Spring weather in Alaska is unpredictable (as it is in many other places.) So when we decided to take a family hike this weekend but the weather app predicted rain and thunderstorms in a at-any-given-hour-possibly-maybe-you-never-know kind of way, we decided to go with a more tried and true method of deciding when to hike. We just looked out the window.
"Well, it's clear right now" I mused at 2:30, "Maybe we should just hike this evening."
Mind you, between the hours of 3:30 and 5:00 a giant thunderstorm rolled through and drenched the valley we planned to hike, but by 5:30 the clouds had moved on and the clear sky was visible. Perfect hiking weather. And because this is Alaska, there wasn't any fear of being caught outside in the dark during an evening hike.
Right now, in fact, there's really no chance of being caught in the dark at all! #23hrs of light, baby!
So we drove to the Arctic Valley - an area close to home with some of my favorite views. We'd hiked the actual valley section many times before, so we decided to bag another peak by hiking up the valley and then turning right in order to climb up Rendezvous Peak.
Meg ended up falling asleep on the way - which made me a little nervous (were we THAT close to bedtime?) But she rallied and we started out strong.
The valley was littered by patches of snow, and where the snow patches had melted, there was mud. So much mud!! When hiking, there comes a point when cleanliness just becomes wishful thinking : ) We also saw the beginnings of spring with new leaves and buds sprouting everywhere we looked.
As we reached the base of the mountain, Brenn and Meg decided that they'd prefer to blaze a trail of their own up the side of Rendezvous Peak (can you see their tiny blue and purple figures below?) So Paul joined them and Jack and I maintained our course. We went up to Rendezvous Point (the saddle) and then turned right to head up the steep path that ran along the back side of the mountain.
While a race hadn't specifically been discussed, Jack and I really hoped that we'd beat our erstwhile family members. Alas, we didn't. Meg and Paul reached the peak (just over 4k in elevation) first, fair and square. Meg had even set up our individual Gatorade bottles in the little stone shelter at the top - a place where she encouraged us to "rest and relax for a while" : ) She'd even picked a flower (way way down at the bottom of the mountain) and carried it (not-so-gently) all the way up the hike in order to present it to me. What mother would say no : )
You'll see South Fork trail on the left and the Turnagain Arm and south Anchorage on the right. It was quite the view. After "resting and relaxing" (I mean, I guess Jacob used a stone for a pillow so we could use them as seats for a while) we headed back down the other side of the mountain.
Little did we know that the path down was completely obscured by a huge snow drift. Oops. So in the spirit of "I'm already muddy and sweaty" Brenn decided to try his hand at "coat sledding" (his term, not mine : ) He took a series of videos of this new sport, the best of which I’ve included below. If you are prone to motion sickness, you might want to skip them 🤣
Eventually we all ended up doing some form of sledding/sliding/skimming/skiing down the slope. Too fun. And cold. Very cold. But fun : ). Paul ended up sliding right into the water where the snow terminated and I have never been so sad not to catch something on video. You'll just have to imagine the incident in all it's hilarity.
After our adventure down the mountain, the way back to the car was uneventful. And at 9:00 the sun was still high in the sky! All in all, a beautiful evening hike!
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