Memorial day weekend.

I joined my sister (Elizabeth), Ali, Corrie, for a trip down to Homer for the weekend. It's been a long time since I have been down to that part of AK. It's really nice when the weather is good and we had great weather for the weekend with partially clear skys and nice views of the mountains across the Cook Inlet.

Hitchhiking south out of Tok. I caught a 60 mile ride with an old friend shortly after taking this. It's kind of cool hitchhiking when you can randomly get rides from people you already know.  

The Matanuska Glacier. 

Helping Ali practice balancing on the way to Anchor Point. 

Triumphant rock climber.

I've been as far west as you can drive in America. I went the southern most point in Key West a couple years ago and I'm hoping to make it to the northernmost point sometime in June. Sadly, the eastern most point will have to wait for another trip.

Our campsite at Anchor Point. A seven person tent seems like overkill, but it's pretty nice for camping with a three year old. 

Bald Eagles soaring along the coast were almost as common as Seagulls. They really have different flight dynamics, which, made it fun watching them flying together.  

Mount Redoubt smoldering across the Cook Inlet.

Looking out from the end of the Homer Spit. 

Around Alaska

We did a bit of a trip around the state on the way to Denali and dropping Stephen off at the airport. In anchorage i did some work tearing down a green house to move it for my sister. I'll spend some time putting it back together in a couple weeks. I've spent a couple days at my dad's house now and been busy with planning for the trip. I've got a couple more tickets in place now and I'm working on what I want to do and where as well. I've also started a caffeine purge. It was pretty hard to find any motivation the first couple of days without coffee but I'm feeling a lot better now.

The Alaskan Range from Delta.

I was going to order the #1 and ask for biscuits and gravy instead of toast...
Then I saw they had already named that option for me.

Tearing down a green house. Ali is pretty good at picking up nails and putting them in the bucket.
She can also pound them in if you start them for her. 

One of the best pairs of shoes I have ever owned. After 3 years of international trips, mountains, and hitching to AK they still look pretty decent on the outside. But, they were starting to fall apart inside. 

Thankfully everyone at RIEtech gave me a REI gift card as a going away give. And, they still sells the same shoe (The North Face - Hedgehog III). So, I was able to get a brand new identical pair. Thanks everyone at RIEtech!

Lion Head Mountain on the way back form Anchorage.
I've always like that mountain though I called in sore thumb until a year or two ago.
It's a great short hike and I may try to spend the night on top sometime this summer. 

Some of my dad's bees are getting kind of spoiled with their front porch view...

Denali Alaska

Pictures from Denali National Park. The road was closed for snow less than 1/2 way to the end. I am planning to go back later this summer and go all the way to the end. 

Perhaps the most over designed doors I have ever seen. One hundred and twelve bolts to hold a door together?
Are these supposed to be bear resistant? I think the latch will break...

Mt McKinley/Denali in the distance.

Corrie, Nick, Stephen at the end of the drivable road. 

Caribou in the Savage River.

It was a very cooperative Caribou and Corrie has an excellent zoom. (CG)

We got up at 5 am so we could see Denali at sunrise. Turns out that was about an hour early.
We made coffee while waiting for the sun to burn off the clouds.

Using an almost empty milk jug as coffee cup saves a step... 

This is why we got up early

Denali (CG)

Denali (CG)

Moose just down steam from where the Caribou was on Savage River.