Thanks also to too good a weather, Martin couldn't do his fieldwork in Yakutat (in southeast Alaska) and came back a week early and came camping with us. He was saying how ironic it is that they couldn't do fieldwork due to *good* weather - in Yakutat, of all places, which has on average more precipitation (130 inches) than the often-quoted rainiest city in the US: Hilo, Hawaii, with 120 inches...it was due to the nice sunshine that the snow did not melt on a road they hoped to drive 20 miles out of town. The road is in a dense forest, sunshine can't really reach it, and the rain they hoped for just did not come.... so we got Martin back in time to go camping at Otto Lake by Healy.
After meeting up with Dorte, Bj and Kasper and having a snack at Lulu's Bread and Bagels, we hit the road, and managed to get down to Healy in not quite two hours. Found the campground, and found some camp sites. The campground was quite empty, which was a good thing - our kids enjoyed the place, and went running around, through at least five other campsites within several tens of meters of the ones where we put up our tent. The men and the bigger kids enjoyed a canoe ride, and dipping toes into the lake. No flesh-eating bugs were to be seen (though plenty of small bugs hovering in large congregations in the air, luckily those didn't bite).
They went into the tent clothed, came out naked...
Dipping toes into the lake.
Raisins!
Emilie, still up after Sonja went to bed, put on Sonja's hat and rubber boots.
The next day, more dipping toes into the lake...
Emilie enjoyed banging her head into Martin's, and then saying "auwa". She found it hilarious.
Isolated showers visible from Stampede Road.
The night was a bit tough - the kids had problem sleeping since it never really got dark, then Cooper started howling, and Sonja started throwing up... so it was probably good we headed back the next day, Monday, after a hike off Stampede road.
No comments:
Post a Comment