Yesterday we had 50 mph winds blowing all day long. It rained on and off all day. In the morning the rain made the ice slippery than heck and with the wind you basically sailed down the road. By the afternoon all the ice was gone and the streets were just a muddy mess. Since yesterday was my last day with a vehicle I decided that Craig and I should drive to Bristol Bay Beach and see if we could find any walruses.
About a month ago we had a strong storm that caused a huge storm surge. A couple of the neighbors and I went to go and see the beach and it was impressive. 12 foot waves crashed onto the shore. With high tide, the water had risen over 38 feet. It was unbelievable. The following week we had temperature below zero all week long. So Craig and I went to see what the beach looked like. Everything was frozen. You could hardly see any open water in the Naknek River or Bristol Bay. I was shocked that it froze so quickly. These last four days we have had temperatures above freezing and the last two days lots of rain. So I wasn't sure what to expect when we got to the beach.
The mouth of Naknek River was wide open. The bay itself was all open water with icebergs floating in it. The beach had huge, I mean huge, boulders of ice lying around. They were over six feet tall and six to eight feet across. The tide was low so there was about a quarter mile of mud flat before you reached water. I wanted to walk out to one of the beached icebergs but with all the rain you really would have sunk in the mud and I have heard stories about people who get so stuck they have to fly in helicopters to pull them out and some people drown because the rescuers don't get there before high tide and the people drown standing in the mud. I didn't take the chance but it was quite the site. Every where you looked were stranded icebergs.
We didn't see any wildlife, except a couple of ravens but the icebergs were impressive enough. It was something to see. Now I am off to Anchorage.
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