Bench Lake

It was ten below when we left our house early Saturday morning. I was a bit skeptical when Ry told me Bill had said that it was warmer at his house than in Palmer....Bill lives up north between Chickaloon and the Matanuska glacier, a pretty consistently colder than Palmer area. But it was supposed to cloud over and warm up, and we didn't really want to freeze in Anchorage, so we went anyway.

One word sums up the whole trip...BRRRRRRRR!!!! I think that it was at least twenty below when we got there, and then we rode on Bill's snowmachine to get to the yurt site and the cabin where he was staying. We drove by some amazing climbs, but it was twenty below, and we kept driving.

The next morning we awoke to cold temps again, and decided to do a little recon from Bill's house. I felt like a cartoon character named Puffy the waddling woman, I could barely move with all the clothes I had on.

The Fire

 

We hiked for over an hour till we got to a bluff above Gravel Creek, then we hastily built a fire, stopped and drank tea, looked around, and headed back.



I have to say visiting Bill made me feel like those times when you go camping, and come back and are so appreciative again of the little things like indoor heating and toilet paper. It'll be great when the yurt is finished.