (5 minutes, 4 seconds longer than yesterday)

The view from the deck of our lawn - often a moose trail is visible here

Ah ha - we gained over 5 minutes today.  You realize that means in 12 days we will have gained an hour of sunlight.  Right on! The sky was well lit in the south east when we drove in at 9:00 AM.

I walked today.  The temperatures were a great deal warmer than yesterday, although that isn't why I walked. I wanted to walk yesterday too, but had a chore that required driving.  However, I confess that walking at 15F is easier than -27F.  Yes indeed, folks, your eyes do not deceive you.  The temperature changed by nearly 50 degrees in one day.  Supposedly we will be back -40F by the weekend, so I figure the warming trend is just enough to keep us from going totally crazy.

But back to the walk.  I walked up to West Campus to meet a friend for tea.  I didn't take my camera.  I thought about it as I was getting into the car, but then we were running a little late and I opted to not take the time to run back up into the house from the garage to get it.  I regretted it, of course.  As you walk through campus you mostly see the sky and buildings.  Once above Wood Center and are walking along Tanana Loop, you are flanked by trees and buildings on either side.  About at the museum, for whatever reason, they keep it mowed and the view of the Alaska Range opens up across the Tanana River and Salcha River flats.

Today it was overcast to the south, and absolutely gorgeously so.  As I looked to the south east, about where the tall peaks of Mt. Hayes, Mt. Hess, and Mt. Deborah would be, soft white fluff ball clouds met the horizon.  Immediately behind those was a darker ridge of grey. The line of the grey was almost an even line.  Above me and to the North was open sky, the wonderful pale blue of the arctic regions.  Between open sky and the grey ridge to the south was a lighter blanket of grey.
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Right where the two clouds appeared to meet was a ribbon of white gold, glistening as beautifully as my wedding band.  All along the south, the first ridge of the Alaska Range stood solid in the early day light.  I couldn't stop myself from saying out loud - what a beautiful day.  I never really appreciated all of the wonderful tonalities of grey and white until I came to Alaska.  How can it be so beautiful?  Well, it just is.

A photograph wouldn't have probably captured the intense vastness of that view.   We live in a borough of 120,000 or so people and all around us is the vastness of the Interior. Amazing!

On the way back, it was even warmer and I decided to walk (or in this case galumph) along the path that meanders through the trees from Richert Building down to one of the parking lots near Chapman.  We have had several inches of snow over the last few weeks, so the easy entry to the path was blocked by plowed snow. I had to walk down, by that I mean slide down on my rear, a steeper entry until the path leveled out.  As I walked, looking at my feet a bit, I thought about how moose had been sighted in the regions north of campus. 

I mused that I had never seen one along this path, but I should definitely look up in case one was around.  Well, wouldn't you know it.  20 feet away, and not more than 10 feet from the path was a moose.  It was alone, so thankfully, it was not the nervous lady that has been shepherding two calves around campus and Ballaine Lake.  Mama Moose are notoriously dangerous, trampling people and dogs in nothing flat.  Nevertheless, I was looking at a ton of mammal flesh (give or take a few hundred pounds) and decided I would definitely keep it disinterested in me.  I turned and walked at a quick clip back the way I had come and climbed up the ridge.

I turned to look back and saw the shape of the moose through the snow and trees, not fully clear, but there. I wonder if my subconscious knew what it was seeing, even if my meandering feet and path focused eyes didn't take the hint as quickly. 

Ah, well. It has been just another, all around great day in Alaska.