july 09 in review

I keep thinking I should put an automatic reply on my email and a note on this blog that says: "I'm out playing in this perfect Alaska summer and will not be at my computer again until it rains." I keep tabs on email but have been a bad respondent this summer. And as you see, the blog has not been weekly. The photos are piling up on the hard drive ... just not being edited or uploaded or posted. So tonight it's raining, and after doing a little yard work, I thought I'd try to catch up on the events of the past month. Here is the month in photos.

Paul's sister Mary and her husband Gerry arrived on the 6th. Their visit prompted our first outing on the Winner Creek Trail and handtram near Girdwood.

We stayed at a cabin in Thumb Cove for 4 nights. Mary & Gerry kayaked for the first time and Gerry spent many hours trying to catch fish from the shore and kayak.

We climbed to a glacier one day and bushwacked up a creek another.

The last Sunday of the month was the annual Anchorage garden tour. Friends Pam & Roger from Talkeetna and their neice from Oregon joined us for our annual bicycle tour of the gardens. Paul and I pedaled over 41 miles to see some beautiful backyards in our fair city.

And the little dog became a hiker, lost some weight, got curlier, and is totally spoiled. We saw his twin at one of the gardens and have decided he's a purebred Bichon Frise.

16 August 2008 Resurrection Bay

Ahh, nothing I like more than a forest of dead trees. Some have thought my photographic fascination with leafless wood a bit odd. Landing on this spit at the north end of Fox Island and finding this standing dead forest was a pleasant surprise for me. I'm guessing that the land subsided over time or suddenly due to an earthquake and that the trees died as salt water became their only water source.

Despite the dead trees, this little spit is full of life. The fireweed was vibrant, along with tall beach grasses cow parsnip. At the end, four black oystercatchers wandered along the rocks and plovers dashed along the waters edge.

10 August 2008 Susitna River

On Friday we boarded the flag-stop train in Talkeetna (locally dubbed the Bud Car due to appearance, not refreshments) for the hour ride to Gold Creek. There the conductor deposited 7 of us and a lot of camping and boating gear beside the tracks. We ferried the gear down a steep embankment to the Susitna River bank. Gold Creek flows in just upstream of the railroad bridge.

We were an odd flotilla -- raft, Feathercraft single kayak, Klepper double kayak, and an Aerius inflatable kayak. One way or another, we all floated back down to Talkeetna in 2 days of floating. We ended up camping 2 nights on an exposed sandy-gravelly island because Saturday was so rainy, no one wanted to pack up to move to a better spot. Despite the weather, it was a very relaxing day of bocce, reading, visiting, napping, rock collecting, and eating. A beach vacation, Alaska style.