Summertime.....and the livin is easy

We've been pretty busy as of late in our annual manic summer mode. It seems like the long winter spent dreaming about all the things we want to do when summer finally arrives, coupled with the long daylight hours, really lights a fire under us to get out and enjoy the summer. We've been building a small greenhouse with some old storm windows we got from a friend of a friend. The going has been a bit slow for progress on the greenhouse with some of our adventures getting in the way. But, as I'm wont to say: "that's a good problem to have".

Emily is currently up on the north slope working again so last weekend I drove down to the Denali Hwy in search of lake trout. I've heard that the lake trout fishing can be stellar right as the ice goes off some the the lakes in that region so I thought I'd give it a try. I grabbed my fly rods, mountain bike and borrowed an Alpacka Raft from my friend Brain and hit the road. The trail into Landmark Gap Lake is 3 miles and it's a pretty bumpy ride on the bike (especially since I didn't put my suspension fork on the bike yet). About 75-80% of the lake was still covered in ice when I arrived. I didn't set the world on fire as far as fishing goes but I did manage to catch two lakers that were both about 12" on Landmark Gap Lake. I also caught a bunch of grayling in various rivers in the area, including the biggest one I've caught to date. The Landmark Gap Lake is absolutely gorgeous, I'll definitely be back again for a visit. The picture above is of me in the Alpacka.

Landmark Gap Lake mostly covered in ice

Four weekends ago Brian, Josie (Brian's chocolate lab) and I hiked into the mountains near Tok to do a little scouting in the area where I plan to go dall sheep hunting this fall. It was a gorgeous sunny day. We ended up seeing a cow and calf moose, two caribou and 7 dall rams in two separate groups (two of which had full curl horns). I'm already excited to get out there hunting!

Four dall sheep rams

At times it felt like we were climbing Mount Everest

Three weekends ago I canoed the upper Chena River with Cam, Scottie and Jen. Emily's allergies were acting up so she had to sit that one out. On that trip I made enchiladas (dinner) and scones (breakfast) in our new aluminum dutch oven. Cam brought his dutch oven as well and made an apple crisp (dessert) and mountain man breakfast (hash browns, eggs, sausage and cheese). It was quite the culinary experience.

Two weekends ago Emily canoed the Chatanika River with our friends Jen and Scottie. It was a really nice trip with a few tricky paddling parts.

Luke steering the canoe with Scott and Jen in the background

Scott and Jen on the Chatanika