Alaskan Backcountry

Saturday was reported to be relatively nice, no rain at least. Marvin, a friend of ours, invited us to go to Jag Lake for some backcountry riding. Since we didn't visit the Hole in the Wall Friday night the early morning departure was doable. Though of course, we were a little late.

Jag lake is up Ward Creek Rd. about five minutes off the Tongass
Hwy. We parked and followed a sled road up into the Jag Lake area and
from there up onto Slide Ridge. All told its a grueling two hour hike
through sixteen feet of snow. Its gotten at least another five feet
since the last time we were up here a month ago. But the view from the top of the ridge is amazing. You can see George's Inlet near where we live and even Caroll's Inlet to the east as well as Betton, Grant and Hump Island in the Behm Canal to the west.

Its crazy, the trees are so laden with layers of snowfall they look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. The weather was intermittent sun and light snow though the fog kept rolling in and obscuring our view of Clover Pass and some of the northern ranges. But the southern view and eastern were beautiful. Harley Rose came along in
her neoprene hunting jacket and Outward Hound backpack. She behaved herself for most of the day until she got tired then turned to fully menacing her mom till they were both quite salty.

Carrie had a great time overall. She didn't snowboard but she took some great pictures of the area and used her "built in sled" to get around. Unfortunately the Jag lake area is used often by snowmobilers and the sounds of their two-stroke engines fill the otherwise quiet mountain air. A couple of them even started high marking above us as we strapped back into our snowshoes for another ascent. Marvin had to stop the guy and give him a lecture on mountain safety, then do the same for
his pudgy offspring. One of the guys nearly clipped Jeff, Marvin's
buddy that came with us, as he was putting his skins back on. Different strokes for different folks, but with a whole mountain we couldn't figure out why they suddenly were all around us. I think they were just lonely, stuck in the solitude of their engines roar and looking for an audience. One of them did manage to turn Carrie around when she was coming to meet us. Apparently she was walking the opposite direction off into the wild open foggy Alaskan wilderness thinking we were down the trail. Luckily he stopped her and turned her around after running into us further up the trail.

The snow and the scenery made up for the disturbance of the mosquito-mobilers and we returned tired but happy with a bit of daylight left. To celebrate I made sopa de camaron rinconada along with some empanadas al achiote rellenas de camaron. Carrie complemented our lovely dinner with fresh guacamole and salsa and a couple of cool Tecates. A fitting end to a glorious day.

Today even Harley has done nothing but nap and rise occasionally for a couple of pats. I have basically lathered my entire body with tiger balm and plan on following the dogs lead. Carrie, as always, is working.

You can check out our backcountry pics at our picasa site and don't miss my new hip hair style! Carrie is quite the hairdresser. Maybe a new line of work?