A Reprieve from the Rain!

What a weekend . . . maybe we appreciate them even more when there have been 18 straight days of rain.  August in Anchorage has been like that in my experience of 4 Augusts here.  Yesterday and today were brilliant sunshine, about 65 degrees, great weather for being outside, and everyone came out!  Saturday, after yoga and the Farmer's Market, Brian and I went for a long bike ride, then up to Palmer for dinner at Turkey Red with friends who invited us up.  Dessert afterwards at their house, and a 3/4 moon over the Chugach Mountains off their deck.  Hmm, maybe we should end up a little outside of Anchorage!

This morning, after a lazy start, we took our mountain bikes about a half hour in from Prospect Heights down the Powerline Trail to the trailhead for Wolverine.  That, I have to say, is my first real mountain biking - I am not a mountain biker - and it was not easy for me.  Too much uphill and over bumps and rocks, through water and mud - I don't mind getting dirty, but it was certainly different.  Brian said I did a good job, but I ended up walking my bike a couple of times going in.  We had gotten started too late to get to the top of Wolverine, but we stashed our bikes and hiked up for as long as we thought we could before we had to turn back -- above the cairn and before the ridge!  The sky has been so clear the last 2 days, Denali seemed much closer  and was so sharply in view.

The ride out was easier unless you count being nervous about careening out of control, downhill over the same rocks, ruts, water and mud!  This isn't the most flattering picture of me, but I wanted it documented, mud included!

We were both tired enough and happy to have been out in the mountains for the day!  Two more weekends to spend in Anchorage, and then we'll be out east for 2 weeks.  By the time we get back it will be almost ski season -- have to get in some more hiking before then!