Date: 17 June 2001 (Sunday)

Start:

End: Black Spruce Travel Camp, Ft Richardson AK (0 miles)

It was 51f with very few clouds when we got up.

We did breakfast in the little house in the army woods, then headed north in the truck, intending to go to the Eklutna site where natives have been living for years, most of those years in the Russian Orthodox religion. There’s an onion-dome church and related cemetery.

The guide book said it’s open every day. That’s wrong – they’re closed on Sundays.

We took a ride to look around the Palmer/Wasilla/Knik areas. There really is some agriculture up here. But not as much as some touting the Matanuska – Susitna valley would have you believe. It’s too complicated a subject to take on here, and books have been written on the subject. On the way back to Anchorage across the flats, I saw an eagle flying along.

It was another beautiful day, reaching 75 in mid-afternoon. But we ran out of energy after the ride and a walk. So we had lunch and bought the Sunday paper, then returned to the little house to relax and just take it easy.

I did some computer chores, getting ready for e-mailing some of our photos. While doing other chores, on the way to dump trash into the dumpster, I scared a hare – a snowshoe hare. That was one big, moving, rabbit.

We read up on the Seward area (next stop). We stumbled across a book we’d intended to use in planning that had gotten to the bottom of the stack.

Then we had dinner in the little house (father’s day choice) of chicken and a British Columbia Chardonnay.

We took a walk around the campground and prepared to depart in the morning.