Spring Camping

Karen with the dogs - Katie and Jake

Karen and Katie on Crow's pass trail - Eagle River

Karen and Katie heading up the trail

Beautiful Alaskan afternoon

This is going to be cold!

What's for dinner Eric?

2 dogs and Eric in a 2 man tent.....

Filtering drinking water on the Eagle River



Eric and I decided to go hiking into the backcountry this weekend and do some camping. This was the first time we had ever done this, so I was a bit nervous. The bears have not come out of hibernation yet, so this was a good time to go. We have all of the gear, so packed everything in our backpacks, and went out there.

We drove up to the Eagle River Nature Center, which is only 10 miles from our house. There is a great place to start a hike. We went out on the Crow's pass trail, which is 24 miles to Girdwood. We would like to hike the entire trail this summer - but not this weekend! The day was nice and sunny. Temps were around 30 - which feels pretty good. We leased up the dogs, and headed up the mountain.

The trail had quite a bit of ice, and I wished we brought our ice cleats. Luckily the dogs are pretty well behaved, and did not pull on their leashes. When I started to slide, I told Katie to slow down, and she did.

We hiked for about 6 miles, and stopped at a small clearing by the Eagle River. I was pretty tired from carrying about 30 pounds on my back. That is going to take some training! We brought freeze dried dinners to eat, and a small backpacking stove. We ate Mexican chicken and rice by the campfire. A few hikers walked by, but we were pretty much alone in the wilderness.

The dogs were beat, so they quickly laid down in the tent. Eric and I ate, and talked, then decided to call it a night.

I could not sleep very well - it was really cold, and I was scared of the animals. Eric had a gun, and we packed some pepper spray. The dogs were pretty cold, and kept moving around the tent. We finally got them settled down - Jake slept in Eric's sleeping bag, and Katie in mine.

I must have been dreaming because I started to talk in my sleep. I thought I saw a moose, and asked Eric if he shot the moose. He was confused, so I asked again if he got the moose. He figured out I was just talking in my sleep, and told me that he got the moose. It was a long night......

We ate freeze dried ham and eggs in the morning, and I was still starving after we ate. I decided to gather some water from the river by using our water filter. That helped for a while. We enjoyed the camp fire for a while, then decided to head home.

Those 6 miles were the longest ever! I was so exhausted and hungry! I was really glad we decided to go camping. I'm proud of myself for getting out there. I think we are going to go camping again next weekend......