My Week as a Tour Guide, pt2
Here's the rest of Ash and Mike's visit, in which we:
• Did yet more file transfers,
• Hiked down the Matanuska Rail Road Trail
• Defied gravity
• Visited Cassandra's family's farm
• Hiked around Independence Valley in Hatcher Pass
• Shopped around Anchorage
• Said goodbye
After the Road Trip...
... we were pretty tuckered out. I think we mostly hung out and did file transfers and watched Xena and the like. It was kind of cloudy and blah so we didn't feel too bad hanging around indoors.
The Railroad Trail! Again!
On the first nice day we had I dragged the CA duo down the infamous Matanuska RailRoad trail which I'm sure most of you have seen numerous photo posts of in this very same journal. This trip was a bit different, though. :D The day started out super hot and nice but slooowwwly clouded over and then just started to rain as we returned to the car after the hike. *whew*
We got to the river and went out on the gravel bars and looked for fun rocks and basked in the sun. Ashley was a total cool rock magnet - she found a piece of fossilized coral/shell (rare in these parts) as well as some crystalized iron pyrite in a rock. I found a piece of coal (not uncommon as just up the road is Buffalo and Jonesville coal mine areas) but I also found a white agate and I've NEVER seen agates in the Matanuska before. There are no volcanoes around here, so how did it get there?
Anyway - on to the Passenger Car, where I had them find the Bat Cache geocache before we all got inventive with the camera. We took a lot of pics with a lot of fun poses but in the interest of being brief, here are just three:
Mike & Ash, standard Passenger Car pose
Me and Mike - this is after some practice, but we eventually defied gravity.
Ash and Mike
Playing Zombies!!! in the dark
When we got home it was pouring rain. We had dinner and then Morgandra came over and we all played Zombies. Partway through the game the power went out - and stayed out for three hours so we set up some candles and got some LED hand-cranked flashlights with which to illuminate our game. It was très amusante.
Cassandra, zombie-killer extrordanaire.
It turned out to be one of the longest games of Zombies we'd ever played, largely due to the fact that Morgan and I were trying to get Cassandra to the helipad so we could all win at the same time. Which we managed to do - all five of us escaped at the same time.
Oh, yes, and previously I disturbed entertained my guests with the Fox:
To the Farm
The next day we tried to cram in as much stuff as possible. I drove us up to the Boyd's farm (Cassandra's) to try and see the buffalo (her brother has a herd of 28 or so). We all drove around the entire farm and every field they have. The buffalo (or flubbalo, as we call them) were nowhere to be seen in their 100+acre pen. It was a nice hot day so they were hiding. :\ In the end we did see a big flock of sandhill cranes, the largest living critters Ash and Mike got to see on their trip. We also stopped to play in an empty grain silo which had fantastic accoustics and echoes. Morgan, Mike and I made every sound we could think of, clanking around with things before creating an impovisational percussion band while Ash and Cassandra patiently waited outside. :D
HATCHER PASS!!!! Hiking and abandoned gold mines
I absolutely LOVE Hatcher Pass - it's my favorite place on earth. I dunno how much Ash and Mike liked it, being drug up the sides of peaks and cliffs and things. :P It was 3:00pm when we left the Boyds and it didn't seem *too* cloudy up in Hatcher's, so I drove us up there, all the way to Independence - gold country. There are tons of abandoned and mostly collapsed buildings - not as impressive as Kennicott (copper mines) but still fun. We hiked around the buildings before I took them up and around along the base of the peaks above the mill buildings. Played in the snow, made snow angels and threw snowballs, and posed on boulders. I took them back to the 4050' elevation cabin and above that to the compressor/generator thingey that I'm painting. We went all over the place -- it's always so stunning because though everything is way steeper than it looks, the distances are WAY shorter than you think. We easily could of climbed up to the ridgeline in a half hour from where we were at the highest (around 5000' elevation). We took zillions of photos, here's just a few:
This was a piece of equptment in one of the buildings you can go in. Yes, an authentic 1940's chipmunk crusher. No wonder there aren't any chipmunks in AK.
Ash on top of the world. You can see part of the Matanuska Valley behind her.
View from way above the 4050' cabin, up past the generator/compressor.
Me and Mike
Mike and Ash on the way back down.
We swung past my Aunt PeterAnn's house on the way back to town so I could show them her house, which is pretty unique. We helped her move a cement sink up her hill to her sauna from the barn/garage while we were at it. We didn't stay too long because we were absolutely starving, having just hiked for about 5 hours.
To Anchorage
The night before I finished up copying all the anermay/television stuffs I wanted. I didn't have much free space on my computer - I was having to burn DVD's as I went and delete after I burned. So to speed stuff up I put Kaisa's iMac in my room and just dumped stuff to her harddrive since she had over 100gigs free. Yay! :)
We woke up early (7:30am), ate, and finished packing stuff (like fish) before Morgan (sans Cassandra, who was very tired/not feeling well) came to get us. Ash & Mike's flight wasn't til 2:00 and they didnt' have to be at the airport til 12:30ish but we wanted to hit a few shops in Anchorage before they had to go. So we went to the 5th Ave. mall, hit Hot Topic & the GameStop. Then on to Boscoe's Comics where we all bought stuffs, and lastly to Title Wave (new & used books) to use up a bit more time before trying to find our way to the airport. Which we did, taking some strange backroads to do it. :P
And then twas goodbye. :'( I had such a great time with Ash and Mike - I've met people that I've met online before and of course you never know how it'll go, how well you'll get along in person, but I felt like I'd known them forever - even Mike, who Ash had only ever told me about - I'd never talked to him before or anything. Definetly the highlight of my year thus far. And I can seriously say I haven't crammed so much stuff into a week in YEARS - we actually ran out of time to put in some of the little things that I generally would show people - like the Reindeer Farm, or driving out along Clark-Wolverine Road. Just an excuse to make them visit again someday. :D
• Did yet more file transfers,
• Hiked down the Matanuska Rail Road Trail
• Defied gravity
• Visited Cassandra's family's farm
• Hiked around Independence Valley in Hatcher Pass
• Shopped around Anchorage
• Said goodbye
After the Road Trip...
... we were pretty tuckered out. I think we mostly hung out and did file transfers and watched Xena and the like. It was kind of cloudy and blah so we didn't feel too bad hanging around indoors.
The Railroad Trail! Again!
On the first nice day we had I dragged the CA duo down the infamous Matanuska RailRoad trail which I'm sure most of you have seen numerous photo posts of in this very same journal. This trip was a bit different, though. :D The day started out super hot and nice but slooowwwly clouded over and then just started to rain as we returned to the car after the hike. *whew*
We got to the river and went out on the gravel bars and looked for fun rocks and basked in the sun. Ashley was a total cool rock magnet - she found a piece of fossilized coral/shell (rare in these parts) as well as some crystalized iron pyrite in a rock. I found a piece of coal (not uncommon as just up the road is Buffalo and Jonesville coal mine areas) but I also found a white agate and I've NEVER seen agates in the Matanuska before. There are no volcanoes around here, so how did it get there?
Anyway - on to the Passenger Car, where I had them find the Bat Cache geocache before we all got inventive with the camera. We took a lot of pics with a lot of fun poses but in the interest of being brief, here are just three:
Mike & Ash, standard Passenger Car pose
Me and Mike - this is after some practice, but we eventually defied gravity.
Ash and Mike
Playing Zombies!!! in the dark
When we got home it was pouring rain. We had dinner and then Morgandra came over and we all played Zombies. Partway through the game the power went out - and stayed out for three hours so we set up some candles and got some LED hand-cranked flashlights with which to illuminate our game. It was très amusante.
Cassandra, zombie-killer extrordanaire.
It turned out to be one of the longest games of Zombies we'd ever played, largely due to the fact that Morgan and I were trying to get Cassandra to the helipad so we could all win at the same time. Which we managed to do - all five of us escaped at the same time.
Oh, yes, and previously I disturbed entertained my guests with the Fox:
To the Farm
The next day we tried to cram in as much stuff as possible. I drove us up to the Boyd's farm (Cassandra's) to try and see the buffalo (her brother has a herd of 28 or so). We all drove around the entire farm and every field they have. The buffalo (or flubbalo, as we call them) were nowhere to be seen in their 100+acre pen. It was a nice hot day so they were hiding. :\ In the end we did see a big flock of sandhill cranes, the largest living critters Ash and Mike got to see on their trip. We also stopped to play in an empty grain silo which had fantastic accoustics and echoes. Morgan, Mike and I made every sound we could think of, clanking around with things before creating an impovisational percussion band while Ash and Cassandra patiently waited outside. :D
HATCHER PASS!!!! Hiking and abandoned gold mines
I absolutely LOVE Hatcher Pass - it's my favorite place on earth. I dunno how much Ash and Mike liked it, being drug up the sides of peaks and cliffs and things. :P It was 3:00pm when we left the Boyds and it didn't seem *too* cloudy up in Hatcher's, so I drove us up there, all the way to Independence - gold country. There are tons of abandoned and mostly collapsed buildings - not as impressive as Kennicott (copper mines) but still fun. We hiked around the buildings before I took them up and around along the base of the peaks above the mill buildings. Played in the snow, made snow angels and threw snowballs, and posed on boulders. I took them back to the 4050' elevation cabin and above that to the compressor/generator thingey that I'm painting. We went all over the place -- it's always so stunning because though everything is way steeper than it looks, the distances are WAY shorter than you think. We easily could of climbed up to the ridgeline in a half hour from where we were at the highest (around 5000' elevation). We took zillions of photos, here's just a few:
This was a piece of equptment in one of the buildings you can go in. Yes, an authentic 1940's chipmunk crusher. No wonder there aren't any chipmunks in AK.
Ash on top of the world. You can see part of the Matanuska Valley behind her.
View from way above the 4050' cabin, up past the generator/compressor.
Me and Mike
Mike and Ash on the way back down.
We swung past my Aunt PeterAnn's house on the way back to town so I could show them her house, which is pretty unique. We helped her move a cement sink up her hill to her sauna from the barn/garage while we were at it. We didn't stay too long because we were absolutely starving, having just hiked for about 5 hours.
To Anchorage
The night before I finished up copying all the anermay/television stuffs I wanted. I didn't have much free space on my computer - I was having to burn DVD's as I went and delete after I burned. So to speed stuff up I put Kaisa's iMac in my room and just dumped stuff to her harddrive since she had over 100gigs free. Yay! :)
We woke up early (7:30am), ate, and finished packing stuff (like fish) before Morgan (sans Cassandra, who was very tired/not feeling well) came to get us. Ash & Mike's flight wasn't til 2:00 and they didnt' have to be at the airport til 12:30ish but we wanted to hit a few shops in Anchorage before they had to go. So we went to the 5th Ave. mall, hit Hot Topic & the GameStop. Then on to Boscoe's Comics where we all bought stuffs, and lastly to Title Wave (new & used books) to use up a bit more time before trying to find our way to the airport. Which we did, taking some strange backroads to do it. :P
And then twas goodbye. :'( I had such a great time with Ash and Mike - I've met people that I've met online before and of course you never know how it'll go, how well you'll get along in person, but I felt like I'd known them forever - even Mike, who Ash had only ever told me about - I'd never talked to him before or anything. Definetly the highlight of my year thus far. And I can seriously say I haven't crammed so much stuff into a week in YEARS - we actually ran out of time to put in some of the little things that I generally would show people - like the Reindeer Farm, or driving out along Clark-Wolverine Road. Just an excuse to make them visit again someday. :D