On Thursday we had 1.7 inches of rain, it was dark and wet. I had the feeling that the season had changed. We were finally going to get payback for our beautiful summer and fall. On Friday I woke up to blue skies and sunrise alpenglow on Mt. Edgecumbe. This morning (Saturday) I woke up to — snow.
Friday was a good day for walking. I took my usual turn through the National Park and then walked Sitka’s new Sea Walk. The Sea Walk opened on Alaska Day. I have never driven by without seeing people enjoying the walk and views. Sea Walk starts at the Centennial Building, Sitka’s civic center near the cruise ship lightering dock. It runs along Crescent Harbor where you get good views of the fleet on one side and the many historic buildings along Lincoln St. on the other; St. Peter’s By the Sea, The Russian Bishop’s House, and the old Sheldon Jackson Campus, now owned by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. Now we can walk along the water the whole way to the Sitka Sound Science Center and the salmon hatchery. Here you can take the new yellow cedar boardwalk out onto the jetty for whole new views of downtown, the Cathedral and the cone of Mt. Edgecumbe volcano. The walk itself leaves the waterfront for a few hundred feet to go around the Science Center and hatchery. Past the Science Center the walk becomes a yellow cedar boardwalk and swings away from the road out along the natural beach with some stone steps down to the beach itself. The walk ends just before the National Park.
I parked the car at the National Park, did my turn through the loop trail there, and then took the sea walk at sunset to the Centennial Building and back. (Sunset here is about 3:45 this time of year.) I had my coffee at the Back Door and, when I came out at 4:45, there was moonrise over Mt. Verstovia. So it was time for another turn on the Sea Walk to enjoy the nearly full moon playing its light on the mountain peaks.
Today it’s snowing but the forecast says it may clear. I’ve learned not to trust the forecast. Better to wait and see what happens. In the meantime I think I will enjoy a walk through the light snow.
The Google Map at the top of this post does not show the Sea Walk. It is too new.
