Taking a drive

The end of May and there's still quite a bit of snow in some places, like towards Valdez.  Hubby & I took a ride with the pooch for a few days to check out some trails down that direction.

Didn't get very far down this trail till we hit this.  We made it thru some of the snow just fine but it started to get deeper and for longer distances, time to turnaround.

Funny, we drove down this hill just fine earlier.  Amazing what a little warmth in a couple of hours will do to frozen clay, ugh!  Time to get the winch out.  Maybe the car at the bottom should have clued us in when we drove by it the first time...and the pile of steel cable a little further up the hill.

After that how about some (mostly) paved trail!  This old highway is a bit grown over and falling apart in some areas, but still pretty smooth.

When we stopped to camp, Sissy stood watch with her nose & ears constantly working, something must be close by...

Later, after much barking, and us scanning the trees and mountain side, we saw him headed up & away from us at a good lope.  Scott & Sissy walked down the road and found his prints where he had come out of the trees, maybe 50 yards from camp, before running back in and up the mountain away from our yapper. : )

 No smelly cooking in bear country, dehydrated meals it is, tho Sissy thinks they still smell good to her. 

Yeah, she's spoiled, and loves to clean out the bags when we're done eating, if we let her.

Can't.quite.get.to the bottom.... 

Scott did finally cut the side open for Miss Short Snout with egg on her face. :)

Not much snow on this side.

Had to slow down for this guy, who wasn't in a hurry...ho hum.  Sissy wanted to be let out of the truck to help it along, ha! We didn't even want to think about what that encounter could have been like. 

Well we didn't make it all the way to Valdez this weekend but now we have trails in mind to go back to in a month or so when there's less snow!

Fall off-road trip

Now that his Toy (truck) is home, Scott has been itching to take it out for a drive on our AK trails! It's hunting season for moose here so this became a combo scenic, camping, off-road, hunting trip. It was a quick trip tho, only 2 nights, over the rainy, cool Labor Day weekend, but it was beautiful, and a pretty comfy ride! : )

Our camping spot, transport & abode -

The views surrounding our spot -

Closer in - waiting on the fire...

The views along the trail -

Colors all around -

An old beaver dam still stands -

Sheep. They were on the move!

The hunt for moose was not successful but for beauty and escape, it was!

Good night!

Camping and riding in Petersville

Mt Foraker and Denali (Mt McKinley) from Petersville road.

This past week hubby and I, and the pooch, camped and road ATVs out in Petersville area. We drove out there Sunday evening, avoiding the weekend crowd. Petersville is only a couple of hours drive from home and is a popular spot for camping, partying by some, and riding ATVs and snowmachines. For a couple of days we rode the area trails, more like old, worn gravel roads, averaging about 53 miles round trip (to the camper) a day. We took a day to relax and recover in between the 2 days of riding : ) The first day was clear enough to see Denali from the road. I took some pics knowing clear skies around that mountain don't usually last long. It clouded up that evening and the clouds stuck around the rest of the week. Despite a drizzle here and there, we enjoyed beautiful scenery, lots of green hillsides, flowing creeks, even some snow. We didn't see any large animals but we did see a few beaver dams, gopher type critters running around, ptarmigans with chicks and a fox (in camp).

Our dog Sissy loves to run with the ATVs but willingly hops on the back after a few miles and at large creek crossings. She stays on, held in between Scott, his hard gearbox and stategically placed bags on either side of her. Tho, when she sees a gopher running across the path there's no stopping her wanting to jump off. After her first jump, tumble and roll, with road rash and no critter, she contained her excitement just a tad.

At camp, this seemed to be her favorite spot to lay outside, high, dry and on the soft side (minus the side bags and Scott). She wasn't about to let us go anywhere without her : ) Sissy kept an eye out for this foxy lady who came thru almost daily to check out the old campsites and firepits.

Petersville is also known for gold mining. There are several old private mining areas with large equipment that look like they haven't moved in years. We passed a few locals panning for gold at the creek in the recreational mining area. Most of the trails (roads) dead-end at mining camps, at the base of a mountain or at the top of a hill. It was a fun and beautiful trip exploring for 3 days in one little area of our beautiful state.

Roadtrip to Seward AK

I started my Income Tax Class with H&R Block last week. It's where I plan to be on Mondays & Thursdays thru the month of November. Scott's folks are here in AK for about 2.5 weeks so we wanted to get out and be tourists for a bit. Right after my class let out this past Thursday we headed out on a road trip to Seward AK.

Sept 15 is known to be the end or very close to the end of Tourist season in many places of Alaska. Fall is in the air with beautiful colors and cooler temperatures. These temperature changes play a role in determining the "Tourist Season" esp. for those driving from the lower 48 states or cruising in on ships. It was already the 17th when we took off outta here so the travelers on the roads and at the typical stops along the way were rather sparse.

Our transportation & accomodations.

Once we got to Seward, we headed out to Lowell Point to the Campground at Miller's Landing, waaayyy out the end of the road in Seward. We didn't have much company out there other than the day visitors coming to check out the view or to use the boat launch and the 3 Campground Dogs that would come by on their rounds, visiting people and their pets.

The spotted one is Jack, he's the alpha male of the camp pooches. Sissy and Jack got along great, it was nice to have a playmate for her while there.

Kayakers heading out from Millers Landing on Resurrection Bay.

Last Cruise ship of the season heading out of the Harbor.

Besides enjoying the view from the campgound on the Bay, checking out the shops and the boat harbor in town, we also visited the SeaLife Center. Here's a few of the animals we saw.

Sea Lions

Many different kinds of Star Fish

Harbor Seal

We also saw Octopus, jelly fish, and other "under the sea" creature but pics didn't come out very well with the reflective glass cases and the weird lighting inside. Note to self: add polarizer filter, lens hood, and telephoto lens to wish list : )

Scott & his folks

Since the folks were flying out of Anchorage on the red eye Sunday night (Monday morning) we headed for home Saturday afternoon. We made a few stops along the way to stretch our legs and take some pics of the fall colors.

Tern Lake Rec area, at the intersection of the Seward Hwy and Sterling Hwy.

Driving along Turnagain Arm on the Seward Hwy

Railroad bridge crossing the Knik River.

A beautiful close to a short but sweet trip.

Juneau AK

Mist over Taku Harbor

We are home from Juneau, AK! After wading through 700+ pictures (I love digital cameras), narrowing down the 20 pics of everything to the top 3 or so of everything... and taking a nap to rest my eyes...I've select just a few to post.

We met up with Scott's folks there, arriving only about 20 minutes before they did. His parents lived in Juneau back in the late 70s, early 80s and I think this was the first they'd been back to visit. Scott and I were in Juneau 9 years ago for his 20 year High School Reunion so not much had changed since we were there last. The Glaciers continue to recede and the tourists are still coming in on the huge cruise ships.

Juneau is isolated by mountains and water, accessible only by air or water. The area has grown alot more than Scott's parents ever expected some 25 years ago, the biggest draws being Alaska government (state capital), tourism and commercial fishing.

The folks stayed at a hotel, right in front of their old house. It was still standing, looked the same but was being used for storage (not lived in). Scott & I stayed in the home of high school friends of Scott's. We enjoyed the homey accomodations and chatting late into the evening.

Each day we played tourist and were able to meet up with a few old friends in the area. Here's a summary of our activities.

Day 1 We took a driving tour of the area. 4 cruise ships were docked downtown so the place was mobbed with people, we didn't stay down there long.

We stopped to check out the boat we had reserved for the next day with Nordic Tug Charters. It was pretty fancy being a 37 foot luxury tug. I made sure I picked up some Dramamine when we stopped to stock up on food for the ride, and prayed for calm waters.

Day 2 The day was overcast (typical Juneau weather) but very calm! We headed out to Taku Harbor in the boat, me clicking pictures of everything possible, trying to catch the beauty of the clouds, mist, mountains, water, boats, .... and keeping an eye out for animals.

Taku Harbor was a place they anchored at night to sleep when Scott, his brother Keith and their Dad commercial fished years ago. We were returning this day in memory of Keith who died just 2 months ago, in July.

The only people in the misty, calm harbor, we enjoyed the quiet and the scenery despite the deep saddness we felt with the loss of a family member.

Docked in Taku Harbor

Reflections.

Grass & trees growing from the old dock pilings.

Old cabin in Taku Harbor

It even had an old wringer washer in the entryway.

Waterfall in Taku Inlet

On the way back to Juneau the clouds began to lift and clear. We saw sea lions swimming near shore. I wasn't able to zoom in very close but I did get some head shots that were recognizable, not just brown spots floating on the water.

We did see a whale that surfaced a few times but I couldn't get good pics showing it was a whale.

Day 3 More tourist driving, visiting Mendenhall Glacier, Skater's cabin, boat harbors.

Day 4 We took the tram up the mountain from downtown Juneau, enjoyed the view & had lunch before coming down. Only 2 cruise ships were in today so we were able to walk down the streets and check out some of the shops.

Downtown Juneau, view from the top

Juneau valley, view from top

Waterway into Juneau

Day 5 The 4 of us left Juneau, headed toward our home the valley. The folks will be here with us for a couple of weeks before they head back to Florida.