road bike, tundra hike

Last night I drew a picture of a man in my couch. This is what he looked like.



Today I went on a bike/hike with Carrie. We biked about 6 miles over to Powers Creek where we left our bikes and headed up the hill. It was very, very beautiful. :) From the top of the hill we could see the tundra hills and the Norton Sound - very cool.





Until it started to rain - well, it was still beautiful, but less so after we were basically drenched. Not kidding. It lightninged, and then a huge shocker thunder gave us both a fright. It was funny, at the moment, but then I started imagining a lightning strike on one of the trees we were walking around... Anyway, literally pouring rain (okay, not quite monsoon season), we walked through the tundra, still a ways from our bikes.



We ended up hiking for about 4 hours. It was quite an adventure - as always... We missed the trail on the way back down, somehow, but fortunately we are never, ever lost. So we went the Iditarod trail, and eventually we got to the beach. We walked up towards the Powers Creek station, and I never found even one piece of sea glass. Anyway. We found the mouth of the creek, and knew the road was close, so we looked over to see what we saw in the little river. It was basically plugged with logs... Carrie said we didn't have to put all our adventures into one day. But I thought, what the heck? Let's give it a go, cross the river, just for kicks, because we can, and so she agreed.




It was a little slippery, and it required lots of balance and concentration, and even a bit of teamwork and communication. But we made it to solid ground, hiked through waist high grass (that had already been smashed down by something...), and walked through (more) tundra. Then we found the road, which was a nice walking experience. If you've never been on the tundra, it's basically like walking on a sponge, and in some places you sink well past your knees. After a long, fun (as we concluded) day, I went home and had a long, hot shower. Thanks for the fun day before school, C!

Tomorrow... school starts!!! I can hardly believe it...