(Approx 45 Miles)

Day 1

Little Indian Sioux-Upper Pauness-Lower Pauness-Loon Lake-East Loon Lake-Little Loon Lake-Slim Lake-Section 3 Pond-North Lake-Steep Lake

Day 2

Steep Lake-Eugene Lake-Bear Track Lake-Thumb Lake-Finger Lake-Pocket Lake-Gebeonequet Lake

Day 3

Fishing in Lady Boot Bay on Lac La Croix

Day 4

Gebeonequet Lake-Green Lake-Rocky Lake-Oyster Lake-Hustler Lake-Ruby Lake-Lynx Lake

Day 5

Lynx Lake-Little Shell Lake-Shell Lake-Lower Pauness Lake-Upper Pauness Lake-Little Indian Sioux River

Sawyer and I decided to ignore the fact that it is 30 degrees out and lightly snowing. We were sick of sitting inside all weekend and needed to get out and go for a walk. Since the weather felt so fallish, we went to a trail that I normally save for grouse hunting season.

Sawyer insisted that we take his bear with and I found the perfect spot for him.  I am glad we went as it was good to get out…and after wards we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Glass’s for scallops, pasta, and a homebrew.  I have to remember to do that more often. Sawyer had a lot of fun there too, playing with a train set and a giant connect four set. I have to admit I was right there with him on the train set.

I hadn’t blogged in awhile and just wanted to get some updated pics out there. I’ll get some of Laurin soon too, she is growing so fast.

Welcome to our family Laurin!

I will try to update my blog a little more often. It’s been crazy around here since about November and I haven’t had any time to post pictures.

Pictures taken on our day of flying from Valdez to Hinchinbrook Island and back.

But she eventually warmed up to the idea of another 6 months of the white stuff.

The riddle doesn’t work as well when it’s written out. I don’t know why I wrote that down, except that I have been messing around with turning some photos to B&W. I don’t really have plans for most of them to be B&W until I am editing them and realize that as color photos they really don’t do anything for me. I also have tried turning some photos half B&W and half color. For example the “Birch Fall” picture on the gallery. This one was premeditated, but the rest that I have posted were not. If you’re from the Iron Range there are a couple you will recognize “Iron Man” & “Dupont Bldg”. The Dupont building is pretty interesting. It’s located at the end of the road in Carey Park just East of Hibbing. From what I have heard explosives were made there for the early mines. In 1911 there was an explosion that killed two workers and closed the business. Kind of a creepy place to walk around. I also included another half B&W of a sunrise the other morning. I just thought the foreground was pretty uninteresting as it was so tried making it B&W. My favorite picture is of Sawyer, B&W’s of people give the picture a timeless feel. Like this could have easily been a picture of me or my dad when we were kids.

Every fall we try to make it out on the pontoon boat for what is usually one of the last relaxing boat rides of the summer. The tour gets it’s name because it is usually a chilly ride and to keep us warm we each get a warm mug of apple cider.  Even Sawyer got a cup of apple cider. What a perfect day to be out on the lake.  A blue sky, a little breeze, fall colors, and warm cider…doesn’t get much better than that. Sawyer could have probably done without the life jacket, he always looks so uncomfortable in it. I guess when your demographic can’t speak well enough to complain about product design you just have to deal with it. Here a few pictures from the day. Hope you all get out for an apple cider tour.

The mountains are Sanford on the left and Drum on the right….I believe.

That’s it from the Alaska trip. As I go through the photos I will post some in the main gallery on the home page.

Ok if anyone was paying attention they might have known that I missed posting a blog for the last day in Valdez. I can tell I am back in the real world now because I have no time to post…to many things going on.  Including a giant hole that I just made the other day in the bathroom floor. If I get a chance I’ll take a picture of it and stick it on a different blog. I’m not looking forward to that project.

Back to Valdez. Our last day started a little slow, with everyone feeling worn out from the weeks activities. We got moving around noon and went for a hike on the 12 Mile Trail. The trail isn’t 12 miles long it gets it’s name by being located 12 miles from Valdez on the way up Dawson Pass. It starts in pretty thick woods and slowly climbs your way up the side of the pass. You can’t really tell this because your in thick woods and you don’t get a look out until you’ve hiked up quite a ways. When it does open up there are some cool views of mountains across the pass. After hiking a little further you get to Bridal Vail Falls which is directly across the pass and only about 200 yards away. We crossed the river for Horsetail Falls which must get more water in it by the time it gets to the falls, because the river was only 6′ wide or so. Then you start heading down, there is a little section that is steep enough to justify a rope to hang onto. The rest is pretty easy downhill.

After the hike we headed up to Worthington Glacier.  Which you can hike right up to and climb around on or in. Saw some tracks of someone who apparently slid down the glacier. Didn’t look safe to me, but was probably fun if they are still alive. We took some pictures around the glacier and then headed back to Valdez. I did get a good picture of Rudy (Bill & Barb’s) golden retriever.

We ended day 6 with some pizza and an early night knowing that we had to get up at 3:30 to catch our flight in Anchorage.