Day Four

Hello everyone. Today was, again, beautiful weather: 60's and sunny. Everyone is really happy with the weather and we can't argue. We had a late morning today. I watched TV and hung out and Katy got to go for a run. Around 11:45 we left to drive to Fort Richardson for the horseback-riding trip. We had to check in on the base and it was sort of an (unexpectedly) complex process. We still got to the meeting place on time and met Steve, our guide and the owner of the business Horse Trekkin' which does trail rides in and around Anchorage. He told us he and his clients before us had seen a bear and we were pretty excited to see one, too.

Me and Steve in front of the horse I rode, Duke.

We didn't see a bear, but we did see a bald eagle and A MOOSE! I spotted it. It crossed the road right in front of us and Steve's dogs froze and then started barking at it. Steve said it was a bull and the bull just stared us down, eventually running off into the woods with the dogs chasing it.

Can you see the moose? Right-hand side by the treeline.

We rode to a high area where it opened up and we could look out and see the valley below where Anchorage is. Steve pointed out Mt. McKinley and Sleeping Lady to us, ranges that people had been talking about.

Katy and I! She's on Rusty.

We came to a part of the base where clearly operations had been done before since there were burned spots and rubble around. It was open, though, and Steve told me to get on Rusty and have a go at running around. It wasn't a very good area for it, though, because the ground was uneven and Rusty wanted to stay with the rest of the horses anyway. It was pretty fun, though. On the way back we waded through a rushing stream. It was really cool. I led because Rusty is Steve's horse and knew the way and is usually the lead horse. He just got in the water and walked right through--he knew the way. I could feel the water pulling him back, though, so the current was really strong but we were fine.

Steve and I, after the ride.

After the ride, we drove up to Eagle River again. We had missed the whole town yesterday (we got off the highway too early) and so we wanted to revisit it. We got lost in a community but when we pulled up alongside to ask a mother where the town was, she offered to let us follow there after giving us an extensive list and description of all the restaurants. People here are BEYOND nice. Also, there apparently were three bears roaming the community. It's intense out here. Anyway, we followed her to the downtown area and eventually settled on Johann's Cottage Cooking and Catering. It was very "homemade" food and DELICIOUS. Best meal yet. We had taco salads each, and shared sweet potato fries, corn fritters (with devilishly delicious honey butter) and peach cobbler. It was so good.

Katy with the interior of Johann's behind her.

After dinner we drove to Thunderbird Falls, something I had read about in our guide books. It was a one-mile hike, but there were quite a few hills to walk up and down and, with a full stomach, I quickly felt ill. We got to the falls and they were sort of underwhelming but it was still a good photo op.

We went back to the hotel room and I took a nap while Katy read. Now we're hanging around the room, getting ready to go to bed for our busy, long day tomorrow. We're going to drive down the Seward highway, one of the top ten most beautiful drives in the country, and go to Seward for a whale-watching/glacier cruise tour. It's a 6-hour tour and we will see whales, other wildlife, and glaciers! I want to see a glacier before they're extinct so I'm looking forward to this next trip.

Tune in for gorgeous picture on the ride down to Seward and (hopefully) pictures of whales and other fun wildlife!

Goodnight, guys!

P.S. Facebook upload tonight!