Saturday, August 10, 2013

Anniversary camping trip near Lake Leila

Jen and I finally got a chance for a camping trip. It worked out nicely with our anniversary. I am lucky to have such a great wife, that likes to go camping on our anniversary!

We only had a couple of nights so we headed out Friday evening and made it to our spot by 9:30 pm. We just pick a spot to boondoc, as we are not much for campgrounds. It had been raining back in Palmer so we were delighted to see the partly cloudy skies. No aurora, but still a nice evening.

Overnight a few rain showers moved in and made for some nice sleeping conditions. Saturday morning we awoke to a little light drizzle and some fog. It wasn't too bad so we took a small atv ride to explore some new country. Here is a map and some pictures of the loop we rode.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2262564

There was an abandon mining sled along the trail. I can only can imagine where it has been. The area has a lot of old mining trails to explore. It is very easy from here to access the Belanger Pass, Squaw Lake and the Alfred creek trail.

By afternoon the fog lifted and the rain had stopped. We gathered some firewood for a fire and headed back to camp.



The old faithful suzuki 300 with over 5k miles ran well. I was worried as it has been through a few tough times here lately. Last fall it ran well over 20 miles on little to no oil mixed with water. Tough little machines.



The blue berries were out in full force. Everywhere you looked there were plenty of berries. Lots of people pick blue berries in Alaska, and this weekend was no different. We saw a lot picking berries close to the road.


I threw some steaks on the grill. Jen made a few items to go with them. As you can see by the picture she overloaded our plates (no complaints here). Not sure either one of us was able to finish a quarter of our meal. The Henry Weinhards went down smooth though.


Sunday morning was another beautiful morning in this great state of Alaska. We hiked up to take a few pictures of the scenery. It's always hard to believe that so many people spend so much money to visit Alaska, and I live here everyday.