Summer Hike to Angel Rocks

Mike and I spent the afternoon hiking up to Angel Rocks.  The weather was very warm (84 degrees) and the mosquitoes were out in full force!

 Mike is excited about our hike up to Angel Rocks.

 Kristie is energetic at the start of the hike.

 The Chena River

 Some nice teacher offered to take our picture.

Of course, we took him up on it!

 Mike contemplates a swim in the river.

Kristie feels the water and quickly determines that

it is WAY too cold for a swim.

 Angel Rocks

 Mike wants to climb all the rocks in the area.

Kristie takes a break from the heat!

 Mike goes against Kristie's commands and climbs the rocks anyway.

 Need a hand down, Mr. Calvin?

 The Chena Valley

 Can you say hot and sweaty?

 Don't even think about scaling this one, Mike!

 Ground Cone

 Dwarf Dogwood

Midnight Sun Baseball

With 22 hours of the sun above the horizon, Fairbanksians celebrate the Summer Solstice in a variety of ways. Each year on June 21st, the Midnnight Sun baseball game allows people from all over the world to enjoy a game that starts at 10:30 p.m. Even at 2:15 a.m., when the game was over, there was no need for lighting, as the sun was still shining!

 Mike enjoys the pregame festivities at 10:00 p.m.

 Players stretch right before the game.

 This was taken at 12:00 a.m.!

 This is the top of the 7th inning at 1:15 a.m.

 This guy is bicycling from Fairbanks to Miami.

I wonder how much weight he will lose????

Mosquitoes, Fishing and Hiking at Quartz Lake

Mike and I spent this weekend at Quartz Lake just NW of Delta Junction (about 90 miles SE of North Pole).  We drove down on Friday and were greeted by a swarm of mosquitoes. Mike and I spent most of the weekend swatting at the pesky little pests.  We thought of calling it the Great Mosquito Massacre, but I'm not sure we won the battle!  That evening, Mike and I wasted a few hours fishing for rainbow trout to no avail. 

Saturday was filled with sunshine, blue skies and a temperature of 65 degrees.  Mike and I took advantage of the nice weather and hiked 1.7 miles up to Bert Mountain.  Bert Mountain was named after an old sourdough who ran a roadhouse in the area.  After an 850 foot elevation gain, Mike and I came to an open, flower-covered meadow and took some time to catch our breath, have some trail mix and solve the world's problems.  If you don't hear from us, you know we have become instant billionaires as a result of all the solutions we conjured up on that mountain!

Saturday evening was filled with a steady rain.  So, Mike and I played gin-rummy and Yahtzee for five hours before calling it a night and hitting the hay.

This morning, we packed up our camp in a cold rain and drove back to North Pole where the sun was shining and it was 75 degrees.  Oh, there is no place like home!

 Mike uses a head net to keep the mosquitoes away.

 He then resorts to an electric swatter.

 Kristie stirs the fire and swats mosquitoes.

Wow, what a multi-tasker!

Hiking to Bert Mountain

 Flowers

 Fishing

Sunny Side Up in Delta

Mike and I left the cloudy skies of North Pole and went on a search for some sunshine.  So, we headed 90 miles south and east of Fairbanks to Delta Junction, Alaska.  Delta Junction doesn't have much to write home about, except one tiny little drive in restaurant called the Buffalo Center Drive In where one can obtain, consume and savor the most delicious buffalo burger this side of Montana!

With our salivary glands doing their job, Mike and I watched the sky clear as we neared Delta.  Just as we pulled into the Drive In, the sun completely popped out, the birds started singing and happiness abounded.  We quickly ordered our buffalo burgers and then sat out at the picnic table and devoured the meal!

On a side note, buffalo meat is very lean.  So, in my mind, a buffalo burger must be low in calories, right?  Well, of that I am still uncertain, but the heaping pile of onion rings was without a doubt loaded with artery clogging grease and a mountain of calories.  With that in mind, Mike and I decided it was extremely necessary to find a place hike off at least some of the weight we had just gained.

Driving along the Richardson Highway on the northwest side of Delta, we discovered an access road that lead to a dry riverbed.  Mike parked the car and off we went to explore and exercise.  On our hike, we found amazing flowers, a glacially fed river (which we still do not know the name of) and lots of driftwood.

I'm still not sure if we were able to walk off much of our lunch, but, it was well worth the drive to see sunshine, 80 degrees and the Buffalo Center Drive In!

 Delta Junction: Such a Friendly Town

 Mmmmm....Buffalo Burger and Onion Rings

The "Whatchamacallit" River

Mike and Kristie soak up the Vitamin D!

 Kristie strolls along the riverbank looking for 

unknown species of rare, beautiful flowers.

 Mike finds a large piece of driftwood that is shaped

just right for a short, power nap.

 

Kristie found a few flowers that were unknown to her,

but they certainly were not rare.  They were everywhere!

 

They even smelled good, too!

 

Mike likes the flowers, too!

 

Mike pretends he's riding a Harley Davidson and

the roots of the driftwood are the handlebars....

 Perhaps, this is a forget-me-not.

This is definitely a prickly rose about to bloom.

 Perhaps this is dwarf fireweed....

 Such a pretty, yellow flower.

 The white flowers look so tiny and delicate.

 Prickly rose bushes

 Mike and I could not resist heaving rocks into the river....

 ....that resulted in some big splashes!