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Due primarily to my shoulder injury I didn’t help much with the set construction this time, but I was there for two performances cheering them on and, of course, snapping photos. I didn’t shot any video and I don’t have any audio at hand, but the kids gave really god vocal performances. Some of their voices have matured a lot in the last year or two. Hope you enjoy the pics anyway.

I got his in email and it was uncredited. If anyone knows the source, let me know. And I hope you get a chuckle from it in any case!

Campaign Trains

Photographing dogs with mostly black fur outdoors in the sunlight is challenging. There is so much contrast that they tend to look like big black blobs. Still, I try it every couple years or so. And occasionally I get a shot that I don’t hate:

She’s a little easier because she has some grey and white mixed in and her wiry hair has more texture.

She’s really tough to get a decent shot of.

Adding to the challenge is the slight delay between pressing the shutter and the actual image capture. And then there’s the fact that the pups really don’t understand what I’m trying to do….

Look over here, pup…

Puppy…

Hey, pup…

Up here, baby…

Puppy…

I giggle like an idiot every time I look at this one….

Finishing the story I started here, here, here, here, and here:

On Friday we returned the RV and checked into a hotel. We walked around the nearby airport and rented bikes for 24 hours. I rented one with an electronic assist — I had banged up my knees a bit on the ice and the motor helped even though none of the hills were especially steep.

The city has a decent trail system, especially the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. We rode out to Earthquake Park and back before supper.

When we were in Anchorage two years ago we were directed to what I’m sure is the best Italian restaurant in town, Fiori D’italia. It was within walking distance and we made a point of returning to it. I had a halibut parmesan, one of the house specialties that was too yummy for words.

We tooled around the city for a while with a friend-of-a-friend. We visited Alaska Wild Berry Products, home [they claim] of the world’s largest chocolate waterfall. Sadly, it is just for show; no dipping or samples. But they did have free samples available of many of their confections. Yummy.

After returning to our hotel we took a midnight bike ride from the Coastal Trail partway across the Chester Creek Greenbelt. We had time for another brief ride in the morning (in a light drizzling rain) before returning the bikes and heading for the airport.

All in all it was a good trip. Alaska has a rugged beauty that I find very attractive and even a “big city” like Anchorage has a small-town feel to it. The state is so large and I’ve seen just a small part of it, but I’ve had a good variety of activities. This has been just a summary of the trip, of course, and given half a chance I still have stories to tell. Just not today.

Where would you like to go?

Continuing the story I started here, here, here, and here:

The Mat-Su valley is a glacial valley rimmed by the Chugach Mountains, Talkeetna Mountains, and the Alaska Range. The name comes from the Matanuska and Susitna Rivers, two glacial streams that empty into Cook Inlet near Anchorage. We started our journey on the Susitna side of the valley and we were winding down on the Matanuska side. On the glacier.

Leaving Hatcher Pass we went through Palmer and then northeast to the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site. We had a reservation with MICA Guides for a day of climbing.

I have walked on a glacier before (in the Canadian Rockies) and I’ve seen a glacier calving (near Seward, AK) [that was really cool btw], but I was a little nervous about climbing on one. We had assurances from the guides that it is a challenge well within the reach of beginners though. And it’s not like we were summiting Denali. Our longest climb was no more than 50 feet or so.

It is a strenuous activity — mostly because it takes a while for someone as naturally unathletic as I am to learn the proper technique. But it is something that pretty much anyone can do and I liked it enough that I would do it again. Of course, it helped that we had absolutely gorgeous weather that day — clear skies and temps in the 70s. (Although it was cooler than that on the humongous block of solid ice, I was not cold at all that day.) And our guides did a good job.

The scenery was breathtaking.

And I did alright.

Overall, it was the best part of the trip. But we weren’t quite through….

Continuing the story I started here, here, and here:

We had to get some gas by the time we left the park, but with prices like these we decided not to fill the tank just yet. After Denali we took a brief side-trip to Talkeetna. If you’re not going to summit the mountain or hire a plane for a fly-over, you can skip this town in my opinion.

We traveled back down the Mat-Su valley then north of Palmer to Hatcher Pass and Independence Mine. Hatcher Pass actually cuts through the Talkeetna Mountains and would have been a shorter distance to drive except that it’s closed to traffic most of the year and even then is not suitable for driving an RV.

The area around Independence Mine is gorgeous with several hiking trails and a couple campgrounds. It was a lot less crowded than Denali. The park includes historical displays, a museum/gift shop, a few maintained buildings, and several ramshackle buildings.

We had another midnight hike this time on the Gold Mint Trail that parallels the Little Susitna River. The whole trail is nine miles one way up to the glacier that feeds the river so we hiked a small fraction of it. Near the trailhead it’s well-maintained and easy hiking. We saw several beaver lodges along the way and watched one beaver patrolling his domain.

The next day we spent some time in the park opting for a self-guided tour. Then with pans (loaned for free from the gift shop) we spent a couple hours panning for gold. The chances of finding any real gold are pretty remote, but it was still fun (and you are allowed to keep the gold if you find any!). Our hearts beat faster a few times when we saw fools gold sparkling in the pan but our dreams of paying for the trip were in vein. [smirk]

We really enjoyed the Hatcher Pass area, but the coolest part of the trip was yet to come….

Continuing the story I started here and here:

Denali is the only U.S. National Park with sled dogs. They help patrol the park in winter. The kennel is open to visitors and there are regularly scheduled demonstrations. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours there.

Some of the dogs are more accessible than others and provide lots of photo ops like:

Gotta Laugh!

Gotta Scratch!

Gotta — hey! No tongues!

For me, it was the most enjoyable part of our visit to the park, but not necessarily the best part of the whole trip. Stay tuned….

Continuing the story I started here:

We had a reservation for three nights in Denali National Park. Denali is the local Athabaskan name (meaning “the great one”) for what most of us call Mt. McKinley and there is a strong trend toward restoring its traditional name (yeah!). We made a rest stop along the way at a point with a view of the mountain range. While the skies were clear where we stood, most of the mountains [and the great peaks in particular] were clouded over. Fortuitously, by the time we got just a few miles further up the road to another viewing area at Hurricane Gulch the clouds had cleared enough that we got our first really good glimpse of Denali:

The park has only one main road and traffic is restricted along most of it. Visitors can ride buses (for additional fees) deeper into the park. There are a few maintained trails near the entrance to the park but hiking is allowed off-trail in many areas.

Here’s something I’ve learned in my travels:

Mountains are natural cloud-makers. Clouds are natural rain-makers. Therefore, when you visit mountains you should plan on getting wet.

We had a couple decent hikes around our campsite and we spent some time at the visitor center, but our plans for a hike deep in the park got rained out. That was very disappointing, but goes with the territory [pun intended]. Between the frequent clouds and other peaks in the range obscuring the view, only about 30% of visitors actually see Denali from inside the park. [I am a thirty-percenter, which out of context doesn't sound like anything to brag about....]

While we were on the bus we did get a glimpse of a grizzly bear with two cubs [about a mile away], several caribou [also about a mile away], and Dall sheep [relatively close]. By far the most common form of wildlife we saw throughout the park was snowshoe rabbits.

A large rabbit population supports a large lynx population. We were told by the campground host that a lynx and a wolf had actually been in the campground in recent nights. I had really hoped to see such creatures even though I knew the odds were against it. [I had hoped for a closer look at a grizzly too.]

There is another creature I wanted to see and we got a really good close encounter. Stay tuned….

But I did other cool stuff.

I have been to Alaska. Again — I was there two years ago at exactly the same time of year. That trip we stayed in the Kenai peninsula [posted here, here, here and sorta here]. This time we went to Denali and the Mat-Su valley. It was a ten-day odyssey that started on 12 June. Has it been a month already?

Day one was all travel. From central Florida to Anchorage is a looong hop.

Day two we got the RV, stocked up at the grocery store, and headed north. Although we had a basic framework for our time there, we left some flexibility. So we stopped at the Mat-Su Visitor Center. It often helps to chat up the locals. There is a war memorial and this sculpture next to the visitor center:

We had tentatively planned some canoing or kayaking for that afternoon so we continued on our way. We ended up renting a canoe from Tippecanoe in the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area. We chose a trek that required portaging between small lakes, and they had these nifty handles that make carrying the canoe pretty easy.

It was a windy afternoon — close to white caps on one of the lakes. I kept hearing this

in my head. [I checked with my buddies, and it was just in my head....] But it was a good activity after spending a couple hours on the road and most of the previous day on airplanes.

That night we stayed at the Mat-Su RV Park. It’s clean and comfortable and had good showers — something we knew we would not have for the next couple nights.

Hitting the road the next morning we made a brief stop at a nearby fish camp. We had not made a reservation with a fishing guide — I’ll spare you the details why — and wanted to get some more information. Turns out, on the closest rivers where we could have fished without a guide were going to be closed for a few days for “escapement” — giving the salmon a chance to make to their spawning areas.

Oh well. We had other fun activities scheduled…

It’s New Year’s Eve on the Chinese lunar calendar. Tomorrow begins the year of the Rat.

Me? I’m still gonna party like a pig….