Winner Creek and the HandTram

Have I mentioned that it's kinda rainy here? Well, yesterday the skies cleared, the mountains showed their faces and Matt got kicked out of work to take in some sunshine.  (Seriously, his boss came by his office 3 times to tell him to get out and enjoy the day! Pretty good gig, huh?).  So, what can you do that's fun and outside and free...hiking! We ventured back out to Alyeska Resort, where we celebrated our one year anniversary, and hit the trail, Winner Creek Trail to be exact, this time. I think it was about another good 5-6 mile hike round trip.

We headed out with our newly purchased bear spray and one of Matt's co-workers, Kim. It was beautiful.

The area we hiked is a rain forest, so it was all very green and lovely. 

We didn't bring Mocha this time, but now that I know it's dog friendly, we'll have to do that next time around.

We crossed some logs (there is actually a bridge for those not as daring as us:) )...

We enjoyed the gushing rivers running through the area...

And then we came to this...

The infamous Hand Tram.  I had heard a lot of people get to this point and turn around and go back. But not us...even with my fear of heights...and holding on for dear life...we crossed.

But Kim went first over the rapids below us. :)

I braved looking down just long enough to snap a picture (and that was only on the way back. Yes, we had to cross it twice!).

Once we crossed, we continued on up to some old mines.  It was like coming across a small little town on a mountainside. Unfortunately, there was a man playing a banjo out front (only in Alaska) who was charging $5 to walk through it...so I snapped a picture and we turned around to come back.

                                              

We got done after 7pm, past my dinnertime and it was a 40 min drive back to the house, so we decided to try out 1 of the other 5 restaurants in Girdwood, AK.  Fully stuffing out starving selfs with burgers, we passed out when we got home. 

We awoke to another cloudy and dreary day, but at least that will force us to finish up some house chores we keep delaying. Back to reality...