We got lucky and scored a two night stay at the Callisto Canyon Cabin in Caines Head. It is about a 5 mile hike out to the cabin. A portion of the trail is on the beach and you can only pass at low tide. So 5:30 am we set out on our adventure after first staying the night in the warm backpackers room at Millers landing the night before. The hike begins on a somewhat of an uphill note. Which displeased Arn beyond belief. LOL. But what goes up must come down. So we winded our way thru the rain forest and finally ended up on the beach. Did we honestly think the hiking would be easier on the beach??? NOT. Every step we took had to be carefully calculated as the sharp rocks that jutted from the beach at low tide were often covered with seaweed and slime. The weather wasn't very nice to us this trip. But ah, this is Alaska. We perservered and still had a wonderful adventure. There is a nice waterfall around the beach from the cabin where we filtered our water. We took a nice 7 mile hike out to Ft McGilvrey on the second day. There was still lots of snow out there. And it rained all the way. We got pretty wet and cold, despite our gear. So after a cold lunch hunkered down in one of the pill boxes at the fort, we decided to head back and explore the south beach area another time. One does not decide to head back early on these trails. As we arrived at our beach trail it was completely impassable due to high tide and there was no way around the surrounding cliffs. So we had to wait out the tide for at least another 4 hours. Cold and wet we sought out shelter. Our luck was holding out. The Derby Cove cabin set up in the woods off of Derby Cove, where we were stranded. We checked it out and nobody was home. So we went inside and started a fire in the stove and warmed up for the next few hours out of the rain. We met the occupants of the cabin on the other side of low tide coming out as we continued our hike back to our cabin. We told them their cabin would be prewarmed for them. Finally back at our cabin we got our fire started and got warm to settle in for the evening. Callisto Cabin is a very neat cabin not far off the ocean front. You can see the sea lions and otters playing in the ocean from the cabin windows. And the cabin itself is pretty cool too. Has a carved eagle hanging from the porch and some other nice touches inside. We met the builder of the cabin as we hiked out the next day. He said it was built in 98 or so with funds from the Exxon Valdez settlement. Good use of those funds if you ask me.
Summer Solstice is a big deal up here in Alaska. We treasure our sunlight and enjoy our summers with endless daylight. Summer Solstice marks the time when the hours of daylight start dwindling down until in the fall we head back to our darkened nights filled with hopeful northern lights. So many people mark the celebration by climbing our famous peak of 3500 feet called Flattop. 100's of people flock up to the top of this little mountain on summer solstice. And at the top you will often find people playing guitars and once there was a guy juggling fire. This time there was girl skipping around the top hula hooping. Many people choose to wear costumes or hats and beads and feather boas to celebrate. We just simply hiked up to enjoy the view and the people. My friends Nichole, Heidi and Heather decided to join me for this Summer Solstice and so glad they did. It was a fun time. Heidi wanted to kill me soon after it all started, but I think she enjoyed herself in the end. 
