Seashells by the seashore

I thought these pictures Quent took were really neat! We were testing out the new camera.

 

Risen Tide

 

Guess what??

The other day I (Christina) received a prized possession...a NEW camera!! Here are a "few" of the first pictures that were captured with it. This morning was beautiful and I couldn't help but make a few stops before going to work.

 

My turn!

The pictures Quent has been taking are breathtaking! Sometimes I wish my index finger was the one clicking away at the winter wonderland around me. BUT...I haven't been brave enough to go up the mountain. I do enjoy the outdoors here and I do enjoy hiking, but skiing...now that would scare me. Ha! Lately my knee has been bothering me, otherwise I would be very tempted to at least snowshoe and maybe being a sled. Haha! No way! I know...excuses, excuses!

Here are a couple of pictures I took over an interesting snow formation on our deck.

We got 16 inches of snow on Thursday. It's beautiful. Did the groundhog see his shadow? Ha!

Snowmobile, Snowshoe, and Ski

I borrowed a kind-hearted coworker's snowmobile to get to the trailhead. At which point I strapped on my snowshoes and hiked and hiked and hiked. Then skied all the way back down to the snowmobile.

I had been hiking three hours and wasn't even half way to where I wanted to be. I thought about hiking a little more before turning around until I saw the sun come out and light up the top as shown in this picture. I decided I had to go up there in the hope that the sun would come out again. It did, just as I crested the top several hours later. Perfect timing.

Had this overcast sky and flurries all day until I reached the top.

The snow was deep. Between 26-30 inches of fluffly powder everytime I measured it in the flats. Even with snowshoes on I would sink down 16-20 inches (knee deep). In areas like this I cut across the slope through waist deep powder. The five minutes of skiing through this section was incredible. It made the trip.

6.5 Hours Later...

Almost at the top. Yes, it took me 6.5 hours to get to the top. In the summer I make it up here in a hour.

I'm on top but what happened to my snowcave!?! I dug for a while but wasn't able to make it to the entrance. I'm sure I could have but I was running short of time and my skis work a lot better on my feet than in my hands acting as a shovel.

Don't look back. This tree turned into a pillar of salt.

Wonder what I would have looked like if I had been up here when this happened. The intricate details for these snowblasted trees are beautiful.

 

Relaxing on Top

Generic shelter photo. Note the size of the drift on the back. By the end of the day there were tracks up the drift and onto the roof. Just had to go up there so I could jump off.

Pretty neat miniture cornice. I think it's waiting to giveway under the weight of some unsuspecting hiker.

Sitting on top of the shelter, eating my well-deserved snack.

Looking toward the backchannel. A wonderful white world.

High Country Shelter

Blasted with snow.

These are icicles that were blasted with snow and grew about 3 times their original diameter. Quite unique.

Now just where is that outhouse!?? Hope it's not needed because little lump of snow in the foreground is all that is visible.

Making tracks toward home. This was the best powder day I have experienced in years (or maybe ever). It was awesome! I was too busy skiing to take pictures until this point but there were several steep sections where I would make a turn and find my shoulder plowing through the fluffy snow during the turn. The skiing was almost effortless as I would bounce from one turn and into the next. Just thinking about it makes me want to go up there tomorrow.

Fresh Snow

Between 8 pm and 6:45 am we received 16 inches of fresh snow in Wrangell after 4-8 inches had been forecasted. I didn't mind. It created a winter wonderland. Too bad I didn't have the camera earlier in the day when the sun will illuminating the hillsides in a grand fashion.

Serpentine snowshoe tracks.

The trees collected almost half of the snow.

Should have used a tripod but I didn't have one with me. Still a nice cascading water effect out of a beautifully installed smooth inner wall 36" HDPE culvert.

 

Kitties Causing Trouble

Got a bag of catfood today and set it down in a room and closed the door... Later we opened the door and I noticed some cats in there. Here Shadow is checking out the catfood bag.

Next she calls in the big boy to take care of things.

Tigger at work. I couldn't believe how quick and efficient he was at getting the bag open. I thought he was just innocently nibbling the bag (couldn't see anything from my angle) until I heard catfood pouring out of the bag. After that this mean old human put an end to their fun.

 

Late Afternoon Sky

I found a pretty nice sunset a few days ago. Beautiful sky. If you look past the nose, the clouds between there and Zarembo are a lovely purple hue.

Seems as though that tree could be removed and I'm not talking about editing.

These trees framed the photo nicely.

 

The Beach

Believe it or not, this was the first time we have been to the beach here in Wrangell. Well, at least the closest thing to a real beach. Welcome to Eight-Mile Beach! It was another beautiful day here in Wrangell!