Forays into the Alaskan Wilderness (a.k.a. Hiking):Although there is technically no "wilderness" here, it seems that if there is a decent chance of seeing a bear or moose in a place, then it should qualify as "wilderness"...which is everywhere around here. There are SO MANY LAKES HERE! Plus we have mountains, eat your heart out Minnesota. The only disappointment so far is that the trails don't tend to head upward into the mountains, but stay nestled mostly in the comfortable valleys and around the lakes and rivers (for more details about why this rocks, see "fishing"). However, the views are breathtaking, which is fine because the air is thicker down here and we feel like superheroes when we hike because we are used to Montana's high altitudes, so we don't get winded easily. We've explored a lot of the trails in the area but there are still many more to see...and we want to see them all!
Acting Contrary to Most Modern Invention (a.k.a. Camping):Unfortunately we've only made it out for one good camping trip so far. It was a great time though and we had a blast. We went car-camping along Palmer Creek, near Hope, which doesn't mean anything to most of you but if you wanted to find a place to drive to on the Kenai Peninsula that would inspire you to go back home and take a shower and maybe do some yard work, it would be Hope. We sat by the fire, sang songs, ran the dogs until they were dead on their feet, ate some awesome good food (thereby clogging arteries in abundance), and donated large amounts of blood to the local mosquito and moose fly populations. The next day we went for a hike up a nearby trail to a couple of lakes where we laughed in exuberant mirth as Lilly first ran away from us despite our calling her back, then upon realizing that we were leaving without her tried to cross one of the lakes on the sketchy ice that was still melting in the lake, then fell in the water and had to swim back to shore. We are hoping to get out for some backpacking soon, but we've had so much going on that it has been tough finding a weekend for it.
Russian Names, Western Oceans, and-...um...Homer:
A few weeks ago Rachel decided to surprise Ben by asking his supervisor for a couple of days off and arranging a great little tour de Kenai. We stayed in a lodge in Kasilof where we had some great time together, and did a little fishing but caught nothing. The hostess Dot was really cool and was a lot of fun. She was trying to convince us to bring our dogs next time...we told here that we didn't want to bring her beautiful lodge to ruin. We went to Homer and had sushi and checked out the Homer spit, and had some great R & R time. All around it was a great trip, even though we were actually both sick at the time.
Convincing Something That You Want to Eat to Eat Something That It Doesn't Want to Eat So That You Can Eat It (a.k.a. Fishing):Fishing trips, thus far, have been somewhat few...BUT we're working on changing that. We tried a little fishing in Kasilof but were sadly skunked. Ben went fishing in Ptarmigan Creek nearby and had a great time, catching 3 trout, losing 1, and keeping the best for some good eating. He only had one small slip while down on the shore...swamping his waders with some of the good, frigid, glacial water. Totally worth it though! We tried fishing Salmon with some friends another day, but still no joyful Salmon adventures. Tomorrow we will be getting up 'round the crack of dawn, 4AM, in order to go fishing down in Resurrection Bay for Halibut, Ling Cod, Salmon, and whatever else we can convince to bite onto something attached to some filament.
For the purpose of not getting too far into everything that we've been up to, for this is not the half of it and doesn't do the experience a lot of justice, we'll have to end this long-winded exhortation of revelation. Last and not least, we want to say that even though we are having a great time, we really miss everyone, especially friends and family. We just got hit with a wave of homesickness the last couple of weeks, and we really can't wait to see you all again!
We love you all and miss you dearly!
Ben and Rachel
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