Coon's Eyes and Kittiwakes, a Solstice Boat Trip

First boat trip of the summer! Since Carl broke his rib last summer, the boat didn't get a lot of use and didn't get put away properly for the winter, so we spent a good bit of time cleaning and rinsing and finally got out of the harbor Saturday afternoon for a quick trip out in the sound!

 Looking back on Whittier after we left port. Over the peak

on the left is Portage Pass, and there's a cruise ship at port

in the center of the photo for scale! 

Beautiful Prince William Sound

Kittiwake Rookery

 Tiny starfish!

The naked S.V. Dolphin in all her glory!

This photo doesn't show how bright the red really is!

North to Alaska . . . Again!

The drive north was, again, quite the adventure! We finally made it to Alaska two days late and a new trailer in tow! And the weather was fantastic the whole way!

 Our first night - a sweet little hot spring in B.C. 

 Camping down the road a piece from the hot spring. 

Trying to set up the wing in the wind proved to be a bit of a challenge!

I like this shot of the load. 

 

 Jasper National Park.

The clouds were just lifting when we drove through, so 

I still have yet to see it when it's clear and daylight.

 Sunset as we drove west of the park.

 Camp on the 2nd night! It was so beautiful. The 

mountains in the background were snow covered and I couldn't

get a good photo of camp with the mountains. 

 Beautiful mountains somewhere near the south

end of the Cassiar Highway. 

Here's where the adventure really begins!

Kitwanga, B.C. is a lovely little town about 2 miles north of the junction

of the southern end of the Cassier Highway. Our goal for day 3 was to

make it to Kitwanga because there is a cute little campground there that is 

maintained by the community to encourage folks to stop by and stay. There is 

a gas station and auto shop across the street and a grocery store/hardware store

next door. Plus, you get folks like Archie & Dawn and Richard stopping by to 

check on you and make sure you're not getting eating by skeeters and that you're

having fun and just to shoot the shit! It's great! As we pulled into the campground,

we could hear a squeak that did not sound good. Turns out the wheel bearing on the

trailer had been completely lost and the wheel somehow stayed on the trailer!

Thanks to all those folks, plus the mechanic, Eric, we were able to figure out how to 

get ourselves AND allof our stuff to Alaska! We ended up not being able to find the 

correct wheel bearings to replace the lost set, so we found a sweet, cheap replacement 

in the next biggest town, and Archie & Dawn are storing the trailer and all of its parts 

and Archie & Eric are going to fix it! We just have to mail them the parts! Archie was 

pleased with the deal because now he has another utility trailer to use until we can retrieve it!

 The broken trailer. 

This is when my camera battery died, so the rest of the trip

was not photographed until we go almost to Anchorage. I 

decided to fire up the camera just to see if I could sneak out one

more photo, and I snapped one of Matanuska Glacier just before

the camera turned off again, this time for good until I could unpack

the charger, which I finally managed to find! 

I'll be better about posting again now that physics is over and done with! I promise!

Bighorn Canyon

This post is LONG overdue! Over spring break, I went to Billings and Red Lodge to see Carl's family and we took a little side trip one day and headed to Bighorn Canyon. I didn't even know this existed, and so close to home! It's beautiful.

This is actually a reservoir, so just imagine how much 

deeper it was before the damn dam!