anchorage against the machine
    sept 3 - 5, 2000

If you've wondered what it feels like to sit on a plane for twelve hours I'd recommend flying New York to Anchorage. In addition to discovering the boundaries of your airplane tolerance level you'll have the added bonus of spending time in a cool city and while you're there you might as well check out Alaska.

Spent a fascinating night enjoying multiple in-flight movies and meals, reading seat pocket literature, and memorizing the full complement of Continental Airlines international and domestic routes. When you're sitting on the plane thinking about how this state has the highest number of airplane-related deaths, don't let that bother you too much. It's got more to do with the fact that Alaska has more airports and more airplanes than any other state. Most of the state is only accessible by plane so flying is a daily fact of life here. Keep in mind this is the largest state by far, Alaska is one third the size of all the other states combined and yet it's surprisingly difficult to get lost on the road. Landed in Anchorage at 2:30am local time, which is 7:30am ET - Alaska has its own time zone. Drove straight to Jewel Lake Bed & Breakfast which is comfortable and affordable and has great hosts. It's also one of the only B&B's I've experienced that cooks an actual breakfast instead of tossing out muffins and little boxes of rice krispies. Breakfast changed every day but the best by far was reindeer quiche. Yeah yeah I'm not a huge meat fan either and usually don't venture out of the poultry and shellfish categories, and the thought of eating Rudolph seems kind of satanic, but that was really good fucking quiche. Anchorage looks much like any small modern American city, though one surrounded by beautiful mountains, and open to the water on one end. In September Alaska shifts rapidly from long summer days to short winter ones, and the days were noticably getting shorter as I was there. In Alaska the sun doesn't pop up on one side of the horizon, pass overhead and then sink on the other side. It rises slightly, slinks across one side of the sky, and then drops off without ever climbing overhead at all. As a result the light has an eerie golden hue as it pierces the atmosphere at a different angle than you'd expect, and it feels like the sun is always rising or setting.

That first morning I drove to Flattop Mountain, which overlooks the city and provides a moderate and popular hike for locals. The bulk of the walk to the top is on flat road with occasional foliage that masks lurking sudden violent death in the imaginations of the bear-paranoid. The weather in Anchorage is moderate and generally similar to that of New York; the mountains and the water protect the city from the more extreme weather patterns.

It was a beautiful autumn day and the fireweed - strange bright red grasses - were out in force creating an Oz-like world. That's Oz like not-in-Kansas Oz, as opposed to gang rapes and shankings Oz. Unless there was something else going on I don't know about.

It's a fairly easy hike except for the last part; as you approach the summit (14,760ft) there's a scramble over loose rocks that gets vertical at times. But it's worth it for the top, which yes is flat, and affords a spectacular view of the city and surrounding countryside. The entire hike takes only a few short hours but it's kind of nice to hang out up top for a while.

i circled my car.	valley on the other side of flat top
warning post - don't fall off.	mister fun.

That night I went to Mad Myrna's which is one of a small number of gay bars in the state, surprising given the famous ratio of men to women. What do all the straight guys do when cold showers lose their appeal? Myrna's is odd - since it's one of very few options in town it was like some strange Noah's Ark with two of every kind of gay... pool-playing lesbians, drag queens, femmey gay dancers in tight jeans, old theater queens in tuxedos, hyperbutch air force guys working hard at pretending they're only there for the beer, and either the lead singer of Poison or a really good impersonator. It makes for a surreal experience intensified only by the inexplicable inclusion of a taco bar inside.

The next day: south to Seward

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