Day 79: Girdwood

July 2, 2014

Today was another beautiful day in Alaska. Blue skies, scattered puffy white clouds, temps in the low 50's when we got up and mid 70's this afternoon. Pretty much perfect for anything you might want to do outside.

This morning was again consumed with some business that had to be taken care of but before lunch we headed to Girdwood. Girdwood is about 18 miles north of Williwaw where we are camping. We had talked to some of the people at Girdwood Chapel Sunday and as Nomads offered to help with whatever needs they might have while we are here. Two of the first requests were to help someone move and to help in the community garden. We know our families will see the irony and humor in that - and perhaps there is a spiritual object lesson in it for us.

Today we did some work in the community garden. The community garden is available to anyone in the community to use but no one is allowed to sell what they grow. It is only for subsistence needs and for use in the church's food bank. Its raised beds have strawberries, raspberries, corn, squash, beans, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, several kinds of lettuce and other vegetables and herbs. It is also in the woods with trees on all sides. That's a lot different from gardens at home. We had received a request to do some watering because “it has been so warm.” Seems a little strange to Alabama natives when it is in the 90's at home and 60's here. But – the garden was dry and we did water everything. Also, did a little weeding while we were there. We also helped – sort of – or at least hung out and visited with the members working on parking signs for the Forest Fair that takes place this weekend. This is a really nice community and we are enjoying getting to know some of the locals.

While visiting with the sign painters one of the ladies told us about a hike to a waterfall that was less than a mile from the church. She told us it was a little buggy but “it's worth it.” So we hiked to Virgin Creek Falls. It was so worth it. We had bug spray in the truck which was needed but the short hike was wonderful and the falls so pretty. While we were getting ready for that hike a young man of Asian decent came over and wanted to pet scout and then kissed him! Scout has become quite popular this week – a kiss today and two days ago called "labradorable".

Before we left Girdwood we stopped at the "Merc", which is the Mercantile store there, just to look around. Out in the parking lot we found this example of how bad the cottonwood fallout is this year.

After getting back to the campground we rode bikes over to the salmon viewing platform and there were two salmon in the creek. Hard to see but there they were. There were none when we checked this morning. Hopefully before we leave here Monday we will see a lot more salmon.

They're there

That's about it for today. Tomorrow – planning to hike from the ski resort to the Crow Creek Mine. Hoping for another beautiful day!!