Some Quick Notes

I apologize to all of those who follow this blog with a passion (namely my mother). My time has been so tied up in adventuring that I haven't had a chance to write an update, and that adventuring has been full indeed. Last week I made the long trek up to Denali National Park to visit my little sister and her sled dogs. We had a wonderful time painting the park red; there were close encounters of the Ursus arctos kind, torrential rainstorms, baked goods involving avocados, and sightings of rare species such as lynx, tricolored foxes and (gasp) Mt. Mckinley. Good times were had by all.

The past couple days I've been out in the woods at Jordan Lake. The crew of us were brushing out the trail from there to Heckman Lake. I enjoyed picking up sticks while watching bald eagles fly down the river. We got back today, later than expected due to cloudy conditions (in southeast Alaska? That's crazy). Tomorrow we're back out in the field redoing a cabin foundation. I'm still foggy on all the details but I'll fill you in when I figure it all out, namely once I've been through it. Happy summer.

Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This

Every now and then you have one of those days where you look around and pinch yourself to make sure it's real. Wednesday was such a day, when Curt and I hiked up to Deer Mountain and Blue Lake. Our purpose (of course we had one, we work for the government) was to fix a cock-eyed stove pipe and charred patch of porch, as well as remove any garbage we found. It was a pretty tough and miserable assignment given the conditions that day and the terrain we had to cover (see images below). I'm still amazed by the fact that I weasel my way into jobs where I get paid to live out some people's trip of a lifetime.

Deer Mountain sits right above town and affords awesome views of the cruise ships, Tongass Narrows, and the airport on Gravina Island.
To get to Blue Lake you traverse this ridge north from Deer Mountain. This is looking southwest towards Dixon Entrance.

Blue Lake truly lives up to its name. The shelter there is a simple A-frame with few amenities, as opposed to the Deer Mountain shelter which is outfitted with oil stove, loft, and kitchen table, but the location renders all that irrelevant.

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

The icing on the cake was after a day of hiking 11 miles up and around 3,000 ft peaks (starting at sea level, mind you) and getting paid for it, I had this delicious salmonberry pie to come home to. I'm the most bad-ass homemaker you'll ever meet.

Just Another Day At The Office