Summer Begins

To celebrate the beginning of summer in Alaska, I've been enjoying the late sun and the (fairly) nice weather we've had by doing a lot of outdoor activities. In particular, hiking has been a popular choice. There are so many great trails in and just outside of Anchorage. It's been great for group activities, dates, and just to go with friends.

One of the first trails we did to start the season was the Rainbow Trail.

I was told that a great photograph needs to have a person in it, so you get an idea of perspective. I did the exact opposite here, since this "gorge" is only about 6 inches high and barely wide enough to stick my foot in it.

The view of the Turnagain Arm as we're going up the trail.

My friends and I.

The most popular hike in Anchorage is Flat Top Mountain. It gets it's name due to the many high peaks on the mountain as you can clearly see in the next picture.

By many I mean none.

The trail was fairly steep.

The sun was out and shining. I think this was around 9:30 at night.

I won't say these are all my friends, since half of them I'd never seen before, and haven't seen since. But those that were in the previous picture I can say are my friends. We reached the top. Notice I am the only one wearing a t-shirt.

So, the footing to get up to the top was rather questionable. So, we decided to take the easy way down. By sledding on our butts. I was the last in the group to go down. Now, when I say we all went down sliding on our butts, I really mean, everybody else had one foot under their butt. So, while they all slid for about 10-15 seconds to get back to the trail, I sort of flew by them and went sliding for about a full minute. I ended up waste deep in melting snow, and had to pull myself back onto the trail. It really was fun, but there were a few battle scars I received.

The snow was not forgiving.

And, most recently in Anchorage, I went out for a hike in Kincaid Park with a couple of girls (by far the best part of the story). We're walking along, and one of them said "hey, there's a moose over there!" I looked up, and saw a moose running along a fence. I then noticed where the moose was running towards and realized the fence ended and there was a big opening. Instantly, I yelled "We need to run!" So, we ran off towards some trees to get some cover. I turned around to see where the moose was, and it stopped about 100 feet beyond the fence, where I took a picture real quick.

The moose then looked at us and started charging at us! I yelled "not far enough!" and we ran off again. After a while, we lost the moose near the soccer fields they had there, and saw it run off in another direction.

We also ran into some other furry friends.

Can you see it in the tree? It's a porcupine!

Walking towards the Cook Inlet.

Enjoying a beautiful sunset. The picture really doesn't do justice to the setting.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Hopefully, the summer will be filled with many more adventures.