Birdbath by Amanda Motonaga

Last year I had a birdbath incident that ended up in a multi piece birdbath that wasnt very good at holding water. I knew Amanda was a potter and asked through Gregg if she would be willing to create a new one for the yard. A few weeks later she produced this beautiful piece that really compliments the work my mom has recently done in the yard. I have been waiting for some good light, but with all the cloudy/rainy days lately I bagged the waiting and took a few photo's of it last evening. Thanks Amanda!

Skyline to Resurrection

I spent Sunday and Monday on a hike from the skyline trail head into the Kenai mountains, skirted around Trout lake and met up with Resurrection trail. The ridge tops were easy but the alders were a pain. I always forget how hard they are to negotiate. I didn't see any bears, but did see a few sheep. As you can see in the sunset picture, the bugs were pretty rough and I forgot the bug dope. Won't make that mistake again.
Cheers,
Josh

Day 2 Talkeetna to Denali Base Camp

Our second day we woke up and were at the Talkeetna Air Taxi hangar by 8am and checked in, weighed our gear, and staged everything. We spent most of the day waiting for weather and a backlog of climbers flying out from previous bad weather. You give them your cell phone number then you can wander around town until it's go time. We ended up getting into base camp around 6pm that evening so we set up camp, made a bit of dinner and went to bed. It was a beautiful evening and a great way to start off our trip. We were scheduled to fly in in a 185, but my sled wouldn't fit in so we got upgraded to a beaver. The flight in was great because it was just TJ, Me, and an AMS guide heading in for a personal trip so were weren't crowded in with a bunch of people. The Alaska range is amazing.
Cheers,
Josh

Day 1

We rolled into Talkeetna and met up with Colby and Caitlan and delivered some fish that Bob and Mary Ellen had sent up with us and they let us stay in their tents and use their space to organize and pack our gear for the millionth time.

Hunter/Denali

We are back from an amazing trip, I'll break the trip down by section over the week with a few pictures.
Hope all is well,

Josh

Packing, organizing, then re-packing and re-organizing

The last two weeks have been a combo of training and picking up the last few items we need to pull this thing off. Buying stuff is the easy part, organizing and packing is the hard part. I have made countless checklists for gear, food, clothes etc, and I think it's all starting to come together. We will hopefully be flying out of Talkeetna into Denali base camp on the afternoon of the 6th, staying the night at basecamp, then moving down the Kahiltna to the base of our route on Mt. Hunter on the 7th. If all goes well, you may be seeing a SPOT message on the page from the summit of Mt. Hunter around the 12th or 13th depending on conditions and weather. Deep and unstable snow will be our largest foe, and is what usually turns people around on Mt. Hunter. The success rate is very low on this mountain and we know what were up against. Strong legs and minds will hopefully prevail. I have included a few pics of the preparation process.
Josh

Training Partners

Here are my training partners for most of the winter and spring on skyline. It was a bit overcast today but it was nice and warm. Today was probably the last time I will make it up skyline before the climb. I spent the day yesterday picking up a few last minute items in Anchorage and caught a presentation by Ira Glass, the creative mind behind This American Life. Heading over to Bob's tonight to pick up some more stuff i'm borrowing, then hauling the tire around tonight.
Cheers,
Josh