Flying, Hiking & Cooking delicious Steak.

6/26/16 marked my first solo day hiking trip with guests at the lodge. A family from Germany; the mom, daughter & two sons. Joe was going on a heli-drop camping trip with a group of 5 people and another booking came through for the same dates months ago so that meant Bonnie was going to need help.



Talkeetna Air Taxi coming in to pick up Joe

I flew in a day ahead of the 2 bookings so I could get the rundown from Joe on everything from the initial walk through with new guests, down to how to use the old barbeque to cook a perfect steak. I've done most of this before many years ago when Mike and Pam would fly me in to help, but shoot, that’s going on 10 years ago since I did any real "hosting".  On the morning of the 25th the Talkeetna Air helicopter came and picked up Joe along with just under 200 lbs. of camping gear and headed deep into the mountains so he could set up a base camp for the next 3 days. About an hour after Bonnie and I waved goodbye to Joe we headed down to the dock to tie up the floatplane that brought in our guests that were actually staying at the lodge. I showed them around, got them all settled in and a few hours later I put on my sous-chef hat to help Bonnie cook dinner. I took Joe's roll and cooked some "delicious" steaks. (That's what the guests said anyhow.) After dinner the guests retreated to their cabins and as Bonnie and I did the dishes we looked east toward the mountains and hoped all was well with Joe and his group. The clouds were starting to settle in the upper hills and we just knew they were going to get soaked. Or just stay under the tarp and in their tents...The SPOT GPS message he sent us everyday let us know things were going good. That’s a nice tool for us to have.


Panoramic photo of the lake taken from Blueberry Hill

 

After breakfast the next day I asked our guests how long of a hike they were up for and the oldest son said "um, at least like 10 kilometers or so" and with that we packed a hearty lunch and headed across the lake. I knew I would have to improvise a bit because Joe told me that the GPS clocked the usual hike around the lake at 3 miles (about 4.8 km) so I pretty much made up the first part as I went. It had down poured rain the night before and into that morning so the bushes were soaked. All 5 of us had water proof boots but that does no good when the water from the alder bushes hits your thighs and it just drains down through the pants onto the socks and INTO the boots... I had rain pants but I gave them to the youngest son because he was getting cold. The weather just kept getting better and better as we went but the bushes were still soaked. After a big detour to go see the middle fork of Montana creek and put on a few extra kilometers we headed north and had lunch on a little Ridgeline about 2 miles east of the lodge. We then rounded the lake and made it back to the lodge in about 3.5 hours. Overall putting on about 7.5 kilometers. The guests were wet, tired and happy….perfectly happy to settle for less than 10 kms. And me...well like I said, this was my first solo day hike so as we crested the front side of blueberry hill and the lodge came into view I just smiled to myself proudly and thought "I left with 4 people and I made it back with 4 people. Success."

 

Back when I was 15 and Mike and Pam started using me for my sweet wilderness skills.....and lawn mowing skills…and dish washing skills at the lodge I went on many hikes with guests, but I was always with Mike. Now that we own the lodge (and I think Mike would finally say I am more than just an “assistant guide”) it's a neat experience to have guests here and be the one showing them all of this great country knowing it's my back yard.

Trail Ridge Air coming in to pick up the guests in the De Havilland Beaver float plane

On the 27th after we said goodbye to our guests and they flew back to Anchorage, Alaska Bush came and picked me up to fly back to Talkeetna.  But first I was fortunate enough to get a scenic flight. 2 folks from Israel were on the plane when I hopped on so I was just along for the ride...  A pretty cool way to spend a Monday Morning.

 

The Talkeetna River 6/27/16

 

So then back to reality. I was so excited to see my wife and daughters, but I had to get ready for work the next day. Pack lunch, make coffee and commute to Anchorage…for my real job...sitting at my desk. Hey, someone's gotta pay the bills.