A weekend away, finally

This weekend we finally got away again after staying in Anchorage for a month. Anchorage is nice, and necessary for Brian and I to be able to live and work in Alaska, but it's not the reason we came here. I have a hard time staying in one place without getting bored, so we try not to spend too many weekends in town.

Brian rode the Lost Lake bike race/ride on Saturday that was new this year in the Alaska Endurance Series. The race went across the Lost Lake Trail from Primrose to Seward, along the road, and then picked up some new trail that they are calling the Iditarod trail. I'm not sure how a new trail can be a part of the Iditarod trail, but maybe it's where the start of the Iditarod trail was a long time ago.



Anyway, Laura and I decided to go down and camp too, take pictures of the racers and try to hike up part of the Lost Lake trail. It was rainy, we were low energy, and I didn't want to push it too much on my foot, but we did get about 3 miles up the trail, making it a 6 mile hike. That's the longest I've walked since before my surgery and it felt fine.



Because of my slow pace and the relative short length of the hike, I still didn't really feel like I got much exercise though. Only a few more weeks before I can get back to my regular routine and hopefully feel normal again. I'm hoping to be able to get up a few more peaks this fall before the snow starts flying in the mountains. That could happen any day now though.



The guys came in one by one, soaked and covered in mud from head to toe. It was a typical September weekend in Alaska, steady rain the whole time and cold. We even busted out the puffy jackets for the first time this season.







After everyone finished the race we made a fire and cooked out on the beach on Kenai Lake.





I love this picture because it captures what so many of our weekends here in Alaska are all about. A bunch of muddy, sweaty, tired people gathered round a fire with well earned beer in hand. It doesn't get much better than this.