The next morning we took a hike to the south end of Byers Lake. We had seen signs that the bridge was out at the south end, so had gone north the previous day, but we decided to take a look at the broken bridge. The bridge was just that, a broken bridge, but the hike down that side of the lake was beautiful. We got back to the campground and packed up, and headed for Anchorage to visit Wayne and Marilyn. We were really excited to talk to them, since most of what we had done so far in Alaska was at their recommendation, and they had given us all sorts of local insights about what to expect, all of which had been spot on. We ended up laughing when we got there because while we were trying to tell them how excited we were at all we’ve seen, they were trying to tell us how excited they were about us being the first Belize friends to visit them in Alaska!
We had planned to just spend the night with them and move on, but we were having so much fun visiting that we ended up spending a couple of days with them. Both are accomplished birders, so we spent most of the next day birding in Anchorage. While that sounds like urban birding, it isn’t. We were in forests and wetlands and mudflats and riverbeds, all of which were teeming with wildlife. We also went to the airport, where we enjoyed watching the sea planes take off and land. We found that their city neighborhood connects to an extensive bike and hike trail which runs all through the city, although you would swear you were on a walk in a countryside park. Wayne took Tom to their local bike shop where they fixed Tom’s bike, and helped us get a couple of other city type errands done. We finally decided that we had to leave and head for Homer since the friend we were visiting there was going away at the end of then next week, but we left with promises to return.
