Denali Highway weekend trip

Hey everyone! Last weekend, Adam and I took a trip to the Denali Highway for a backpacking, camping, moose scouting, bear hunting, rack hunting trip. It was AWESOME! We took Tundra and his best friend, Chena too! (we were dog-sitting!) It was Tundra's first tent camping experience and he loved it! It takes about 3.5 hours to get to the highway and then we drove in another hour or so to the start of our hike. The highway is actually gravel and a gorgeous drive! Adam worked on Friday, so we left around 6, which meant we started our hike in at midnight. We went 2 miles in and laid down to sleep at 2:30a.m. Nope, no flashlights-- remember it is light enough in Alaska right now that we were able to see well!

We saw quite a few porcupines, but they waddle pretty fast and we didn't get a good picture. Some of them had almost yellow butts---the color of their quills I guess.

Gorgeous view of tundra, lake, and mountains

Adam's cute butt filtering water for us to drink. It was yummmmy! Didn't have that "funk" that water has in the boundary waters in Minnesota/Canada.

Can you see all the little black specks in the sky? No- my camera wasn't dirty. Those are Alaska's legendary mosquitoes! They were really bad in this particular area. Not so bad at our campsite...... even though they bit through two layers of clothes and now my shoulders/arms look like I have chicken pox!

This is a beaver's palace! We were quite impressed. This beaver(s) has been busy, busy, busy for several years! We were also down next to the water's edge. From both view points, we could count 9 individual dams, some of them so old they are growing vegetation. This beaver chopped down trees with its teeth and then engineered a multi-level palace w/ a lodge as tall or taller than me. Truly amazing! :)

Here it is swimming a branch w/ leaves into it's lodge/den. There were at least 2 beavers that we saw, maybe some babies inside! :)

Like I said...we were on the hunt for racks. This area is highly populated w/ moose- we actually glassed (spotting scope and binoculars) for them and saw 7 or so on the mountains in front of us. There was poop, tracks, and tufts of hair everywhere! So-- where better to look for fallen racks?!?! We found 2 caribou and 3 moose racks. Nothing too big or spectacular but pretty cool anyway! Here I am w/ the first find-- caribou.

The pups and I sitting out of the rain.... pretty cool set-up, thanks to Adam!

Tundra w/ his day's work. Adam has been training him to find racks. We spotted all of these and then "where's the rack?" sends him off looking for them. He found them on his own each time and was super excited. Next step-- training him to signal us when he finds one on his own! He's got the nose for it!

Tundra swans flying over our camp.

Our packs loaded up and ready to hike out

Tundra was ready to go home!!!

This ridge we are driving on is called an "esker" and has to do w/ glaciers. A pamphlet we have said it was formed from two glaciers meeting. However, online it defines it as having to do w/ streams under a melting glacier. ?!?!

One of the two light colored moose we saw---interesting!

Can you spot the light moose?!?! It's in the middle of this picture. Sticks out quite a bit, I don't understand how it hasn't been eaten yet!

What's a weekend in Alaska w/o some fishing!?!?! Stopped at a stream along the way to try for Greyling.

TUCKERED puppies! They had a blast!

So...no bear- only some grizzly tracks! We also flushed out some Ptarmigan... we could tell they were close from how fast Chena's tail wagged and how "smell-crazy" she got-- she is a bird dog! We would hear them in the distance and her ears would perk right up! Adam def. found a spot to hunt for moose in the fall-- perhaps I will be able to take a day or two off and go w/ him! We also have racks in our flower/rock garden now. It was a fun and successful weekend!

Next up.... stories/pictures from King Salmon fishing in our new boat!

***Side notes.... while I was editing this entry-- we had the biggest earthquake I've felt yet. The dogs went nutso and when it was over, I realized I was sweating. I am quite surprised nothing fell off the walls! The plants shook for about a minute afterward. Jeanette looked it up and it was a level 5 on the Kenai Peninsula. It also said Alaska has had 7 over a level 2.5 just TODAY! kinda eery!

**Also- I was hiking w/ the dogs yesterday across the river (not far from our house) and heard several gun shots that sounded close. The dogs and I booked it outta there, as there is no hunting in that area and I didn't want to run into a pist off bear who'd been shot. Adam heard the shots from our house! Anyway... it was a tad frightening, even if I was carrying our 44. And by the way... I would only need to take 1 shot! ;) --Who knows what happened......

*Adam saw a black bear about a quarter mile from our house on his drive home the other day!