Camping in Daylight

Winter in Alaska lasts from the end of October till the very end of April. That's seven months. That leaves us only five months for the possibility  of some nice weather. Keeping this in mind I'm sure it's not a surprise to you that whenever the weather is at least a little nice (think low clouds and only a sprinkling of rain), local Juneauites go a little crazy...

We went crazy one weekend not long ago with all the rest of Juneau. It was a miracle indeed, nice weather on a Friday night with equally nice weather expected for the next day as well. How lucky can you get? Quinn and I packed up our backpacks and sleeping bags and headed out to the end of Douglas Island for a camp out.

This would be Greta's first time camping in a tent (as last time we stayed in a cabin), and she was very excited! She pranced along ahead of us on the board walk trail and only looked back when I begged to take her photo...

As you might be able to tell, she wasn't too happy about stopping.

As I said, all of Juneau was outside camping as well and we had a hard time finding a bit of beach to camp on. After hiking farther we found a camp site but someone had trashed it with logs and broken branches. We're not scared of work though, so we set our packs down and started clearing away debris.

It wasn't long before our little spot was looking fine and dandy, the perfect place to call a home-away-from-home!

Greta is jumping up to get a treat, isn't she silly?

Here I am below putting the final touches to our tent, a Swedish dala horse blanket  neatly put on top of our sleeping bags makes everything look nicer. 

Meanwhile, Greta made her own changes to the campsite. Some much needed holes were dug around the campfire (though for what reason we weren't sure).

That's a jingle bell on her collar, we have her wear it when we go on hikes so we always know where she is (and it helps keep away unwanted bears!). 

Quinn carefully unpacked our backpacks and started the fire for the evening meal. On tonight's menu was sausage, potatoes and carrots, and breadsticks baked over the fire. We couldn't wait to smell the food cooking!

The view from our campsite looking out on Admiralty Island.

As I chopped up the vegetables Quinn got a good bed of coals going on the fire so that our dinner, wrapped in foil, would have the perfect place to cook. After we had put everything on the fire we walked down the beach and explored to keep ourselves (and our hungry stomachs) occupied. We found shells and tiny sea creatures and Greta had a fun time splashing in the water ("She's going to sleep in the tent with us, right?" "Yes, of course!" "Well...we may want to dry her off first. I don't want to be smelling like low-tide in the morning!").

Greta watches as Quinn skips rocks across the gentle waves.

Poking little sea anemones. 

Finding tiny treasures. 

 When dinner was finally ready we were overjoyed, for food always tastes better after a long hike and after smelling it cook over a fire. The breadsticks were my favorite part, and were made from a recipe in a book that Abigail gave me for Christmas last year. We have made the recipe several times and the bread always comes out amazingly. I'll have to share it at the end of this post for you, I think you would enjoy it!

Baking the breadsticks over the fire together. 

Golden brown and ready for some butter! Yum!

As the fire died down we sat and listened to the waves rolling in. A ferry from the mine on Admiralty Island had just gone by, delivering miners back home on the dock in Juneau. The waves from the ferry rolled in with white spray, echoing off the rocks and trees were we sat. When the water calmed again a humpback whale passed by, no doubt on his way home as well.

As we got ready for bed, the sky still bright, Quinn put all the food in a backpack and set about climbing a tree to keep it away from bears. We had no intention of meeting a bear in the middle of the night, so up he climbed to find the safest place for tomorrow's breakfast.

Once as a girl my sister and I went camping by ourselves. My mother had my brother Cody come and help us start a fire (much to his joy, I'm sure). He also helped us put our food in a tree so that no bears would come looking for a midnight snack that evening as we slept. 

Well, what a surprise! The next morning we awoke to see that something had gotten into our food, but it wasn't the bear we had feared. A squirrel had gotten into the bag and nibbled on several of our English muffins that we had planned to eat for breakfast. We were in a sorry state when we woke up to no breakfast, but we were relieved that our only intruder had been small!

Thankfully our backpacks are guaranteed squirrel proof (I think), so I wasn't too worried as Quinn climbed back down the tree, our breakfast hidden high above our heads. 

Greta still smelled bit like low tide but we eventually let her in the tent. We slept soundly to the lapping of the waves not far from the tent, the endless Alaskan summer sun still shining beyond the horizon.

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The next morning we woke up to a windy sunny day. Quinn (this time looking a little sleepy-eyed) climbed back up the tree and relayed that no squirrels had gotten into the backpack during the night. We toasted bagels over the fire and started packing up camp, sad to leave but looking forward to the next time we would get to camp as well. 

Did I mention Quinn was feeling a bit sleepy? Greta was too, and they made quite the pair.

As we hiked back down the trail, our true home waiting for us, we were filled with thankfullness for the nice weather and the fun a tent and a campfire can bring to an evening. I hope you're able to go camping this summer, dear reader, for there is just nothing like sleeping under the alder trees listening to the waves go back and forth like a lullaby.

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Poppyseed Campfire Bread

From the book 'Connect with Nature' by Anna Carlile

450g (3 cups/16oz) Self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

60g (2oz) butter, plus extra to serve

40g (1/4 cup/1 1/2 oz) poppyseeds

125 ml (1/2 cup/4 fl oz) milk

1.) Find sticks at least 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) in width, strong enough to hold dough wrapped around it. Wash and dry sticks thoroughly.

2.) Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter to resemble breadcrumbs, then mix in the poppyseeds. Create a well in the middle and add the milk and 1/2-3/4 cup water. Mix the flour into the liquid and bring the mixture together to form a dough. (I made the dough ahead of time and took it with us camping  to save on space in our packs)

3.) Divide dough into portions and roll into logs no wider than 2 cm (4/5 inch) and wrap around sticks.
4.) Once the fire has burnt to embers, place your campfire bread stick over the embers and cook until it sounds hollow when you tap it, around 10-15  mixtures depending on the heat of the fire and the width of the dough.
5.) You can also bake the campfire bread in an oven at 200C (400F) for 20-30 minutes. 

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An Anniversary - Part 2

Day two of our anniversary camping trip dawned rather rainy and gray, but how calming it was to hear rain pattering on the roof in the early hours of the morning.

Breakfast was english muffins toasted over a welcoming fire, with candles and our kerosene lamp burning brightly to banish away the dark clouds carrying rain.

Soon we were dressed and setting off in the canoe again to explore the rocky cliffs near the cabin. Quinn and his family had often come to the cliffs on nice days, and at high tide would jump off of them into the cold water below. On that particular morning we decided not to take the plunge...though Greta wanted to jump overboard to attack the scary bunches of seaweed floating by.

We came to rest our canoe on a sandy stretch of beach where Quinn and his sisters had many times before moored their kayaks. At high tide, it was a nice place to go swimming all on its own, but ever the adventurer, Quinn always looked forward to the cliff jumping.

Thankfully, I talked him out of doing it that morning, ha! And instead we combed the beach and rocks for drift wood, searched for shells on the beach, and got a talking-to from a pair of marmots who had a burrow in the rocks.

A little rain shower came and shooed us back to the safety and dryness of our cabin and fire, but not before we had filled several pockets with shells and the whole canoe with firewood.

We curled up in quilts and read books we had brought. Greta slept near the cabin door, even in sleep alert to anyone going out (so she could go out too). And then! Well, the sun came and chased the gray rainy clouds away and we were left with such a hot afternoon, that I had to change into the dress I had worn the day before for its short sleeves! We may have even gone wading in the sea (I say wading because it was not swimming. I got a bit above my waist and chickened out.)!

Before to long it was time for dinner and we had brought things to make vegetable soup (though we had forgotten our new pot. Oops!). We decided our tea kettle would work just fine for a pot, so Quinn set to work making the soup.

But then, imagine my joy at finding sweet peas covering the rocky shore! Grabbing a bowl I carefully made my way through their twisty shoots and gathered the little pods. We would have fresh picked peas in our soup!






















I don't think we could have asked God for a more lovely evening. Eagles called to each other right above us, and we heard the distant voice of a sea lion swimming by the cove.  And oh, what a yummy supper...

After supper was eaten and the dishes had been washed in the near-by creek, we loaded ourselves up into the canoe one more time to go see the sunset. We were just in time. As we climbed up the rocks, the two marmots whistled at us again, but we didn't pay them too much heed, we were there for something else...

"Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all."

1 Chronicles 29:11

In the glow of the fading sunset, we sang sea shanties together and talked about the journey we've had thus far together. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have Quinn by my side each day. I wouldn't have been able to get through these last two years without him holding me up, protecting me, and loving me. 

And of course, this blog would not be here if he didn't take photos for me...

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

Psalm 19:1

The next morning it was time to go back to work, for both of us. But we were so happy to have had such a fun and relaxing time together to celebrate two years in marriage. It was hard to leave such a stunning scene:

The water was so calm it seemed a crime to paddle through it in the canoe. 

A sad goodbye was said to the cabin and soon we were off, but the views on the way back made it a little bit easier to leave...

And of course, who could resist a sleepy puppy?

Thank you so much for adventuring along with me through my stories and photos, I hope you enjoyed your time with the family from Blueberry Barn. 

Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you safe!

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An Anniversary - Part 1

Tuesday, July 12th, Quinn and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. 

How very short and very long those two years have seemed, yet still God has been beside us (even when we were not beside Him). Though it's much easier to look back and see the hardships we have faced together, I am determined to remember the good - which is always a much better outlook, don't you agree?

Quinn is always on top of things, and he was thinking of our anniversary all the way back in January. He rented a cabin in a small cove way 'out the road,' only assessable by trail or water. And because of all my silly romantic notions, it was a good thing we went by water (I may have packed quite a bit).

Before my family moved away from Juneau, they left our trusty canoe with my Aunt and Uncle, who were very kind to let us borrow it for our short journey.

It was rather exciting tying it to the top of our little car (and it longer on both ends than the vehicle!). Thankfully, we got it safely to the secluded beach, and off we paddled in the early morning light to our home-away-from-home for the next two days!

Greta had never been in a canoe before, and we were worried she would try to jump off (as she had done several days early off of our father's new paddle board). We worried needlessly however, though she loved looking up over the side, she soon grew tired of the water and ripples and instead laid down on our rolled up sleeping bags and took a nap.

Soon we rounded the last rocky cliff and there it was, our own little cabin. 

I had visited the cabin once before as an 18-year-old camp counselor with our local church camp. All the counselors had gone on a day-long hike to the lake above the cabin and then spent the night there (girls inside, boys outside in tents). Quinn however has been to the cabin countless times, he even 'helped' build it back in the days when his father was a State Park Ranger. It was so funny to think back to those years gone by and imagine what we would have thought had we known we'd one day be staying in the cabin with our spouse, two years married!

After settling in, unpacking all our things, and having a quick lunch, we hiked to Cedar Lake. Cedars are hard to find in Juneau, but around the perimeter of this lake we found quite a few. There were also plenty of ripe blueberries, making Greta stop every couple minutes to beg for us to pick them for her...

Sometimes she gets spoiled...don't worry, it doesn't happen often.

Greta loved the lake, though not so much anymore when Quinn put her in the water. I can't really blame her though, the water was very cold and a not-so-nice wind was blowing across the lake. Quinn and I floated around on a raft and tried to soak up the sunshine and ignore the wind.

Doesn't Greta look like a Sea Captain ready to launch her new ship?

Soon we started to get hungry for dinner, so back down the trail we went - being careful of the devil's club (the spikiest plant in Alaska) and making sure to look up every so often to enjoy the view of blue sky.

Devil's Club has nasty spikes and thorns covering the woody stem and the bottom, sides and top of its giant leaves. The plants can grow higher than six feet, making them more like trees in the wilderness of Alaska. It's very easy to accidentally grab hold of a brach of devil's club if you're hiking up a steep mountain, so always be on the look-out for it!

Spruce tree tops high above the trail.

Back at the cabin, we scoured the beach for driftwood for our fire. The cabin gets used very often, so there wasn't much to be found. But what we needed to make dinner was not the fire itself but some good coals, for we were making Hobo Stew!

I got the recipe from my Aunt Freddie (the same Aunt who lent us the canoe) many years ago. Potatoes, onions, carrots, and hamburger all mixed together in tin foil and carefully laid out on a hot bed of coals...I can't think of a yummier supper. Of course, its a pretty sad mix unless you have some salt and spices - which we remembered to bring among all the other things to pack (thankfully).

And after a long day of hiking and canoeing, smelling that 'stew' was wonderful!

Carefully setting the hobo stew on the hot coals.

Potatoes, onions and carrots ready to eat!
(The hamburger we cooked in a separate tin foil wrap, with extra onions for flavor.)

God richly blessed us with beautiful weather and a cool breeze that kept the (giant Alaskan) mosquitoes away. We sat together at the fire eating our supper and listening to the whistles of the marmots as they ran back and forth across the beach below us.

All we could hear were the marmot's whistles, the sound of the waves on the beach, and the crackling of the fire. We felt totally alone and so very peaceful.

But of course, peacefulness had to be set aside so we could bring out the s'mores supplies and bicker over the best roasting stick (I'm joking, of course I gave Quinn the better stick)!

Camping anywhere just wouldn't be the same without some marshmallows...

Quinn got the good stick, the one with TWO prongs, because I love him.

After supper, all that was left to do was enjoy the scenery and talk about the plans we had for the next day. And as the sun slowly vanished behind the trees and the sky grew dark, we fell asleep hearing the waves and the fire, and were so happy to be together.

Quinn wrote on a log in the fire with ash. It reads: 'Q E 7-12"

Part two of this story will be coming soon!

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