South-central Alaska Day 4 (Monday June 14, 2021)

July 10, 2021

South-central Alaska Day 4 (Monday June 14, 2021) - City of Anchorage

After a long day yesterday (over 300 miles of driving in one day) it was our plan to sleep in today. I slept in to about 6:30 am and got up to get ready before everyone else as usual. The sun was already peeking out and it was going to be a warmer day in Anchorage.

Our plan was to bike the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail today. It's a 22 mile total out and back fully paved bike trail that hugs the coast line of Anchorage. We plan to pick up our bike at Downtown Bicycle Rental then bike the out and back trail. But first, we'll have to eat and our breakfast stop today was the tourist "must eat" spot of Snow City Cafe in downtown.

Snow City Cafe is a popular spot and the wait typically exceeds an hour. Joanne and I went there around 7 am to put our name down and we were able to walk right in an hour and half later.

MM taking her first sip, 9:40 am

Snow City Mocha

Menu from the QR code scan

Lively interior

Children's artwork in display

sauce station

French toast is served

Eggs Benedict

Farmer's Market Omelet

Buttermilk pancake with reindeer sausage

Now we are ready for the bike ride!

Downtown Bike Rental and the Coastal Trail

After breakfast (more like a brunch), we located the Downtown Bike Rental just down the street of Snow City Cafe (The main tourist area of Fourth Street). As soon as we walked up to the Bike Shop, we were greeted by a friendly staff who know exactly what we wanted to do. The staff helped us pick out four bikes and gave us verbal direction. We were ready to go in no time.

MM got her ride

Past 11:00 pm, finally ready to go

Coastal Trail Map, we started on mile 0 on the north end

Made it to mile 0 after maneuvering through some city streets

First stop, Westchester Lagoon

By the lagoon and moving slowly

View of the Knik Arm past the Lagoon

At Point Woronzof past Earthquake Park, a great place to watch airplanes taking off over your head

GG waiting for a plane to take off

We had to walk the last bit of the trail because of the steepness but we made it to the end of the trail - Kincaid Park in pretty good timing. At this point, we could have followed the trail back to the Bike Shop in no time but we decided to take the alternate route back.

Lake Hood seaplane Base

There were summer camp activities happening around Kincaid Park. We were mixed in with grade school cyclists that were zooming pass us. There were quite a bit of locals out enjoying the summer afternoon sun as well. After a brief rest stop on top of Kincaid Park, we decided to take Raspberry Road east all the way to Jewel Lake Road. We were now made it to the Southeast corner of the International Airport. This is a residential area and we spotted a Tastee Freez at the northwest corner of Raspberry and Jewel Lake. After a brief family meeting we decided to head to this Tastee Freez to use the restroom and hopefully get some very tasty freeze.

Tastee Freez at Raspberry and Jewel Lake

Time to get some tasty freeze

Soft serve and Freeze, we needed it

It was mostly locals, young and old, coming by to get some summer cold treats. After enjoying our treats in front of the store, Joanne took the lead and we continued our bike trek. We followed Jewel Lake Road north and passed the International Airport Road, the main road to and from the airport. Jewel Lake then turned into Spenard Road. This section of Spenard hugs the east side of Hood Lake where the Hood Lake Seaplane base is located. It is also adjacent to the Lake Hood Strip Airport. It was cool to get so close to so many seaplanes and vintage airplanes when we biked through this area. We stopped frequently to take pictures of seaplanes and interesting vintage planes (some were for sale). We watched seaplane landing and taking off from Lake Hood. Joanne led us through the maze of airplanes and guided us back to the coastal trail. We biked through airplane hangers and eventually crossed Northern Lights Blvd where the Earthquake part section of the coastal trail is located.

Vintage airplane parked at the International Airport

Seaplanes are dotted around Lake Hood

MM striking a dance pose by a seaplane

There are no two seaplanes alike

There are so many!

Messing around at the Seaplane Base

Passing by the Lake Hood Air Strip

MM spotted this one for sale, circa 1940?

A monochromatic take of the vintage plane

We have the number now

After making our way back to the trail, we were back at the Earthquake Park area, shortly into our ride, we spotted a female moose and her calf. We stopped and got within a few feet of the large animals to take pictures. The moose family appears to be quite used to humans and just went about their business in the woods around Earthquake Park. We were thrilled to finally see a moose!

The large female moose by the trail

Her calf is nearby

MM getting pretty close

Making our way back to downtown

Downtown Anchorage basking in the warm summer afternoon sun

We made it back to the bike shop around 4:00 pm. It took us around four and half hours to complete the trail with the alternate route in return. We were hungry for some Thai food so we located Siam Cuisine, a Thai restaurant south of town near Costco. We enjoyed our Thai food and took our evening paseo at Costco and called it a night.