A Last Hoorah!

Hi, Everyone:

We're down to the last week here in Alaska, and we have one final, large adventure to report from this past weekend.  I imagine there will be one more blog post before I leave remembering our time here, but for now . . . let's focus on the Alaska-adventures still being had.

This past weekend some of the clerks bound together and rented a public use cabin in the Nancy Lake area (about 1.5 hours north of Anchorage).  Public use cabins are the best things ever in Alaska.  Basically, the State has built a bunch of cabins around Alaska in both easily-accessible and not-so-easily accessible areas.  Some can be driven to, and some have to be hiked to.  Some are only accessible in the winter (when you can ski across a lake) or by boat, others require miles of hiking, and others are float plane only.

Anyway, the general public can rent these cabins pretty cheaply (I think about $40/night).  The cabins are bare; they usually contain a couple of wooden bunk beds, a woodfire stove, and an outhouse.  But they make for easy accommodations when camping.

The clerks rented one on an island in Red Shirt Lake.  Getting there required us to hike 3 miles to the lake, including carrying our own food, clothes, bedding, and firewood.  Once we got to the lake, we rented canoes for an approximate 1/2 mile ride to the island.

Here are the clerks geared up and ready for the hike:

And here is a picture of one of our canoes.  Note that Tammy was here with us in spirit:

After a beautiful hike (approx. 1.5 hours) and an easy canoe trip (about 20 minutes), we arrived on the island.  Here are Jimmy, Suzanne, and Rebecca hanging out on the porch of the cabin:

After we set up camp, we decided to take advantage of the evening and go for a nice canoe ride around the lake.  Elena and Peter were going out, so I though I would go with them and row them around while serenading them . . . gondola style.  Keep in mind, I hadn't canoed since Tamarack.  But I figured it was like  riding a bicycle . . . which is accurate . . . assuming you ride the bike in circles for about 10 minutes trying to remember what to do.  Thanks for being so patient, Peter and Elena!

Peter (see the hunting adventure from last week for a description of who he is) took a fishing pole to try and catch some pike along the way.  And catch some he did; after trolling for a few minutes, he ended up catching 5 or so, including this massive beast:

We then saw a bald eagle circling around trying to catch Pike.  Peter offered our fish as a peace offering, but the bald eagle wouldn't have it.  That bird just sat in its tree waiting for us to leave before it would come down to try again to get food for its kids.

So we released the fish and continued on our way.  Of course, the paddle around the lake was beautiful by itself.  As the sun began to set, we got some pretty unreal pictures.  I think Elena managed to get something like 200 pictures.  I was somewhat limited (as the rower), but I managed to snap a few myself:

(That round piece of land on the left is the island where our cabin was).

Then we came back to the cabin to give some other people a chance to row.  Here's our boat docked and ready for the next group to go out:

Here's the next crew leaving the cabin:

With most of the groups gone, we hunkered down by the fire and made some dinner.  We also got some awesome shots of the lake from the porch of our cabin:

Once everyone came back, we shared some drinks and snacks, played some mafia, told some stories, and went to bed.  This morning we got up, ate breakfast, and shuttled the canoes back across the lake:

We put our packs back on, hiked the 3 miles (in under an hour!), and drove back to Anchorage.

A VERY successful end to our Alaska time together.  Thanks to Claire for organizing such an awesome trip and to all of the clerks who came for making it so special.  Here's to our future reunions and time together back in this glorious State.