The wildflowers are blooming everywhere we go, taking advantage of the long days to race thru their entire life cycles in about 4 months...before the cold weather sets in again in September. We keep encountering them on our hikes into the back country. Here's a sampling
Wild Irises. Saw fields of them in the old townsite of Dyea near Skagway, and around Anchorage as well.
Chocolate Lilies...also in Dyea and occasionally on our hikes around Dawson City.
Devils Club - lots of this stuff in the forests around here
The Bells of Scotland. We see this all along the trails, especially near rivers and streams
Wild Roses. We see a lot of this on our hikes. Very fragrant too. The rose hips that form after the flower dies is especially loaded with vitamin C, something the miners of '98 could have used to combat the scurvy that afflicted them. Jack London, for example, nearly died from it when he wintered over and did in fact lose all of his teeth to the disease.
And of course the Fireweed, which really does seem to be a weed since it grows just about everywhere. We see a lot of it lining the highways as we drive around.
One of the nice things about going into the back country here is that there isn't any of the Poison Ivy or Poison Oak that can make a Columbia Gorge hike such an adventure. Haven't seen too many thorny vines either. So...the plant life seems to be pretty benign. Only have to worry about being eaten by a bear or trampled by a moose.
One more night here in Anchorage. We jump back on the Marine Highway tomorrow at Whittier for a 3 hour crossing of Prince William Sound to the little town of Cordova - another one of those isolated communities that can only be accessed by air or water.
Gasoline costs around $3.90 a gallon here - not sure how that stacks up to the National average at the moment but it's much cheaper than it was in Canada. In general the cost of living seems to be about the same as in the lower 48...at least in and around Anchorage.
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