Adventuring

So today I left from Denali state park to head to the National park for a few days. The bus ride went smooth and I even caught a few z's on the ride. We then got a shuttle to the Salmon Bake so we could get another shuttle to the campground. It wasn't until that second shuttle that I realized my sleeping bag was no longer attached to my hiking pack. I called the first shuttle and they said they have it do hopefully I will get that back tonight or else it will be a chilly night. Once we got to the campground and starting setting up the tent we realized there was a pole missing. Gahhh, a frustrating start to what was supposed to be a fun filled weekend. We fortunately have found a tent to borrow for the night. I let this get to me and shed a few tears, but I've come around and am taking it in stride and looking forward to having a better tomorrow.




“Better to be strong than pretty and useless.”
― Lilith Saintcrow, Strange Angels

Road signs

Today the maintenance guys came up to help put up all the road signs that designate where the view points and hiking trails are. Some of them hadn't been put up in years and were in pretty rough shape. First we had to find them in the woods and then we had to make sure all the pieces were there to put them together with. It was quiet an entertaining day working with 3 guys! I added to the entertainment when I was texting and walking, yes you read that right, and walked right into a sign post that was in the back of the tril. I hit my head so hard that it knocked me off my feet and I was laying in the road behind the truck. Guess I learned my lesson there! I am okay now and we all got a good laugh out of it! Well the signs are up and I'm still alive spot was another good day.


On the ride home I got to see a plane being long lined or towed by a helicopter! The plane had to make an emergency landing a few days ago and they were just about to drop it down on the side of the road in a clearing. It was a really neat sight!

Long awaited pictures!

Denali from Cascade Trail

Denali at "dusk" from Cascade

Again

Panorama from Cascade

Alpenglow Cloud

Denali

Rainbow 

Salmon Bake 

Two Bull Moose in the National Park

Tourists watching the moose

The bus from "Into the Wild"

camp fiah

Alaskan Sunset...

Summer growing season

Well the summer growing season is in full swing here in south central Alaska! Fireweed is about to bloom and everywhere you look your eye sees green. Chris and I trimmed and brushed out North View today because it was beginning to look like a jungle and then Jason and I went back to Ermine and cleared the trees that had fallen in the trail. It was an extremely long, hot day! At the end of it I didn't feel like cooking and l was pretty much out of food anyways so Jason and I got takeout from Princess. I had chicken fingers and they definitely hit the spot!

I am hoping to post a few pictures tomorrow, we will see how long grocery shopping takes and if the internet wants to cooperate.

Mini national park visit

This week I went to the national park to scope it out for when my mom comes. It is beautiful just like the rest of Alaska. You can drive 13mi into the park before you have to either get on a bus tour or turn around, but even in that short distance the terrain changed and the view opened up in front of me! I saw two bull moose feeding and just sauntering along. I hope to see a lot more when I take the bus to Wonder Lake. The town closest to the park is Healy, it's definitely a tourist town. There is a really cool restaurant and bar called the salmon bake, along with other shops and restaurants in a strip mall style set up. I think my Mom and I will have no problem having a good time and drinking a good Alaska beer at the end of our adventure.

Fighting with the Lawn

The past few days of work have been nothing short of frustrating.  First I tried to mow the lawn at Veteran's Memorial with a push mower.  The lawn is so overgrown that it was up to my knees and thick as a jungle.  Each pass I made the mower would stall because it was getting clogged with the clippings.  I was the only one around that day so there was no way for me to get different equipment, so instead I just called it a day a little early.  Also the lawn is not your traditional east coast flat backyard.  It is hilly, rocky, half alder saplings and wild rose with very few flat grassy areas.  So the next day I was able to get a weed eater to do some trimming before mowing or in place of mowing.  That is another story in itself.  I am used to a weed eater that has the string you pull out and clip off, but this one just has pre-cut inserts that are spring loaded.  It took Chris about 15 minutes to load them the first time and only about 20 for me to snap them off, there I was trying to fix it again and had to get help just to have them break again.  But this time Chris was gone and I was on my own to try and figure this system out, after about a half hour of messing around with it I gave up once again.  At this point I was covered in grass and bugbites and one unhappy girl to be around.  A few hours later when Chris returned I realized I was making a simple mistake and trying to load the string backwards.  Now that we have the figured out hopefully I will be able to clean up some more areas around the park without wanting to throw my equipment in the ditch.

As frustrated as I may have been, the warm Alaskan evenings make everything better.

Mary Carey's

Last night I went to dinner at Mary Carey's which is a restaurant and lodge located inside the Park.  It was built as one of the first lodges around, even before the Parks highway was here.  She (Mary) was the driving force in having the Parks Highway built, because she believed that views of McKinley were better from the southside, where Denali State Park and the restaurant is located.  The lodge is still run by her family,  but it is not as busy as it used to be since Princess Lodge moved into the park as well.  I had a BLT which was good per usual and it was a warm sunny afternoon so I even got to enjoy it out on the deck!  Life continues to be good in Alaska!