Goodbye fall. Hello Winter.

A weekend in Seward

Heather and I spent last weekend in Seward. We left Anchorage around noon on Friday. The weather wasn't great, but we didn't care. We just wanted a relaxing weekend and a place to explore.

After getting into Seward, we walked around town and stopped in a coffee shop. We stayed in a cool little hotel/cabin/apartment style building on Lowell Point, a couple miles past Seward. Our room was well equipped with a little kitchenette area and plenty of information on hikes.

Saturday morning was rainy, but it cleared up in the afternoon. We went to the Seward Sealife Center for a couple of hours and then walked out to Tonsina Creek, about a two mile walk from where we were staying. The mountains looked awesome as the clouds were clearing up around sunset.

Sunday was blue skies and sunny. I brought Heather up to about the half way point on Mount Marathon. We took the Jeep Trail up to avoid the rock face at the bottom. I had never been up the Jeep Trail. Once we got onto the race trail, it was steep and slick from all the rain. Climbing down the waterfall chute was pretty hard in spots. I don't know if I don't care/notice in the race or if it's just a lot less wet and slippery in the summer.

We grabbed lunch in a cool little restaurant that was built into an old train car. We wanted to hike out to Exit Glacier after lunch, but the road was closed for the season. That will have to be saved for next summer.

We saw several eagles, a couple of seals, and a couple of sea otters. Heather was pumped. We had a great weekend.

We had a pretty solid weekend.

Spent the three-day weekend down in Seward with Heather. Even with the not-so-ideal weather for the first part, we still accomplished a lot. Photos coming soon!

Sunset from Flattop

Heather and I drove up to Flattop after work on Tuesday to watch the sunset over Anchorage.

Wyoming Triumph Preview

Arctic Valley

I decided last night that I wanted to wake up and go on a hike today. After making some coffee and breakfast I drove up to Arctic Valley, just a few minutes north of Anchorage. It was foggy in the city, but once I got away from downtown, it was sunny and clear. Amazing weather, beautiful views. Denali was out. My goal was to hike to the top of Mt. Gordon Lyons, which I eventually found, but on a much harder route than necessary. I started off in the wrong direction from the start and pretty much made my own trail up. coming down I was able to follow the real trail, which was a lot easier. It was a short hike, probably 4.5 miles total. I went clockwise on the route below starting at the bottom.

My apartment gets great sunsets. I took a walk down the block tonight to snap a couple photos.