Back to the Blog - Alaska #1

Hi blog friends...

Hi everyone...I hope you're all doing great today.  As for me, today I'm back in Alaska and trying to make the "perfect shot".  So, welcome back to my blog...it's been quite a while, hasn't it?

I'll be in Alaska for a month and planning on hiking some of Alaska's best wilderness trails.  And, I'm happy to report that my very good friend and fellow photographer, Pat Gower, has joined me for the first three weeks.  And as you probably suspect, since Pat's such an excellent landscape photographer, I'm trying to pry all of his "secrets" out of him.



So I flew up to Alaska about a week ago and am now enjoying some gorgeous weather.  However, that wasn't the case for the first week as it was cloudy and rainy almost every day.  Still, I surely liked the 60 degree temperatures...which was a very big change from the mid-90's I was having in South Carolina before coming up. 

I lived in Alaska for a number of years, but never took the time to hike any of the fabulous wilderness trails...so for this 4-week trip, that's just what I'm doing.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us and we'll get to hike 6-7 of the more scenic trails.

For our first hike, Pat and I took a water taxi from Homer, AK, and went across Kachemak Bay to hike to Grewingk Glacier...a nice 6.5 mile hike in Kachemak State Park.  We did see a nice Humpback whale on the trip over.  This was a precursor to some of the longer hikes we're planning. 

Kachemak Bay

Grewingk Glacier

Here I am in all my hiking regalia...camera strapped to my chest, hiking poles, my favorite Tilley hat, and feeling great!  

As we've driven around the Kenai Peninsula we've seen a few moose and loads of eagles.  Here's a shot of an immature bald eagle that I just happen to catch as it was coming in to land.

Because the weather wasn't very conducive for hiking, last Thursday I decided to take Pat to Hatcher's Pass, an old hard-rock mining site that's at the top of Independence Pass, near Palmer, Alaska.  It was cold...but invigorating.  Here's a couple of shots I took while exploring there.

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This was the railway that took the gold ore from the mine to the processing plant

Here's whats left of some of the processing building...but aren't there some interesting shapes and contrasts to these buildings?

We also visited my mother in the small fishing town of Ninilchik and early one morning drove up to the historic Russian Orthodox church.  The church is over 100-years old and serves the Russian community at Ninilchik. We got there just as the sun was coming up and it ended up getting some pretty nice photos.

  
Tomorrow my brother, Greg, Pat, and I are heading down to Seward, AK, to tackle the Harding Ice Field...a very difficult 10-12 hour hike, but to a breath-taking glacier high in the mountains.  The following day we're planning on hiking to Lost Lake...a 16-mile trek to high mountain alpine meadows.  Both hikes should allow us to get some excellent landscape images.  We'll see.

It's getting late and I've got to get my hiking gear ready...and camera's cleaned, so I'll close this blog.  I should have another one for you next week. Until then, be safe and enjoy life.