If at first you don't succeed...

First things first - there will be no pictures of the Williwaw Lakes in this post.  Second, this post will be long.  So get comfy and get ready to hear about our crazy weekend.

We started off great.  We were excellent list makers all week and we had all the gear we needed.  The only downside was that I only had a small day pack because my internal frame pack is in our garage...in Salem.  We figured that for one night, I would be okay with the small pack with my sleeping bag and pad strapped to it.  Almost instantly after I put it on, I really wished I had a waist strap to take some of the pressure off my shoulders.  It should have been a sign.

At the trailhead - look how official we look! Even Ripley has his pack on (and he did great with it).

After walking about 2 miles, we were treated with some excellent views of the city.

A bit after this point, we took a turn to the right and headed into the mountains, just as Andy had remembered from high school.  Then, suddenly, the trail forked.  Andy picked the one that seemed right (again, going into the mountains) and we quickly found ourselves in ankle-deep muck.  Stinky, wet, horrible bog just covered the whole trail.  My shoes filled with water and I was instantly miserable.  We kept going but quickly realized there was a horrible problem - the trail just disappeared into the mud.  We figured we must've taken the wrong trail at the fork, so we walked back and continued on.  After a mile or more, we noticed we were heading down the hill and into town - definitely the wrong direction.  We turned back, got lost again, and realized we faced an important decision: either keep on trying or go home.  At this point, my back was killing me with all the weight of my stuff on my shoulders, Andy's feet hurt from not wearing hiking boots for years, Ripley was losing steam and the sun was going down.  We made the executive decision to just go home.  We felt horribly defeated and like we'd been beaten up (physically and emotionally).  Total. Bummer.  

On the way back we decided that, no matter what, we were camping this weekend.  We figured it would be a great time to check out the campgrounds in Portage that we'd seen a few weeks back and we already had all our stuff packed! After we made it back to the car (longest hike ever), we ran to Freddy's, grabbed some campfire-appropriate food (s'mores and brats) for the next day and retired to our comfy bed.  

Side note - I don't know that I've ever heard the two of us complain like we did on Friday night.  Andy's feet, legs, and back were killing him.  My shoulders and back hurt.  At one point, I complained that my back muscles hurt SO BAD that it was painful to breathe (it was - I wasn't exaggerating!).  We were a sorry pair.  I'm sure if Ripley could have complained he would have.  We ended up passing out around 10 pm and slept like rocks.  

We woke up early and headed out to Portage.  Unlike the other two times we'd been there, the weather was clear, beautiful and warm the whole way out, which is amazing.  On the way we even saw a pod of beluga whales in the Cook Inlet! (Ironically swimming right next to Beluga Point).  I tried to take a picture, but they moved really fast.  Here's the scenery though: 

We got to the campsite (first come first served) and we got the BEST spot.  We were closest to the river and farthest from the road.  We were so excited.  We set up camp in no time.  

Our wee tent - excellent purchase from the Columbia outlet a couple years ago!
Just enough room for the three of us.

The campsite was excellent - good spot for the tent, nice picnic table and firepit, and lots of trees for privacy.  

Ripley and I by the table

The river!

Ripley especially loved being steps from the river.  He couldn't stay out of it.

Since the weather was so nice, we decided to walk to Portage Glacier - just about 2 miles or so from our campsite.  Ripley loved running amok on the trails.  

We didn't hit the Williwaw Lakes but we ended up on the Williwaw Creek! Serendipity!

Ripley was extremely happy on the trail. 

The views were amazing and the sky was clear.  It isn't always raining in Portage! 

More scenery highlights:

After a bit of a walk, we ended up at Portage Lake!  When Andy was a kid and came here for field trips, the lake was covered in glacier. Not so much anymore, but it's still super pretty.

Ripley, as with any body of water, loved the lake...

Amazing scenery everywhere you look!

In the crack of those mountains is Portage Glacier.
That's the famous one - it used to cover the lake. 

Glacier chunks on the lake!

Andy with glacier chunks.

Me with glacier chunks.

The one big downside of the campsite was the bugs.  The mosquitoes were generally repelled by our spray, but these flies kept divebombing us at every opportunity.  Andy got fed up and headed to Girdwood (about 20 min away) to look for other bug repellant.  While Andy went on his mission to protect his woman and his dog, Ripley and I snoozed in the tent.

Of COURSE he's on my sleeping bag.

Andy had no luck in Girdwood, but we figured out that the flies were only around during some parts of the day, so we decided to endure.  And take another walk! 

At some point as we walked around the campground, we came across an amazing, and a little bit scary, discovery.

That, my friends, is bear "scat." 

The bear poop was only about 10 yards from our picnic table, and looked really fresh.  I wasn't too excited about it, but Andy had the bear mace and we hoped that the other campers would be enough of a deterrent to keep the bear from coming back to eat us.

On our 3rd walk of the day, we saw salmon!

Can you see them?

There's a huge one! right there! 

We wished we'd had some fishing poles! 

In all, what started out as a disaster weekend ended up being really fun.  We're still a little sad about the Williwaw Lakes defeat, but we had a great time in Portage...until we woke up to Ripley barfing in the tent at 5 am.  I guess he decided that something had to go wrong.  Thankfully that something was not us coming in contact with the bear that pooped by our tent.  

Hope you all had a great weekend!!