Welcome to Paradise

Over our last weekend, we ventured into real wilderness for an amazing camping and canoeing trip. We left straight after work and drove over to our first night's camping spot on Paterson Lake. While we pulled the canoe off the Bronco, Gretel couldn't wait for a swim and jumped right in. She's swimming in circles simply for the joy of swimming in circles.

We packed her wet little behind into the canoe and headed to the other side of the lake for some more private camping. She whined the entire way. Sitting on top of water is apparently a cruel form of torture.

Teyler paddled while I kept the naughty little Gretel in the canoe. The loons were calling and we passed 4 pairs of surf scoters getting ready for the breeding season.

After we set up camp, the moon came out along with three whole stars! We're getting close to the solstice, so it doesn't get much darker than this at night. This was around 12:30am. The embers provided a nice little fireworks show!

We geared up to head out on our canoe trip. Even Gretel has a backpack! She made the dog equivilant of a frowny face through the first part of the day and didn't like moving with it on, but by the end of the trip she was a good pack dog earning her keep!

Gretel, of course, went swimming.

We spent the day paddling and portaging between lakes. It felt like a beaver sanctuary, each lake had a beaver lodge and a damn on each end. There were lots of discarded beaver sticks, which turned into stick heaven for Gretel. She couldn't decide on just one!

We found a camping spot and stopped for a relaxing night of fishing and fire roasting. Fiddleheads and fresh rainbow trout for dinner!

Gretel played hard all day long, she was asking us to go to bed early.

Our camping spot was perfect, with a gorgeous view of the lake and the loons that kept passing by.

The next morning we broke camp and slowly worked our way back to the car. None of us wanted to leave.

It was a beautiful trip! The wilderness around here is easy to fall in love with, especially when it's actually tank top weather! I've never been so excited for a sunburn...my first tan in two years. Ah, making memories!

Bearfia

Most of you have heard we brought home a bear. As you can see, Gretel wanted to steal blood, fur, tongue, and anything else she could grab while we weren't looking. It was her first large game experience! We went for a nice little hike after work, me, Tyler, and the Gretels. This was the year Tyler was going to put up a bear baiting station, so he had picked his sight and gotten his permits from the state troopers. After a long day of work, we had a beautiful afternoon and decided it would be a perfect opportunity to post his bear baiting permits at his hunting sight. We geared up, took off, and started bushwhacking to the sight (you have to be a certain distance from any marked trails, etc., so bushwhacking is always involved in bear baiting). We went up and down one ridge, then started climbing another. With GPS in hand, Tyler kept pushing me on ".5 miles to go!" Up and up we went ".2 miles to go! We're gettin close!" My chest heaved and I'm ashamed to say my legs ached quite a bit, and on we went. "0.1 mile to go! We're practically there!" I hear. 20 seconds later: "BEAR! BEAR!" I look up, confused, astonished, and disbelieving all at the same time. I hear a gunshot, grab the dog so she won't get close, then hear a few more shots. I think to myself "I can't believe this! He's really shooting a bear!" I hear crashing up ahead, and Gretel's ears are perked. Tyler shouts "Stay there! Don't come close yet!" As he fires another shot to make sure it's dead, then gets close to poke it with a stick. The poking comences and no movement ensues. "It's safe. You can come close." I let the dog loose and the minute she sniffs the bearness, she starts barking. Circling the bear, barking barking barking. Tyler pulls it into a clearing to feild dress it, and she follows, barking barking barking. She didn't stop the entire time, unless it was to steal a bit of blood or pull at the fur (for which she was promptly reprimanded). I think it was about the most exciting thing that's ever happened in her life! 

After gutting it, Tyler slung it over his shoulders to get the bear out of the woods. He looked like quite the ultimate hunter, complete with a fur muff. We barbequed the ribs the next day--quite a tastey treat!

A nice action shot of Gretel with her favorite toy. I love free frisbees!

I've started a strawberry wine--my first brew attempt! This was the wine-making process. It's now a fermenting vat of  pale pink. Pretty, but we'll see if it turns out. 

Well, that's basically our last month. We're so glad the summer's come!

Mayhem in May

The sun and warm weather has returned to Seward, so we've been out enjoying it! We adventured to Anchorage and back last weekend. We spent the night breaking in our new ford bronco car-camping style up by Palmer. The mosquitos have returned with gusto--I have a group of mosquito bites so solid on my back you can't tell there's supposed to be 5--it's one big lump. The Kristen Blood Bank has opened for the season! We snapped this picture by Kenai Lake on the way back. Gorgeous weather! 

Our trip to Anchorage included new tattoos. Tyler got this super spiffy Trilobite. Behave, or he'll go Cambrian on you! 

An Anomalocaris in very Kristen colors: blues and teals! He was the first major predator in the oceans. And what did he eat? Trilobites! You're watching an epic battle frozen in time! 

While the snow clumps were still lingering a couple weeks ago, we hiked up the creek we live on for a picnic after work. It was a combination of postholing in the wet snow and fjording the river where it had popped out of the ice. Here, I'm being lead by Wendy the neighbor dog who likes to go on walks with us, and Gretel's showing me her mad agility skills by swerving in and out of my legs as I post hole. What a helper. 

On the road to Anchorage, we often see mountain goats that come all the way down the the highway. I'm standing on the opposite side of the highway to the goats, those white specks on the rocks. They're showing off their amazing climbing skills.

A brief update of our adventures of late! More to come shortly!