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.