Kelly Lake

Since Grant left his snow boots in Colorado and his work/hiking boots were impaled with a stick to the sole during our hike at Ohlson Mountain, we decided we needed a trip to Soldotna to stock up on some goods and get Grant a new pair of boots. While we were up there, we decided to make a weekend of it and stay at a government service cabin on Kelly Lake. After finding Grant some adequate footwear at Sportsmen's Warehouse and indulging in a maple bar from the Moose is Loose bakery (anyone driving down from Anchorage will be instructed to stop here), we completed the grueling 1/4 mile "hike" to the cabin. It was only grueling because we shoved everything in our backpacks last minute and had all the weight in the top, thus making the 1/4 mile actually somewhat of a workout. Here is the cabin:

The lake was frozen over, otherwise we could've used the rowboat the cabin had. We've also heard the lake is great for ice fishing in the winter. If someone invents gloves that have a built-in wood stove, we may try that. We spent a relaxing and very dark evening reading by flashlight and enjoying some razor clam pasta. The cabin was very toasty warm thanks to the wood stove and our precious bunk mate: 

The next morning was the last morning before Daylight Savings Time (which is completely worthless in Alaska but I'll get to that later) so the sun didn't rise until 9:30ish. After a breakfast of bacon and toast we went on a beautiful 9-mile hike to the 4 lakes on the Seven Lakes Trail (the highway cut off the other 3 from the trail and they didn't feel like changing their signs). 

Seashells through the ice

Kelly Lake (notice how brave Hank has become by standing on the ice)

Hikers Lake

Hidden Lake

Engineer Lake

Overall, we had a great time and we can't wait to go back in the fall when the leaves are all bright yellow. This past week has been spent adjusting to the jump in evening darkness. As I mentioned before, many people up here believe Alaska should go the way of Arizona and stop doing Daylight Savings Time. The sun rising at 8:30am vs. 9:30am is really not significant since most people are at work already by then anyways. However, getting dark at 5pm vs. 6pm is a big difference for the average working person and makes you very moody (just ask Grant). Changing 1 hour is not going to change the fact that it's just really dark up here so they really should just let the darkness descend on either end of the day gradually and not in one big jump. Just my opinion. I can't complain too much however, as I have a 4-day weekend for Veterans' Day and a 3-day week the following week for Thanksgiving! 

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow in Colorado and we miss you all!