Time seems to be speeding up! We haven't done a great job of keeping up with our blog since going back to work (sorry!).  Way back in August Josh and Chuck visited us for week.    

 

 

The Allton boys back together one last time before the old man ships off to Azerbaijan.

We drove north up the Matanuska valley for a day of lake fishing strangely with no luck.

 Spent a day hiking in Hatcher's pass, the blueberries were just starting to come in.

 After two days we headed out for the Kenai penninsula for some world class salmon fishing.

 I grew up thinking fishing was stupid and boring. My first Alaskan salmon made a convert out of me for life.

I think fishing in Alaska has that affect on you, even Josh...

 

 

 

 

Exploring the Talkeetna range on a gorgeous day.

 

 We headed north after a succesful Kenai trip and canoed down Willow creek.

 

 Saw thousands of spawning salmon, bear tracks and took home a few 16" rainbow trout.

 This King would have been a good catch!...if we had caught it a month sooner before it spawned and died.

 Willow creek was a tough float with a lot of sweepers and bottlenecks but the allton bros navigated it succesfully.

Picking Blueberries 

 While the boys were fishing down on the Kenai, I went backpacking with Katherine and her dog Lola.  We did a one night trip up to Reed Lakes in the Hatcher pass area.

 

 

 

Beautiful weather!

 

 Lola is a bit of a princess and she expected to be carried across the boulder field.  She would cry for Katherine to pick her up.

The fog started to roll in so we decided to set up our tent and then hike up to the lakes.  You can barely see the yellow spec of our tent.

 

 

 

 

We had a short break in the clouds to actually see the mountains around us.  It only lasted for a few minutes because shortly after we were being pelted with hail and rain.  Our goal was to make it up to the B52 bomber crash site on the mountain but we were too soaked. 

 

Waterfall on the hike down.  Katherine and I didn't realize how difficult it would be with two wet dogs and ourselves in a 2 person tent.  It was a bit challenging but we eventually dried out.  We cooked dinner right outside the tent and had a few close calls with the tent almost being lit on fire haha.  

Leaving camp, walking back into the fog.