Dick Proenneke's Cabin

I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Dick Proenneke's cabin and explore his backyard.  People around the world including myself are intrigued by his home on the Upper Twin Lakes.  Everyday in summer, his cabin is photographed and poked through.  We sort through his many tools, writings, contraptions, hand made furniture and cabin.  It was a remarkable experience to see firsthand what I had only seen in pictures, movies, or books.

I've often pondered on what is so exhilarating about Dick's legacy and have found myself feeling silly for admiring a man who built his home on a remote lake, then living there for some, thirty years.  A short period compared to how long the glaciers, mountains, lakes, and streams have been navigated by natives of long ago. 

I can't quite comprehend mine and the world's admiration for him, but I do know what he did is what most admirers of him, including myself, dream of doing.  Maybe all it is, is he had the courage and willingness to give up the sophisticated world that we live in, to simply live, in a cabin, on a lake.

 

Bombardment Pass

It was a hot, sunny day when we started out, to a valley we'd never been to, only to end up being socked in.  The joke of this trip, and most outings, is we start at 'the shier' and end up in 'Mordor'.  The Shier: Valley full of wildflowers, trees, and life.  Mordor: the lifeless moraine of Ram Glacier and the 'Eye of Sauron'.

Camping on the other side of Bombardment Pass, we slowly made our way back the next day.  Coming back in the clouds made the descent a little dizzying but as long as we kept going down, we would make it back to the Shier in a few.

Ram Valley, is yet, another beauty of a spot in the "backyard".

Finally, the amateur movie.

Good Time, Spring Time

A few weeks ago four of us went out skiing/boarding before our summer season gets increasingly busy.  We had planned on going for a day in Turnagain Pass but web cams and rainy forecasts influenced our decision to go elsewhere.  So, we headed for the bowls around Mount Harp.  It was a relaxed day of hiking, shredding, drinking PBR, enjoying the wildlife (moose w/calf) and skinning in the warm spring air.

Here's my edited footage from that day.  I think I'm actually getting better at this stuff.  

Good Ol' Harp

Mt. Harp never dissapoints. It is my 'Go To' mountain, when I'm in a hurry.  I've been riding this mountain since I began snowboarding in the backcountry, before I even considered it being 'backcountry snowboarding' but rather, just plain, snowboarding.  Being out there reminded me of one of those early years of riding.  I boot-packed up because there was a lack of snow, but it is the same way I ascended in the earlier years.  Also, I did a run on a part of the mountain that I hadn't done since the beginning of my love for backcountry snowboarding.  What a hit!

An Evening Walk in Spring

 As I walk along this gravel runway

I can  almost hear the waters of a cobbled, river valley.

The smell and feel of rain 

reminds me more of summer
than blue skies and sun.

Its refreshing to see a large cumulus 

showing its every billow 

with shadows of every color.

The horizon enveloped by gray, clouds of rain.

For the first time this year I felt that summer was upon us.

 Summer is almost here, enjoy it even if it is raining.  Rain is summer, snow is winter, sunshine is all seasons.

Photo of the Day

Kenai Canyon Packraft II

For the second year in a row me and my friend, Greg, floated the Kenai Canyon.  The water was lower than when we floated last year but the skies were just as blue.  The banks, still lined with snow, we slid in like seals and the crystal clear pools of the Kenai induced vertigo as one gazed down to see giant boulders.  Once we made it to the lake we paddled around several robust icebergs before landing on the sandy beach.  From there a quick hike through the woods and back to the truck.

While the Kenai River typically can't be visited without seeing droves of people fishing the large, sockeye salmon run, or the easy to catch, trophy sized, rainbow trout.  Early in spring, this area is vacant compared to what will be happening in a month, when the chinook salmon begin their run up-river.  I look forward to next spring when I can go back or maybe this fall after the visitors diminish.

Here's a few photos courtesy of Greg, as I was too busy enjoying my summer vacation in April.