Twenty & Twenty-Five
Another year condensed into a single entry. The goal now is to break this habit. But art school isn’t even half over, and I’m only now in Beginning Painting and learning what acrylics can do. So, it’ll be a long term goal.
February 2nd. Midnight at the cabin.
Summer
Denali once more, though given another thousand servings of it I guarantee no two would be the same, due to some combination of the park and myself always changing. As I was hiking up a mountain trail and looking at my steps, thinking about how these same grades get harder every year, I happened to look up and spied a Dall sheep laying down just 35ft or so up the trail. It's a good thing I stopped when I did or I would have freaked it out, and then I would have freaked out. I was so close that I could smell it. I took a seat in place and snapped a few photos of it with the telephoto lens. As I munched on the trail mix I've had for a good year or two we both sat near each other and looked out over the Alaska Range. After some time it got tired of me and moved downhill, and I continued up the trail.
Autumn
There's still no frost but all of town is golden with birch leaves. There's a steady stream of falling leaves despite the still air, and they’re so dried out that they make a crinkling noise as they hit the ground.
July 18th. Denali.
September 21st. Creamers Field.
October 24th. Kenai Peninsula.
Winter
It’s neat to be a tourist in Alaska and head south this time of year, back into warmish weather and there’s still rain. These little glaciated valleys are a hoot to explore and they feel surreal with the mist and blue light of twilight that saturated every bit of substrate and water. With the tourist season over and the entry road empty, it all feels a thousand miles away from the nearest outpost of civilization. I can’t help but think that if something were to happen out here tonight, I might not be found until seasons later, if at all. News travels at the glacier’s pace here. It’s no wonder that the last round of the American Civil War was fired in Alaska, months after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox (though those shots were fired far from here off the coast of the Aleutians, it all feels like a single forgotten world).
October 24th. Kenai Peninsula.