Rain, Flooding, and More Fall Colors

Driving into Palmer Friday morning, we noticed flashing lights along the Old Glenn Highway in the Butte (the small community between our house and Palmer and also where I teach).  Although it was dark, we could see water where it shouldn't be.  After dropping the kids off and getting in my morning run, I made my way over there to take some pictures.  There has been a lot of rain lately and the braided, unpredictable Matanuska River has been eating away at the bank.  The course of the river is shifting and unfortunately a couple houses have been taking the hit.    

 

Old Glenn Highway House

 A little cabin on this property was already lost to the river a few weeks ago and the house itself is now in danger. Once the river jumped the bank, water started flowing in all kinds of places water hasn't been in the last 40 years.

The bike path from the Butte to Palmer

After school, I walked the river trail behind our house to see what was going on with the Knik River. While it is running higher than normal, it is still contained in its banks.   

Knik River viewed from the River Trail

Even though it has been windy and rainy this fall, it hasn't been cold.  There has only been one day of frost, and I think that is why the fall colors seem to be hanging on a little longer than normal. 

A nearby pond

Shadows and Snow on the Mountains

Mostly Cloudy with the Flavor of Fall



Cottonwood Trees by Man-Made

Lake, Knik River, Alaska

Dark mornings, the color on the trees, frost on the windshield, and moose and caribou antlers sticking up in the back of pick-up trucks passing by are all indicators that the season is changing.  Alaska's short lived fall season has arrived.  Now it's a matter of squeezing in a few more outdoor activities between the raindrops before the snow arrives.    



Sunny in Seward

Sailboats in the Seward Harbor

 Every fall, Sailing Inc. in Seward puts on a boat show.  People have the opportunity to walk through different boats and afterward there is a BBQ.  Two years ago we went and enjoyed seeing the different layouts of the various boats.  When we saw that this year's show came with a couple of forecasted days of sunshine, we decided to make our way down there. 

Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska

It turned out to be a nice weekend.  We camped on the beach, walked through some boats, enjoyed some good food, met people in the sailing community, and now it is off to another busy week of work. 

Observing Details in Nature

I was walking around on the sphagnum moss near the pond at our property and a slight movement caught my eye.  At first I thought it was a spider.  When I moved a few plants around, I saw this wood frog that was about the size of a quarter. 

The wood frog is the only amphibian in Southcentral Alaska, and it isn't very often that I run across them. Maybe most of them don't like 7 months of winter and stay as far south as they can. 

While we were hauling wood and clearing brush, I saw this arrangement of mushrooms on a standing birch tree.  I'm not sure what kind of mushroom it is, but I thought it looked pretty cool. Maybe since there wasn't anything big to take pictures of like bear or moose, I had to look at the little details in nature that were worthy of a picture or two. 

August is over . . .

 . . . in about an hour and I haven't made a single post. If I hurry, I can get in a few sentences and I-phone pictures that wrap up the month. Bryant and I continued with our "Summer of the Bike" by camping in Cooper Landing, riding the Resurrection Pass Trail down Devil's Pass and returning back. It turned to be a 56 mile ride and more hours and miles than I had ever put on a mountain bike.    

Bryant eating lunch before fixing my flat tire!

We pulled our usual crack of noon departure, but because of our longer daylight hours in the summer it didn't matter.  We still made it back with a couple hours to spare.  It was nice to be able to complete this trail system this summer as it had been on the list for awhile. 

"The Ribbon Trail" just outside of Grand Junction, CO

 The first week of August, we went to Grand Junction, Colorado to visit Bryant's parents and put a few more miles on the bike. There we had to change our schedule and get up with the sun to avoid the hottest part of the day. 

The "401 Trail" in Crested Butte

After Grand Junction, we headed to Crested Butte to do some more riding and touristing. We rode bikes 5 of the 7 days we were down there. Overall, a nice way to wrap up my summer vacation.

Touristing: A free lift ride to the top of Mt. Crested Butte.

The day after I returned, I dove back into school. The kids started on August 16th.

 A couple of weeks later, I think we are finally getting into a routine even if they aren't as chipper to start school as they were back in 2004. 

Wyatt is still in Jazz band in the mornings and they both decided to join swimming after school. It is good to see them busy doing something. They were both gimping around so much after the first few days of practice I felt bad assigning them lawn duty, so I didn't, and I attacked it an hour at a time after school.

I suspect my next posts will be about autumn colors.  Seeing as August is over, the leaves are turning yellow and it will only be about a week or before they start to peak.  And I usually can't resist pulling over on the way home from work to get some fall photos.   

For More Colorado Pictures:   https://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/Colorado2012