Barrister, Esquire, Lawyer!!!!

Jes passed the Colorado Bar!

I am very proud of her.

Here is a picture of us just after she finished with the actual test, the relief is evident.

Moose walking

Sept. 27, 2009

On advice from work people, we decided to venture out to Powerline Pass. The trail runs underneath the powerlines that goes south from Anchorage to the small town of Indian along the Turnagain Arm, hence the name. We weren't going for hike this time, we were going to see moose.

As the snow comes down on the mountaintops at the end of September, the moose are forced down into the valleys for leaves to munch and... to rut. Powerline Pass is a gathering place for moose during the 'rut' or their mating season. We have seen a fair amount of moose so far but it was dwarfed by our moose exposure at Powerline.

On the way there, a couple flowers were still in bloom against the new snow.

Also came across some wind blown scrub pine.

After a short hike we came to the powerlines, the trail, and the valley. We weren't a big fan of the powerlines, so no pictures of those, but the valley itself was beautiful.

The moose were all on the left side of the valley, in the clearings between the alders. With the help of our binoculars, we were able to pick out about 8 bull moose on the hillside.

We headed down into the valley and picked a trail a bit uphill from the stream. After a bit of tromping, we came upon a bull moose and a sow.

The moose are in the center of the photo, at this point were about 50 yards from the moose. For a larger picture, click on the photo.

We clomped forward a few more yards and another bull moose came down from the hill and the first bull moved off. Moose may not look very graceful but they can cover ground alarmingly fast. When the first moose moved off he headed towards us, going out of sight in a hollow.

At some point during all this, Casey pipes up and says something to the effect of, 'we are in a den of moose!'

She was right, we looked around and saw about 6 moose all around us, bulls and sows. I wish I could say I got pictures of them but we became a bit concerned about getting out of the moose den.

We safely made it back to the established trail and stopped for a quick photo on the bridge. A short hike but very exciting.

Mount Eklutna in mid-September

The following is a true story and transpired on Sept. 19, 2009.

The beautiful fall weather was holding so we decided to head up a bit north and east of town to hike Mount Eklutna. On this hike we would be joined by Casey, a fellow law-clerk, and her intrepid dog Truvy.

We walked through a forest with aspen's and alder's changing colors.

In this instance the guidebook was right, the walk through the forest was almost pretty enough to put off the rest of the hike. We hiked through and in what is fast becoming a theme in our walkabouts up here, we began hiking up a stiff uphill section.

There was a fair amount of resting...

...and taking in the fall colors.

We made it to the saddle and started up the ridge towards the summit. The ridge had great views in to Chugach State Park to the south and of the Cook Inlet to the north.

I waved at Palmer and Wasilla.

Towards the top of the ridge we were actually walking in the clouds.

Truvy maintained over the entire hike and was rewarded with some great views.

Dog, people, all made it to the top. Truvy had to go back on the leash on the last part because there were some eagles circling menacingly above us, kind of crazy.

Clouds rolling in over the sun.

There are lots of pictures of us on this blog but this one had to go in because our faces are more than an arm's length from the camera.

Neat flowers on their way out.

Taking it easy up top.

We hiked on fallen aspen and birch leaves for the lower portions of the hike.

Artic Valley

When Jes brought the cats up before our drive, she hiked around Artic Valley with Carrie and Mike. She had rave reviews so we headed out so I could see what the fuss was about. Turns out it's quite scenic out there.
Here's a close-up of a pretty hill out there.When Jes was hiking here the first time, the fireweed was in full bloom. This time, only a couple stalks were still in bloom.
After a bit of steeper hiking, we made it up to the saddle with a nice view of Eagle River below.

If you squint you can see Jes at the bottom of the picture, perched on a small outcropping. There is a lot of space up here.

The gentle western flank of Penguin Peak

Labor Day weekend was here and we figured it would be a good time to explore a bit of the Turnagain Arm. So with the help of a hiking guidebook, we picked Penguin Peak. This particular climb was noted for it's 'gently sloping western flank' which lead to the summit and great views of the ocean, the Arm, and a bunch of the mountains in the Chugach Range.
We got up early and managed to catch a pod of beluga's moving eastward down the Arm. We tried to capture these elusive mammoths on film but they would only surface momentarily and then disappear beneath the water.

Luckily, I was able to take a picture when all the belugas were underwater.
We got to the trailhead and made our way to the beginning of the trail, note Jes's smiling face.

Upon finding the trail and beginning the hike proper, we began to understand what the numbers for this trail really meant. We were going to cover 4,000 vertical feet in 3 miles. At home these numbers didn't mean too much, we knew we were hiking up a mountain but the trail was on the 'gently sloping western flank.' However, the experience was more akin to climbing a dirt staircase than a gentle slope.
This picture is an approximation of the steepness of the climb. There were no switchbacks as we were hiking in a narrow avalanche chute.
We made it out of the alders and into an alpine meadow.
Yes, we just hiked up that.Turns out, the views were more than worth the hike.

We figured out that Penguin Peak was actually a rock scramble and a bit of ridge walking away.
For some perspective, the picture preceding the above one was taken at the radio tower that is in the middle right of this picture.
Penguin Peak is behind and above Jes in the picture. The ridge was wide for most of the way but as we got closer to the peak, it got a bit skimpy, at one point narrowing to about 1 foot with huge dropoffs on either side. It's worth noting that the guidebook described this portion as a short hop to the east. Alaskan guidebooks have a gift for understatement.
View of a glacial lake and the Chugach range from the summit.A nice couple picture with the Turnagain Arm in the background.
A view of the hike down the ridge of doom.Hiking back home.

A couple pictures from Wolverine Peak

A couple days after we arrived we headed out to Chugach State Park. The Park is enormous and very close to Anchorage with an incredible amount of hiking. We picked up a hiking guide for the Anchorage area and decided on Wolverine Peak (M Go Blue!) as our first hike.
The hike was steep enough to be noticed. Anchorage is behind me and further in the distance across the Cook Inlet is the Alaska Mountain range.
Wolverine Peak is behind and to the right of Jes.

We didn't make it to the top but got high enough for some good views.

Long Journey North - Day 7

We were so close. Only one day of driving, a mere 322 miles separated us from our new home. We hit the road early in an effort to get to Anchorage mid-day to meet up with Carrie and Mike. This portion of the drive was arguably one of the prettiest, spectacular mountains rising up on either side of the road. Glaciers were halting their progress mere miles from the road. We saw all of this and were impressed. Sadly, our fatigue and general delerium stopped us from taking many pictures. Below is our paltry offering.Clouds rolling off the top of the Chugach Mountains.We were pleasantly surprised by how green everything is.

The colors were just beginning to change.

Lucky for us, when we arrived in Anchorage, Carrie and Mike had bought us growler of porter from Moose's Tooth and were willing and able to help us unload the trailer.
We also had other help unpacking.