Caribou

Its fall, its hunting season. the local caribou heard hunting was open for 3 days this week, and my friend Don was lucky. i got invited to dinner, of fresh meat. I made the scalloped Potatoes, and some red wine and dinner was good.

The best part was that I got to bring home the heart, and a kidney. yes i like offal, its good stuff

so tomorrow i get to figure out how to fix stuffed heart. and maybe streak and kidney stew during the week.

I took some photos so maybe more next time.

Rafting grade 5 Hope, Alaska

I left Anchorage to drive to Hope, Nova rafting guides picked us up a the corner of Hope road. there is a swim test. this is grade 5 not for first timers. the water was 38 degrees. we have dry suits. longs johns 3 top layers and life jackets and helmets. The swim was about 100 yards including the floating in the dam cold water
we got to see a couple of juvenile bald eagles and a couple of adults passing by overhead. there are 2 canyons of grade 3/ 4, which is enough to flip some people out of the water. then a 2 mile float though some scenic stuff . there was a brief portage cause the boats got stuff, 10 years round some rocks , rivers low i guess. then some amazing grade 5 stuff, where you have to slide the boat fairly accurately though 2 rocks. if you miss it you high side and flip. Called an "out of boat"experience




So on the last rapid, we missed it, the 3 of us of the left of the raft just flipped out really fast.
the water went totally over my face. thank god for helmets, for I hit my head on something.
the front smaller girl was first back in, then the guy in the middle , i had to swim to stay with the raft, around a rock of some description (it all happened so fast) picked up some bruises on the legs the butt like 4 or 5. and was bodily hauled back in by the life vest. what a blast.! great adrenaline rush. I was probably out of the boat about 1 minute maybe
On the float round a couple of corners to the take out spot we saw lots of pink salmon. and jumping everywhere, cruising up the shallow edges.




Sore neck , Sore shoulder, Sore butt, and back, and pulled some muscles in the front of my thighs. but dam that was the best. everything is all OK today Monday except for the bruises.
yeah i scored lucky

grade 4 rafting is for 8 years olds and grand ma's

I am addicted to white water rafting. !!!

Weekend in Anchorage

What is a girl to do for my birthday, I for one like to head to anchorage. so Friday afternoon i headed for anchorage. as soon as i cleared the first hill , the smoke cleared, and i could breath. a cloudy day and good driving. Pulled into anchorage, with my car doing 38 miles to the gallon. me and my camera had a great time.


I drove out to Hope along the Seward highway on Saturday morning for some grade 5 white water( photos yet to be sorted, will post separately) the drive is really cool , cloudy its still pretty amazing
The end of the hope road is 18 miles from the Seward turnoff. the fire weed is looking great
the bottom picture is what these people call a beach, the nearest beach to me currently( No lakes don't cut it for being called a beach, it has to be ocean)


Saturday afternoon was a BBQ with a bunch of kiwis and Aussies. good time was had with the usual too much food. not sure if it is polite to mention the game of Rugby, tri nation series between NZ, Australia and South Africa. the was a game on Saturday/ Friday ( time zone thing) that the guys wanted to watch between Aus and South Africa. 1/2 way though they decided to play some cricket. Ummm i don't think Aus was wining.
so there is a possibly that South Africa could win the Tri series.....

then on Sunday morning there was the shopping. No birthday is compete without some good shopping, towels , sheets and some clothes, 20 % cheaper than what was listed.

still a little tender from the white water rafting. but not as sore as I would expect considering. but you have to see the grin on my face... it was great fun.