A "Low Key" Hike

This weekend we made plans to hang out with our friend Ann and her husband, Steve.  Ann and Andy went to middle school and high school together (they even went to prom in the same group!).  About two months ago, my office was hiring a new person to fill in for someone who retired and we ended up hiring Ann.  Because Andy and I hadn't ever hung out with her since moving up here, I had NO IDEA that I was helping to hire one of Andy's friends.  It was a really great and awesome surprise and we've become fast friends.  Anyway, we'd been wanting to hang out for awhile and we finally had time to meet up.  Ann called me on Saturday and asked if we wanted to go on a "low key hike" on Sunday. That sounded good to us.  Too bad nobody bothered to tell us that Ann's husband runs up mountains for fun - he even ran the Mount Marathon once.  Yeah, their idea of "low key" and our idea of "low key" are not even in the same book, let alone on the same page.

We started at the trailhead for Flattop.  Totally familiar terrain.  We went down powerline pass and then went STRAIGHT UP THE MOUNTAIN AHEAD.

I was trying to pretend I was tough, but I was dying.  About 2/3 of the way up, I stopped to rest take pictures.  Can you see the powerlines?  Those are probably a mile or so from the parking lot.

Finally we got to the top.  Thank god! There's Ann walking along the ridge.  Are you surprised I was last up the mountain?  Me either.

Here's the view from the top.  More mountains!

And the inlet the other way.

Pretty pretty.  As much as hikes suck, the views really help to make the pain worthwhile...usually. (more on that later).

By the top, we were pretty happy:

We walked slowly around at the top, and I even got to stop and take some pictures of the wildflowers.

We hiked ahead and it was so calm and beautiful.  It was a really great payoff and we were basically alone up there.

After a short walk along the ridge, we got to Hidden Lake.  It was beautiful (and still partly frozen!).

Here's Andy and Ripley enjoying the view.

Here's Ann and Steve.  He stopped running long enough to get his picture taken:

After we passed the lake, Steve said we had to "go down a little bit" and then "back around" and then we'd be back to the car.  PIECE OF CAKE.  We were actually relieved to not be going back down the way we came up.  Oh wait, here's the "down a little bit":

Umm...we bounced around on the rocks a little and started to have some issues (not all of us, Steve ran to the bottom.  He even brought gloves for the rocks.  Thanks for the head's up, Steve-o!).  Here's the view back up.

More looking down.  Andy and Ripley did okay but poor Ripley got scared about halfway down and really didn't want to keep going.  Poor guy.  Ann and I slid down on our butts once we got to the loose gravel bits.  We have no shame, but we do have tough skin, apparently.

Once we got to the bottom we could appreciate the whole thing.  Yeah, pretty much one big rock slide.

At the bottom was another partly-frozen lake:

The path got super pleasant again for awhile.  I loved all the lichen we probably destroyed by walking down there. Ann said it perfectly - like tiny coral.

As we continued to walk, we came across a surprise.  The WILLIWAW LAKES! Remember when we had our failed backpacking adventure and we had to turn around because the trail was washed out? We finally made it to the lakes.  And now we'd be able to find the trail so we could do the camp out this summer.  HA.  HA, says nature.  I'll show you.  

We hit some snow.  Steve ran down it without a second thought.

Same with Ripley:

Andy, Ann, and I sledded.  It was by far the best part of the hike! (this picture is blurry because I took it mid-sled)

Too fun! (and there's a perfect imprint of my butt about a hundred feet long).

The trail by the lakes was absolutely beautiful.  The sun was out, the trail was flat, it was a good day.  OH WAIT, SAYS NATURE.

Ripley liked drinking out of all the streams and wading in the water.

Doesn't it look like a postcard?

As we walked down the trail we almost literally stumbled across a giant bull moose.  AHH!

And we saw some more as we kept going. This place was full of moose.

Little did we know, it also wasn't the trail.  We were probably a half mile up the mountain from the actual trail, though we think it may have also still be washed out, because we never saw any obvious trail.  We ended up following a game trail that took us through forests filled with bugs, stabby trees, prickly bushes and muddy marsh.  I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy trying to yell to keep the bears aware of us.  I was actually really afraid we were going to stumble upon a bear or two.  For me, this was definitely the worst part of the trip.  Once we got past the trees, it wasn't as bad (though it was very wet and marshy) and eventually, after easily 2 miles of being off-trail, we found the trail.  YAY!  We were not unscathed, though. Look at the back of Andy's legs! (Also, Ann is holding the bug spray because she kept having to repeatedly spray herself and the air as she walked.  It was really bad, bug-wise, once the sun came out).

As we came back around, I took a picture of the initial trail.  We walked up the mountain just to the left of that bit of snow.  If you look really close you can see people on the trail.  So glad we didn't do that in the sun.

This is the view of where we came back around.  The bare-ish yellow/brown patch just above the tree line was the swamp we slogged through.  So horrible.

Once we got back to the car, almost exactly SIX HOURS after we started the hike, we headed straight to the Midnight Sun Brewery, which is now officially my favorite after-hike spot.  The beer tastes so much better when you're covered in mud from the knee down and mosquito bites from head to toe (no, of course we didn't shower.  Alaska's not fancy like that).

All in all it was a great hike, even considering the horrible parts (and there were many).  I'm already feeling the burn and can't wait to see the weird way I'll be walking tomorrow.  Even still, I think we'll be choosing the activity next time, Ann and Steve, and we might just skip right to the beer.

Wrapping up the Visit

First off, we just got home from a hike so hard that it's difficult for me to even type right now (wait...that might be my recovery booze) anyway, apologies if today's edition is lackluster.  I'm hurting! 

By the time Sunday rolled around it was time for our guests to go home.  Peter's flight was in the morning so we all got up and took him to the airport.  When we opened the garage door, look what we found in the backyard!! 

Yes! TWIN baby moose! I was dying with all the cuteness!

Mama (who is extremely big and healthy for just having had twins) checked us out but didn't get too upset.  She was okay with us taking pictures as long as we stayed back.

TOO CUTE!

After dropping Peter at the airport, we headed out to Westchester Lagoon to let Ripley take a little swim.  He was happy with this decision. 

Thankfully there were few bugs and lots of water and birds.  Basically Ripley's dream. 

Wait, the only thing that could make it better was a dead bird for him to roll in.  CHECK!

 While we walked around we found a tree full of baby magpies! You can tell they're babies because they don't have long tail feathers.  They were adorable....and loud, like all magpies are.

After letting Ripley swim his little heart out, Linda asked if we could go to the zoo.  Since it's only a mile from our house, it was a perfect little afternoon trip.  And! Dave was free because it was father's day.  Good deal! 

The Anchorage Zoo is actually really fun, but it's not like a typical zoo.  Almost all of the animals are either native to Alaska or native to similar climates.  This way, you don't really feel bad for the tropical animals standing around in the snow.  It wasn't always like this - the zoo used to have an elephant! Her name was Annabelle and she used to paint.  She also has a great story.  It's basically like the episode of the Simpsons where Bart gets the elephant.  A local guy in Anchorage won a paper-selling contest and the choice of prizes was $2,000 or an elephant.  Of course, the elephant was kind of a joke, but he chose the elephant.  The paper company paid up and the zoo was born.  No elephants now, though.  Almost all of the animals in the Alaska Zoo are there because they were orphaned or found injured.  It's pretty much just a really nice wildlife rehab facility.  

Polar Bear (too hot!) 

Red foxes (much prettier live than made into coats or earmuffs.  Didja hear that, fur rondy people?!)

They even have moose.  These ones don't have to worry about cars or bears, which makes me happy.

They also have really pretty gardens.  Since it's right by the house, it's a good place to see what grows well in Anchorage.

We headed over to the nursery where we saw baby moose!

And baby deer! (they don't have deer in Anchorage, but they do in SE Alaska).

They have a whole pack of wolves.  They look just like Ripley, don't they?

Tigers! These tigers are cold-climate tigers and are really beautiful.

Yak!

The next two are dall sheep and/or mountain goats.  Couldn't tell you the difference.

This was one of the best things we saw all day.  This bear is livin' large.

They also have black bears.  MUCH bigger than the ones that stop by our house.  (If we saw bears this big at our house I'd probably never let Ripley outside again).

They even have double-humped camels! These kind are native to cold climates, unlike the single-humpers that live in the desert.

This is also an amazing picture.  The otters know how to relax.  I think they took a tip from the grizzly.

After the zoo we just hung out until Dave and Linda had to head out that night.  It was a truly fantastic trip and we're so glad you came to visit.  Come back anytime Naylors!