Return to Alaska...Part 2. Blueberry Hill

This was one of my favorite days. I don't recall if it's the same day we all nearly died in a car wreck due to some cheesebread or if it was the day we also bought 6000 paintballs, but it was a great day...Lena suggested we take a drive up near Fox to Mt. Aurora...also known as Ski Land...which is apparently the farthest north chairlift in North America...maybe the world. Of course in mid-July, there's no snow, but the area is stunningly beautiful.

I'm sure during the season, it's a bit less ramshackle...at least I hope so. However, visually, I love the look of disrepair.

It was a clear day, which was nice...with all the fires around, there was still a bit of a haze, but not bad at all.

It was epic.


The hills were also absolutely covered in blueberries...we picked for quite a while. It was nice to get some fresh stuff...they ended up going into pretty much everything we ate when we got to Salcha. Oatmeal, cereal, you name it...it had blueberries on it!

I found a whole solo cup full!

We also broke out the guitar for a little picking and singing.

Heather crafted what might be one of the finest songs ever unwritten. It's "The G-Chord Song" and it's "all about the G-Chord." It's a shame I only managed to capture a short snippet of it.

...It's also a shame I didn't think to turn the camera in the right direction until partway through. sheesh.

Ashley thoroughly enjoyed it. Those sunglasses she's wearing...I think they're mine. I hung them off my shirt at one point while picking berries. I noticed about 30 min after I put them there, they were gone. I'd been all over that hill. I figured I'd sacrificed them to the day...but low and behold, a little retracing my steps and I found them in a patch of moss! Thank goodness, because I think they're the only pair I had with me!

Of course I took advantage of the day for picture time. This is one of my favorite shots of Lena. Something about it just captures her nature to me.

It was a great day with friends new and old...

...in a beautiful place...

with a beautiful ending.

Epic Alaska, Part 1

Outside of Delta Junction, AK

In my very first post, I spoke briefly of my trip to the Interior of Alaska...and I said "but that's a blog for another day..." well, that day is today. The first two blogs, I'm taking from my myspace blog and importing them here...but I've been neglectful and not written of the whole excursion. I plan to rectify that over the next few days. So, let's begin, at the beginning...

The Tanana Valley

Epic: "Extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope"...

This is the description that Merriam Webster's uses for the word "epic" but those few words fail to truly explain the feeling that being a part of something epic instills in you. This past week, as most of you know, I was fortunate enough to be back in Alaska. To me, the place truly encompasses the word "epic" epic for its size, its beauty, its majesty, its difficulty, and its people.

Harding Lake...around Salcha


The Tanana River



Out in the woods of Salcha four wheeling.


No place I've ever been hits me like Alaska does. There's just something about it that gets under my skin. I loved getting to experience a new part of the state. The southeast is indeed beautiful, but I've found, the interior is equally as striking. The vastness of the landscape is absolutely breathtaking. How can you not appreciate the startling beauty set before you? It captured my heart seeing mountains, rivers, valleys and gorges, all set off by skyscapes of clouds and rivulets of sun that swept the heavens from east to west.

Me and the "end of the Alaskan Highway" in Delta Junction.

Sunset in the swamp at Camp Baldwin



The pipeline outside of Delta Junction.

I loved seeing the waters of the Tanana river churn and stir and strain defiantly against its banks, or the Salcha river lazily course along its way. A drive down the Alaskan highway brought us closer to one of the mountain ranges we could see from Delta Junction. They rose like giants out of the earth, snow capped and tremendous…and Donnelly Dome stood before them in all of its evergreen glory. We saw the pipeline, the "artery of Alaska" as it ran across the landscape like a silver thread. as far as the eye could see.


Sunset from the highest ridge in Salcha (It's around 1 AM here)


Kayaking on the Brink's lake.


The waters were so pristine...you couldn't tell where earth would end and the sky begin...as illustrated by this reflection.

Flying into Fairbanks, this horizon greeted me.

The "Land of the Midnight Sun" also proved itself to be exactly that. It was a rare day that we saw the sun begin to set before 11 pm…but when it did, it was magnificent. Vibrant purples, deep oranges, and glittering golden hues streaked the sky; the mountains and rivers caught them up and blanketed themselves in the same shades. Watching dusk fall over the vastness of the Tanana Valley from the top of a mountain ridge is something I always want to remember. Night was never night as I know it at home, black and starry…it was that ethereal shade of blue that I think exist in only a few places on earth…the clouds in the sky were still quite visible, only deeper in color and I never saw the stars…

Well, that's my musing on the place itself, now as far as what I did...
...that is to be continued in part 2. As I upload these pictures, I realize how deeply this place captured me. I think there's almost a desperation in the way I miss this it.