The Last Week of August

Fall is in full swing, the air is crisper, it's raining a lot , leaves are changing , the tundra is red and our wonderful midnight sun is slipping away from us.

Even though we have had the best summer since I moved to Alaska in 2000 I am still not ready for the snow to fly. 

We'll embrace what snow free ground we have while they last.

Biken All The Time

The past two weeks have been allabout getting   ready for the final two races for the summer. Charlie and I on lost lake.

Luckily he weather has been record breaking.

Mom and dad bought us a new bike rack it's all loaded and read to go to Hope this weekend for the Soggy bottom.

Monday Hannah Charlie and I rode 30 miles on Res pass to practice the course.

We saw caribou, wolf and bear biking doesn't et much better then that.

Bear foot birding at the beach with bean dog.

We went to our fist wedding out the year.

Our beautiful weather some how held out for the last 3 weeks! 

And that was our week.

Swan lakes to the Moose River Canoe Trip

We finally made it happen, Canoeing the Kenai Wildlife Refuge Trail through Swan Lakes and out 17 miles of the Moose River.

We lucked out with more awesome weather, but with nice weather comes the largest mosquito hatch in 22 years.

Chuck and Tyga swimming the the lake to get away from the bugs

Once we got off the lakes the bug were unbearable, We have never set up a tent so quickly, and no joke we had 100+ bugs inside the tent and thousands  more outside trying to get in.

Charlie and his head net, along with our 30 year old canoe that has taken us to some pretty great places.

A man, a dog and his boat. 

 Through the muskeg, I carry the gear.

The 8 Lakes later we are at the start of the Moose River!

A nice breeze and its a bug free float out.

Another successful trip in the back country.

Apparently we were the only successful party to make it through in the month of June due to bugs. The Canoe company that shuttled us back to our truck said that "We must be true Alaskans because every other party pulled out early" 

Thats right TRUE Alaskans

BIRDS!

Just because May and June have been such great bird watching months I thought I'd share some of my favorite photos.

Black Legged Kittiwake "piggywink" on a rope near Homer

Snow Geese in Seward, a lucky spotting

Arctic Tern on a nest at the Airport. They are really trying to re-establish the colony there. 

One week later Terny chick!

Sandhill Crane

Spot the egg, Black Oystercatcher nest

With our crazy cold spring we had 6 Rufus Humming Birds at my feeder, a record for my yard.

Trumpeter Swans waiting for the pond to melt, along the Denali HWY

Male Ptarmigan strutting his stuff

Downey woodpecker at her nest.

June 3-10, 2013 This is a crazy nice June!

This Summer just keeps getting better. When the weather is nice and you live in the Land of the Midnight sun you must take full advantage of it and play until you drop. There's plenty of time to sleep this winter.. Well until ski season!

Oh yes, we have Chestnut Sided Chickadee eggs in a nest box right outside our back door!

This is what happens when we don't take Tyga with us on our after work adventure. She eats 4 power-bars out of our backpack. Now she's really ready to go with all her engery!

After work bike ride with friends, crossing over Martin Creek out Resurrection River Trail.

Hannah going for a ride in the 1960 baby seat, that's normally Chucks "beer getter"

Fox Cabin Trip with Sean and Sadie, fun in the midnight sun.

Day 2 of our weekend bike trip we arrived at Swan Lake Cabin to a glorious evening. 10PM arrival in 75 degrees means a swim in the lake. Man Life is good.

Our favorite section of trail coming down from Swan Lake, Tyga loves to run so much. She has some seriously strong "ham hocks"

Muddy legs after our ride.

May 26-June 2 Spring has finally come!

Stopped by the train on the way back from Denali, Iconic Alaska.

Camped in Talketna, Chucks road side diner now sterving, pork n' beans tortiallas and fiddle heads with a side of ditch coke n' whisky.

Fiddle heads, gotta get your green when camping too!

AVTC culinary academy dinner  Sadie cheers to the first course.

A little disc golf with friends after work.

Wild things happen at a masquerade party, for a friends 30th birthday.

What a way to end a awesome week; Sadie, Charlie and I hit the trails to got meet some friends out a wilderness cabin, Sunny again!

May 19-25 The weather Just keeps getting better!

May's abnormally cold weather brought on some of the best bird watching in Seward I have ever seen. Winter would not let up so all the migratory birds that were flying back to Alaska to nest were stopped. They were force to wait until better weather came. We took full advantage of having these migrants stopped over in Seward.

Sadie Piggy baking Sean out to the the Birding spot.

Beer and Birding lessons with Sadie

Charlie and I did a 7K Trail run in Cooper landing and he won!

Tyga got to run too

Finally some trail are starting to melt. This was our first ride of the year out to Russian lake and falls.

Caribou, on our way up to Denali for a bike race, this photo was taken at 1AM in the Land of the Midnight sun, out the car window.

Crossing the Susitna River, winter still has a grip on her!