Whittier, Alaska – A Wharf Town via the Anton Anderson Tunnel

Friday, June 12, 2009 – Day 43 – 6 Weeks on the Road

We awoke to cloudy skies and a constant drizzle and a temperature of about 14C.  This is really the first rainy day that we have had on our trip so we consider ourselves quite lucky.  We wanted to see the Begich-Boggs Interpretive Center which is operated by the US Wildlife Service.  (Begich and Boggs were two US House of Representatives who perished with several other officials in an airplane accident, and apparently the wreckage and bodies were never found.)  We have found that these US government agencies seem to do a great job of interpreting the natural history of an area.  The area of the Portage Valley and the Portage Glacier falls in a rather narrow stretch of land between Prince William Sound (Whittier side) on the east and Turnagain Arm (an extension of Cook Inlet on the Portage side) to the west.  The area typically gets huge dumps of snow and very strong winds. There are many mountain areas still partially snow covered. The area is noted for the Portage Glacier which has been receding at a very fast rate.  The visitor centre takes you on a circular route through many static displays and then puts you into a theatre which has an excellent video.  At the end of the video the screen goes up and the curtains behind are pulled to either side to present a stunning view through the windows of the lake and floating blue icebergs left by the glacier. (From what I understand when the Center was first built you would be able to see the glacier filling your view.) A very dramatic presentation.  There was silence in the theatre when they opened the drapes and everyone just sat quietly.

We also wanted to to visit Whittier, on the Prince William Sound side of the Chugach Mountains.  (The Chugach Mountains are volcanic in nature and create a barrier between the coastal areas and the interior.)  Due to its strategic location during the Second World War, an additional route was needed through the mountains to get supplies to the interior.  The 2.5 mile single lane tunnel was started from both sides of the mountain and met in the middle.  There was only a very minor difference between the two team’s excavations.  The chief engineer of the project was Anton Anderson, for whom the tunnel is named.  The tunnel was originally used for rail transport but within the last decade has been changed to offer all kinds of vehicle traffic.  Semi-trailers, buses, RV’s and large boats on trailers use the tunnel in alternating directions each half hour.  This is also coordinated to allow train traffic through.  Pedestrians are only allowed to go through the tunnel once each year on the Walk to Whittier, which is actually scheduled for this coming Sunday, June 14 this year.

The rain continued while we waited our turn to go through the tunnel.  The signal light changed to green and someone a few cars ahead of us was stalled.  People were going around him but being the polite Canuck that I was, I decided to wait while he got his truck started. Janet told me I should have gone around, by saying, “Do you really want to be behind this guy?”  I reasoned that, “He got his truck running so he’ll be fine.”  Finally we entered the tunnel behind this person. As you may know we like to take lots of pictures and we figured that that was what this guy was doing about 500 feet into the tunnel when we saw the drivers door open.  Wow, I thought to myself, “He’s going to run along side the truck while he took pictures, while his female companion steered the truck.”  Well actually that isn’t what happened, he wanted to keep the momentum of the truck going a little longer as he started pushing the truck.  We noticed that there were HELP phones located every 50 feet or so, and wondered why he didn’t stop to use one - “Was he going to push the truck the rest of the way through the tunnel?"  We had by now slowed to about 5 miles/hour in a 25 mph tunnel. We then noticed that there was a pull-off just to the side of the tunnel.  There are about 6 of these spaced equidistant through the tunnel and they are called “safe houses” – I can only guess the reason for that.  There was a HELP phone located here and he must have gotten help, as he was not there on our return trip.

How can I describe Whittier??  Tired and needing some TLC.  There are two large surplus government buildings in the town.  One that houses most of the residents in apartments and the other which is in an advanced state of decline. Once again it seems that when Alaskans are finished with something they just leave it where it last fell.  In the case of the buildings, they just walk away from it.  Janet says that Alaska will sink into the ocean; not from a Tsunami or the weight of the glaciers or an earthquake, but from the sheer weight of all the junk it is accumulating.  The town caters to fishermen, fishing charters and sight seeing day cruises.  There are a few gift shops and restaurants.  There was a hot dog vendor selling reindeer dogs which I thought that perhaps I would like to try…after all, it had to be better than whale blubber.  I decided that I would try one when we passed by to return to our truck.  When we got there, the two attendants had gone into an espresso bar for a coffee; and they had left their dawg to watch the dogs.  (Of course you’ll remember the adage about leaving the fox to look after the hen house.)  I struggle with temptation to, but I also have guilt to help me.  I don’t think that dawg felt any guilt at all as he licked up the last of the renderings on the grill!  Even if there were some reindeer dogs left, I didn’t feel that the sanitary standards were up to par.  Like who is going to come from Juneau, to check on a hot dog vendor’s sanitary conditions – that is assuming the hot dog vendor had a licence to sell reindeer dogs on the street. 

We were able to get into line for our return trip to Portage through the tunnel within one hour.  We had seen Whittier.  We had a quick lunch, hooked up the trailer and were back on the road toward Palmer for the evening.  The trip along the Seward Scenic Byway was great although the rain that had started in the morning continued for most of the trip.  We arrived in Anchorage, with enough gas to get to our campsite in Palmer, just east of Anchorage.  Janet saw to that (referring back to our previous venture into Anchorage, sniffing fumes.

We met our neighbours Tom and Nicki Winstel, when he came out to investigate the noise I was making as I hammered on the hitch with my rubber mallet trying to loosen up the locking jaw.  (No I wasn’t cursing at that particular moment!) I vowed to dump this hitch off at DSP Hitches when we pass through Edmonton on our return trip.  Tom has a Pull Rite hitch for his unit and it works flawlessly.  Tom is an engineer and has recently retired from Lockheed Martin, a large defence contractor in the States.  They are from Ocala, Florida and won’t be home till sometime in September.  Ocala is near Gainesville, home of the Florida Gators, just north of Orlando.