A Visit by Sandhill Crane Colts

We regularly have sandhill cranes wander through our yard and neighborhood, but a few days ago was the first time we had colts come as well. It was a treat to watch them from my front deck!

Going Outside 2017

Going back to Michigan to visit always puts me in a reflective state, noticing the differences between life "down there" as compared to life "up here" in Alaska. It had been four years since we'd been back, so it was interesting to see it with fresh eyes.

Wildlife - We arrived in Michigan at 5 a.m. and found a park to hang out in for a few hours. As we were sitting there at Fuller Park in Ann Arbor, a small herd of deer wandered closer and closer to us. We were tickled to get a bit of wildlife in the city! We were also amazed, as we drove about the state, how many dead deer were on the side of the road. In Alaska the moose kill system is highly developed, so every moose that is hit and killed is picked up, usually within the hour. It seems wasteful and unsanitary to just leave the dead animals on the side of the road. I looked up the Michigan law and it appears very easy to take the roadkill--a quick call to local law enforcement agencies or 911 with details about the location takes care of it. But perhaps people don't know they can, or the deer is not dead when they hit it, or they don't know what to do with it if they did take it. Whatever the reasons, we were surprised  about that.

Cars, Traffic & Speed Limits - Just yesterday as we were driving around Homer, I said to my husband, "Homer makes me feel good--lots of people have older cars than we have!" In Michigan, our 2000 Subaru would not fit in; in Homer it is the norm. I was impressed at how many new cars there were; or rather, the lack of old cars. Along with that, the amount of traffic on the freeways was amazing, and they're going along at 80+ mph since the speed limit is 75! It took us a week to get somewhat comfortable with going 75. It seems way too fast, especially for the amount of traffic on the roads! Of course, when we got back to Alaska, going 55 or 65 in some areas seemed really slow!

Weather - Our first day in Michigan was 95 in Ann Arbor I think, which luckily did not continue. After that, days were in the high 70's or 80's, and it was the strangest thing to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts every day, all day. Since being back in Homer (where we are pleased if it reaches 60 degrees!), I've worn shorts once, for a couple hours when the sun was out yesterday. The moment the clouds came over, it got too chilly and I started layering up.  It was actually pleasant to have that warm weather, and I recall when we moved here I thought Homer summers were chilly. Now I consider Homer summers 'normal':  assume you will be wearing pants and jackets all summer, and take a hat with you no matter what the season!

Our bachelor buttons went from just up to full bloom in a few weeks!

Vegetation - There are so many trees in Michigan! They go on and on and on! It's not that we don't have trees here, it's just that many have been hit with the spruce beetle or the spruce aphids so look dead or dying, and many of our 'trees' are just big shrubs, like alders. Take those away and our landscape would be relatively bare. But when we arrived back in Homer, I was shocked at how everything had grown in two weeks. Those weeks in mid-June are prime growing time, and I often say Alaska in the summer almost feels like a jungle--things are so green, vibrant and prolific. Michigan is green as well, but the annual plants don't grow quite so tall. The long days create some tall plants.

Sunday morning at Costco in Anchorage!

Food & Shopping - It must have been the restaurants we were going to, but we could not find a single vegetable on the menu besides potatoes or cole slaw for a week of eating out. It became a game for me to try to find veggie side with a main dish. In one restaurant they gave Doug a single stalk of asparagus. We were cracking up. Food is cheaper in Michigan, but in more ways than just cost. And of course, upon our return to Alaska, we did the Costco run, and were entertained by the crowd of folks standing in line waiting to get into Costco on Sunday morning!

Revisiting Hope 2017

Hope is one of my favorite places in Alaska to visit, with some of my top activities:  camping, hiking and mountain biking. As Douglas headed up to Fairbanks to provide administrative coverage for softball state, the kids and I headed to Hope for a long weekend of fun.

Gate to our campground of choice was closed

However, the weekend took an unexpected turn when we arrived in town, because the gate to the Coeur d'alene Campground was closed, where we were planning to camp out at and make our base to explore from. Luckily it was a Thursday evening so there were still spots open at the Porcupine Campground a few miles away at the end of the road. In fact, we even got an ocean front view spot, quite a rarity and I was questioning how that was possible until the next morning when we were informed there was a mistake and we needed to move to another site.

A view of Turnagain Arm from the Porcupine Campground

The next day we decided to bike the road that was closed to the campground. It turned out that an avalanche had covered the road and was still deep enough to make the road impassable. As we discovered when we biked out there, the mountains are still completely covered with snow, so we wouldn't have been able to do all the exploring we'd hoped to do, so it was a good thing we weren't all the way out there. 

I hadn't realized how far up that road climbed from the gate to the highest point, but it took me a full hour of uphill biking to reach that point (which, by the way, took me only 12 minutes to coast down on the return trip!). Whew! A downhill never felt so good, though I was soon stopped by avalanche areas--first branches covering the road from already-melted avalanches, then the one avalanche that needed to be clambered over.

The kids also climbed a 4200 foot peak off to one side of the valley, choosing one for it's lack of snow. They were rewarded with miles and miles of peaks in the distance, a treat they said was worth the climb.

A summery day for a bike ride up the Palmer Creek Road

This avalanche is responsible for the road being closed.
Apparently plowing it isn't an option??

A couple of other areas with branches littering the road are
telltale signs of avalanches that have melted already

The Coeur d'alene Campground is petite with 6 tenting only sites, but it is free and remote!

The mountains past the campground were still snow-covered, and warm temperatures
meant soft snow not conducive for exploring the mines and area

A beautiful view of Turnagain Arm looking towards Anchorage was worth
 braking for on my 12 minute downhill coast back to the gate

The next day we decided to climb Hope Point, and despite predictions of possible rain, turned out to be another scorcher by Alaska standards (65-75 degrees). I regretted not wearing shorts, figuring it would be cooler up higher. I was more comfortable once I rolled up my tights to my knees. The 2000 foot climb went by relatively quickly with the new switchbacks that lengthened the trail to 3.5 miles, but made it a moderate climb rather than a straight-up grueling one.  The main highlight was seeing 4 mountain sheep reclining on the rocks of a nearby peak as I reached the saddle for the final push to the top.

The mountain sheep looked like patches of snow at first 

The kids have been pushing their limits beyond trails this summer, so after reaching the summit of Hope Point, moved on to another nearby peak.

View of a nearby peak the kids climbed, as seen from Hope Point

Our final day, the kids decided to bike the entire length of the Resurrection Pass Trail, all 36-39 miles of it (depending on which trail map to believe; Denver's GPS said it was 37.65 miles). This was going to be a stretch for them, as the longest mountain bike ride they'd done before was 25 miles on the Russian Lakes Trail a few years ago. We plotted and planned, packed backpacks and filled waterbottles, and at 7:30 am the next morning I snapped a picture of them before they headed down the trail, looking all clean and eager.

Juneau Falls off the Resurrection Trail, swollen with spring runoff

They estimated, on the high side, it would take them 12 hours to bike it. My guess was 8 hours, which would put them just over 5 mph. That meant I had a long day to fill before picking them up at the other end of the trail, in Cooper Landing. But between getting breakfast, breaking camp, and driving to the Cooper trailhead, I had a little bit of time before the early estimate of 8 hours. I hopped on my bike and headed up the trail, with my goal Juneau Falls 4.5 miles away. It took me 50 minutes of mostly uphill to get there, and just as I was getting ready to hop on my bike to head back, the kids pulled in on their bikes. I snapped a quick picture of them in front of the falls, now looking tired and muddy, and we careened down the final miles to the trailhead.

It was an intense weekend of hiking and biking, and we returned home sore and happy having fulfilled the goal of summer in Alaska:  adventures!!

South Fork Eagle River Trail

Looking up Eagle Valley towards our destination, Eagle and Symphony Lakes

Last year Doug and I were killing time between events in Eagle River and were randomly driving down roads. We drove down one just off the first Eagle River freeway exit. There were no houses at first, but the further we got up the valley, the more houses there were. And then we saw a trailhead sign, which is nearly irresistible to check out. Ironically, when we pulled in we ran into a lady we know from Homer, who said this was her favorite hike in all of Alaska because it is mostly above treeline and fairly flat. That day, an ambulance was parked in the parking lot, as a young girl of about 10 or 12 had passed out while camping with her family and was being hauled out by medics.

The Hanging Valley Trail to the left will be
one of our places to explore another time

We put that hike on our "someday" list, and that someday came last week since state soccer was in Eagle River and track in Palmer so we were in the area for four days. There are other trails besides the South Fork Eagle River Trail, but we decided that would be a good one at 11 miles round trip to Eagle and Symphony Lakes and back, with less than 1000 feet elevation gain.

The trail was in very good shape the first half with hard-packed gravel and dirt, while the second half, when getting into the muskeg, was a bit boggy in places. Once we reached the terminus of Eagle Lake and the bridge, it was a mile of boulder hopping to a shelter between the lakes. There were lots of people on the trail, many dogs, and an impressive number of backpackers who were going to camp in the valley overnight. There was no sign of bear, but the kids went along Eagle Lake around the corner to look up the valley to Finger Glacier (out of sight) and saw bear tracks up that way.

View of Eagle Lake from the shelter between the lakes

Symphony Lake, still frozen

Eagle Lake with shelter

Much of the trail is in good condition

Overall, it was a nice hike, and 11 miles went by quickly. It was a bit windy at times, and snowflakes floated down at times, though it was in the 40's. It was also nice to be able to scout out other possible hikes, such as Rendezvous Peak, which begins at the same trailhead. I saw some folks coming back to the parking lot with downhill skis on their backs, so they were likely catching some late season snow up top.

Pioneer Ridge-Austin Helmers Trail in Palmer

A few years ago I was driving around exploring and found the trailhead for the Pioneer Ridge-Austin Helmers Trail near Palmer, off the Knik River Road. A flyer said it was a 5000 foot climb, which immediately piqued my interest, along with the part that said, "experienced climbers with gear only for the final ascent."  Sounded good and knarly to me, and I've wanted to go back ever since.  A weekend of sports in Palmer (state track and baseball regionals) meant I was in the area, and my daughter was fresh back from Colorado and itching for some uber hikes. The weather for the day we were shoot for said partly cloudy and 50's, which is about as perfect as it's going to get.

View of the Knik River from a few thousand feet up the Pioneer Ridge Trail

In my mind, over the years, the trail has gained mythic porportions--there aren't a lot of trails that are 5000 foot climbs! But really, it was just another typical Alaskan mountain trail. It was a nice single track, with sections that were muddy. A couple of picnic tables marked distinctive alpine meadows with amazing views of the Knik River and Knik Glacier. I made it to about the snow line, which I'm guessing was about 2500 or 3000 feet, judging by the other mountains across the valley.  The grade of the trail was a steady uphill from the very first step, so that was two hours of solid climbing! But it didn't seem too steep and it was never a scramble, and the trail was fairly smooth, making for sure footing.  It only took an hour to get back down to the two up, making for a good three hour mountain workout. 

We were entertained by the simplicity, and unhelpfulness, of the trail map

A few walkway systems helped avoid muddy sections of trail

Before I did this climb I didn't even realize there was a Knik Glacier

Most sections of trail were hard-packed dirt.
Trees were quite leafed out at the bottom but not further up.

I would go back to this trail again if I was in the area, not necessarily with the expectation of making it all the way up. Aurora went an hour further than I did, and got two ridges further up than me to the serious snow that involved post-holing, which isn't fun. From her spot the knife edge of a ridge and the peak were visible, and it was clear why climbing equipment was necessary!

Wolverine Peak Climb

It is the beginning of summer and my travels and adventuring are revving up. I was in Anchorage for a week and got in six 2-4 hour hikes in seven days. Some I've done before and some I didn't take pictures of so you won't see a blog post for all of them. But I have a few new ones worth sharing. 

While leaves have popped out at the trailhead, up the trail no green is showing yet

One of my greatest discoveries is that there are 4 trailheads all accessing the same Chugach National Forest trails on the Hillside area of Anchorage:  Glen Alps/Flattop (the most popular, judging by the extensive, paved parking lot), Huffman, O'Malley and Prospect Heights. I'd only been to the Flattop trailhead before and now feel deprived of years of not knowing about lots of other great trails! The Flattop area starts nearly at or above treeline, so when it is windy, there is no protection. The other areas are more treed and offer protection on blustery days.

What would we do without the wonderful bridges that allow us access to the backcountry?!

I started the Wolverine Peak trail from the Prospect Heights trailhead, taking a left at the Powerline Trail and following it up on a gradual climb on a wide, hard packed trail. It was pleasant walking, till I came to the intersection with Near Point (straight) or Wolverine Peak (a right). I opted to try the peak trail and it began a steeper ascent, resulting in frequent short breaks as I caught my breath on my first climbing hike of the season.

A view of Anchorage (a clear day would also show us Denali in the distance) from the trail up Wolverine Peak

Only one section of snow remained, 50 feet or so, on my climb to the saddle, at which point I decided that for my fresh-to-hiking legs, that would be enough climbing for the day. I can see how it would be a pleasant hike, really not too difficult, once I'm back in hiking shape for the season.

When climbing, I thought Wolverine Peak was to the left after climbing this slope, but when I was driving the Seward Highway later and looking up, I saw that it was to the right up this section, a peak that's about 4200 feet

A Cat Walks By....

As I was thinking it was about time to go to sleep while on my annual retreat at the Holy Spirit Center last week, I glanced out the window and saw a cat walking by.  Hm.  Then I was like, "Whoa, that cat is big!"  As it continued to walk I thought, "That's no housecat! Look at those paws! And tufted ears! That's a lynx!"  It complied by walking slowly, obviously hunting, and allowed me to get a picture and then a video.

A lynx walked by my room

As the lynx walked around the corner of the building, I dashed to the next room, the library, and as I peered down, the lynx paused and then pounced, walking away with something gray hanging from its mouth.  I'd seen a rabbit hopping about the lawn earlier that day so suspect it was rabbit that it nabbed, as it was larger than a mouse.

After that, no amount of peering out of windows got me another view of the lynx. Of course, for the remaining days there, I spent more time than usual looking out the window in hopes of seeing another view of a lynx or other wildlife!