Home in Alabama

I'll be posting new updates when I return to Alaska. Right now, I'm enjoying myself in Alabama but missing Trevor terribly. He couldn't come because of work...he was actually at a business meeting in Rhode Island the day I flew out of Fairbanks. He told me this morning that there is already frost on the ground; it was 32 degrees this morning...burrrrrr. I'm not looking forward to that.

Denali

This weekend, Trevor and I went to Denali National Park. We brought a tent, firewood, and some food in a cooler. After setting up our camp, we made hobo meals and threw them on the fire....for a hobo meal, it was fantastic. The temperature got down to around 40 or lower, but our sleeping bags kept us warm--it just wasn't very fun getting out of the sleeping bags in the morning.

Saturday morning, we went white water rafting on the Nenana river. The rapids were rough and it was a lot of fun. I wish I had some pictures, but I couldn't take my camera for obvious reasons. The water was FREEZING. Had we fallen out, even with our wetsuits, we would have been dead in around 30 minutes. The water was only 30 hours off the glacier.

Later that day, Trevor and I went into the park and hiked around. We decided to climb a huge rock and took some pictures once we got on top. The park is amazing and the mountains were fabulous. I must say, however, the mountains near us (Delta Junction) are pretty great too.

On Sunday, Trevor and I boarded a shuttle that went through the park to Eielson. It was very windy and dusty which made it hard to hike around off the shuttle. Denali only has one road through the park...and the park is over 6 million acres. So basically, you have to be very careful when deciding to backpack on your own. While riding to Eielson, we saw around 20 grizzly bears which is crazy considering the park only has about 300 grizzlies and over 6 million acres. I'm not good a math, but it's pretty amazing that we saw that many bears. We also saw lots of caribou, golden eagles, falcons, arctic ground squirrels, moose, etc.

Lastly, we arrived at Mt. McKinnley--also known as Denali. Denali is around 20,320 feet high at its south peak. It is unbelievably huge...both tall and big around. I can't believe that people are actually hiking Denali because the wind and cold have to be unbearable. Denali is only visible approximately 1 out of every 7 days. Unfortunately, there were a few clouds covering the top, but we got a pretty good view.

All in all, Denali was an amazing experience. In order to get the full effect, we needed to stay a bit longer, and maybe camp as far into the park as possible. I'd also like to flight see and land on a glacier. At least we know what to do next time; the drive is pretty short for us.

Sadly, fall is beginning here in the interior of Alaska. Many of the birch trees are already changing colors. Temperatures will start dropping in the next couple weeks. This means that the warmer temperatures will be a distant memory and the cold will taking its place. We've tried to take advantage of the warm weather by doing something every weekend, but the summers are just too short to do everything we want to do. We will, however, hopefully be going skiing in Anchorage pretty soon.

George

George has finally joined the Marshall family. At first he was scared and cried a lot, then he became a cuddler, and now he's a terror. I don't know what it is about me, but every pet I've ever had has been extremely hyper and out of control. He plays 24/7, but is quiet a night when we go to bed....so that's good. I'm glad I've got someone to keep me company since I'm home alone during the day.

Valdez Trip

I have never seen so much wildlife before...beating out even the zoo. I saw moose, porcupines, rabbits, porpoise, humpback whales, killer whales, a shark, jelly fish, sea lions, sea otters, puffin, halibut, and a GRIZZLY BEAR.

We started the trip by going on a glacier cruise. We ended up getting a great view of glaciers and got to touch the ice bergs. Although it was 70 degrees at Prince William Sound, it was really cold on the water. I loved seeing the sea lions and otters. The sea lions look so fat and lazy while the otters are adorable and playful.

The next day, we went on a deep sea fishing trip which lasted 8 hours. I had never been deep sea fishing and it was a lot of fun. We didn't break any records, but I was perfectly happy with my 20-30 pound Halibut. In fact, we're having it for dinner tonight. I'm actually embarassed because when I was reeling it in, I could have sworn it was 100 lbs. Ha.

On the last day while touring the area, Trevor's mom saw a bear in the woods by the water. He was crossing under the road in order to find some fish along the shore and rocks. We immediately stopped the vehicle and I got out of the car with my camera. I KNOW it was stupid, but I was close enough to the car to where HOPEFULLY I could have made it back inside should he have decided to eat Amy instead of fish. He was amazing...and big. I'd never seen a bear before so it was an experience of a lifetime. I posted some pictures below.

On Monday I finally adopted George! He's so little (a pound and a quarter). He went to the vet today so he's not happy with me. I'll post pictures of him in the next day or two!

Valdez Pictures

Prince William Sound

Bear

More of Grizzly Bear

Ice Berg!

Porpoise

SEALS

Worthington Glacier

Porcupine

Alaska Range and Mt. Hayes with New Camera

In case you're wondering, Mt. Hayes is the tallest mountain depicted that looks like a linebacker with shoulder pads. The first picture is Mt. Hayes through the Ft. Greely missile field. The last picture is of the Alaska Range with most of the snow melted away.

Here's about Mt. Hayes from Wikapedia: Mount Hayes is the highest mountain in the eastern Alaska Range. Despite not being a fourteener, it is one of the largest peaks in the United States in terms of rise above local terrain. For example, the Northeast Face rises 8,000 feet (2,440m) in approximately 2 miles (3.2km). In terms of topographic prominence, Mount Hayes is one of the top 75 peaks in the world.
Mount Hayes was first climbed in 1941 by Bradford Washburn, Barbara Washburn, Benjamin Ferris, Sterling Hendricks, Henry Hall, and William Shand, via the North Ridge. Today's standard route is the East Ridge (Alaska Grade 2+). Mount Hayes is not frequently climbed due to its remoteness and the resulting access difficulties.

Little Rainbows and an Arctic Char

This morning we decided to go fishing at Mark Late towards Ft. Greely. Today was mostly cloudy and ended up raining, but we managed to catch 4 fish before the bottom fell out. The fish weren't very big, but at least we caught something. I'm convinced we would have gotten a big fish if we could have stayed out there longer. Too bad it had to rain. Maybe tomorrow it'll be nicer.

Later on, Trevor made us some awesome burgers on the grill while I made some potato salad. It was so good. It's so nice to be able to grill things now that I don't live in an apartment/condo complex anymore. Oh, and we sold our condo back in Birmingham! We couldn't be happier!

So, Trevor apparently signed me up to go to a "Tupperware Party" with a lady from his work last night. I was not happy about going (b/c it sounded horrible) but once I found out it was code for "girl's night," it wasn't so bad. I met some really nice people and bought some Tupperware. Tupperware and Pampered Chef is expensive but has some really good stuff! I wanted everything there.

And, yes, I realize I look stupid in my cap...just go with it. It's windy here.