Snow!

I woke up early this morning after I had a dream about a grizzly bear outside of our tent. When I yelled at it to go away, it ran right up next to the tent and was breathing in my ear really loud. Then I woke up and Charity was breathing really loud like a bear. So I got up and went to the bathroom and looked out the window and it was snowing!!!

We went on a walk around 4 mile lake the other day. It was neat when the sun came out right when it was setting. It lit the hill up really bright while the island stayed out of the sun. The ice on the lake was nice and clear and as smooth as glass. We didn't see any moose, but we saw a few birds and another hawk owl.

Chicken!

This is a picture of Chicken. The only other buildings besides the ones in the picture are a few small cabins and some big gold dredges.





The very faint mountian in the Center of this picture is Mount Sanford which is about 100 miles south of where I took the picture. The mountains of the Alaska Range in the foreground (of Mt. Sanford and in the background of the rolling hills) are about 30 miles away. Mount Sanford is 16,237 feet above sea level and it is located in the Wrangells. The mountains of the Alaska Range rise 5-6,000 feet above sea level.

Saturday Drive

Charity and I went on a ride saturday because we both didn't have to work. We drove up the Taylor Highway. We didn't see to much wildlife on our drive north toward Chicken and Eagle. When we were almost to Chicken Charity spotted a small herd of about 10-15 caribou. We stopped the car and walked up along a river to get close enough for some good pictures. There was one really big bull in the herd and here are some pictures of him. We were going to ride all the way to Eagle to see the Yukon River and to see Eagle because we've never been there... but we ran out of time because of our stop to see the caribou and I had to be back to eat dinner and go to work at 9. We only made it about 12 miles past Chicken and then we turned back. Chicken is a small town, it has about 8 full time residents. Past Chicken there is a dead end road to Eagle and another road to Boundary (also just a few full time residents) and Poker Creek (border crossing, 2 residents half the year) then on to the Top of the World Highway in Canada. Today was a really nice day and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, which was good because the Taylor Highway is a no winter maintenence road after mid-September. On the way back we spotted a Hawk-Owl and I figured I'd put that picture up for Ben since he is a crazy birder like Charity.

Mountains

This is a picture of the same mountains as before, except I took the picture about 20 miles north of where I took the picture from before.

Northern Lights

I took this picture on my way to work. That bright spot that looks like a light is actually the moon and the northern lights are visible around the moon. Usually the moon is too bright to see the northern lights well, except they were really bright tonight. The reflection is from the roof of our car.

Mountains

Here is a closer picture of the mountains.

This is a picture of downtown Tok, Ak and the Alaska Highway. The mountains in the background are southwest of town.

We got our new camera today!

Here are some pictures I took with our new camera before I decided to read the manual and figure out what all the little buttons do. Here is a picture of the place we are staying at right now. We are house-sitting for our Pastor Troy and his wife Rita.

This picture is a Snowshoe Hare that is turning white.

Bryanna's Buck

This is my sister in laws buck from last years rifle season.

My First Archery Buck

This is the first buck I shot in archery season. I shot him at 30 yards from the ground. I was walking back to my car from my stand before dark and ran into this guy on the way out. I was lucky enough that he didn't see me and I drew my Bow and sent my 100 grain broadhead, traveling at 272 fps, into his rib cage. He traveled about 75 yards before piling up. I had seen an 8-pointer earlier in the season in this area that was about 14 inches wide and I thought that was the buck that I had shot. Boy was I surprised when I found this buck! He had a 20" inside spread and went about 220 pounds.