Summer in Quarantine

 

The hike to Pearl Lake off of Warren Wagon road was a new one for us.  

We were rewarded with the most abundant wildflowers we've seen in years!

We were fortunate to see some bear grass in blossom.  They are our favorite!

Wild lupine.

Red paintbrush.

On a different day, we arrived at Hidden Lake by accident, intending to see Hard Creek Lake off of Brundage Mountain Road.  

Dave looks dwarfed by the corn lillies.

Gorgeous views and lots of flower filled meadows.

Hard Creek Lake is a hike we can't wait to try again.

We relaxed at Fireman's Beach on Payette Lake in order to be away from the crowds. Avoiding the hordes of tourists has been tricky and has really gotten us out of town and off the beaten path.

We've enjoyed grilling, cooking and baking.  This was a really delicious deep dish crust from scratch that Dave tried.  And of course we made the sauce from scratch as well.

This was the stunning view headed up to Duck Lake off of Lick Creek Road.

Duck Lake.

Bear grass on the Duck Lake hike.

Ferns on the Duck Lake hike.

We had a fantastic, hike filled week together.  During my next two weeks off Dave was at work, so I took a lot of walks.  This is Payette Lake at Art Roberts Park in downtown.

I also went huckleberry picking several times.  One especially fruitful (pun intended!) trip was with Delta headed north towards Last Chance Hot Springs.  

Biking on the rail to trail path (wild lupine).

I drove around Lake Cascade to see the progress at Tamarack and construction around the lake. There are lots of huge new homes being built on both sides of the resort and near our property as well. 

Biking by the ranches to Lake Fork.

Rocky Point on Payette Lake with the ladies.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the construction progress in our town.  This is the paving of Park Street. They also buried the overhead power lines, planted decorative trees and installed a wide sidewalk with grey paver stones.  Next will be light poles out front and pavement in the alley out back.

Payette Lake.

Hike to Louie Lake with Delta.

Watching construction on our townhouse has been a fun daily event!  

Sunset at Legacy Park.

Dave and I worked on our property when he returned, and found this lovely beach closeby.

We tried another new hike off of Lick Creek Road called Fall Creek Saddle.

The views were worth the 2,250 feet of elevation gain.

The hike offered some of the best, long distance views we're ever seen in the area!

This is Crystal Lake from the top of the saddle.  We could also see McCall and Council Mountain.

The next hike to cross off our list, Cougar Rock, is off of Warm Lake Road.

Dave at the top left of the photo shows how massive the granite rocks are.

Me hiking up to Cougar Rock.

Wildflowers on the Fall Creek Saddle hike.  And below, a bike ride on our last day.

We were very lucky to have beautiful weather and be able to get out on numerous new hikes this summer.  I learned how to ride with a mask on and most of the hikes we chose were strenuous so that we wouldn't run into people.  Love you!

Talkeetna & Home

After 2 months away, I got to leave work four days ahead of Dave.  I opted to visit a dear friend in Alaska and meet up with Dave for our long journey home when he got off work.  Our friend Karen is an Ice friend from Marble Point in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica where she used to cook and Dave and I refueled helicopters.  I stayed in her one bedroom one living room cottage next door to her cabin.

Dave and I have both stayed in Karen's cabin (behind us in this photo).  It has a spectacular view of Denali and is always frequented by a wide variety of birds.  We did a little weed picking this day.

Because she's close to the river, and in Alaska in general, there is always a need for a  mosquito tent for outdoor time.  We had dinners in here which was perfect for Covid and quarantine.

I had a blast watching the tree swallows and two woodpeckers flying about and eating all day. Beautiful!

We drove into town and admired the beautiful views along the way.

After a coffee, we went on a fern rich hike.

What a gorgeous place!

A sight for sore eyes after six weeks on a barren island.

Forget-me-nots in Talkeetna. What a soothing and wonderful time with an incredible friend.  I'm thrilled that I went and there's nothing like being with a wise girlfriend in a beautiful setting as the cure for 6 weeks with oilfield guys.  Just the best!

Straight home to summer with Dave.  Breathtaking!

These lavender blossoms were in Boise.  We had a couple sets of appointments there.

These beautiful poppies were in full blossom all over McCall.  I picked some seeds from these for later.

We hiked the fish hatchery/rapid river trail until we saw a snake on the trail that turned us around.

This one is always gorgeous, every month of the year. It's 45 minutes north of us in Riggins.

We also sat by the salmon river in Riggins to enjoy some warm weather and sunshine.

Before the crowds, the summer in McCall was looking picture perfect.

Flowers near the lake.

It is another construction heavy year with a lot of big projects.  They buried the power underground while we were gone on some of the main roads, including in front and behind our condo.  It looks fantastic!  They're also working on repaving the road and putting in sidewalks on both sides with paving stones, beautiful street lamps and even decorative trees!

The lupines in front of our condo were rich this year.  We also saw yellow lupines in town this year!

We had North Beach to ourselves!

We also enjoyed the solitude of Rotary Park Beach.  It has incredible views of the mountains.

Picking weeds on our property: 3 days of 3 hours each and there's still a ton left.  A work in progress.

We hiked the North Fork trail in search of morel mushrooms.  No such luck, but a gorgeous hike with beautiful views of the river along the way.

We also hiked up to Josephine Lake off of Warren Wagon road to try to catch the beargrass in blossom, which normally happens the first week of July.  Spring was late this year so we saw some glacier lilies, a bit of snow and some shooting stars (the pink ones).  These flowers are among the first to blossom after the snow melts.

Shooting stars, and below a patch of snow on the descent.

Our 2.5 weeks at home flew by in a flurry of color.  We heard we missed a particularly wet spring with constant rainfall.  We are so lucky and blessed to be able to see the fruit of all that rain in the richest most colorful blend of wildflowers everywhere we hike and bike.