Snowshoeing Adventures

The day after Christmas, The Husband and I loaded up the car and headed down to the Kenai Penninsula.  We reached the Hope trailhead for Resurrection Pass just before 11 am, strapped on our packs and snowshoes, hitched up the sled, and hit the trail.  We hiked in 7 miles or so to Caribou Creek cabin.

It was an exhausting trip - especially since the way in is almost entirely uphill!  We made it to the cabin after sunset, but before true dark.  Immediately, we set about building a fire.  If you've ever tried to build a fire from frozen wood, you understand the difficulty of our task!  It took at least four hours before the fire was able to be left unattended for even a few minutes!  Once we got the fire going, things started to warm up though.  They warmed up even more when our white gas cookstove had a flareup!  We took care of that with no injuries, fortunately, but that was the low point of the trip.  I was ready to crawl into my sleeping bag and not move for two days.  Things got much better once we'd fixed the cookstove and the woodstove kicked into gear.

The cabin was quite cozy with the wood stove!  Unfortunately, the stove absolutely chewed through wood so we had to spend half of the next day chopping more.  It was a lot of work; I was definitely wishing for a chainsaw!

We even had an outhouse!

The view from the front window - gorgeous!

There is nothing cozier than a candle-lit cabin at night, when there is no one but you and your family for 400 miles.

The stars were brighter the first night, but I was far too cold and too exhausted to take out my camera.

Winter Fun

We've decided that we simply cannot wait until spring to do more hiking and camping, so this weekend we did a test-drive on snowshoes.  We managed about 5.5 miles in 3 hours, getting back to the trail-head after sunset but just before dark.

You could definitely tell the difference between snowshoeing on the packed trail or on unbroken snow.  We kept switching off who was going first so that one person didn't get too tired.  By the end, my legs were definitely feeling it!  You use slightly different muscles than in regular hiking.

Our goal is to do a snowshoe/camping trip between Christmas and New Years.  The cabin we're renting is about eight miles in, and there will probably be more snow than there was this weekend.  There should be between 5 and 6 hours of daylight by then, so eight miles should be doable!  We'll spend a few days around the cabin looking for bunnies and such, then hike back out.  Very excited!

Devil's Creek

We took a last opportunity to get out before the snow hit and hiked Devil's Creek trail.  About seven miles in we reached our campsite.  The mountains above it were filled with sheep.  Unfortunately, it was a month after the season closed!  I did get several grouse, though.

After setting up camp, we dropped packs and hiked another three miles before turning around and heading back to camp.  We nearly had a critical dinner failure when the stove went out and the Husband couldn't get it to light again.  This was, of course, solved after he read the directions.

There wasn't any snow yet but it was still quite cold.  The ground was mostly frozen.  I was comfortable enough after putting on two of everything - including hats and scarves!  I need a new sleeping bag!

Fabulous Fall

 

This fall, we had the amazing chance to spend a week in the back country with two of our friends.  The Husband had a caribou tag for the Kenai Mountains, so we loaded up our packs and headed out into the middle of nowhere.  The thing about nowhere?  It's beautiful.

 

We spent several days camped near this beaver lake.  During the day we hiked the mountains around.  During the evening we watched the beavers work and play.  And during the night... words cannot encompass the beauty of the stars overhead when you are eighty miles from the nearest gas station and fifteen miles from the nearest road.  I only had a little point and shoot though, so no star pictures.

  

The crowberries were fat and tasty.  We'd scoop up handfuls as we walked.  Meant to bring back a few gallons, but we got distracted.

 

View from the top of the mountain.  We climbed it twice in a day, because as soon as we hit the valley floor, we looked up and saw the 'bou!  Once we got to the top though, they were gone.

 

While we didn't get a 'bou, we did get a bunch of ptarmigan, enough to mostly get rid of the nasty dried meat in our dinners.  This was my bird, cooked in the Bakepacker with a bit of bisquick and herbs for breading.  Delicious!

I'm back!

 

Well, I do apologize for the hiatus!  We have been so incredibly busy here, but now I have a break and would rather update here than clean the house!  So, here are some pictures from the end of summer.  The above is from our trip to Denali.  We saw all of the Big Five, which was exciting.  We also got very up close and personal with a sow and two cubs.  I chose the most adorable to post here!

 

This picture, also taken in Denali, earned me an honorable mention at the State Fair!

 

The Airshow was back in Anchorage.  I'm not a big Airshow fan, but we went and I got some nice pictures.  Also, a delicious chimichanga from a cart.

To finish off the summer, I had some close encounters of the ungulate kind when I went to check on the berries in the back yard.  With all the leaves up, I ended up accidentally getting in-between mama and baby... fortunately, we all survived!

A whale of a time...

Another week, another weekend in Seward!  I really do love that place...

Anyway, this weekend we were down to do a sight-seeing charter with the in-laws.  This is particularly neat because it's the first time I've been able to get out in the bay with my good camera (good camera does NOT go on fishing trips!).  I was very excited, particularly since last weekend we saw humpbacks breaching and even an orca.

The day was rather gray and rainy, which was less than pleasant, but par for the course.  Still, it wasn't so bad.  We had a table inside, and the outside was covered.  We were quickly rewarded, before even getting out of the harbor, by a bald eagle.

A few minutes into the bay we got very close to an otter.  Of course, I've got tons of otter pictures, but could always use more!  And we did get VERY close.  He was adorable, pretty much sleeping as we all stared at him.

As it turned out, the highlight of our trip came early.  We were just passing Fox Island when we sighted a pair of humpbacks.

Then the fun began.

 We were able to witness some really amazing stuff, things that people who've lived here their whole life have never seen.

And I sure wouldn't have wanted to be on the other end of this!

Later on, I got some of my favorites - puffins!  Both horned and crested.

Horned puffins are my favorite, but don't tell the crested puffins.  Shh!

Fishin' is the Mission!

This weekend was the second annual "Fill the Freezer" fishing trip.  See, we like to eat fish.  We like to catch fish.  But we don't like to do much work, so once a year we hire a charter and have them do the hard work.

That, and it's darned hard to catch a halibut without a boat. 

Now, I get very, very excited about this trip.  So excited that when Saturday rolled around I hopped out of bed and pretty much had the car packed by 10 am.  Whereupon the husband felt it necessary to remind me that racing down to Seward Right Now wouldn't make tomorrow morning come any faster.  I admitted this was true and waited most patiently.

Once we finally got on the road our trip started out auspiciously.  Not two minutes from home a juvie bald eagle swooped down in front of our car and killed a mouse!  I tried to get a picture, but he wanted some privacy for his meal.  We got into town with no troubles other than the drizzle we hoped would clear up for the next day.

I think I woke up every hour that night to check the clock and see if it was time to get up yet.  At 5 am I hopped out of bed and made sure everything was ready.  We checked in at 6 am to find that our neighbors were all there for fishing too!  Quite a coincidence, but we ended up being on a different boat.  Our was also the last boat to leave, but by 7 am we were cruising on out of the harbor, where we were met by a sea lion chowing down on a salmon.  Clearly, a good sign!

It took about 2.5 hours to get out to the halibut grounds - I manfully endured the open ocean with the help of some Dramamine (yes, I do get seasick, but not embarrassingly so!).  I expected the halibut fishing to be similar to last year - some waiting, only one fish hooked at a time.  That was not the case.  As soon as a hook hit the bottom, a halibut latched on to it.  As a result, everyone on the boat limited out in less than an hour, but they were all smaller 'but and never a good chance for pictures since you were constantly reeling one in!

The Husband's 'but.  He got the biggest one of the day from our boat, a whopping 20 lbs.  Last year we were reeling in ones twice the size!  But dinner-plate 'but is good eating.

My 'but.

After we limited out, we packed up and headed back into the bay about an hour to reach the salmon grounds.  The coho (silvers) were running, with the occasional humpy and rare chinook.  The salmon are a lot more challenging than the halibut.  They'll slip off the hook if you give them an inch.  In fact, The Husband got a bite first thing, but it gave him the slip.

After I had reeled in my first one, the cries of "whale" started coming.  Off the back of the boat were some humpbacks and boy were they having fun.  I actually stopped fishing for a minute or two to watch as they repeatedly fluked and breached, just like you always see on TV.  But this was real life!  Fishing and whale watching combined!

By the end, I'd gotten 5 cohos (the limit is six).  The only fish that got off my hook was a little humpy that I didn't really want anyway.  I did have a few bites that I missed the set on - if I hadn't made that mistake, I'd've limited out!  Husband came home with two, and also would have limited if he hadn't lost a couple and missed a few sets.  We still did good though!  Only one other couple did better, both of them limiting out.

Last year when we headed home, our boat broke down.  I must be a bad luck charm or something, because as we were getting ready to head home, another boat broke down and our Captain decided to break the rules and tow it in.  That cut our speed in third, and it took several hours longer to make it home.  But on the way we saw a killer whale!  Just a dorsal fin, but still cool.

Due to the delay I didn't get to take care of the fish quite the way I wanted.  No time to pull out pinbones or anything, since we were beat.  But it was still an amazing, fantastic day and we have plenty of fish for the next year!

"Pixies, mepps and spinning glow
Coho Fly is the way to go.
Fishin' is the mission and I'm on my way
Going to find a big one to make my day!
Sockeye, pink
Coho, king
Dog salmon running mean!"
- Kevin Downie

Kenai Wildlife!

We started our day by heading down to the Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage.  There was this adorable baby musk ox there, and the bears were more active than I'd ever seen!

Nom nom!  Tasty bone!  Just as soon as I put my camera down, he threw the bone into the air - it was pretty neat!

As soon as we reached Seward, we headed down towards Caine's Head in search of sea otters.  We found no less than half a dozen, plus a seal that I didn't get any photos of.

Mommy and baby... even though baby is almost as big as mommy!  I really want this same picture, but when baby is just a little fluffball.

Not one, not two, but three otters!  They are so cute playing together!

Bye bye!

And here's a juvie bald eagle.  He took his dinner out onto the gravel bar so as not to be disturbed... except by that seagull lurking around behind him!

BBA #25 - Pizza Napoletana

Pardon the smooshed appearance!

This pizza dough was absolutely fantastic!  The only trouble I had is that I found it very difficult to shape.  It tended to tear, I'm not sure why.

I made two different pizzas.  The first looked a lot better, since I used plenty of cornmeal to slide it onto the baking stone - unfortunately, I used so much cornmeal that I sent black smoke billowing throughout the house.  Between that and how good it tasted, I didn't get any photos of the first pizza.  This second one I tried to avoid the whole burning-thing, and used too little cornmeal instead, resulting in this smooshy look.  I must practice!

BBA #24 - Pannetone

Here's my first complete failure.  After two attempts, I still couldn't get the seed culture going, so this bread will officially wait until I get to the sourdough section.  Then I shall reattack!

Gardening

 I have about a dozen posts I need to make, including several more BBA posts, but I have absolutely no motivation.

In the meantime, enjoy some pretty flowers from my garden.  These are my favorites, my bleeding heart and my forget-me-nots.

Earrings

I've got a post about Colorado coming soon, but in the meantime, here is a bit of a follow-up to my last post.  These are earrings I just made tonight, using porcupine quills and seed beads.  I've got a plan in mind using nice ivory and jade beads, but I wanted to do some practice!

I did learn a few lessons from working with the quills.  First, always throw away clipped barbs before doing anything else - otherwise you'll lose them and spend a good amount of time on the floor looking for them before your cat eats them.  Also, while you can thread the quills straight onto the wire, it is easier to run a needle through first, then the wire.  You break fewer quills that way!

Alpine Creek Lodge

This weekend was our third anniversary.  We spent it at Alpine Creek Lodge, off the Denali Highway.  Thursday, we hopped in the car right after work and started driving.  We made it to Cantwell around 11pm and crashed for the night in a little motel.  Then it was up bright and early for the remaining three hour drive.

Alpine Creek Lodge is about 70 miles from Nowhere, with Nowhere being Cantwell, AK on one end (population 222) and Paxson, AK (population 43).  It is on the Denali Highway, which would not merit the name in any other state, being a 130 mile dirt road with about five little hotel/B&B's spread out along it.  We wanted to get away from it all!

The road is teeming with wildlife - this beaver was one of the first things we saw, along with moose, caribou, and porcupines.  There are bear out there, but we didn't see any.  The caribou was a bit concerned by us, but not overly so.

We had the fortunate timing to be driving by just as the F22s from Elmendorf were flying an exercise right over our heads.  We watched for 10 minutes or so as they circled and dropped flares and such.  Pretty awesome!

We got to the lodge at 11am, got situated, packed some lunch, shouldered our packs, and headed off.  We hiked about 7-8 miles down an ATV path that terminated in this gorgeous lake where we got to watch caribou grazing, terns and ducks and swans flying about, and beaver building.  Absolutely fantastic!

On the walk back, we found a fresh grizzly track that hadn't been there before.  I measured it with my hand - 6 inches across!  Since we were ostensibly bear hunting, we took a look around, but didn't see anything and it was getting late, so we headed back to the lodge.  A 14 mile or so day, done in 7 hours with full packs - we were done in!  But Jennifer, the owner, had dinner ready for us and we spent the evening recovering. 

This is the view from the lodge.  Isn't it amazing?  The lodge is quite rustic, as you can see from the first picture.  It's not 100% finished yet - the bottom floor is all done, as is half of the second floor.  Inside, it's decked out with rooms on both sides, plus a large common area in the middle, for eating, sitting about, watching TV, and playing games.  Wi-fi is also available, and there are two full bathrooms.

We didn't stay in one of those rooms, though.  We had the Trapper's Cabin, which is the little cabin in front of the lodge.  For an extra few bucks a night, we got a sitting room with a wood stove, a bedroom, and a kitchen.  It's not entirely functional yet - no water, limited electricity, but the privacy and space were great to have.  Very cozy, with a fire going!

The next day we used the information we'd collected already and set up on a ledge overlooking a creek, a likely spot for bear as we'd seen some sign.  It was about an hour in, 2-3 miles or so.  We arranged it so that one of us would be watching from our "blind" while the other got to wander about some.  The Husband went back to where we'd seen the fresh print the previous day and scouted around a bit.  He started tracking an even larger bear - 7-8 inches across on the print - until he found cub tracks alongside and backed off quickly.  I mostly wandered about in the tundra, looking for sheds - but I did go into the spruce forest long enough to find a porcupine which turned out to be my first kill.  We'll be having porky stew next week!

Apart from another porcupine The Husband bagged, we didn't come back with anything else.  Never saw a bear, but it was great to be surrounded by such beauty and silence the whole weekend.  If anything, the drive back was even more gorgeous than the drive out!

On our way out, we found this beaver on the side of the road miles away from any pond.  He was quite distraught, hissing at us when we stopped, and trying to dive into the dirt when we drove past.  I felt bad for him.

Scouting out a little dirt road that led into the next valley (we'd heard there were bunnies out there), we found a moose on the edge of a lake.  I watched him for a while, and sure enough he obliged us by swimming across.

This caribou was quite curious about us on the drive back home.  He was very energetic, too!

Altogether, an amazing weekend.  I highly recommend stopping by Alpine Creek Lodge if you're in the area, even just for coffee and tea and a chat.  Everyone is amazingly nice, and the surroundings can't be beaten!

Just watch out for that grizzly with cubs!

Wildlife Photos

Sorry for the absence!  Things have been absolutely nuts around here, what with the end of the school year and the start of a hugely busy summer.  We leave Thursday for a bear hunt/anniversary retreat up the Denali Highway!

But before I go, I thought I'd leave you a few shots from the last two weeks.  Mostly at Potter's Marsh, though the last one is Eklutna Lake.  I'm very excited because all of my favorite birds are back!

First, the Sandhill Cranes.  They tend to prefer the mudflats over by the rifle range (stupid birds), but we caught this flock winging overhead at the marsh!  Great to see.

Green Teal.  Love'm!  How can you not, with such gorgeous colors?  There were dozens flocking around the marsh.

Pintail.  Not a favorite of mine, but I do like this shot, with the reflection in the water.

Arctic Tern!  I love love love these birds!  They are so much fun to watch, as they dip and dive through the air, and way cooler than stupid seagulls.

More teal, flocking in for a landing.

Not a bird, but this muskrat is a bit of a rarer sight at the marsh.  We actually saw two this day!

Birders, help!  I'm having trouble identifying this pair!  They're diving birds, and from a distance I first thought loon, but the head shape is wrong... What do you think?