We've been in Alaska for two weeks now and have been going non-stop. We're still sleeping on the floor because we've wanted to play while its nice rather than setup our house (boring). Finally after three different MTA internet technicians and a replaced port down the street, we have internet out here in the boonies! Our house is on 160 acres with our landlords mike and pam who are very nice and seemingly normal people, which is a rarity in these parts. They have cattle and horses and more land than lucy can explore in a year. Just yesterday lucy was barking at something and it was a moose and her calf passing through. Patches is mike and pam's border collie and he was under the deck. Patches knows more about moose than lucy it seems. We bought a canoe only a couple of days after getting here because we realized toys are necessary in Alaska. Here are some pictures of the property.
The fog settles into the meadow at night, very cool.
The taj mahal on the right is mike and pam's. The garage mahal on the left is ours.
We camped next to the matanuska river before we found our place. It stopped raining the day we finally had a roof over our heads.
Nate danger Allton walking into the silty quick sand.
Again Nate muclucking as far as he can go. This is in Archangel valley near hatcher's pass right up the road from us.
Old homestead cabin in archangel valley
Pretty purples wildlfowers. Nate thinks they are called kristanthimums
Nate's got the gold fever after his first few flecks.
Once we signed our lease and moved our stuff in, we literally only spent one night in our house. Then it was off to girdwood where Nate's freind from CSU soccer has a cabin. Ben is originally from Anchorage and was back for a week with his girlfreind Mary Jane also from AK. We went and visited them and took this hike to portage glacier near Whittier.
We had lunch on the beach watching the ice cav (break off the glacier and fall into the lake for you mainlanders)
Lucy would swim out and bite the icebergs, it was very entertaining.
She is just so photogenic!
Kristen, Nate, Ben, and Mary Jane. Taken by Lucy
Nate and Ben crossing the glacial runoff to get to the glacier. Kristen and Mary Jane opted out of this experience and instead discussed why women were the only reason human kind has survived so long.
Needless to say, It was COLD! But Nate touched his first glacier so he was happy.
100,000 year old snow.
The very next day Mary Jane had to fly home but we set out to McCarthy, a town in the heart of the Wrangell's, with Ben and three very awesome dudes that Ben grew up with. This is a shot from the McCarthy road which is a 63 mile stretch of dirt road after a five hour drive west from wasilla. We camped near McCarthy and set out for a three day backpack trip to hidden lake next to kennicot glacier.
This is the root glacier where we camped near McCarthy.
Nate found out one of his favorite childhood past times, rock rolling, has a technical name in Alaska. Nate Ben and Ray are seen here trundeling a good one!
Kennicot is back in the valley to the left and root glacier is the one on the right. The miles of dunes you see is actually ice with centuries of rock and dirt which is being scraped up and pushed down the valley.
Flo, Ben's freind from switzerland bushwacking through the alders. The trail ended after a mile and the rest of the trip was very difficult bushwacking.
Bear across the river. It was a little nerve racking walking through the alders with nothing but blueberries and soapberries(bear favorites) around us.
After one of the hardest backpacking days either of us have done we found a field suitable for camp. We think it was a landing strip because of two lines of rock piles in the field.
A pooped goose, a rare sight.
Celebratory scotch!
If you look closely you will see the men trundeling on the glacier.
We got rained in our tents most of the 2nd day. Here you see the evil emperor. Something something something Dark Side something something....
Overall the backpack trip was great but exhausting. I appreciate trails now more than ever. We never made it to hidden lake because of the rain. Instead we hucked it back to McCarthy to meet the locals at the pub. We found out that hidden lake, which was held in by an ice damn had broke twelve hours earlier so it wasn't there anyway. It was a great time and kristen and I met Ray Rama and Flo who were really great guys to know.
Lucy Patches and Nate exploring the property.
We're planning a canoe trip in a few days, and then kristen starts school so the summer adventures will likely be over. But the weekend adventures will continue. Watch for one more post and then check back periodically for more.
