Fun Times at Kennicott Mine August 09

Kennicott Mine was such a fascinating place. I can only imagine what it was like back when they built this place. There is lots more out there to explore....So this one goes back on my list. Want to go out and hike to Bonanzo Mine (4 miles) and Jumbo Mine (5 miles) with about a 4000 ft elevation gain. So i have to plan a couple days next summer for that. They close up on Sept 12.

The picture above is a Lynx we saw on the road to McCarthy. We saw a total of three lynx. It was pitch black when we hit the McCarthy road. The stars were amazingly bright in the sky. But we worked ourselved into a tizzy by telling ghoststories along the way. When Carla said in a creepy voice "Where's my golden arm?", a huge owl swooped down at the windshield and we all screamed like a bunch of girls and bout peed our pants from laughing. And there was no way we were gonna pull over to go pee here. YIKES!!

On the trip out, Me, Amy,and Carla knew we were in for a long ride, but we were game for almost anything. We loaded a bunch of caches along the road and stopped every 10 miles or so to find one. The picture above is where we ran into a geocacher from Nebraska, LadyLee. She was so funny, she knew exactly what we were doing and she helped us find it.

Friends Forever - Summer 09

My BFF, Karen, visited Alaska. We had a blast as always. Can't wait for her to visit again.

Summing up Summer 09 - Fall is in the air.

Saying goodbye to summer in Alaska is always hard. And this has been an especially nice one. The weather was great. Many days with over 70 degree weather and very little rain for the months of May and June. I had some good friends, one of them being my BFF Karen since we were 3 years old, come visit from the lower 48 and that was a blast to always remember.

Some of the hikes that I have gotten in so far this summer include: Flattop, Hidden Lake, Lost Lake, Harp Mountain, A portion of the Gold Mint Trail, Resurrection Trail, Lazy Mountain, a portion of Castle Mountain, Butte in Palmer and some other trails that are unnamed.

We had some good times this summer. Camped out at BirdCreek Campground for Summer Solstice. Our planned hike of Crow Creek was cancelled due to the extra hot summer and the high rivers due to glacier melt. Instead we decided to hike Resurrection Pass. There was about 10 of us all together on this hike. We ended up hiking more than 42 miles in 3 days hiking time. Wow.

We had planned on hiking up to the top of Castle Mountain where in the middle of nowhere there is a picnic table at about 4000 ft elevation. The fog socked us in and made the trip miserable so we aborted our plan about 1500 ft below our planned destination, but it was still a fun trip and always fun to hang out with my friends.

We had an awesome trip to Valdez at the end of July. We camped at a local campground in the town of Valdez. Which was nice. It had hot showers and was convenient for me to walk around in the morning and geocache while my family lay in the tent sleeping til 10am.

Now we look forward to the Alaska State Fair and I hope to get out to Powerline Pass this year while the moose are in rut. And of course we look forward to that first bit of termination dust on the mountains to remind us winter is around the corner and we better buy those new xc skiis soon! Woo Hoo!