Here’s an uniquely Alaskan sport - surfing a bore tide in 40mph winds.
Look closely and you can see the surfer.
Due to the extreme tide changes (20 feet is typical and 35’ happens) and the flat bottom combined with the narrowing of the channel causes the water to pile up into a wave. Bore tides are 2-3’ and happen a couple dozen times a year.
It’s literally a wall of water with a 2 to 3 change in water depth with 2’ distance.
They only happen when the tide is coming in. The wind blows out, so they wind surf out and ride the wave back in.
While waiting for a table at the restaurant, a average size black bear (300lbs) came out of the woods and walked thru the parking lot. He has been hanging around for weeks, so the staff chased it off. The tourists loved it.
They harness up a couple of mosquitoes to get towed out.
Actually, the skeeters are not bad this year. Anchorage has had both the warmest and driest winter & spring on record. There is not as much standing water for them to breed in.
It’s been good for the garden & trees. I planted a crab apple about 10 years ago, and this is the very first time it bloomed. However, it did get pruned severely twice by the moose the first few years. It’s got a couple dozen small apples on it. The 6 apples I planted 2 years ago also bloomed. Maybe I’ll get a few apples off of them.
On the other hand the pollen from the birch trees is the worst ever! I slowly developed an allergic reaction to the pollen over the last 40 years that got worse every year. It jumped to an “Alaska size” problem this year. People who never had hay fever before are affected by it.
Of course, I could be in my Phoenix house with 115F temperatures. Hope my new trees are surviving without me.
That’s a really neat post, Jim. I enjoy seeing the incredible differences in where and how the fruit growers on this site live. I’d say Alaska is one of the most challenging fruit growing climates anyone can face, but sounds like you are giving it the old college try! I am always amazed to see the giant produce photos from Alaskan Gardens because I’d think it would be very hard to grow big crops with such short seasons, but I guess the long days and intense sun and good rain make up for other challenges.
I’d seen videos of people “surfing” that phenomenon you described before, and while it isn’t exactly big wave surfing, I have to hand it to those who take the time and effort to get out there and take advantage of such an unusual ecological situation. I sure hope he has a good wet-suit on…I’m that water is plenty cold!
Summer sunlight doesn’t become more intense as you approach the poles from the tropic latitudes. t think it would be less intense at identical elevations. The duration of sunlit hours does become longer, though. Water and light colored, or other reflective surfaces would increase its intensity. As would higher elevations, due to more radiation passing through the reduced atmosphere.
Good points, and I should chose my words more appropriately. I meant the intensity in terms of duration. I knew the sun wasn’t stronger up there since I’m sure I’d get sunburned a lot worse by spending 8 hours in the sun near the equator than 8 hours of sun near the poles. I just meant that there was a lot more of it, so intense was the wrong word. Thanks for pointing it out. But it does surprise me that alaskans are able to grow such great produce in such a short season, so those long days, and whatever else contributes to it certainly does work wonders. For example:
Hope my new trees are surviving without me.