evening sun that goes on and on...

by evening time, we were done with dinner, cleanup, and water filtering... and the bugs came back so we retreated to the tent to wait out the sun high sun. heather somehow had cell service, so she was able to touch base with her boys back home. 

the sun eventually won. we finally settled in and read ourselves to sleep. I kept waking up in the night, and was curious to see if it ever got dark. by 2am, there was still glow if light behind the mountains (way lighter than the picture shows), and I gave up. turns out that our headlamps were our most useless piece of gear on the hike. ha. 

lazy afternoon of r&r&h

we had planned to stop just shy of the trail down for the night, but by mid-afternoon, we were achey, and decided to call it. found another awesome little spot to pull out for the night, and we busted out the wine and snacks.... and chilled for hours in the sunshine, reading, napping and chatting. by then we had just enough wind and distance from water that the bugs were gone for a bit. :)

 

warm & clear afternoon hiking

the fog cleared out by noon, and we walked along the ridge line gaping at the Denali range. it was also super still, however, so we has to pull our head nets out for the first time for a very quick lunch stop! 

along the ridgeline

woke up the next morning to a bank of fog hanging over the valley in front of us, covering all the mountains. it was cool and peaceful. nice way to start the morning. knowing we had tons of daylight, and only 8-10 miles to hike, we took our time that am. 

the trail along the ridge line was rolling and a pleasant walk. pretty much what I expected of the hike. we wove from front to back and front of the ridge, over rolling hills. 

midnight sunset

our first night we enjoyed a yummy Mac and cheese with peas dinner, topped off with wine (in "real" camp wine glasses!). the breeze kept up, so we had almost no problem with mosquitoes. 

we turned in to the tent to wind down around 9pm with sun still up and full daylight. there were a few clouds on the mountains, but generally a great view. 

the girls passed out in no time, but I was a little antsy to see the sunset. I crawled out of the tent around 10:30pm to a clear view of Denali, and the sun just starting to tuck behind the mountain range. 

I hung out watching the sunset for over 45 minutes... the sun went behind the range, but it never did get dark. ha. amazing beautiful and peaceful. finally went to bed when my toes got cold. ;)

up up to the ridge line

it took us a couple of hours to drive to the trailheads and leave the car at the end trail. we were all geared up, and on the trail around 3pm. we really lucked out, it was a breezy day, so the mosquitoes were minimal as we made our way up through the trees. we had some maps and trail descriptions with us, but they were all a bit misleading on the distance and elevation gain to the ridge line. first day with a 40+ lb pack on is always slow, but we slogged on. the first half of the ascent was pretty moderate, and as we got above the tree line, it went up at a steeper grade. not a lot if switchbacks in AK... just up. 

we stopped at a river crossing at what we thought was the ridge line to fill water.  through the next saddle, turned out we had more up to go. ha. 

all the efforts paid off, however, because we scored and amazing place to camp on a little plateau overlooking the entire Denali range. 

north to talkeetna and Denali

up and out if the hostel early, we drove north on a drizzly morning towards Denali. uneventful drive, and the weather was clearing up as we drove into talkeetna around 11am. heather had arranged for us to leave all our extra gear and food at the lodge we were staying in after the hike, and a taxi service to help us shuttle our car to the end trailhead of our hike. 

our shuttle driver was running a bit late, so we walked the entire 3 blocks of downtown talkeetna, and rounded out at the Denali brewery for pre-hike tasters. yum. gave us something to look forward to after the hike, fo sho. 

the birthday girl arrived in ak

rachel and I got all our gear sorted and packed Thursday evening, then hit another brewery for pizza and beer (mooses tooth) while waiting for heather to arrive. we picked heather up at the airport around 11:30pm, and our traveling crew was finally complete! :) 

blast from the past

met up with an old friend from elementary school in anchorage, lisa mills. haven't seen her in 20+ years since high school. it was really cool to do the hour+ recap of life in the last 20 years. lisa is still super down to earth, and was super excited to give us some tips and loan us bear spray for our adventures. 

 I'm not a huge Facebook user, but I am thankful that it allows us done of these long lost connections. nice to see a familiar face in far away places. :)

day 1 day hike

the morning of our second day, we took care of all our errands renting gear and grocery shopping for our backpacking trip, then decided to do a little hike in the anchorage area. 

we headed to the south corner of anchorage and up to flat top mountain lookout. we thought it was a 2-mile loop... but turns out it was 3 miles each way to the peak. we had lunch and plenty if water in our packs, so hiked up. good little training hike for us, and beautiful lookout 360° around anchorage from the top. :) 

bird point bore wave

making our way back along the turnagain arm, we pulled out at bird point to snap a few pics. the tide was super low, and the inlet was practically drained. 

there were a bunch of people hanging at the scenic point. at first we couldn't figure out why, and it was awkwardly quiet. on the way back to the car, we read a plaque, and realized that everyone was collected waiting for a bore wave to pass the point. the few days around the full moon, the tide changes are so drastic in the arm, that a standing wave travels up the arm as the tide changes, and we just happened to be there at the exact time if month and day. some waves can be up to 6'+... but this one was probation only about 1'. still pretty cool to see! I'll have to post pics from my camera with the zoom lense when I get home. 

glaciers!

after Whittier, we wandered out around the portage glacier loop and stopped to walk out to Byron glacier (1 mile stroll). it was unbelievable how sunny and warm it was out. 

after the glacier, we continued back in the direction of anchorage, and took a little side road up to girwood (at the base if the ski mountain) for lunch at chair 5. yummy beer and pub food. 

Whittier, Alaska

the road out to Whittier cuts through a long (several miles) one-way tunnel under the mountain, that is shared with the railroad. we lucked out, and drive through within 5 minutes of rolling up. each direction gets 15-minute windows. 

Whittier is just a little dot on the map at the end if the road when it hits the prince William sound. fishing town that hosts large cruise ships. we walked around for all of 10 minutes, and had mostly seen everything. 

we missed a crossing window back to the other side, so killed a little time over a beer, chatting with a "local". the day was so stunning beautiful, we had to ask if this was "normal" for summer. apparently, the area is having a VERY unusual warm and clear summer. we were quite lucky to be there that day, as last summer they only had 3 sunny days the entire summer. 

lucky indeed! 

our first day in the land of the midnight sun

the hostel we are staying at is a little less than impressive, but after a long day of traveling, and a few beers to settle in... rachel and I had no problem crashing out. 

the sun comes up by 5am, but we managed to "sleep in" till about 8. without a plan for the day, we headed into downtown to grab breakfast, and decided to drive out towards Whittier and the prince William sound for the day. there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we stocked our day packs for exploring. 

the drive along the shore of the turnagain inlet was gorgeous. we went long first, and headed all the way out to Whittier, stopping a few times along the way at viewpoints. such a sucker for mountains, rivers, and glaciers! 

the day was so calm and clear, the water was a perfect mirror on the mountains. 

girls adventure in Alaska!!

for her 40th birthday last year, Bjorn conspired with Rachel and I to send her on an adventure vacation with her girls.... and the best part was, we got to decide where we should go. ;) we went round and round for a few months, and finally settled on Alaska. 

it has been over a year and a half in the planning... and we are finally here. rachel and I flew in Tuesday night, a few days ahead of heather to get our bearings and geared up. 

as always, it was a run to the finish line getting prepared for the trip, and making it to the airport... but the second I checked my bags, it was vacation on!! 

I dozed off for the last little bit of the flight, and woke up just in time to see the snow / glacier covered mountains coming into anchorage. my heart did little leaps for joy, and I knew we chose the right destination. :) 

my flight was a hour ahead of rachel, giving me just enough to rent the car before she got here. we threw our bags in the car, and headed towards town. on our way out of the airport, it was after 11pm... the sun was just going down, and we saw the most spectacular full moon rise over the mountains. quite a grand welcome! 

Adventure Begins!

Made it to San Fran! ;)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

On Friday I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We saw a show on sea otters, and spotted otters from a balcony. We visited the jellyfish exhibit, seahorse exhibit, and octopus exhibit. We went to the Open Sea exhibit and saw tuna, sharks, rays, and sunfish. 

it's that time again!

summer is here... and it time for another session if camp auntie robin. :) 

Christina finished school on Thursday, and she and her mom flew to California Thursday night. they spent the weekend with Michelle's sister Celeste in San Juan Bautista.... and I picked them up to bring them to sf this afternoon. 

it was am unusually cold and drizzly afternoon in the city... but we just took it easy and walked up along the beach to the cliff house and had dinner at the park chalet. 

quiet evening at home. we will hit the city tomorrow and put on our tourist caps. should be super fun!! :) 

packing & coming home

the summer has been long and full.... and as much as I have enjoyed every minute of my extended adventure, u was good and ready to make my way back home to the bay area after we got out of the canyon.

one of the more annoying aspects of living out of the car for so long is the constant packing. pack, unpack, reorganize. repeat. ugh. before being able to set off for home, just about everything had to come out of the car one last time. the canyon gear was laundered, separated, and repacked. this process took me an entire morning. all I wanted to do was throw it all into the car, and dump it all at home, but it simply wouldn't have fit, and the gross damp muddy canyon gear would have rotted in the days it would take to get home.

marlowe and i iced up the cooler, and checked out of the hotel at noon. one last stop at a brewery in town for lunch, made a plan for the journey, and we were on the road.... or so we thought. during lunch, we got a text from one of the group participants that she had ended up in the hospital that morning, so we delayed our departure to make sure all was ok and lend a hand. our delay ended up being another night and day in flag. once we were sure the girls were stable and set for their change in plans, we left once again, around 5pm the following evening.

pretty tired and worn out, an adventure home (via the north rim if the grand canton) was no longer quite as appealing as just getting there. that first night we made it 5 hours through fantastic lightning storms to Barstow, where we got a nights sleep, and looked at our route with fresh eyes in the am.

Gettin home was a priority, but driving up the 5 for the day would have sucked out my soul. we decided to take the scenic route up 395 on the eastern side of the sierras. it was a gorgeous day, answer both enjoyed seeing the landscape change to the dramatic mountains (hello mt Whitney!). after a prolonged stop in mammoth for lunch, and a tasting at the brewery, we continued on crossing west through Yosemite, where the golden cowboy got to say hello to half dome again! instead of rolling into SF super late at night, we took one last detour up to the river camp for the night to get the end of season download. boy am I glad I didn't go through angry August. ha.

slept next to the river (best sleep I got since the canyon!), and was refreshed in the am. we said our good byes. and made one last stop in the way down to the bay to meet marlowe's brand new niece Ava in Sacramento.

it was a long journey, but we made it to Berkeley to drop marlowe off mid afternoon, and enjoyed a beer with Allison while we told some stories, and relived a few highlights from the trip!

back in the car.... I was on my own for the final push into SF, my home. ;)

on the flip side

had a amazing 15-days floating down the Colorado river through the grand canyon with the ETC folks. i won't lie, it was a good amount of work being the trip leader for the ETC folks, and making sure that everyone was getting the most out of the trip as possible, but always worth every second spent in the magical place. a big piece of my heart and soul lives in that canyon, and I treasure every opportunity I have had to visit it down there.

it is really hard to begin to summarize the experiences, or put into words the cohesive community that our group became. the guides we partnered with in this trip really brought an amazing amount of experience and energy, which allowed us to push boundaries, and make the accessibility of the adventure a success for everyone.

some highlights were:

-playin a knock down, drag them out game of whiffle ball in redwall cavern mixing up folks in wheelchairs at bat, and folks with visual impairments as the runners. not to mention barbara diving into home plate flat on her belly, missing the plate by 6".

-using the IKs and wheelchairs attached to poles to carry Elena and mandy up into some of the side canyons, especially shinomu creek to the waterfall where we all frolicked together.

-moonlit hike up to nankoweap with the rest of the guides. (ssshhhh... don't tell! ha.)

-paddling the double IK through Upset rapid with marlowe, and getting chomped in the last wave... only to look downstream and see Liz come through upright on her own!!!

-pillow talk at night with marlowe! :)

-making the rounds and checking in with everyone in the morning and throughout the day. I had some amazing and wonderful conversations with each and every individual on the trip. learning to balance emotional and physical needs.

-dressing up in my pink frilly dress at tequila beach, and then putting myself to bed after a few too many g&t's. (tinkerbell down!)

-Mandy and Dori's constant laughter!

-quickly arriving in the canyon, getting my dirty river guide on, and cherishing every moment I was there!

-barbara and somer taunting each other with profanity playing koob!

-learning new information and techniques from our guides.... trying to remember as much as possible.

the memories will keep coming, and keep a smile on my face for a long time to come. I hope that I can be part of many more trips through the grand canyon in my lifetime!!

we had a pizza party back at the hotel in flagstaff to celebrate the night we returned. more laughs, memories, hugs and smiles were shared over a few well deserved cocktails! it was bittersweet as always to break from the group we spent 15 intense days with, but time to move on.