A Visit to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

It occurs to me that I have not explained why I am in Alaska. I am a volkssporter .. a walker. And I am a member of the American Volkssport Association (www.ava.org). We walk for fun, fitness, and friendship. Every other year our regional area (the Northwest, WA, OR, ID, AK) has a conference. This year we are in Alaska doing walks around the area of Anchorage. Today is day three of our six day adventure.

After breakfast we load onto buses, except today we are on school buses rather than the motor coaches of yesterday. Remember back when you were in first or second grade and you thought the big yellow buses had so much room? … well, not so much anymore. Though it is a short ride and not that uncomfortable.   

Our walk is to start at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The walk is 12K, and we start before the Center is open, through the woods, over to St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral, back to the Center, and end with a walk around the lake of the Center to enjoy the cultural presentation of each Native Alaskan area. On the walk there were a couple killer hills to climb, though the real killer for some was missing the turn through a gate to the Center. If you missed that cut off the path you could end up walking another 1 or 2 K, or more, until you realize that you missed the turn and had to walk back to that entry point  … some folks were not too happy, as there was no other entrance around the chain link fence. Fortunately, I did not miss the cutoff.

At the Heritage Center there were different styles of ancient housing … tunnel entries to protect from bears. There was an artisan carving a totem. There were interpretive talks and dancing. It was a great experience.