Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Eureka! 4th of July weekend camping

Happy 4th of July!! I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend!

Friends invited us to go camping and 4wheeling with them up near Eureka this holiday weekend. We were all happy to go, our first camping trip of the year! Yikes, how the summer is flying by! Scott started out the day by washing the outside of the camper & the pickup - before we even left! I thought that was done after a trip but it kept him busy, and it sure looked good when he was done! I made pasta salad, planned some meals and packed in most of the food and clothing stuff while he was cleaning and loading up the riding gear.

By 4pm Friday we were on the road to Eureka! I entertained myself by taking pictures of the mountains with trees or power poles whizzing by : )

We had quite the V iew out the front too.

Here's the Mantanuska Glacier (before it disappeared from view). The dirty looking stuff is also part of the glacier, the silt and rock being left behind but still mixed with snow.

Alascom Hill - has the AT&T Alascom tower at the top. We'll be camping across from it just off the highway in a gravel area then ride the road up to it on our 4wheelers Saturday.

We've reached camp and setup our luxurious accomodations (notice the shine coming from the clean truck?) : )

Altogether we were quite the group: 12 adults, 6 children & 10 dogs -> 3 campers, 2 large tents & 1 pickup (front seat). We weren't the last to arrive but it was late so we just hung out by the campfire that evening, keeping an eye on the dogs getting to know one another. I took mostly doggy pics but I won't bore you with all of those : )

Saturday started out warm and sunny. We all got ready for a ride but a couple of the machines weren't working right. After a few hours of waiting as they worked on them the storm clouds moved in. The riding group dwindled; only the diehards (and our Sissy dog) left to ride. The rest of us (3 ladies, guy with sad atvs, all the kids and dogs except Sissy) hung out in the campers. They were only gone a few hours, coming back rather wet.

Here's our rigs, before we loaded our stuff on. Mine's on the left with the standard tires.

Later, after dinner, the clouds had cleared so Scott and I headed across the highway to go up the Alascom Hill with Sissy and Kona riding behind us.

Alascom Hill from the highway.

View looking toward the highway from atop Alascom Hill. The highway is the the light colored line running horizontal across the pic, just below the top of the green/dark "hill" in the distance.

View from the top looking another direction.

Kona, checking out the view.

Sissy... actually she's watching & listening to the bushes rustling right in front of her, waiting to pounce on whatever comes out, hopefully Kona.


The 3 of them enjoying the view. Ok, yes, I caught Kona blinking at that very moment and by the time he opened them the 'moment' was lost on everyone, esp. the dogs. I had switched to black and white for a few pics to see how they'd come out with the scenery. (think Ansel Adams, I wish!)




It may be kinda hard to see much detail in these small pics, they look dark, but definitely a medium I'd like to play with more.

Sunday, all of the group except us packed up to head home. We weren't in a hurry and didn't plan to leave until Monday morning : ) We headed out for another ride in the area near the Alascom tower, to Goober Lake. Beyond that point the trail narrowed, zig zaging down a rather steep hillside. We started down but Scott decided (whew!) it wouldn't be fun coming back up once we finally got down to the bottom. He had been out there on snowmachine before, a little easier ride. It was a good ride, mud holes and all : ) We were all pretty hot and dirty when we got back to the camper.

Kona headed right to a pile of padding for a nap while we were still unpacking our gear

After dinner and hot showers we settled in to watch a movie, in our luxury suite of a camper : )

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