Whittier and Portage Glacier

To get to Whittier, AK in a car, you need to go through the 4km Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. The tunnel is one lane and shared with the railway, so it runs on a schedule and there is only 15 minutes in each hour when you can actually drive through in the direction you want.

 In the tunnel - note the rail tracks.

 Once in Whittier, a 1.5 mile hike gets you into the alpine with views of the ocean on one side and Portage glacier on the other.

 Portage Glacier

Our bear hang. Pretty good considering the lack of trees I'd say.

Kenai Penninsula

From Anchorage we headed south to the Kenai Peninsula, where we stayed at a B&B in Kasilof and checked out the funky town of Homer.

 

 Standing on Coho Beach, near Kasilof with the volcanic Mt. Redoubt in the background.

 

Our B&B in Kasilof was owned by one impressive Alaskan woman named Rebecca. She had a huge garden, flew planes, built log cabins, raised five kids and was a super hostess to boot.

James and Cassia making dinner in Rebecca's kitchen.

Homer sits at the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula and has a fantastic beach with impressive mountain views. Homer also has an impressive number of coffee shops for a town of 5,000ish. I counted at least 12...

We ate lunch at the Two Sisters Bakery. The clincher for us was the warm sunny deck and the many toys for Cassia to play with. Not so popular was the dog that licked James' lemon square.

 Alaska seems to be full of very funky cabins and homes, most not on wheels.

Eagle River and Eklutna Lake

We flew into Anchorage, spent a night there and then quickly headed to the woods. The first stop was the Eagle River in the Chugach Mountains State Park. Most of the state parks seemed to have cabins or yurts to rent. This one was a mile and a half from the parking lot and perfect for our family.

 The trail starts at the Eagle River Nature Center, which is a fantastic interpretive centre staffed with super-helpful volunteers. Here is a model of the Eagle River made with wood and metal. Really beautiful.

 James checking his wing span.

 Cassia loved the taxidermied bears (grizzly on the right, black bear on the left). She spent a good half hour petting them both.

The hike was short, so we didn't bother to try packing light. (This ones for you ABB.)

 

 The hike in was on a section of the Iditarod Trail. I learned that this long-distance dog-sled race was based on a 1925 serum run from Seward to Nome. There was a diphtheria epidemic in Nome and the antitoxin was in Seward. It was taken by train up to Nenana and then passed onto a dog-mushing team. The serum was relayed 1,085km to Nome by 20 mushers and over 100 dogs.

 The cabin was cozy, rustic and had a fabulous porch.

Cassia got really into picking and eating berries. We had to watch her constantly and I was really glad to have my plant guide with me to identify things as she'd eat anything - tasty or not. Here she has just discovered a patch of bunch berries (Cornus canadensis).  I love that she knows that food comes from wild plants.

 Pretty excited to have mom in her pea-pod tent.

A tasty porter. Though my new favourite beer is definitely the Alaskan Raspberry Wheat Ale. Oh my god tasty.

 

Spawning sockeye salmon in the Eagle River.

 

The following day we hiked out, hiked up Mount Baldy without our camera (the alpine starts at the end of paved residential roads up here - oh yeah) and then headed to Eklutna Lake to camp. The campsite was meh, but the following morning we walked 100m through the trees and were greeted with this view.

Columbia & Western Bike Tour

We spent 4 days cycling on the C & W rail trail from Castlegar to Grand Forks. Meghan did a proper job describing our trip on her blog, so I'm using that as an excuse to just post pictures with a few captions. Which is really no different than any of my blog posts. So, here we are with a pile of stuff and some bikes. And hello! I have mom biceps from carrying 20 pounds of cute around. Oh yeah.

 Lower Arrow Lake

 Throwing rocks into the water is very popular.

 James' stylin' wooden fender.

 Naptime

 One of several trellis bridges.

 Looking down to the treetops from a bridge.

 Snack time

 M&M love.

 Riding in style.

 Carrying our bags around a washout.

 Headlamps on for the 1km tunnel. The tunnel is totally straight except for a slight bend at the west end, so when you ride east to west it is pitch black for most of the ride.

 Tree frog settled into a hole in the ground. Is this common behaviour? It seems rather un-tree-frog-ish to me.

 Farron Station.

 Passing under highway 3.

 Old retention wall - impressive stonework.

 Another washout, but this one had a replacement bridge.

 Old irrigation system.

Meghan and Cassia hanging out on the beach.

This was our favourite campsite, located on the Kettle River - lovely sandy beach, warm swimhole and sunshine. As a bonus there was knapweed mixed in with the grass - I know, it's a terrible invasive weed, but it was just prickly enough that Cassia didn't want to crawl on it. We could put a ground sheet down and she wouldn't leave it.

 Mystery plant - anyone out there in internetland know what this is? I even asked my local plant expert and he was stumped.

 Bridge over the Kettle River

Looking down on the Kettle River.