Active Pursuits

Anchorage is unique in Alaska (and anywhere else I know) for the number of places right in and near town to hike, bike, ski, and otherwise get into the wild. In town, the city's bike trails connect through greenbelts that span the noisy, asphalt urban core with soothing creekside woods. Kincaid Park and Far North Bicentennial Park are both on the trail system within the city, and encompass thousands of acres and scores of miles of trails for Nordic skiing, mountain biking, and horseback riding. The Chugach Mountains, which form the backdrop to the town, offer tundra hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, and climbs that range from easy to technical. Many cruises, tours, fishing charters, and sea-kayaking trips leave from nearby Whittier, easily managed as a day trip.

Information -- The Alaska Public Lands Information Center (tel. 907/644-3661; www.nps.gov/aplic) offers guidance for all these recreation areas and more throughout Alaska.

For information on the bike trails, parks, swimming, and other city recreation, contact Anchorage Parks & Recreation at tel. 907/343-4355 (www.muni.org/parks). Cross-country skiers can get information from the Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage (tel. 907/276-7609; www.anchoragenordicski.com). For current trail conditions, check www.crosscountryalaska.org/trails.

Get information specific to Chugach State Park from the public lands center, or directly from the park at tel. 907/345-5014 (www.alaskastateparks.org; click on "Individual Parks"). Their Ridgelines newspaper is packed with useful information about the park, including a map adequate for most day hikers.

Chugach National Forest can be reached at tel. 907/743-9500 or www.fs.fed.us/r10/chugach.

The best trail guide to the entire region is John Wolfe, Jr., and Helen D. Nienhueser's 55 Ways to the Wilderness in Southcentral Alaska, fifth edition (The Mountaineers Books, $17) available in any bookstore in the area. Two excellent trail maps are widely available: "Chugach State Park" by Imus Geographics, covers the entire park, while "Anchorage & Vicinity" by Alaska Road & Recreation Maps, covers the park's southern portion as well as the entire Anchorage bowl and is at a finer scale than the Imus map. You can find either at sporting-goods stores or information centers.

Equipment -- You can rent most anything you need for outdoor activities. Get advice, buy gear, and rent cross-country skis, snowshoes, bear-proof containers, and mountaineering equipment at Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking, at 2633 Spenard Rd. (tel. 907/272-1811; http://alaskamountaineering.com). It's a small shop where the staff takes the time to help you plan a trip. A block away, at 1200 W. Northern Lights Blvd., REI has a larger store (tel. 907/272-4565; www.rei.com) that rents a wide range of gear, including lightweight canoes and touring kayaks with car-top carriers, camping gear, packs, tents, sleeping bags, and cross-country skis (but not bikes or ice climbing gear). It is the best stocked place in town to buy outdoor athletic clothing as well.

Bird-Watching

The Anchorage bowl contains varied bird habitat that is easily accessed and close at hand: lakes, streams, marshes, seashore, woodlands, and mountains. Visiting birders can see species they don't encounter at home (Pacific loons, Hudsonian godwits, boreal chickadees) and familiar birds in breeding plumage unique to these northern latitudes (a red-necked grebe that actually does have a red neck, for example). Local birders have recorded more than 225 species in the city. You will need the help of a rental car or at least a bike. Potter Marsh is a superb freshwater birding area. Salt marshes and mud flats lie along much of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail . Right downtown, Ship Creek provides a river habitat. You can join field trips and network with local birders through the Anchorage Audubon Society (www.anchorageaudubon.org). The site contains an updated log of unusual sightings, which you can also check on a recorded hot line (tel. 907/338-BIRD).

A terrific booklet, Anchorage Wildlife Viewing Hot Spots, published by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, is sold for $6 at the Alaska Public Land Information Center. It has more places to go than I can include here, detailed directions, and helpful information. Learn more about wildlife viewing around Alaska at www.wildlifeviewing.alaska.gov.

Fishing

There are hatchery salmon in several of Anchorage's streams, and stocked trout, salmon, or char in 28 lakes, so you need not leave town to catch a fish. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game, 333 Raspberry Rd., Anchorage, AK 99518-1599 (tel. 907/267-2218; www.alaska.gov/adfg, click on "Sport Fisheries," then navigate by using the maps), publishes informative booklets on the Web and on paper and an online fishing report updated weekly in season. There's also a recorded information line (tel. 907/267-2503) with what's hot and lots of other advice.

Roadside Fishing -- Although the setting (under a highway bridge in an industrial area) might not be the wilderness experience you've dreamed about, the 40-pound king salmon you pull from Ship Creek may make up for it. From downtown, just walk down the hill to the railroad yard. A couple of shacks sell and rent gear in the summer. Fishing for kings is best in June and for silvers in August and September. You should fish only on the rising tide, when the fish come into the creek. Fishing near the end of the rising tide will mean crossing less mud, but one successful angler I know insists it's the start of the tide that's best. Either way, you'll need rubber boots, preferably neoprene chest waders, for the muddy banks, but don't go too far out, as the mud flats are dangerous and several times every summer the Fire Department has to rescue stuck fishermen.

Campbell Creek, a more natural urban stream, is stocked with silver salmon that make good fishing in August and September, and rainbow trout and Dolly Varden char are in the creek year-round. The creek runs along a greenbelt across the city through residential and industrial neighborhoods; the adjacent bike trail is a good access route. You can join the trail on Dimond Boulevard east of Jewel Lake Road, or where C Street crosses the creek just north of Dimond, among other places; or ask for directions and tips at the Public Land Information Center.

Bird Creek, 25 miles south of Anchorage on the Seward Highway, is known for hot silver salmon fishing in the late summer and fall. Pinks run from late June to early August during even-numbered years. Other creeks along the Arm have similar but smaller runs.

Fly-in Fishing -- Serious anglers will use Anchorage as a base from which to fly to a remote lake or river with more fish and fewer people. Such a flight can be an unforgettable experience for those who are less than enthusiastic about fishing, too. The plane lifts off from Anchorage's Lake Hood floatplane base and within half an hour smoothly lands on a lake or river. You climb out and watch as the plane lifts off and disappears, leaving behind the kind of silence unique to true wilderness. It's on these trips that avid anglers are made -- or spoiled. I've heard people complain of how sore their arms got from pulling in too many salmon.

Several companies offer fly-in trips; the best established is Rust's Flying Service (tel. 800/544-2299 or 907/243-1595; www.flyrusts.com). It's a family-owned company with a strong safety ethic. They can take you out guided or on your own, for the day or for a longer stay in a cabin or lodge. If you fly to a lake, they'll provide a boat. They can't make fish appear if none are running, but they will try to take you to the hot spots. You can bring your own gear, or they can provide it. Prices for an unguided day trip start around $230 per person, with a two-person minimum; guided trips start around, $425. Pickup from your hotel is included, but not fishing licenses.

Flightseeing/Bear Viewing

Small planes are the blood cells of Alaska's circulatory system, and Anchorage its heart. There are several busy airports in Anchorage, and Lake Hood is the world's busiest floatplane base. If you will travel to Talkeetna, Denali National Park, Juneau, Glacier Bay National Park, or Ketchikan, you may want to save your flightseeing splurge for those extraordinary places, which are close to famous attractions. Likewise, for bear-viewing flights, Katmai National Park, Homer, Kodiak, Juneau, and Wrangell may be closer to the action. On the other hand, plenty of spectacular territory is near Anchorage, and, if time is short, you can see bears or Denali in an afternoon. I recommend Rust's Flying Service, a reliable operator that has designed a menu of choices around visitors' most common interests. They can take you on a floatplane ride for as little as $95. A flight to see Mount McKinley (without landing) is $295 and takes 3 hours. An all-day bear-viewing tour from Anchorage is $550 to $695 per person. The exact destination -- Lake Clark or Katmai national parks, or somewhere else -- depends on where bears are active when you are traveling.

Rafting

There are several whitewater rivers within a 90-minute drive of Anchorage. Nova Raft and Adventure Tours (tel. 800/746-5753 or 907/745-5753; http://novalaska.com) has more than 30 years of experience offering trips all over the state, and five different half-day floats in the Anchorage area. Various rafting trips are available, ranging from the relatively easygoing Matanuska and Kings rivers to the Class IV and V whitewater of Six Mile Creek, which begins with a required instructional swim and includes fun optional swims. That wild whitewater is about an hour south of Anchorage on the Seward Highway. Whitewater rafting always entails risk, but Nova's schedule allows you to calibrate how wild you want to get. Call to reserve and let them guide you as to the float that fits you best. The company also offers add-ons for self-paddling, helicopter flightseeing, or glacier hiking. The half-day trips range in price from $70 to $250. Children 5 to 11 can go on the calmer Matanuska River float for $35. Other trips are suitable only for older children and adults. You'll need your own transportation to the river and may need to bring your own lunch. Chugach Outdoor Center (tel. 866/277-RAFT or 907/277-RAFT; www.chugachoutdoorcenter.com) also offers several rafting options south of Anchorage. The company has two daily choices on Six Mile Creek, floats in Turnagain Pass and in Seward's Resurrection River, and sea-kayaking on Kenai Lake.

If you want to go rafting without traveling to the Matanuska River or Six Mile Creek, you can save time and money by taking a shorter, somewhat less dramatic ride closer to town on the Eagle River, which runs past the Anchorage suburb of the same name. A whitewater ride is as little as $35 with Lifetime Adventures (tel. 907/746-4644; www.lifetimeadventures.net) and they have longer floats that also include more smooth water. The rides go several times a day every day of the summer.

Sea Kayaking

Except at Eklutna Lake , kayaking day trips from Anchorage go through Whittier, on Prince William Sound.

Swimming

I'm betting that most visitors from warmer climes won't be interested in chilly lake swimming in Anchorage (the best spot is Goose Lake, off Northern Lights Blvd. east of Lake Otis Rd.). If you have children and need to burn off some energy, however, you won't find a better spot than an indoor waterpark called H2Oasis (tel. 888/H2OASIS or 907/522-4420; www.h2oasiswaterpark.com), near the intersection of O'Malley Road and the New Seward Highway. A big wave pool and a 500-foot "watercoaster" are the top attractions. Adults should bring earplugs, as the noise is unbearable, and a full wallet, as admission is $22 for ages 13 and older, $17 for ages 3 to 12, and free for children under age 3.

Ice Skating

Westchester Lagoon, just 10 blocks from downtown, is a skating paradise in the winter. When the ice gets thick enough, usually by mid-December, the city clears a large rink and over a mile of wide paths that wind across the pond, mopping the ice regularly for a smooth surface. Skaters gather around burn barrels, well stocked with firewood, to socialize and warm their hands, and on weekends vendors often sell hot chocolate and coffee. Ice skates are for rent for $10 a day at Champions Choice, a hockey shop in the University Center Mall at Old Seward Highway and 36th Avenue (tel. 907/563-3503).

Skiing

Kincaid Park is one of the best cross-country skiing areas in the country, with the first World Cup-certified trails in the U.S. About 65km of trails are geared to every ability level, but mostly intermediate and expert. Besides the superb trails, it's a beautiful place to ski, with rolling hills of open birch and spruce, and views of the mountains and ocean. Most trails are expertly groomed for skating and classical techniques, with two loops reserved for classical only. Sixteen kilometers are lighted, an important feature on short winter days. The Kincaid Park Outdoor Center (tel. 907/343-6397) is open daily from 10am to 9:45pm, shorter hours on holidays. The gate closes at 10pm, so park at one of the lots outside it if you will be skiing later. Skiing usually lasts well into March and sometimes into April. Big races come in late February and early March. Far North Bicentennial Park also has some excellent trails -- 32km total, 7km lighted -- and a slightly longer season because of a hillside location. Start at Hilltop Ski Area. Many other parks and the bike trails have lengthy skiing routes, too, some lighted.

Anchorage has several downhill ski areas; the best is Alyeska Resort. Hilltop Ski Area, in Bicentennial Park in town, is a great place to learn to ski, with one long beginner slope, at 7015 Abbott Rd. (tel. 907/346-2167; www.hilltopskiarea.org). One-day lift tickets are $22 to $28, and ski package rentals are essentially the same price.

Anchorage also is a great starting point for backcountry skiing. Nonexperts should go with a guide (you can find one through Alyeska Resort). The key safety consideration is, of course, avalanche awareness and preparation. If you are turning to this book to learn how, you are not ready to go without a guide. An avalanche hot line is available for the Chugach National Forest near Anchorage (tel. 907/754-2369 or www.fs.fed.us/r10/chugach/glacier/snow.html).