Hiking on the Kenai

One weekend we decided we'd had enough struggling with boats and put ins and take outs and we decided to resort to good old fashioned hiking. Armed with a new trail book and topo maps of the Kenai, we picked out a trail, loaded up the dogs and took off for a day hike.

And this is what we found. This is not the trail we picked out. In fact, this is a couple hours drive beyond the trail we picked out. We were so lost we didn't even know we were lost. What looked like an obvious turn on the map was far less obvious to us on the ground. After stopping at a local pottery shop, we ventured back the way we came and ended up on this lovely trail. The other one is still on my list, but Alex hiked it with the dogs while I was away this summer.

Spring came so late here that we were able to pick spruce tips and we made spruce tip syrup the following week. We also picked fiddleheads, but no berries. By this time on the island the salmonberries would have come and gone.

We stopped for a while at our turn around spot (the place in the trail where the snow was still too deep for us to wade through) and looked at the peaks across the creek. Alex was doubtful we would see anything and was a little surprised when I told him I saw a goat. He then supplemented my find with a pair of black bears. And then I added in a trio of bald eagles. We decided to stop looking at that point.