Melanie and I take a small hike, frolic in the ash and take pictures of each other

Melanie takes my picture as I take her's. We are a bit above the old Independence Mine in the Hatcher Pass area, and a bit below Goldcord Lake. 

I had not planned to take a hike today, but this morning I found an email from Melanie. " What are you doing today? Considered going out today. Any time for a small hike?"

"Sure!" I responded. "I'll hike with you!" It would be my first hike since I broke my shoulder and got it replaced. I first went into surgery one year ago today.

So she drove out from Anchorage, transferred to the Escape and then we drove the wrong way into the most congested part of Wasilla so that I could drop off an electrical payment. We then turned around but drove less than a block before we saw these kids trying to entice us into a car wash.

I do not know what their cause was, but I am certain it is good, and the Escape was dirty, but it was raining and we had a small hike to do. We did not let them wash the car.

We were not quite certain where we would go, but decided that it would be somewhere in the Hatcher Pass area. We ruled Gold Mint trail out and then went up to Archangel Road which leads to the Reed Lake Trail but Archangel was blocked off, so we drove up to the mine, parked, and wound up on the trail to Goldcord Lake.

It is a short trail, just right for a small hike. So off we went. As we neared the "historic Lynch" sod cabin, built in 1930, Melanie stopped to examine various plants. She did not pick, but just examined.

We did step into the cabin, but it was obvious that people had been peeing in there, so we did not linger.

I decided that I never want to sleep in that cabin.

We did not see anyone as we hiked up, even though it was a Saturday, and I hoped it would remain that way once we reached Goldcord Lake, so that we could have perfect solitude.

Melanie looks at Goldcord Lake.

We did meet another human being. This lady. She had a friend with her, who we also met. I would tell you their names, but they were a bit wary and so kept their names to themselves.

They did tell us that they were scouting about for a good place to take some geology students from Alaska Pacific University on a field trip. They looked to me to be too young to be teachers, so I asked if they were students, thinking perhaps they were teacher assistants. No, they were not students, they assured us and they gave us no more information than that.

Maybe they are teachers. Professors even. As I get older, young people look younger and younger, so someone could be a teacher and even a professor and look the part to their peers and I could still think they were so young that they must be students.

They had seen some marmots and they were pretty pleased by that.

I told them how to find this blog.

I do not know if either of you will ever bother to do so, but, if you do, "hello." I enjoyed meeting you. It's true that I had hoped Melanie and I would see no one else, but you were both pleasant, even if wary. You made the experience a little nicer and more interesting than it would have been had we not met you.

If I were you and met me up in the mountains, I would probably be wary, too - even though you needn't have been.

There was a news story in the paper last week about how unusually fast the snow is melting off the mountain trails this year and there are two reasons for that. Although today was not one of them, we have had an abnormally big number of sunny, hot, days.

And Mt. Redoubt deposited so much volcanic ash in the mountains. That ash is dark, so it absorbs heat that the snow would otherwise reflect away. The heated ash swiftly melts the snow.

Despite how it looks in the distance, this is how all the snow that is left looks up close. It is covered with ash and here the paw of a dog broke through it.

See that line? That is volcanic ash left behind after the snow that pushed it there melted. It leads to an even greater concentration of ash and Melanie is mining it.

Melanie with her haul of volcanic ash. She will take it home and give it to Charlie. 

We hike along the lake. It is very steep here and Melanie speculates as to what would happen if one of us slipped and went down into the water. I am very confident such a thing will not happen.

Melanie, a little further along.

Melanie, over the lake.

Afterward, not far beyond where the road exits the canyon that leads up to Hatcher Pass, we stopped at a little restaurant sporting signs that boast of its chowder and espresso. We were the only the customers, so I was a little worried about the owners. I always like to see little businesses like this make it.

The guy told us not to worry. He said he was going to have some music festivals here and lots of people would come.

Melanie then noted that her boyfriend is a guitarist, plays with a band and might want to come and join in. So the man asked what kind of music Charlie played.

"Mostly classic rock," Melanie responded.

"So he plays all classical music?" the man responded, looking a little worried.

"Classic Rock!" Melanie stressed. She then added that Charlie also composes music of his own.

I then told the guy how Charlie even composed a song to Melanie, where he scolds her for trying to get a cat out of a tree, when that is the job of the fire department.

He was mighty impressed by that. I have no doubt that he will now do whatever is necessary to make certain that Charlie is there to play at all of his festivals.

It's a good song. I like it a lot.

That's a brownie that Melanie holds in her hand. I ordered a piece of strawberry rhubard pie, alamode.

It was pretty good. So was Melanie's brownie. We shared, that's how I know.

PS: There's still lots more from India left to come.