Rhein Lake with my Sister

My sister doesn’t get out much, just life as it goes sometimes, so my partner and I decided to invite her to go camping with us one weekend. He booked the cabin at Rhein Lake specifically with her in mind for several reasons:

• it’s very close to where you park your vehicle, so she wouldn’t have to hike in for miles carrying heavy loads.
• It’s a newer cabin, being constructed in I think 2022 – so it would be a nice experience for her
• It’s quite close to the lake, giving her the opportunity to take her paddle board out for a spin

What I had apparently forgotten about, however, was the gazillion mosquitoes that live in the area. I truly hate mosquitoes! The world does not contain enough bug repellent! Thankfully, I had my Thermocells for the cabin (which turned out to be unnecessary since each window came equipped with an intact screen) and my partner packed several bug sprays of various brands for use when I stepped outside.

Normally my partner and I will head out for these little weekend getaways on Friday evening – spend the day Saturday exploring the area – and then head on back home on Sunday. But for this trip, we kept it a bit shorter. Out on Friday, back home on Saturday. In retrospect, it might have been a bit more fun if we’d allowed more time – but it got us out there, and that was our objective.

We hiked in. We unpacked a few things. We strolled down to the lake to check it out. We came back to cook our dinner and play a few games (cribbage and/or Phase 10). We went back to the lake to set up the paddle board. She took it out for a paddle around the lake while Bryan took his canoe out to look for some fish. We went back to the cabin to turn in for the night. The next morning, we took our time with breakfast and the whole “waking up” process. Packed up our gear and headed back to the truck.

We had a great time, I think!

Muktuk Marston to South Fork

I was so pleased about my Palmer Rail Trail hike that I went ahead and signed up for another hike with the same company – this time for the Muktuk Marston to South Fork trail. I had no idea where that was so was quite nervous about it. I just hoped that their descriptions were accurate and that I could indeed actually accomplish the hike.

Packing was a bit easier this time, since I had that first hike to use as a go-by = I brought some carrots & hummus, some tofu jerky, my water bottle full of electrolyte replacements (watermelon flavored), and even brough along some left-over sourdough pancakes from breakfast (with oatmeal and chocolate chips) to nibble on. I even remembered to pack my bandana this time: my nose runs almost constantly when I hike. Bothersome, but what can you do about it?

We met up at the parking lot of the Palmer Visitor Center where we consolidated gear into one vehicle, then drove out to the Eagle River Walmart parking lot to pick up one more person. From there, we headed on out to the Arctic Valley ski lodge where the trailhead is located. Kierr, the founder of Revel Trek Tours and our main guide for the day, left us at that point to drive to the South Fork Eagle River Trailhead where we would end up. She walked up from there and met us at the halfway point (or nearly so) as we made our way down to her.

That left us with Susan, a very able guide, who took us up and over Hunter Pass. Elevation Gain was only about 850 feet since we started so high up the mountain. Elevation Loss was more like 1,400 feet which made me very thankful they decided to do the hike in the direction we did! I could not have climbed up 1,400 feet – not and live to talk about it later!

The scenery was stunningly beautiful up there! The wildflowers were in full bloom, with fields on both sides of the trail just covered in brilliant colors. We took our time, taking millions of photos and just drinking in the amazing atmosphere.

All in all, I had a fabulous time and would highly recommend this trail to anyone!

The Palmer Rail Trail

There is a trail near my house called The Palmer Rail Trail, named thusly because it follows the old railroad tracks that lead out of town and up towards Sutton. Back in the day, the trains carried coal from the Buffalo Mines down to Anchorage, to be shipped out for the war efforts. The railroad abandoned the line when the mines shut down in the 1960s, even leaving some cars tipped over beside the old tracks.

The trail itself is just around 6 miles, leading from just beyond my sister’s house out to the Moose Creek Campground. It’s a great trail, for the most part, but there are several “Washouts” that are quite tricky. Places where the gravel has avalanched down the sides of the cliff to the river below. They are passable, but you have to be very careful in doing so.

I have done parts of the trail numerous times, mostly on the Palmer side but also on the Sutton side. This was my first time doing the entire trail, though! I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous. I haven’t done a long hike like that in a while and had no idea what my head was going to think about it.

A local tour company called Revel Trek Tours organized the hike, leaving a van at the campground at the end to take us all back home again once we finished hiking. I have hiked with them before, and have enjoyed their company greatly – in fact, I particularly like the founder and hope to be able to call her my friend one day. It feels weird to pay somebody to hike with me – but that’s what I did. It’s all good…

We met at the trailhead at 9:00 on Saturday morning and headed on our way. The hiking was nice and easy, with our guide setting a rather brisk pace. We chatted amongst ourselves, getting to know each other: Stan, from Anchorage; Connie, from Palmer; Susan, our guide; and me.

We stopped a few times for a snack and/or a rest. We helped each other across each of the washouts (I could NOT have done that alone!). We shared our lunches with each other (I had carrot sticks, bell peppers slices, zucchini sticks, hummus, and almonds). We made sure we were each staying hydrated. We shared mosquito repellant. We told stories and shared experiences, both on and off the trails.

Finally, around 2:30, we made it to the campground. Susan got out a thermos full of nice, cold lemonade to share while we sat and enjoyed the fact that we had succeeded. After a quick drive back to our starting point where my car was parked, I was home before 4:00.

Yay me!

Garage Sale

If I ever again say I want to have a Garage Sale, just shoot me. Shoot me right then and there, and put me out of my misery, because I have obviously become deranged and have no idea what I’m doing anymore.

Oh. My. God. What an ordeal that was!

Mother moved out in January, and we have just been kind of chucking things into her rooms as we find them “to deal with later”. So when I say there was a lot of stuff, I mean THERE WAS A LOT OF STUFF. Some of it was good stuff, but most of it was just stuff.

Both Bryan and I were feeling very overwhelmed by it all, so I decided that we would just spend an hour each day after work, starting on Monday and going until Thursday. Friday was our regular day off, so that entire day was reserved for putting the finishing touches on it. Saturday and Sunday was the actual sale.

On Monday we tackled Mom’s Bedroom. We emptied out all her desks, dressers, and tables. We hauled most of it out to the garage where we had 5 big tables set up. We moved some furniture into his new office space to be used until he can get the furniture he really wants. We hauled several garbage bags out to the trash. We cleaned up and tidied up as we went. It was exhausting work, so by the time our hour was up, we were more than ready to call it a day.

On Tuesday we hit the Red Room. Bryan had to go to work in town that day, so actually it was just me. I emptied dressers, moved tables, hauled trash, and tidied up as I went. Unfortunately, this was the room that the mice loved best – probably because mom was hiding food all over the place in there. There was mouse poop EVERYWHERE. All over the place: in the closet, in the dresser, under the bed, in the sewing machine, on the picture frames up on the wall even.

On Wednesday we dealt with the kitchen. When we moved in, 7-8 years ago, we had combined three households together into one, so we had a lot of duplicates. Three sets of dishes. Three sets of silverware. Three sets of pots/pans/cookware. You get the picture. Since we were having a garage sale anyway, we took the opportunity to pare things down considerably!

On Thursday we dealt with the rest of the house. All the little nick-nacks and doilies and doodads that Mother had collected over the years. She would go to Bishop’s Attic on a daily basis and bring home the oddest things. She thought they were pretty, so she would find a flat surface somewhere that didn’t have anything on it yet – and there it would be.

By the time Friday rolled around, we realized that the 5 large tables I had borrowed from Noel were not going to be enough, so we got out two of our own tables. Then we had to rearrange things so that they could be easily accessible inside the garage since the weather forecast called for rain all weekend.

We moved larger, heavier items out onto the front porch. Bryan hung a pole from the roof for me to hang up some coats and dresses and such. He cleaned out the back shed and had a few tools & whatnots that wouldn’t mind getting wet, so he laid them out on the lawn.

Saturday morning we put up signs pointing the way to our garage sale! I ended up spending most of the weekend at the cash box while Bryan came in and out, putzing in the back shed or gathering up more stuff from the other half of the garage.

Amazingly, we did okay. We did not sell everything, not even close, but we did sell a lot – and were able to deposit almost &700.00 into Mother’s bank account!

My New Chair

For my birthday this year, he got me a new chair!

It was pretty cute, actually. He made a little toy chair out of Legos that he wrapped up in a small box for me to unwrap. I was going to take a picture of it for you all, but he dismantled it and put it away before I could get to it. Oh well.

The next weekend saw us heading off to the big city to find my chair. We looked at numerous chairs in several different stores, but no one had what I was really looking for: apparently wing-back chairs have gone out of style.

This is my old chair: which is broken, and I can’t find anybody who is able to fix it. Hence buying a new chair. I had hoped to find something just like it, to no avail.

I did eventually find one that I liked, both comfy enough to curl up and sleep in and will look good in the room it will eventually go in to. We paid for it and arranged for us to pick it up the following week.

With lots of help from Viktor, he was able to get it put together for me. We have it temporarily set up in our living room, but that will change as soon as the renovations to his office are complete.

I also got an ottoman thingy to go with it. My thinking was that not only can I rest my feet on it, but hopefully the cats can scratch on THAT and not on the CHAIR. They actually love it, but they also love the chair. We’ll see how long it lasts…

Matanuska Lakes Trail

It was such a beautiful day the other day, we just had to get out and take a walk. We chose to go to the Matanuska Lakes park and wandered around for an hour or so. Really a nice day!

Office Remodel Progress

He’s making quite a bit of progress on his new office! It’s been a long hard journey, but it’s beginning to look quite impressive! Just for reference, here’s what it looked like when we began this whole transformation process.

For the tongue & groove wall, he had 75 boards delivered to the house, each one 15 feet in length. He spent several very long nights prepping them for the contractor: first he had to sand them all smooth, then apply a conditioner/pre-stain on them all, then put on the actual stain, and then a poly-urethane coating. Once all that dried enough, he sanded them all again and applied the second layer of the poly-urethane coating.

Once the boards were ready, the contractor installed them in just two days, spending the third day working on the flooring and the trim. I must be honest here and admit that I was not liking the color choices that my partner picked out – but seeing it all in person, I fully admit that it looks fantastic! He did a great job.

Having added ¾” to the wall means that, of course, all the outlets need to be extended out to be flush with the new walls, so he has a week or so of work to do all of that. He also bought really nice wooden cover plates to match the tongue & groove – and they all need to be prepped before they can be installed. He is working on that at the same time that he works on the electrical stuff.