Hatcher Pass; more like The Sound of Music!

Greetings from the North! This past week has been a whirlwind of excitement and history! To start off we would like to announce that Adam and Ashley are now the proud aunt and uncle of a little baby boy named Louie! He is adorable, healthy and we cannot wait to spoil him and his brother Colby rotten when we get home. Ashley was just a little bit excited in the fact that she told all of our coworkers about him and basically anybody who would listen. The Eagle River Nature Center is very thrilled over this little baby. But do not worry; the excitement does not stop there!

One of our other volunteers is a professional photographer and he teaches photography classes here at the nature center every season. Ashley expressed interest in attending his class that was on Saturday but could not really afford to attend. Our amazingly wonderful director offered to pay for Ashley to take the class! Ashley spent all of Saturday learning how to use her camera and gained skills that will help us get some great photographs of the beauty that is Alaska. Adam covered for Ashley at work and we spent a total of 5 hours apart, the longest we have been apart since we have left Wisconsin.

The photography class could not have come at a better time because we visited one of the most beautiful spots in Alaska. This past weekend we went to Hatcher Pass. This is a mountain pass through the southwest part of the Talkeetna Mountains. It was named after a man named Robert Hatch who was a prospect and miner. Not only are the mountains and rivers in this area beautiful but this area also is home to several abandoned gold mines.

As Adam and Ashley find a place to park in the mountains we see several groups of people heading off on a trail that is not marked and we decided to follow. As we head further up and over the rolling hills we decide to keep following the trail as it winds into the basin beneath the mountain tops. Soon we lose everyone else and we feel like to only two people on the planet. As we get further and further into this basin we soon have scattered rocks everywhere upon a field of small green vegetation and small mountain flowers. The neatest part was the area had tons of lumps. It was like walking across a boulder field but everything was covered in vegetation. Soon we came across a patch of snow and had ourselves a snowball fight. We ventured across streams and as we looked up in the mountains we see a small flag waving in the wind. Upon closer inspection (aka binoculars) we see three people standing on top of the mountain with an American Flag. We have no idea how they got up there but kudos to them, that was impressive.

As we enjoy our time exploring we discover something off in the distance, something that looks very similar to a cave in the mountain side. So what did we do, we off-roaded the trail heading towards the cave. What we discovered was even cooler. As we got closer we notice that there was corrugated steel, old hoses, pipes, and cables scattered everywhere. Soon we discover more and more old equipment, payload buckets, and we realize we discovered an old mine. There were no signs, maps, or any indication of what this was so we felt like we discovered this hidden gem in the mountains. What we thought was a cave turned out to be the access point for the mine shaft. Adam thought that was the coolest thing since sliced bread and Ashley was scared beyond belief and wanted to spend as little time near it as possible. Luckily, Adam listened to Ashley's voice of reason and did not go inside to explore. Even though it was a bit eerie it was still so cool to see. We loved it so much up in the basin that we had lunch there and easily spent 30-40 minutes just exploring and having fun. Eventually we made our way back to the trail and continued back to civilization. We did some research into the abandoned mines in Hatcher Pass and we believe that we came across the Rae-Wallace Mine, it was active from 1911 to the 1920's.

A little further up Hatcher Pass we came across Independence Mine, an old gold mine that ran for many years and brought in nearly 34,000 ounces of gold in its peak years. The remains of this great operation are left for people to explore and is now owned by the State Parks of Alaska. Adam was having a ball seeing all the old machinery, buildings, tools, and equipment used. We joked that Adam was born 100 years too late because he would have made an excellent miner. We hiked around and explored Independence Mine which is quite large and decided to call it a day because we were exhausted. Also all of the mines in Hatcher Pass unearthed over 150,000 ounces of gold during their operations. How cool!

Just yesterday we were setting up our tent to air it out and get some much needed practice setting it up/taking it down. Then all of a sudden we hear something walking through the woods. We stop and look around, sure enough a young black bear was 40 yards away in the bushes. We snuck into the cabin to get the camera only to realize the SD card was in the computer in the kitchen, 200 yards away. We snuck towards the kitchen to find the black bear crossing the road in front of us, he saw us and just wandered away. We are kicking ourselves for not having our SD card. Whoops...

The rest of the weekend was relaxing and getting the mundane chores done such as dishes, laundry, etc. Even two Alaskan explorers such as ourselves need to get chores done every now and then. Tentatively we have some big plans for this coming 4th of July weekend so it make take us a while to get the next blog out. Have a safe and happy 4th of July! We miss y'all like crazy!

-The A-Team

The longest day we will ever have!

Hello from the Sunshine state! We had quite a few fun adventures this past weekend! We started off the weekend with a Summer Solstice party at our coworker Ute's house. She is an incredible woman who has lived all over the world but is originally from Germany. We got to meet her family and her husband works for the state climate office which Ashley thought was pretty neat. Dinner conversation revolved around snowfall, precipitation, and weather patterns so Ashley was happy. The food was delicious and around 7pm we headed out to Denali National Park. As we drove up the clouds parted and the evening sun glistened on the mountains. We couldn't have asked for a prettier drive. Pulling into the campground around 11pm we had some late night pizza and camped in the National Park. The following morning we hiked near the entrance of the park. 

Funny story...we hiked the Savage Creek trail and as we hiked around we found some social trails (not maintained by the park) and decided to check them out. The trail was beautiful and we even saw a marmot! When we reached the end of the trail we decided to make a quick bathroom break behind some bushes and continued on with our hike. Further down the trail we took another social trail and as Ashley reached for her phone to take a picture she realized it was missing. It's never a good feeling to lose your phone, especially in Alaska and not even on a well traveled trail! So we looked for it as we retraced our steps. It finally dawned on Ashley that it probably fell out where we went to the bathroom seeing as her phone had been in her back pocket. Low and behold the phone had been right where we had gone to the bathroom and for an added bonus the phone was not lying in a puddle of pee. You can see in the photo below that Ashley was a bit excited to find her phone safe and dry!

After hiking we hit the visitor center and gift shop (one of our favorite stores) for a few souvenirs to add to our collections. We stopped at a few shops in what we like to call the Denali Dells since it felt just like the Wisconsin Dells; just without the ducks. We had lunch at a place called the Salmon Bake which had a crazy tilted floor and a fun staff. It doesn't seem like the building would pass inspection but at least the food was good. We started heading south again and ended up discovering Hurricane Gulch (the bridge picture below). We wish we could have gotten a picture to capture the magnitude of the gulch but we were too close; also it was terrifying to drive over.

 

We wound up at Nancy Lake State Recreation Area and tucked the Sweaty Yeti in for the night. The campsite was awesome; nestled back in the woods where we could have a campfire, play cards and listen to the radio. The next morning we rented a canoe and had so much fun out on the water. It was sunny with a nice breeze and we practically had the lake to ourselves. This lake was so pristine you could see easily 15-20 feet to the bottom. We paddled around the entire shore of the lake and had fun looking for fish and we even saw a loon up close. The loons up here are huge! They make Wisconsin loons look like miniature play toys. We stumbled upon a huge school of young rainbow trout. They were roughly 7-9 inches long with some big northern pike hanging out on the lake bottom. We let our canoe drift towards them and all the sudden one jumped out of the water! Then another one did, and another. It was so cool! They jumped in and out of the water all around our canoe trying to catch flies or mosquitoes to eat. Twice they almost jumped into the canoe! We probably floated around those fish for a good 20 minutes when we saw something big and shiny swim by in the water. As it swam by again we were able to see that it was a loon swimming under the water! It was so cool to see the loon swim around our canoe corralling the fish and trying to catch a meal. When it would surface it would be roughly 10-15 feet from the boat! We are already making plans to come back here. On the drive out of Nancy Lake we saw a ptarmigan (Alaska's State Bird) and a moose with her calf. They moved fast so unfortunately no pictures. 

We made it home, unpacked and decided to take an evening stroll to enjoy the longest day of the year. On June 22 we had roughly 19.5 hours of sunlight. We saw some small birds wading in the water and a mother Yellowlegs roosting in a spruce tree nearby. Adam had fun exploring the insides of a big hollow tree but it wasn't long before the mosquitoes drove us back to our cabin. The very next morning we had a mama moose and calf outside our cabin which was exciting and a little unnerving at the same time. That day at the nature center we had some Buddhist monks come into the Nature Center and for some reason they wanted a picture with Ashley. She was happy to be in the picture but was warned not to touch the monks because it's not ok for them to touch a woman. It was definitely a new experience for both of us but fun to learn about other cultures. 

We are not quite sure what the weekend brings but we know it will be fun...and most likely wet; they are predicting rain. 

Shout out to my big sister Roxanne and my brother-in-law Scott! Good luck and we cannot wait to meet our new niece or nephew! 

-The A-Team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I muskox you a question!

Hello!

We started off our weekend with some hiking in the valley just south of ours. As the crow flies we were only about 5 miles from home but the drive over there took almost 40 minutes! The valley was called South Fork as it is the southern fork of Eagle River. We started hiking and quickly realized how different the two valleys were. Our valley was much lower in elevation so we were used to a lot more trees and flowers on our journeys. South Fork was only a few hundred feet higher in elevation but had fewer trees and different flowers. You could also see much further down the valley than from our backyard. We hiked 5 miles back to Eagle Lake and had a small lunch before climbing around on the rocks that helped make the body of the lake. Just as we were leaving we spotted a Pika scurrying around the rocks. A Pika is a small rodent that lives in rocky places in Alaska. We tried to get closer for better pictures but our new friend wasn't as eager to shake hands as we were. Maybe our paths will cross again someday.

The next day we headed to Palmer to check out a few places. Our coworker Samantha (who is from Wisconsin of all places!) works at a muskox farm just outside of town. A muskox looks similar to a bison or buffalo but is more closely related to a goat. We stopped in not knowing what to expect and had an excellent time learning about muskox and why they are being raised in the first place. They are the most recent animal to become domesticated. The last domestication of an animal was almost 4,000 years ago so it's a pretty big deal! The fiber they produce is similar to wool but insulates 5 times better and won't shrink in the wash. This fiber sells for $100 an ounce! From each musk ox they get roughly 5-10 pounds of these fibers so yeah, these animals are cash cows if you know what we mean. They're a neat animal and we're glad we got the chance to learn about them.

We've been giving our daily nature walks for about 3 weeks now and they've been getting better and better each week. Last week Adam was leading a small group from Eagle River. It was an average day with the usual talks about flowers and trees and such. The walk was coming to an end, but as the group approached the end of the trail they noticed a group of people looking down on a field of dandelions just below the Nature Center. There was a black bear with two cubs eating dandelions! The cubs were playing around in a tree while Momma Bear enjoyed the field of tasty flowers. We both took turns stepping out the back door to watch them grazing in the field. Unfortunately we don't bring the camera to work so no pictures of the happy family this time. But that was a great finish to a nature walk!

Today we got to lead a nature walk together since it was such a large group. Our manager Laura was super cool about covering the desk while we were gone because she's awesome like that. Everybody's awesome here! Anyway we did the walk like we normally do but alternated talking points so neither of us did too much work. We made it down to the observation deck where there a pools of water full of small salmon fry. Everyone was enjoying the sights and taking pictures when suddenly someone shouted, "BEAR!" We quickly and calmly assessed the situation and saw that a black bear and two cubs were walking the trail we had just come down. We made plenty of noise to let the bears know we where there and they strolled back into the weeds toward the stream. They disappeared for a few moments before we saw the cubs splash into the water. They played for a few seconds before climbing back into the weeds and disappearing once again. Everyone was super excited and praised us giving such an exciting experience. Now since we were working again we still didn't get pictures of the cubs. We know, we know we were disappointed in us too, but we'll have good bear pictures to post one of these days!

Yesterday was a special day for us as it marked 3 and a half years we've been together. We celebrated with a night of board games and cheap wine out on the deck of our cabin. It was all fun and games until Ashley got a little upset over how well Adam was playing Othello. She only threatened to flip the table over twice but we still had a great anniversary. The next day we continued the celebration with homemade sourdough pancakes. We got a batch of starter from a lady we had training with and finally made something with it. They were delicious and an excellent start to the day.

That's it for this week. Tune in next time to see what shenanigans we've been up to!

Added Bonus: Driving home the other night we spotted a moose cooling off in a nearby lake. For Alaska it is hot, nearly 80 degrees some days! We have been really spoiled so far.

-the A-Team

Homer Bound and Down, Loaded Up and Truckin'

This week on Adam  and Ashley's Alaskan Adventure, we will learn all about how they started giving nature walks, visited foreign lands and located and photographed the mighty eagle. But first, let's here a word from our sponsors- Word.

At the start of this week we had to learn how to give nature tours. We headed to work early for the training and as we rounded the corner of the building we saw a moose with two babies down the road from the nature center. It was an excellent start to the morning. For this training we had our head naturalist, an amazing women named Ute, take us around on the trail and point out the various plants, animals, geology and history of our backyard. Wednesday morning, as she was showing us around, a small black bear crossed the trail not 15 yards ahead of us! It wasn't interested in us at all; it just went on its way. That was both surprising and awesome all at the same time! After training for the next two days we trailed fellow volunteers as they gave the nature tour and by Friday Ashley led her very own tour! The tour only happens once a day at 1:30 and takes a little over an hour to finish. Saturday was Adam's big day as he lead a tour on his own! We both have a lot of fun telling visitors about the local flora and fauna and we get to carry with us an air horn, bear spray, first aid kit and binoculars. Ashley even wore her "I Heart Glaciers" T-shirt for her very first tour. To say the least it is really fun giving tours and we are looking forward to giving more this coming week.

This past weekend we decided to go on an adventure. For the past month we had been staying close to home, checking out our state park and the various trails it had to offer. This month we will be exploring a little bit more outside of our Chugach State Park bubble. Sure it's a half-a-million acres bubble but it was time to explore more of Alaska. We decided to visit Homer for the weekend seeing as it was only 4.5 hours away and everyone was telling us how great it is. So we packed up our camping gear and attached the Sweaty Yeti and were off! We left early Sunday morning and took our time getting down there, exploring towns and parks along the way. For at least 90% of the drive we were driving on a Scenic Byway and the views were amazing. Near Coopers Landing we came across a river that was so blue we had to stop and do a double take. The water coming out of Kenai Lake and into Kenai River was gorgeous! We definitely plan on coming back to this area to camp later in the summer. As we continued on the drive we came to a stretch of road that paralleled the coast. We stopped at many of the look out points along the way to take in the stunning scenery and bird watching. Across the sea you could see two active volcanoes standing tall, Mt. Iliamna and Mt. Redoubt, which we were lucky enough to see since the weather is usually a bit cloudy or rainy. We ended up discovery a small state recreation area called Deep Creek that not only had a long beach front and a creek with many fisherman trying to catch salmon, but so many birds there were too many to count! Adam and I easily spent an hour watching the eagles as they soared high above us. Sometimes two eagles would come together, lock their talons and fall in a downward spiral until one of them was chicken enough to pull out and fly back up again. It was truly amazing. Then we decided to take a walk along the beach and as we looked out, what we thought was a driftwood log turned out to be a sea otter. We took as many photos of it as we could and it wasn't until afterwards looking at the pictures that we realized it was actually a mother otter with a little baby otter swimming along side her. After much animal watching we got back in the car and finished the journey to Homer.

Pulling into Homer was unreal. Getting to see the ocean and the mountains all in one stunning view was breath taking. We completely lucked out that it was a nice day! As we drove through the quaint little town we made our way out onto what is called "the Spit" which is a man-made piece of land that extends into the sea a few miles. On the Spit were campgrounds, docks, shops and restaurants. We were actually able to camp on the spit at a campground that had a large fishing hole next to it and that evening Adam and I watched as fisherman would try to catch fish and the seagulls would attempt/fail at getting a tasty snack. Once we got the camper set-up we went for a walk down the boardwalk to find some dinner. We had some delicious salmon and checked out all the shops and outfits along The Spit. The next morning however was not so nice. It rained and rained and rained. We packed up the camper and went in town to explore some of the notable locations. We had breakfast at Two Sisters Bakery and even in the rain hiked out onto the beach for a bit. After that we headed to the Alaskan Islands and Oceans Visitor Center which was pretty neat and we stopped at some of the local shops. We had lunch at Sourdough Express and boy was that delicious! And what type of Wisconsinites would we be if we did not check out the local brewing company in town. After seeing the shops it was still raining with no end in sight on the radar. We decided to go home to a hot shower and a warm cabin. On the way back we even encountered a moose friend who took his sweet time crossing the road. We had just reached the Turnagain Arm (a large bay) when we looked out to see a bunch of black dots. As we wondered what they were we quickly realized they were surfers catching the bore tide as it came in! A bore tide is a 2 to 6 foot wall of water formed by the tide coming in and pushing back any of the water that was still headed out from earlier in the day. To cap off a wonderful trip we stopped at Goodwill on the way home and did some shopping. It was raining so why not?

As we relaxed on Tuesday, doing laundry and cooking lunch, our boss Laura ran into our kitchen. She was looking for us and on her way down to our kitchen she saw a black bear sow with two cubs only 20 yards from the trail! She darted into the kitchen and we watched as the sow scratched her back on the near telephone pole and munched on some of the dandelions. They eventually moved on to the woods behind our cabin. Luckily, another volunteer saw them heading further north away from the cabin. These bears seemed totally relaxed and not aggressive in any way. It was so much fun to watch them!

In the photos below you may see one where it looks like it is snowing, now that is totally plausible here in Alaska but note the blue sky.  This is all cotton. We have so many cottonwood trees and they have just bloomed. It literally is like being bombarded with fluff when you step outside. It is pretty nice to be honest.

Well that concludes this weeks update. We hope you enjoyed our program and will join us again next week.You stay classy Wisconsin. And for those of you not in Wisconsin, move there! It's nice.

-The A-Team