An Alaskan Heat Wave, Earthquakes and oh those Mosquito's!

The post title sounds like the end of times!  There has been almost two weeks of steady blue skies, sunshine and record temps in a region usually enjoying a little rain and moderate temps.  The newscasters are warning everyone to remember to use sunscreen since they don't see this many days in a row of no clouds.  Add the long days (sunrise at 4:30 am, sunset at 11:31 pm) and you have lots of sunshine.  It has been in the high sixties to low seventies since we got here.  Sunday and Monday the high will be 77.  Don't be too envious all you Vegas friends!  We still have to run the air conditioner!  Overnight the Lupines grew and bloomed!  We can sit and watch the pine trees at our site get new buds.  Its been a wonderful week!

The bad part of all this wonderful weather is the red flag warnings for fires in the area.  Hopefully they will get some rain soon.  The forecast in Cooper Landing calls for rain next weekend, let's hope it comes.  

I felt an earthquake the other morning while still in bed.  Come to find out, they have dozens of earthquakes every day.  All fairly small.  This region is pretty amazing with the volcanos, glaciers and earthquakes.  It is pretty spectacular!

The mosquito's have come out in full force!  Their bites are mean and the welts left behind are large and itchy.  We've only been hit a few times so far.  The pups not at all.  I mixed up some natural repellant for them and it seems to work.  The pests like to buzz around their big ears.  We try to limit our outside time to daytime, but even then they are vicious.  We put up the screen room so we can enjoy happy hour outside.  

It's been kind of a lazy week, the beast got a much needed washing off, we did lots of paddling around Kenai Lake in the Kayak, hikes around the resort and at Russian River (at least until fishing season started, then bam! the fishermen lined the banks) and general goofing off.  

Russian River

Russian River

The pups are ready 

Russian River

Mowgli in his lifevest for Kayaking

Gidget in her lifevest

The Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge

Just floating on the lake

Kenai Lake

Kayaking on the Kenai Lake

Miniature sled dogs in training

We will be leaving here on Monday, heading for Kasilof.  We need to replenish some fruits and veggies in Soldotna, then a week of seeing what's around.  After Kasilof it's on to Homer Spit, the end of the road!  

The Papillons are great sports!

I realize I should have pictures of the Pups going on their many adventures, but sometimes you just can't take the Iphone out.

We packed up everyone and off we went to Hidden Lake.  Hidden Lake is located 4 1/2 miles off the highway on a dirt road.  Dirt roads in Alaska mean lots of bumps, ruts, and four wheel drive.  The scenery was amazing along the way.

The pups have little life vests with our names, phone numbers, etc all over them.  In addition we held on to their leashes not sure of their reaction to gliding on the water.  Mowgli laid down between Erics feet and found his happy place.  Gidget on the other hand watched everything from my lap, wanting to see everything that was happening.  Hidden Lake had a nice boat ramp, a little cove that if I was a Moose, I would be there, and lots of mosquitos.  We got itchy bit for the first time on our trip.  They are crazy hungry I guess, because even with bug spray on, they were on the warpath.  We enjoyed a little paddle time on the water and I practiced my rowing.  I'm new to this stuff, so I'm trying to catch on.  The pups seemed to enjoy their ride, but Gidget was a little shocked when I took her out of the kayak and placed her on the boat ramp.  Guess she didn't know it was cold water she was gliding over.  Mowgli went out with Eric for a short little spin to see if he couldn't enjoy himself a little more.  

At every lake we have visited in Alaska you will see these...

Lifevests for children

These lifevests are right at the boat ramps so you can borrow them for your kids.  What a great idea!  From the looks of things, it looks like people respect the "borrow" part and leave them hanging when they are done.  We did see a small motorized canoe come in when we were done with two small kids, but no lifevests on.  Amazing!  you can lead a horse to water.....

Today we took the short hike down to the Kenai river to watch the Cooper Landing Regatta to celebrate the start of the fishing season.  Small fishing boats drifted by the rapids.  It was a quick short show and we headed back up the hill.

Gidget on the watch for bears (or squirrels)

After the Regatta, we cleaned up our bikes, replaced a couple of screws that fell out along the way (I told you the roads were rough!) and attached the pups baskets.  We rode around the park and the pups rode in their baskets.  They seemed to enjoy the wind blowing in their ears!  After a few rounds, we decided it was happy hour!  We set up the loungers in the screen room to avoid further mosquito bites and enjoyed our libations.  The pups were pooped after all this fun!

The plan for tomorrow is the Russian River Falls again since we heard the salmon are jumping and the bears are eating.  After that we will probably drop the kayak in Kenai Lake for a while.  Due to the assumption that bears may be there, we will leave the pups at the rv park.  We drop off our keys with the campground host just in case there is an emergency.  Its nice to be able to do that.  Gonna miss this place when we have to move on.