Last night as I was wandering around camp with the nearly set sun hanging over the horizon in the North, a weird thought came to mind. I was staring at a house being built on the cliffs above us at midnight. The hillside was awash in a golden glow that you usually only get for about 10-15 minutes on a normal morning, sun rising over the horizon. Tonight, that same scene stuck around for hours as the sun cut a shallow path to the north. (Won't set until about 12:30 tonight and rise again at 3am!)

Anyway - I realized that as I was staring at the sun to the North of us, some guy in Japan was looking East and watching it rise. OK, so I didn't exactly do the math to figure out where in the world sunrise might be at this hour, but the point is the same!

We're considering doing a Van ride to Wonder Lake at 9am and hike back, so we had to get moving to Breakfast. A good Breakfast it was, too with plenty of hot coffee. Before breakfast was over we changed our plans to go do a hike along the Moose Creek to an old miners Cabin. Something to do with the 5 miles of uphill gravel and potholed road on our way back to camp, and the fact that they offer a round-trip shutle to Wonder Lake later on tonight made us change our minds. Even still, we only got 3/4 of the way to the cabin before turning back. The first part of the hike was along an old dirt road to the Kantishna International Airport...walked along the gravel airstrip to its end and followed the creek to the cabin. But once we left the airstrip, we followed a path along a large beaver pond and the mosquitoes were phenominal. At one particular swarm, we all decided at once to turn back and to hell with the old cabin.

Even with face netting, long sleeves and long pants, and generous amountsof Backwoods Off, there were many hundreds around each of us at any given time. The screened-in gazebo was beginning to sound real nice and I blazed a new trail back to the airstrip. The Kantishna Air Taxi runs out of here serving the lodge guests mostly. From Backcountry fishing trips to sightseeing around the mountain to taking guests back to the main road because they refuse to do the bus trip back, they do a brisk business.

Back at camp, we alternate between naps, reading at the gazebo, typing on this laptop and eating meals... the kids go gold panning in Friday Creek running between us and the airport, we take a ride to Wonder Lake for twenty minute look-see (the mountaintop is now covered in clouds) we sit in on a talk about the pioneering women of Alaska, and I enjoy yet another cigar in the gazebo at midnight - still looking like 6pm back home.

I'm just now caught up on this journal, and am heading to the Satellite phone to see if I could get through to Earthlink on their 1-800 number - if not, this'll all just have to wait for upload til we get outta hear on Tuesday Afternoon...no big deal.

 

 
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