Esquire in Colorado

After a bit of paperwork, Jes was sworn in by her Judge on March 3. The ceremony took place in the Judge's courtroom, Jes was happy to get sworn in.

There was some formal law talk and swearing...

And then Jes was officially a lawyer, congratulations!

Touring Anchorage

'Ello all,

It's been a while but we've been busy, for example, just this weekend Jes and some friends toured Anchorage on cross country skis. The Tour is a big xc skiing race round these parts and Jes decided to ski the 25k.

I caught her about halfway through the race.

The race finished at Kincaid Park, the center of cross country skiing in Anchorage, as you can tell from the picture, about half of Anchorage cross country ski's and the other half was out to support their friends.

At this point Jes is extremely happy that she has finished touring Anchorage. She and Michelle skiied together, Kevin and I watched together, good times were had by all.

Until next time...

Flattop

So, Alaska got cold and we got busy and the blog was neglected. We have a lot of catching up to do, but we thought we'd post some pictures of a hike we did today on Flattop Mountain. There has been an inversion sitting over Anchorage for almost a week, so getting above the clouds was a real treat. Dave's friend Laddie led the way, he's been living in Anchorage for almost thirty years and hikes year round, it was a great trip. We hiked from 10:30-12:00, for those of you wondering just how dark it is in Alaska right now.

Here we are about halfway up, as with all Alaskan hikes, it was basically straight up.

The sun doesn't get very far above the horizon at this time of the year and when it does, it's like watching an extended sunset and sunrise, pretty neat.

We crossed several snow fields, some steeper than others, and again, notice the perpetual sunrise/sunset.

After a bit more trekking we got up towards the windblown top where more great views awaited.

Laddie has been hiking in the area for a long time and he was a veritable font of information, pointing out other trails to hike, good skiing spots, and naming the surrounding mountains.

Jes and I on top of Flattop, the Alaska range in the background, and fog blanketing Anchorage.

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.