I’ve been on a few more hikes since being in Anchorage. This past week and I went to an abandoned mining town, Independence mine, at hatcher pass. Parts of it look like an amusement park theme ride, with cascades running down the side of the mountain, along with antique mining debris scattered everywhere.

I’ve had a lot of time to explore the city. It’s kind of charming, for an American city. I like the bike paths in the neighborhoods that go between the houses. Wild raspberries grow like weeds on the sides of the road. 

Last week my roommates and I went up to flat top mountain. We saw a moose on the trail. There was a man in front of us who was trying to shoo the moose away. I’m glad he didn’t get hurt. I saw its nostrils flaring. The hike was good. I got to see some eagles! It’s cool to see them in nature. They were hanging out by the American flag that was planted on top of the mountain. There was an air of patriotism about. There were two girls that we met while hiking. One of them was a nurse in the air force. She was telling me about the substandard working conditions she had to deal with because of the priority of budget going towards military warcrafts. She said any contrary feedback toward the condition of how day-to-day operations persist, were punished. The priority had to be being the world power in the air.
My thoughts on the interaction:
One way to define ignorance, in the Buddhist lineage I study is the act of ignoring. It is regarded as the most dangerous of the three poisons of mind (passion and aggression being the other 2), because with this particular poison, it is not in the realm of awareness. Needless to say, there are consequential implications. Administrative governances are more often than not designed, built, and maintained with ignorance weaved through.

One evening, my roommate made some moose. We had moose tacos. That was fun! It’s lean and tastes similar to beef. It is subtly different and hard to articulate. I’ve heard it described it as “tasting like willowbuds smell in the spring”.

On another hike, I met up with Jonathan, a local couch surfer. We went hiking at North Face at Alyeska (resort).We drove South along the Turnagain arm. I guess you can call it a fjord. It has one of the highest rise tides in the world, with a tidal range of 40 ft.