Supposedly the three peaks we bagged had never been climbed before. But even so, whoever named this bay must have known how spectacular it is up on the peaks, because the views definitely hit the Jackpot!

These days I don’t have as much time for big adventures, so I have to ration them. But that doesn’t mean I’m not getting outside. I’ve been doing more runs in the mountains right near home. Here’s a great one I just did: up the Falls Creek trail to South Suicide peak, then drop down the ridge behind McHugh Lake, then run out the Rabbit Lake trail. Its amazing that all of this is less than 20 minutes from home!

Erik, my ski buddy from the Park City days, and his wife Emily were in town recently. Erik really wanted to try this packrafting thing that I’m always raving about. And you know me - I’m always up for a run-n-float!

June 16: We had quite the large flotilla on Eagle River on Saturday. Ten of us hiked over Cross Pass from Girdwood and floated out in our packrafts.

October 13: It was probably our last weekend of nice weather before winter sets in, so I really wanted to go packrafting. So what if the water is already freezing?

On Sept 13, Rob Whitney and I joined Tim Kelley for a peakbagging attempt in Prince William Sound.

Sept 2-4: After a summer of generally miserable weather, Linda and I were treated to sunny weather and beautiful blue skies on Labor Day weekend. We went to Denali National Park to hike over Windy Pass and packraft the Sanctuary River.

August 5: Linda, Scott and I did a hike up the new Winner Creek trail in Girdwood. From the pass we went down the other side and floated out the Twenty Mile River.

June 25: Tim Kelley and I went peakbagging in the Lynx Creek area of the Kenai Mountains. Center Creek gave us a good excuse to do some packrafting as well. Also be sure to look at Tim’s photos and comments.

Labor Day weekend 2005 was forecasted to be rainy. But we thought we could squeeze in a short overnight hike before the rains came.