Fourth of July at Harding Icefield

I set off with a friend to do the hike up to Harding Icefield, near Seward yesterday. We had great weather and considering Cody and I did this hike one year ago in a constant downpour, made me appreciate it even more.

One of the first big views

View back toward the outwash

Not sure if you could find a cuter puppy

Enjoying a break before the final push

Declan & I

Enjoying the 360 degree views at the top

trusty ol' pack

Declan was tired so he put himself to sleep

Our group

One of my favorites... .we all did our best to final the best spot to lounge

Poor Declan... being 8 weeks old is hard

Just a few of the beautiful flowers along the way

I'm particularly proud of this one, mom and baby

They let me get fairly close- then I didn't feel guilty for not bringing my telephoto

Last great view on the descent

Flowers & Garden

Pansies and petunias

garden progress... healthy Romaine in the middle, peas in the rear and tomato and jalepeno in front (zucchini's embarrassingly small)

I'm oddly proud of this flower, whatever it is

Flower pot... all from seed

it's puppy day care here today

Crow Pass Trail, June 29 & 30

We did it, and are alive to tell about it! Cody, Nick, Sabino and I completed the 23 mile trek from Girdwood to Eagle River this weekend. We figured we hiked for 18 hours total (wasn't going for any record here). We set off from Girdwood around 1 pm Sunday, and made it to the Eagle River Nature Center at 6 pm Monday. Here are a few pictures:

Wilson 'helped' with some of the packing

At the trailhead in Girdwood, rearranging a few things and applying bug spray

The boys, just starting out

View of the valley leading up to the pass

The trail up ahead

And we reached the top: beautiful clear skies and magnificent views

Sabino's pose

Christmas card photo...?

Enjoying a brew that Nick packed all the way up there, was even good warm

The Crow Pass!

Sabino and Raven Glacier

The group in front of Raven Glacier at Crow Pass

View of the valley below

This snow ledge made me very nervous, but we did it!

Thunder Gorge

View from our 'campsite'

Dinner! Noodles with smoked salmon pesto sauce

Our tent and view back from along the hike

The guys' tent and view forward

Dinner clean-up

We hikes 1.5hr that morning for reach the river crossing: this view is what we have to look forward to

Crossing tips

Nick leads us in

And taking a break to warm back up and enjoying the scenery

Wilson did pretty well across, Sabino and Cody led him along without incident

Up the trail aways, this was one of the stream crossings

Twin falls, or Heritage falls. At this point, we were just hoping we'd be at the Nature Center soon

This was our 15'er before our final push to the end

Wilson was so tired, he fell asleep nearing every place we stopped

Felt so good to see this place!

The group at the end!

Wilson had to share his backseat, so he improvised.