(Military) Family Life with the Mason's: May 2016

May 23 2016

Another trip to Hatchers Pass with the Canadian Tourists....and my friend Tara, DD and I ....we spent the day with our Canadian kids at a nature hike and scavenger hike, with lunch at a lake close to our house. So after we decided to go check out Independence Mine up at Hatchers Pass. My kids and I had been there May 7th and there was still a lot of snow. It's a neat place to visit so we decided to go and check it out, just the 5 of us, so we could take one car....and our car has the state parking pass so it was an extra bonus.

We got to the top parking lot, the gate is not open until June some time. So we poled up.....I had brought 3 sets of poles to use for our hike to the mine. In the summer isn't a way easier trip, because you can drive right up to the Mine and park, but for safety reasons they keep it closed in the winter and fall/spring.

We had another great adventure and did find snow in Alaska....=)

May 22 2016 -Tour guide

Sunday May 22 2016, I was a tour guide, took my friend Tara, her sister Kelly-Anne, and Pat (family friend) visiting from Canada, and Liam and DD around downtown Anchorage and to some touristy spots I like to visit.

Then to visited Earthquake Park

View of Anchorage

Then went to see the Chocolate Factory.....and then tried to go for a hike to Flattop, but there was so many people there on a beautiful day, so we went to Barbara Falls in Eagle River and on the way back we saw a Black Bear cross in front of us on the road.

May 19 2016 - Last day of school, traffic jam.

So May 19 2016, last day of school here in Alaska, well for my daughters school. She set out her normal routine, walking to the bus, about 7:30am....so comes running back about 7:40am, to let me know there is a Mama Moose and twins on the road going to the bus stop. So I grab my camera and we just in the car.....OMG they are so cute....=)

May 16 2016 - Falls Creek Hike

Today was a hike on Sue W's list and Kinza's list....we left Eagle River about 9am, Sue W, Kinza, Suzy and I.

Kinza and I had stopped to check out the Falls on the last hike we did to Whittier, so we knew where to go. We hit the trail, and started going up.......not to self, most hikes in Alaska are UP hill....=)
We continued to hike up, then came to a fork in the trail, after checking our book we followed the trail to the left, past a big rock.

This hike was very loud, with the river racing to the left of the trail, we had our bear bells.....Dinner Bells people call them here, but I don't think that made a difference..

As the trail became closed in with vegetation, we kept our eyes and ears on the look out for wildlife.
We could see some Dale Sheep up in the hills, and I did get some pictures, but we never saw them up close.

We continued up the trail, along the river, crossing water streams, and hiking in mud, we decided to eat in a clearing, but was windy so tried to hide from the wind behind a big rock.

after eating we hiked a bit farther, we hiked through some snow, then didn't want to get wet feet, so turned around, to head back down. it was a great hike, we will probably check it out again one day soon.

May 14 2016 - Saturday adventure

DD and I went on a recce down a trail I had seen from the highway out in the Wasilla area, we where looking to see if it was a good place to take friends with kids.

So we set out and missed the turn off, so had to back track again on the highway, not as easy as you may think, we took the long cut instead of the short cut....=)

So we found the road that runs parallel with the highway, followed it, then it turned into a dirt road, as we drove down the road, I was going slow as to not make as much dust, I saw out of the left side a Moose, I had to reverse.
Both DD and I had brought our cameras, just for moments like this.

We found a new area, with beautiful houses, and a new school. We then went to another part I saw, but wasn't really a trail area at all....but you could launch a canoe or kayak in and go for a trek to see what was there.

May 12 2016 -Butte

Another beautiful day to hike the Butte, it's an easy hike, but has alot of stairs, I think someone put a step count of 300. I still suck wind going up this hike, but the views are what keep me going back....=)

May 11 2016 - Whittier for the day.

May 11 2016- My friends, Kinza, Talayna and I set out for the drive down to Whittier. Our plan was to hike a new trail, we hadn't hiked before.....we saw it posted on the FB page Hiking in Alaska....it was going to be an adventure, with us crossing two creeks. It wasn't a difficult hike, but a longer hike along the coast.

We caught the 10:30am tunnel, through the longest shared Tunnel (Auto and Train), it was a slower then normal tunnel drive as we had two big boats in front of us and they took their time driving.
So we finally made it through, and headed through the small town of Whittier, some thing it's a haunted town, it's small and isolated. We head past the Buckner Building, and find the road, we are to follow, a gravel road, we see signs to Emerald Cove Trail, and part of the cliff a long the road a give way. we continue, as the directions say, to find a road construction sign saying do not enter. Being our first time to this trail, we are not sure how much further down the road, the trail head is. So on the way we say another hike, Horsetail Falls sign, and I had seen it online, so be back tracked and heading out on this hike instead.

Horsetail Falls hike trail started on a road behind the old Buckner Building, we could see the back and roof of the building as we hiked the road to the trail. Another adventure in Alaska, finding the less travels trails....=)

This one started out to be a very nice hike, with wooded stairs winding through the forest, with shingles on the wood to make it less slippery, we hiked on, then we rounded a corner and started to climb the trail and we ran into snow. Deep slushy snow, we had some poles, but only had runners, and not prepared, we hiked a ways up the trail only to find more wood stairs with no snow, then hiked more and then we hit more snow, we hike though a bit of this then with wet feet and cold legs....it hurt to post hole with no pant legs to protect your legs. So we decided to turn around, but will defiantly hike this trail again, we will probably bring the kids on this one, didn't seem to bad the part we hiked.
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/viewing/pdfs/whittier.pdf

On the way back, we meet two guys, one was going to make a camp, somewhere close, and was planning on staying a while.....I forget where he was from.

We then stopped at the Buckner Building, Talayna hadn't seen it close up....it's closed to the public, but you can look in some of the windows.

We then stopped at the one building a lot of the town lives in, it was my first time in the building, we stopped at the store and saw the post office and looked around. I will post a link about the town of Whittier.
http://www.whittieralaska.gov/
http://www.whittieralaska.gov/https://stories.californiasunday.com/2015-01-04/begich-towers-whittier-alaska/
Tunnel schedule:
http://tunnel.alaska.gov/schedule.shtml

in the winter the kids can go through a tunnel and get to school....very small town. The one lady we talked to loved it there....everything under one roof....=)

After our tour, we decided to hike the Portage Pass Trail, with wet feet, we decidied to just hike to the top and see how the trail looked, but with still a lot of snow and mud, we decided to come back in a month or so to take the hike to the lake.

It was a great day, here's a few pictures to share.

back of the Buckner Building

trail of Horsetail fall

Look out on the Portage Pass Trail

May 7 2016 - Hatchers Pass

Went to see how much snow was still up at Hatchers Pass, a lot of the snow has melted but still quite a bit to melt. Last year at this time the road to Independence Mine was snow free and there was just snow at the Mine area.....