Summer Fun with Friends

No real story here, just a few of the other activities i did with friends this summer. Above are the ruins of the tram at Independence Mine. It looked like our record breaking winter had done some serious damage to the ruins. I doubt they'll be standing much longer.
The last time Jimmy was here the thing he said he enjoyed the most was the Matanuska Glacier. So we went back with more time. As luck would have it, we wasted a lot of that extra  time headed towards a dead end, and then Jimmy got too excited and sprained his ankle in the crampons.
We spent a good deal of time crossing this treacherous rubble to try and get to some smooth ice in the far background. While we were resting here that black crevasse, which continued right up under our butts, moved and got larger. A cascade of rubble fell into it all down it's length.

That day, in July, there were crazy looking storms on all sides of glacier. We continuously thought we were going to get wet but the clouds miraculously circled around. This little storm behind the Lion's Head was producing snow on some of the slopes.

King Mountain and the Matanuska River.

One rainy day we figured we might as well ride ATV's. Jimmy and Patrick crossing a flooded Jim's Creek.

The way these flooded creek crossings work is a lot like a nature program when thirsty wildabeasts approach a crocodile infested river. Everyone gathers on the edge and waits for some fool with the courage to give it a shot. If they make it, everyone else follows.

The Knik River Valley with flooded Jim Creek in the middle. It's a hugely popular off road riding area in south-central Alaska.  Nobody lives on this side of the river and there are no more roads but you can trail ride all the way to the distant glacier in the background. About 24 miles one way with many water crossings.

Around the Jim Creek area you can ride up on some high forested sand dunes.

Pretty fun for a rainy day. You can see some less wooded dunes on the right.

Quartz Creek Camping with Patrick, Jenny and Maree

Fisher really enjoyed hanging out on the beach of Kenai Lake...

Until Danny came over and started stealing all the good sticks while spraying water all over everyone with his tail.

Danny will stay in the water.... forever.

The dipnetting crowd at the mouth of the Kenai. I can't believe people would camp here because the sand is made half out of salmon carcasses and you are incredibly filthy and smelly after a day of dipnetting.

 It was too filthy for me to bring my camera past this point. Patrick and i dipnetted for maybe 4 hours. I got some decent pictures with my phone while i was standing in the ocean after sunset and a million seagulls were hovering overhead. Thanks to Apple's obsession with trying to make everything so "convenient" i lost all those pictures somewhere along the pipeline.