Week 2: June 23 - 29, 2014

Monday, June 23^rd

After waking up and taking advantage of the availability of a shower again, we packed our clean clothes and supplies into our dry bags.  We were dropped off at Tanaina Lake, the same place we were picked up the previous day.  We knew our bags were very heavy, weighed down with 15 cans of veggies, various bags of dry foods, and fresh fruit and veggies, in addition to clothes, fishing gear, and tools, so we decided we would walk the bags through the portages first, then carry the canoe through.  This meant three times the walking, but in the end we were happy with our choice.  The weather was also in our favor, with just a light breeze, which kept the lakes calm.

As we made our way through the last couple of lakes and ponds before our cabin, we kept an eye on the water looking for fish.  We saw many northern pike, including a couple that looked close to three feet long.  We would never catch one of those… but even a smaller one would provide a great meal.  Northern pike are an invasive species in this part of Alaska, wreaking havoc on the trout and salmon populations, so if you catch one you do not want, you are supposed to kill it before throwing it back in deep water.

Excited at the fishing prospects we saw in the Echo Ponds and Candlestick Lake, we decided to save ourselves some portaging by locking up the canoe between Candlestick and Buckley Lakes.  We would walk our packs along the Butterfly Lake trail to our cabin, eat a late lunch, unpack, get the fishing gear ready then walk back out to fish.  Great plan, but wow... that trail felt a lot longer with the awkward, heavy, packs.

Sadly, a storm rolled in that didn't seem to want to let up.  Around 6:00PM it was still raining, so we decided we would just put our plans on hold until the morning.  Later in the evening, after an impromptu nap, Dave suggested we get ready to go to bed, and was heading outside to use the "facilities."  Somehow, this turned into putting on his muck boots, and grabbing a fishing rod... Sadly, the end result was only a lost lure and a few new mosquito bites.

Tuesday, June 24th

After what has become our normal morning routine, breakfast, coffee, and reading, we headed out with our fishing gear to retrieve the canoe and hopefully catch a fish or two.

Loons

We didn't see much until we got into Echo Pond #2.  Pretty quickly Dave had a bite by about a 14" pike that got away with one of the "little trout" lures.  After retying another lure and casting again, Dave was going to clear some plants that got caught of the lure, but spied two pike near the boat, so instead, he just pulled his line near the boat.  BAM!  A BIG pike took it.  Alex missed him with the net at first pass, but managed to get him on the second, while being very thankful that the line or rod did not snap.  Not only did the pike snatch up the lure, but it also had another fish in its mouth!  The other fish was about 2 feet long!  Alex struggled to get the fish in the boat, but finally succeeded, though in the process is let go of the smaller fish.

Giddy with excitement, we headed to shore with a slimey, 3 foot pike.  What were we going to do with such a big fish???  Once on shore, Dave gutted the fish, while Alex made lots noise to deter any wildlife that might want to take our dinner.

 

 Once back at camp, we prepped out fish for cooking, and had a very filling and delicious meal.  We relaxed for the rest of the day, and went to sleep that night laughing over and reliving the day's fishing adventure.

 

Wednesday, June 25th

We woke up to a very dreary and rainy day.  During a lull in the rain, we decided we would head out to continue working on the very messy portage between Skeetna Lake and the Little Su.  After well over three hours of clearing what seemed like endless fallen spruce trees, we finally arrived at the river!  Soaked, cold, hungry, and tired, we hung some flagging to make the take out more obvious to boaters on the river, before heading back to the cabin with dreams of food, dry clothes, and a warm fire.  We did get to see our lake loons and a bald eagle before getting back to the cabin.

Thursday, June 26th

The day brought nothing but steady, heavy rain.  So we stayed inside and enjoyed a day filled with coffee, reading, tea, reading, and warm fires throughout.

Friday, June 27th

Though it was still raining, we wanted to paddle around and check on all the PUC's today.  We waited for the rain to lighten before heading out.  The work went quickly and easily... portaging was getting easier and faster!  Since we were done so quickly, we decided to check out the last unexplored area of the canoe trail, James Lake to Javit Lake to Lynx Creek to Lynx Lake.  This also made Dave happy because it cut out a large portion of paddling on Lynx Lake that he often did not like.

James Lake to Javit Lake was pretty easy, thought the trail definitely needs some clearing.  After paddling across Javit Lake, the trail to Lynx Creek was very pretty, but turned very messy and slick, which caused Alex to slip and slide to the point of her boot getting stuck in between two roots.  Once to Lynx Creek, things looked promising, even though we had to paddle upstream.  However, the creek became very shallow at times, so we were often in and out of the boat to get it though shallow areas and beaver dams.  We headed back to the cabin having had a simple day that turned into a fun adventure!

Alex ready to beat any beavers that cause us trouble.

Lots of baby ducks! 

Saturday, June 28th

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast, coffee, and logic puzzles, before paddling to meet Vic at the Lynx Lake Boat Launch.  He was bringing us supplies we needed to fix the portage between Lynx Lake and Echo Ponds.  The portage currently had many loose boards floating on water, and a few missing or submerged boards.  Along the way, we saw something making big splashes in the water.  It turned out to be a beaver swimming and playing along the shore of Lynx Lake!  We stopped and watched for a while before continuing on.

After gathering our supplies from Vic, and filling our canoe with ten 8' pressure treated boardwalk planks, and three 4x4's, we slowly made our way back down the lake.

We worked for several hours, in the beautiful weather (we hadn't seen the sun in days because of all the rain!), until we ran out of fasteners.  In the end the portage was much better than it was before, but more work would be needed once we had more fasteners.  We enjoyed the day of work and also getting to see a few groups of people utilize the area.  Most stopped to chat for a bit and one offered to take our picture.

 No more missing boards!

Since we had so much material to take back to the cabin for other projects, we were glad to see that all the heavy rain had made a nearby usually impassible floating portage open again, cutting our portages for the day down to two.  With so much material, we would have to take several trips carrying materials across each portage before we could carry the boat across.  As we made our way across the Echo Ponds, the sky was turning stormy, so we decided that we would stash our materials in the woods between Buckley Lake and Butterfly Lake, and make the final portage with materials tomorrow morning.  Exhausted from the days work, we slept well that night.

Sunday, June 29th

We woke up and retrieved the materials we stashed yesterday before we had breakfast.  It was tiring work, since the portage between Buckley and Butterfly is long, muddy, and messy, but it felt good to have the work taken care of.  After breakfast we packed up to head to Tanaina Lake to be picked up and brought back to the ranger station for a day or so.  We checked and cleaned up campsites along the way and still made great time.. under 3 hours!  As we were nearing the edge of Tanaina Lake, we had the awesome experience of having a loon swim fairly close to us, and when it dove under water, it swam underneath our boat, it was so cool to see!  After getting back to the station, we had showers, did laundry, and headed to Wasilla to resupply for the week.

Getting There and Week 1: June 14 - 22, 2014

Hello from Alaska!  We are absolutely loving it here!  The views are amazing, the animal watching is superb, our cabin is sweeeeeeet, the weather has been mostly good, and the mosquitos have there fits.  We never had a chance to post after our first week in the backcountry, since we came to the frontcountry for supplies and headed right back the next morning... just because it is so nice!  This time we decided to stay out a day so that we could do some researching on areas we want to visit on future days off.   So here begins a recap of our first week...

Note: If you click on the pictures, you can see a larger version of them, and can also scroll through all of them.

Map of Nancy Lake State Recreation Area... for your reference!

Saturday, June 14th

After packing gear, getting up at 3:00AM to get a 3:30AM ride to the Philly airport  (which we are very grateful for!), we had a very long day of travel.   Philly to Houston to Anchorage.  We finally arrived in "The Last Frontier" at 7:30PM local time.

ALL of those chords are ours! :o)

Two of the guys from the Denali Trail Crew picked us up. On our way to Nancy Lake State Recreation Area, we stopped for supplies and it was already 11:30PM, .... yeah that is 3:30AM back in good ol' PA... yup.... over 24 hours after we woke up.  After meeting Ranger Drew right before his shift ended, we headed into our frontcountry home for the summer... the loft of the A-frame cabin... aka the "Ritz Carlton."  Talk about mental confusion/jet lag.... it was still sunny out and after midnight!

Sunday, June 15th

After coffee and organizing our gear in the A-frame, we had a day of training with Park Specialist Vic.  Videos (bear safety, cold water boating safety, boating safety, how to properly drive a state vehicle) and a driving test.... we can't forget there was also chocolate cake thanks to Vic's wife!  The remainder of the day we spent with Drew, driving around the park, checking out a few campgrounds and fishing areas, as well as chasing down some rogue ATV'ers. In the evening, we drove to Wasilla (about a 30 minute drive) for groceries to take with us to our backcountry cabin.

Monday, June 16th

After final gear organization and preparation, Drew drove us to our quickest   and not the most easily accessible approach to our cabin, since it would be our first trip in... normally we would paddle from a more vehicle friendly area on Tanaina Lake.  Two miles of highway and six miles of dirt road brought us to the Lynx Lake Boat Launch area. We dropped our canoe, checked out the PUC's (public use cabins) nearby, ate some lunch, then said goodbye to Drew, and started paddling through light rain towards Butterfly Lake at about 1:30PM.

We quickly learned that portaging is tiring, muck boots are amazing (except when you slip and water goes higher than your boot...) and we would be having so great views of mountains once the clouds cleared. Around 3:30PM we arrived at our cabin.  It is an awesome cabin!

So, some of you who are reading this might think we are crazy when we say something that has no running water or electricity is awesome... but... it is!   We have a propane stove/oven to cook with, a wood stove to heat up the place when it is chilly, lots of space, beautiful views, and a bed to sleep in every night.... much better accommodations that we normally have during most of our summer adventures!  After we unpacked, organized our gear, and ate, we spent the remainder of our evening relaxing before heading to bed.

"Bear Mat"

Tuesday, June 17th

Eager to check out our surroundings, we woke up around 6:00AM, had breakfast and percolated coffee (we were pretty stoked to find the percolator) and were out the door shortly after 7:00.  We spent the morning clearing portages between Butterfly Lake and Skeetna Lake and also between Skeetna Lake the the Little Su River, as well as finding and checking on the camping area on Skeetna Lake.   Portages are trails that you have to carry your canoe/kayak along to get between lakes that are not connected by water.  They can range from very short to very long;  our longest so far has been around 0.75 miles long.... more on THAT later!

When we are working on clearing a portages, we are cutting back trees and brush that are crowding the trail, as well cutting and moving any trees that have fallen on the trail.   It is quite a bit of work, especially considering we only have hand tools to use since we couldn't be here for the chainsaw safety course in May.   After several hours of work, which did not get us to where the trail met the Little Su, we headed back to the cabin for lunch.  We would tackle this section, which was getting pretty heavily covered with fallen spruce trees, another day with (hopefully) some beefier tools!

In the afternoon, we were heading to check the permits on the boats in the launch area near our cabin, when a man and his young daughter appeared through the trees.  They are our nearest "neighbors" and stopped by to introduce themselves.  Before Nancy Lake State Recreation Area came into existence,  several families owned land and/or cabins within the area, so within the park boundaries there are several areas of private property; David(the neighbor) owns one of them and is in the process of building a cabin.  As we talked, a pair of bald eagles flew overhead,  what an awesome sight!  After exchanging contact information, he and his daughter began their 2 mile hike to their car, and we headed over the check out the boat launch.  After paddling back through choppy water to our cabin, we made dinner and spent the remainder of the evening relaxing.  We decided we would paddle up to Lynx Lake tomorrow, paddle the Lynx Lake Loop, and check on the four PUC's and 4 camping areas that are along the loop.  We knew it would be a loooong day!

"Bathroom" Safety

"How bad are the mosquitoes?" was a frequent question asked of us before we left for Alaska.  They were mildly aggravating at the ranger station, but honestly, at our cabin they are not bad... so far!  We hope it stays that way, but came prepared anyways!  Something we brought along was a bug net to hang over our bed.  So before we tucked in for the night, we got it hung, since even the occasional mosquito squealing in your ear at night or biting your forehead can be quite annoying!

Wednesday, June 18th

We rolled out of bed at 6:00AM.  We knew we had lots of ground to cover.... but is wasn't like we were going to run out of daylight (the most it gets to right now is "dusk-like" at around 3:00AM).  All in all, we covered 16 lakes, 4 ponds, 18 portages that required us to carry the canoe, and 4 portages that we could float through.  It was a great way to see a large section of the park, get all the cabins and camping areas cleaned up, and was quite enjoyable, though tiring! The worst/most tiring section was the portage from Little No Luck Lake to Tanaina Lake.  This section brought much grumbling and questions such as "Why do we have a canoe in the middle of a meadow???" and "Who takes their 16ft aluminum canoe for a hike???"  This section was around 0.75 miles long with a small pond to float in the middle for a few hundred feet.  All in all it took 41 minutes to portage, a time we will most likely beat next time.   It's only saving grace was that it was flat and didn't really require any uphill or downhill "canoe-hiking".

At 6:30PM, we were back in our cabin... 11.5 hours after we left.  We may have been tired, we may have paddled into the wind allllll day, but we had a fantastic day!  We cooked up some grub, and relaxed on comfy seats (perhaps napping a bit...) until bedtime.   We had to stay semi-cognisant until 9:00PM since that is the end of the last of our four hour long radio monitoring times of the day.  One of our issued pieces of gear is a radio that we can communicate with the rangers and other park personnel.  We have four designated times during the day that we are supposed to have it on so that we can monitor the airways incase there is any information that we may find useful or need.  Over and out.  Butterfly Host clear.

Thursday, June 19th

After a tiring day yesterday, we decided to take it easier and stay in on Butterfly Lake.  Coffee, reading, phone calls home, cleaning, and rearranging furniture is how we spent the morning.  Yes, you read phone calls.  Surprisingly there is great cell phone service (4G LTE even!) at our cabin, but only on Alex's phone.  This doesn't mean we are sitting around texting and facebooking all day... remember there is no electricity!  However, we do have a small solar charger with us that helps us keep things charged in case we really need them.

We didn't bring our fishing gear with us this time out, but we found a rod in the cabin, so Dave worked on making a reel for it with some odds and ends from around the cabin.  When complete, we headed out to the lake the explore and see if anything would bite our line.

No fish were caught, but we did get to see our first local moose and snapped a few pictures before it ran back into the woods.  We also discovered that there were clams in the lake (later we found out they are actually a type of mussel).  This kept us quite amused for an unknown amount of time (well over an hour), with Alex spying them and guiding the boat to them, while Dave leaned into the shallowish water to pluck them out.  After collecting a bunch and confirming their edibility, we headed back to cook them up with dinner.  They were not exactly the tastiest things, but we didn't have the best means of seasoning them, so back to the water most of them went.

Later in the evening, Dave awkwardly stands and says "There is a moose RIGHT outside the window." Alex, skeptical, thinks he is joking, but then sees that there IS a moose no more than 5 feet away from the window.  After a Moose-Dave stare down, the moose is startled by Alex's movement for a camera, and runs a few feet further away, and stands there chomping plants long enough for Alex to snap a few pictures before it (and the calf we did not initially see closer to the water) run away through the woods.   SOOOOO AWESOME!!!!

Friday, June 20th

After a morning of coffee and reading, which has become our routine, we headed out to work on clearing the portage from Butterfly Lake to Buckley Lake.  We think this is the worst portage we have encountered, and of course it is the one that we have to use to go anywhere!  It is kind of long, and VERY muddy, stumpy, and rooty on the Butterfly Lake side.  Those are not things we can really improve right now without wood planks, but we worked on clearing the brush.

Unfortunately, Dave almost immediately broke the loppers, our prized tool!  So sad.  We finished clearing the trail with our hand and bow saws before portaging the canoe and paddling around Buckley Lake, getting a closer look at the birds on the island in the middle.

We worked on the portage to Candlestick Lake before heading back to the cabin.  It was a good feeling know that the canoe was getting easier to carry and the portages with it were going faster, and feeling less tiring.

Dave cheerfully (no really, he loves it!) splitting some wood.

The evening was beautiful, so we decided to head back out on to Butterfly Lake to enjoy it.  We knew that the neighbor we had met the other day was supposed to be working on his cabin and had invited us over, so we headed over that way.  We met his wife and kids, saw the start of his cabin, and checked out WHALE LAKE, which sits behind his cabin.  We headed back to our cabin as a storm approached.

Whale Lake

We could tell the weekend was arriving, the lake had become busier and livelier as the day progressed.  We enjoyed the quiet lake we had experienced so far this week, but we knew it wouldn't last!

Saturday, June 21st
We awoke to heavy rain, so we lingered in bed longer than normal, then spent the morning drinking coffee and reading in front of a nice fire.  After the rain cleared, we walked the Butterfly Lake Trail, which is a 2 mile trail to a parking area that is used by private property owners to get to their boats on Butterfly Lake.  We wanted to acquaint ourselves with the trail incase we ever needed to use it, but also to make our "backcountry host" presence known and check to see if there has been an ATV use on the trail, which is against the park regulations and been the headache of the state park.

After an easy hike in and out, we worked on replacing the torn screen in the door to the cabin.  We thought this task would have to wait until we could get a new piece of screen, but Dave found a piece in our shed.  Woohoo! Fresh air and no skeeters getting in! We spent the remainder of the evening enjoying the cabin that is our home for the summer!

 Before and After

Sunday, June 22nd

After our usual morning of coffee and reading, we packed up to paddle to Tanaina Lake where Vic would pick us up and drive us back to the Ranger Station.  Other than a wet boot for Alex after slipping on a wet board early in the day, and the ever present wind in the WRONG direction, the day went well and we made it in under four hours.  After spending some time talking with Drew, Vic, and Maxine (the host of Red Shirt Lake) we took some much needed showers, started the laundry, and headed to Wasilla for food for the next week.  Though we technically get two days off in the front country, we wanted to head back to Butterfly Lake the next morning since it is so nice out there.

While in Wasilla, we stocked up on more food that was really needed for one week, just so we could have it at the station.  We wouldn't take it ALL out tomorrow... that would be a lot of weight to carry.  Alex knew that what we were saying now, was not what would actually happen.... all of that food was going to wind up traveling with us tomorrow.   It turned into a late night quickly, and we still had not eaten dinner, so we grabbed a pizza that we would bake back at the station while we prepped our gear for the next day.