Portage, AK - What's a Williwaw?

The heading here says Portage, AK but, in truth, the town of Portage died some time ago. We’re in Portage Valley in a US Forest campground called Williwaw, centrally located to visit some areas that we want to explore.

First question of the day: what is a williwaw? Now, I had no idea where this campground got it’s name. For all I knew it was the name of a small insect that likes to bite me in the back of my neck. Heaven knows, I’ve found several of those recently. But, no, a williwaw is a really big wind, really, really big. Let me go back a bit. Portage Pass through which loads of miners came during the gold rush days is a narrow pass between the Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage and Prince William Sound, part of the Pacific Ocean. As the air pressure between the two areas equalizes, extremely high winds can be created. Winds that can snap 50’ flagpoles like twigs. Winds that can peel away asphalt. Winds that can lift boxcars from railroad tracks. Winds that can create ‘flag’ trees, trees that have branches on only one side. That big.

Maybe I should have checked into the name of this campground before I made this reservation. Yep, we’re in Portage Valley where, even if it’s sunny and warm in Anchorage 50 miles away, there may be gale force winds driving heavy rains here in the Valley. Hey, let’g go. Yeah, right. Well, here we are and it was a beautiful day, we had sun, we had warmth and we had a great hike. Natch.
We started out about 9:00 so we could hit Costco to fill our RV with diesel. I, of course, can always buy more food, even if I shopped in Costco yesterday. Well, they didn’t have walnuts and my sweet hugga bunch loves his walnuts: for ‘snack’ at night he even has some cereal with his walnuts. Walnuts, Bark Thins (if you haven’t had these, you’ve not lived.) and multi-vitamins. OK, thus fortified, we’re on our way.

Beautiful trip along the Turnagain Arm.

On the bottom of Turnagain Arm is a pasty, muddy, silty mixture that can seal like cement if you step on it. It’s nasty stuff and here’s a picture of it. Don’t dare to step out in it.

We stopped every now and then to enjoy the view. Then we got to Williwaw, parked and headed out to the Portage Glacier Begich Boggs Visitor Center.

Gorgeous VC, designed to give visitors a spectacular view of Portage Glacier out of the observation decks, telescopes, floor to ceiling windows - all designed for maximum exposure to Portage Glacier right out side. Then, to the dismay of everyone, the glacier retreated so fast that you can no longer see it from those windows. It retreated up the valley and around the corner.

Now, you have to take a boat to see it, the Ptarmigan. Most glaciers are retreating. We saw one in Glacier National Park several years ago that is now abut 1/5 of its size in the 60’s.

The boat wasn’t working today, so we took the Byron Glacier trail to see that Byron Glacier. Cool trail, through a forest, over some shaggy rocks and there we could see the tell-tale azure blue of the glacier, way up high. Sadly, it’s retreated a lot also, though it is still visible. We clambered over moraines left by the glacier as it retreated up the mountain. Here’s Gary at the top of a circular mound of rocks, left by the retreating glacier. He’s almost at the top off to the center right of the picture. Small guy, big rock pile.

There are lots of boulders here.

Lots of others found this trail today.

So, why are glaciers blue? Are they that sad? Nope, it’s all about the ice. Glacier ice is formed under the weight of countless snowfalls which pushes it down and squeezes out all the air leaving dense, compact ice. Ice, like the ice you put in your sodas, has lots of air bubbles all over it which creates the white look. When sunlight strikes glacier ice, the lower energy colors are absorbed by the thick ice and only the blue color, which has the most energy is left and reflected back to the eye. Got It? I don’t. I just enjoy it.

Why is the water so cloudy? That’s because of the silt or ‘rock flour’ that stays suspended in the water. As glaciers move over the landscape, they pick up rocks and grind them to grit as they move. The steams from the melting snow in the glacier, pick these up and take them down the mountains to the rivers and streams around here. This grit stays in the churning water as it heads to the oceans.
Final question of the day: why is this visitor center called the Begich Boggs VC? It is names after Congressman Nick Begich of AK and Hale Boggs of Louisiana. They, along with their pilot, Don Jonz and congressional aide Russel Brown, disappeared in 1972 en route to Juneau from Anchorage. They were last heard from as they flew over Portage Pass. No sign of the men or their plane has ever been found.

Lots of exhibits here but we’ll stop to see them in a few days. But, here’s a salmon exhibit.

We walked along the Trail of Blue Ice after we left the Visitor Center. It’s the newest trail here and they certainly have put a lot of work into it.

And, here’s our campsite.

Huge, we haven’t even begun to fill it. The campground isn’t full today but this weekend, the weekend of July 4th it will be roaring. Meanwhile we’ve seen quite a few RV’s rushing through the campground to find the last best spot. The rules are: reserve a spot online as we did or get to the park, find a spot, park your vehicle and go to the kiosk to pay. And, ‘rush’ is the word I want to stress because these RV’s, with kids in them, are driving way above the park’s speed limit to get to a spot before someone else does. Hey, people, there are kids here in this campground.
Why is there a bear box right across from our campsite?

We have an overhanging glacier, Middle Glacier, above our campground.