Sunday, May 18, 2008

Spring at last

Break-up has been over with for a while now and it finally feels like Spring is here. Now, granted I think most people are on their way into Summer, but I think we're a few weeks away from that. Maybe by mid-June.

It was nice after the heat of California to get back to the nice, cool weather up here. But my class was good and I got to visit with my Aunt Janice, Uncle Bud and cousin Mark while I was in CA. Was great to see them- I think it's been about ten years since I saw them last.

I got back home at 2 a.m. Saturday morning and saw a moose chomping on some grass as the cab drove by. Then I saw another one swimming in Westchester Lagoon later in the morning when I went to pick Buck up. Oh, and I saw a Dahl sheep on the way home from my hike Saturday evening. So, the animals are definitely out enjoying the weather.

Buck and I went hiking up Bird Ridge down by the Turnagain Arm (about 25 miles south of Anchorage on the Seward Hwy). We mainly went to test out my knee to see if it can handle a steep hike since we're headed to Denali next weekend for hiking and such. I went to the doctor and got an MRI and it turns out that my meniscus is just strained, not torn. So, great news because now I don't have to let it slow me down. He also basically told me that my knees aren't in good shape (not surprising considering all the sports and running and hiking I've done in the last 32 years) and that eventually I'll probably tear the meniscus or my cartilage will crap out on me or something. I pretty much stopped listening after, 'it's not a tear'.

Anyway, the knee fared well and is still not bothering me today, so it looks like I'm good to go.

The hike was a challenge- half of it was moderate, but the second half was up a goat trail and the footing wasn't stellar. The mosquitos are also out already even though we have yet to see 60 degrees. Since they only swarmed when you stood still, they definitely helped me keep moving. Heh! Here's a picture of Chugach's interior and a link to the rest of the pictures. I took two sets of panorama style, so you have to scroll through them in order to get the full effect.

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