Fishing in Seward

We got to Seward this a.m. in plenty of time to get on the Servant,
a 43' boat big enough to accomodate 11 fishermen and one fisherwoman (me) with a crew of 2.






We had visions of 70+ pound halibut. Here's a 20 pounder.

The weather was nice, seas rolling and the fish were plentiful,
but small. Oh well.

We both caught our limit of 2 and only one of us puked >:)
All the fillets are in the freezer now and Rich will be bringing
them home to North Carolina.

Meeting Ruth for lunch downtown and riding bikes

Uncle Rich and Ruth downtown Anchorage.
We rode all over Anchorage on the various creekside and coastal trails. 6/29/07

Wish us good catching as we head out at 3:30 a.m. to go halibut fishing. :)

Denali

We had good views of the many peaks of Denali while we
were near the park and relaxing in Cantwell.























We slept well in Kirk's cabin and are heading back to Anchorage on the Parks Highway here.

Trout and grayling

See if you can get this video clip to play to see the panorama around the cabin in Cantwell. Sorry, at the moment I cannot insert that video clip, ugh. Thank you Kirk for your hospitality.


Kirk, an aquaintance has a well-stocked lake on his property. He was very generous to invite us to use his cabin and fish, and Rich says he was in heaven. How not? when the sun is shining and the fish are jumpin' in Alaska?

And he had the lake to

himself most of the time.

Rich fished intently.

This is the cabin Kirk built. Very sturdy, as it has to be right there
in Windy Pass where it stays -30 and blows 50 mph for weeks at
a time. We were real comfortable here. I definitely don't have a problem camping
in a cabin that has running water.

Here's the kitchen -- more than adequate.

Richie visiting - sun shining and fish jumpin'

My brother Rich and I are having a good time together. We've been fishing the Kenai, and Rich fly fished by the cabin we stayed in around Cantwell. He caught alot of trout and grayling. Here's the lake.

beautiful June weekend in Alaska

6/15/07 June and Ruth and doggie Sophie and I headed out to Nancy Lake to car-camp and kayak for one or two days. We decided spot #2 looked good, so we paid the nominal fee and set up camp. I have a new tent and new stove. Here's me holding the tent in its original box, wondering how long it's been since I set up a tent.

It was quite easy to set up, really. Here's the results about 5 minutes and 450 mosquito bites later.

We all had some fun at the campsite, got a fire going, etc. Ruth relaxed with Sophiewhile June and I took an evening paddle on the lake - with an eye on some clouds and thunder.



Then the 3 girls and one dog loaded up kayaks and put into Nancy Lake to explore, eat lunch and soak up the sun. It was a whopping 78 degrees out, pretty hot for us Alaskans.

There were red necked grebes guarding their nests, arctic terns protecting theircoast and nests and we floated past 2 arctic loons that let us gawk at them. Cool.


We saw lots of scenery -- rustic cabins, huge homes, water skiers, wave runners, mountains.

Between the kayaking, sleeping at the campground, driving and the 78 degrees, we were pretty happy to pack up and head back to Los Anchorage by late afternoon. In the meantime, Ruth and Sophie had a good snooze in the sunshine.


The Chugach Mountains from the north looking to the Mat Su.

Mt Baldy - Wed 6/6/07

This is Mt. Baldy in Eagle River, just an easy drive from Anchorage.

It doesn't look like a very steep hike. Trust me, though, it was steep.

Here is my bestest buddy June. She's testing out a backpack for her upcoming backpacking trip! You can see the Eagle River in the background. I was sure hoping the bears were playing around on the river and not up high in the mountains where we were. June and I hiked last week and came upon a big old pile of bear scat. Too bad I didn't take a picture of of, but we were in a big hurry to get away. Moose are having calves and bears are all over trying to get those

tender morsels.

Here I am at the top of Mt. Baldy. The wind was blowing cool air, but the sky was gorgeous, temps in high 50's and it was magnificent for a short after-work hike in the midnight sun. There isn't air more fresh.

This is part of the view northwest. You can see part of the Knik Arm and west to Mt. Susitna
of the Alaska Range. Some bad weather was moving in, so I didn't hang around to admire the view very long.



I appreciate the young man who happily loaned me the use of his truck at the trailhead when I was waiting for the other hikers to get down. I had a bad feeling about standing around alone and he was like "yeah dude" no problem dude, "lock up dude." Thank You.

On the way home, June kindly pulled over so I could shoot this young male moose (poor guy, his antlers will grow).

The moose started to trot, so it was time to leave.

Rainbow to Windy hiking

A three hour hike today was a real treat given the forecast of rain for the whole Memorial Day Weekend. This is Donna Basinger, the efficient and energetic ringleader of Happy Hikers. Today's was the end of school hike, so with all the kids and noise the bears stayed away! Rainbow to Windy was the trail, very pleasant.

mid May - summer's coming!

Ruth, Lauren and I drove through the mountain-tunnel to Whittier. This is a new way to get to the edge of Prince William Sound from Anchorage. There was a Princess Cruiseship there. We ate halibut tacos for lunch and took a walk. 5/19/07

Today I went mountain biking with some others from the Alaska Outdoors group. We rode around 10 miles around Eklutna Lake and then back. The day was magnificent. Lots of dirt, rocks, tree roots, etc. and plenty of mud to splash in. Messy but fun! 5/20/07

Here's Sara, me and another Alaska Outdoorswoman. 3 babes on bikes.

I think that's Eklutna Glacier on the left. It's the source of Anchorage's water supply. Just
another beautiful place in the Chugach Mountains that are easy to enjoy.

Lauren's visit to Anchorage

It's absolutely wonderful to have Lauren back in town.
She got in late Saturday night. We greeted some friends Sunday evening and had crepes, fruit tart and almond cake! Food and friends make a great combination, right? But not until Lauren planted up all he containers with these Rocky Mountain Red geranium and we stuffed each container with nasturtium seeds. They're all indoors now, since it's still too cold out for annuals and seeds, but in just a few weeks it'll be gardening time outdoors.

Lauren is off next to Bozeman for the adventure of driving back to Alaska with Ruth.

friendly people everywhere.

beautiful children.

our hosts in the Hutong Tour of Beijing.

fabulous artwork, architeture and historical relics everywhere.

Jack toasting our group at the farewell dinner in Shanghai. He graciously gave us all gifts and stuck around to answer our questions and give us shopping suggestions and took very excellent care of us throughout the 9 days together. Thank you Jack Yuan from X'ian.

Sophie and Mette and I and others still had some time for more food and trying "Babyface" Bar until they moved to a hostel. Bye Sophie!

And Mette and Gavin and Sophie were going to continue to explore the nightlife. See ya.

Marcel, Bao-Hien, Jack, Chiew-Dong, Jason and me at the Nanjing Hotel. Bye bye Shanghai. Great trip. I'd highly recommend looking up Intrepid Travel and checking out any destination of interest.