After we got down from the glacier, we had a week of easy recovery training. No better time to do some adventuring and have a girls camping trip! The USST girls plus Astrid went to Holly Brook’s cabin down in Hope, and it was an awesome trip. Although you can look across Turnagain Arm and see the town from Anchorage, because the Turagain has the second most active tides in the world you have to drive all the way around. This is actually pretty sweet because it’s a scenic drive and it means that Hope is still a rustic, adorable small town with the legendary Seaview café, where the locals hang out on the porch, drink beer and eat the homemade pie.
The gang at Holly’s cabin: Ida, Liz, Astrid, Sadie, Kikkan, Me and Holly (photo from Kikkan)
Holly and Rob have been working hard on the cabin – I guess mostly Rob since Holly’s been training hard with us, so…you go, Rob! I love the way their new cabin looks, and I can tell that when it’s done it’s going to be an awesome retreat every weekend. We stayed in their old cabin, which was still super nice, with plenty of beds up in the loft.
Wildly excited about fresh garden things (photo from Kikkan)
I think our camping trip could more accurately be called “Gucci camping”…we weren’t exactly roughing it, since we had amazing caribou sausage to roast over the campfire and fresh veggies given to us by the Ronsse family. But it sure was awesome.
Walking out to check on the new cabin (photo from Holly)
We also got to go swimming that night in the river with some pink salmon! Well, technically they were kind of black-and-molding looking to me since they were starting to die, which now sounds gross since we jumped in with them. But it was cool to see them swimming up the river.
Sadie and I psyched about life (photo from Holly)
Holly got a big one! (photo from Kikkan)
Sades and Ida had to leave the next morning but the rest of us went fishing in the Kasilof river for salmon, guided by our friend Cory, who runs Chugach Backcountry Fishing. We had a great time, and Kikkan and Holly both caught King Salmon!!! Yum yum. Astrid also caught a baby king salmon but since it was basically a sardine we let it go, though Rob was pushing for us to keep it and gulp it down.
Astrid, Holly, me, Liz, dinner item #1, Kikkan, dinner item #2, Cory (picture from Kikkan)
We then proceeded to cook the fish straight away on the fire, and it tasted just like chicken Alaska!
Liz was psyched on the fish skins! (photo from Holly)
Headed out for a run and stoked on it! (photo from Kikkan)
We also went for a really cool run out to Gull rock, but because it was a recovery week we didn’t do the entire trail. We did, however, spend some time at the beach.
On our run (photo by Kikkan and her camera’s self-timer. All right!)
Beach time – a little rockier and muddier than usual! (photo from Kikkan)
Holly, Liz and Astrid at our turn around point
Part #3 of my adventures in Alaska coming up soon…
