August and Everything After

Yes, I know, we're a full week into October, but I never did get around to posting August, and it was a spectacular month with photos to prove it.



I know this post is on the longer side, so I'll try to keep words to a minimum, but the shots are really pretty good and make up for it.

 

My mom and Steve came to visit the first week of the month. My Mom hasn't been to AK since August of 2008, and on that occasion she was under the impression that she would be driving back down to the Lower 48 with me! Boy wasn't that a great conversation. This shortly before hopping aboard a plane to fly to Lake Creek for a day of fishing. I was excited,despite my facial expression, but I think I could have used an extra cup of coffee.

Here fishy fishy. Fishing for silvers was slow.

 

Riversong Lodge on the Yetna River.

Flying back into Anchorage.

Not the greatest picture, but one evening a bear walked right through my front yard right in front of my mom. She took this with a phone, hence the quality, but I thought it was hysterical. The bear had a Fish and Game tracking collar on it.

My mom also came out and supported me at a Tuesday night race at Kincaid.

Sprinting to a third place finish. he extra cheering certainly helped.

 

This was a pretty awesome summer for riding. Trails on the Kenai were spectacular and dry for most the season, even the often wet Lost Lake Loops. I rode said loop three times in nearly as many weekends.

Focus was off but still liked it.

From Bear Lake looking to where we're going.

Tree line on Lost Lake Trail.

Looking back to Seward.

Looking to Lost Lake.

Rolling trail.

This is exactly why I live here.

Ascension

 

Biking was awesome, but I even did some hiking. Kieth bagged a caribou on opening weekend, but decided to leave the head behind and come back for it the following weekend. I went with to a secret place to help.

Bears are known to walk in the exact same spot, over and over, leaving deep imprints in the ground. Maya and a ski pole offer perspective. Pretty weird.

Confused flowers.

The "sticks" pointing out of the talus to Keith's right are actually the antlers from where Keith buried the head. Nothing touched the skull and cool temps that week kept insects at bay.

I think I got yelled at for taking this pic and not helping Keith with the load, but it was worth it.

And this is how I got caribou brains on my pack. Low and behold, my backcountry snowboard back, with its plethora of straps for securing boards, turned out to be useful for also securing caribou head. Bet Dakine didn't have that in mind!

August is a time of harvest for all.

 

One rainy day working in Valdez, I stopped to take a few pics of a black bear fishing at the side of the road.

Homing in on a target.

 

Fish On!!

I had an experimental indoor garden this summer consisting of lettuce greens, Swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and cherry tomatoes. The greens were a success, and I enjoyed fresh greens for the whole of July and August and a few meals of green beans. The broccoli and cauliflower, which was really an experiment, never made it, and I settled for harvesting the greens for use in stir fries. I just took the garden down this past weekend. Perhaps more on that some other time.

My two tomato plants. The less robust one on the left is a yellow and the one to the right is a red. Oddly, the yellow tomato plant, despite its appearance, went bananas and produced a ton of tasty fruit. The red flowered a lot, but never produced more then a few tomatoes.

And then, September came in with a gust, a 133 mph gust to be specific.