Scuba Diving the North Shore

Sunday morning we met Mark and Debbie on the North shore at a place called firehouse to go scuba diving. We had rented some gear the night before so we were able to get in the water good and early. There are a lot of caves and swim throughs in the coral and it's a protected area for fish also. I spotted this rockfish doing his best to blend in. We did two dives at about 30-40 feet deep and really explored the area. I got to play with my new toy which is an underwater slate. It was a great time and we're talking about going to Maui for a dive trip next month already. We'll see.

West side ride

This morning we rode with the HACC over to the west side of the island. It was nice seeing some new sights but it made me remember why we don't go over there.

Once you pass Makaha there are some beautiful views but before that point enormous homeless shanty towns, people living in the woods in utter squalor, burnt out cars and piles of garbage along the roads are the order of the day. It's like stepping into the third world which I've seen a few times before. The trashing of this whole side of the island is, well, you have to see it to believe it because I didn't take pictures. It was depressing. It's the same problems a lot of places have but it's magnified on an island.

Home again

Made it home in one piece Saturday morning. No matter how much fun you have while traveling it's always good to get home. Especially to scenes like this.

Fishing at Nancy lake, Alaska

We drove up to Nancy lake yesterday for some pike fishing. Well we didn't see any pike but were catching these big humpy salmon left and right. They're no good to eat so we threw them all back but they put up a big fight. That night we drove down to Birchwood and did a fun cross country race which is part of a series. It was a tough, muddy course through the woods with lots of hills. Jesse placed 6th and I was lucky number 13 . There are quite a few fast runners here.

Trout

Today I walked down the street from Jesse's to this little pond which I think is an old quarry hole. I threw a spinner in a few times and this big trout bit. Couldn't believe it. Biggest trout I've ever caught. Probably 5-6 pounds. Jesse and I went back later but no luck. He might have been the only one in there. I fixed it up with a little lemon and dill. Mmmm!

Mother Nature's roadblocks

Mother Nature's roadblocks

Flying around corners hoping another moose isn't in your way gets to be a pain

The Moose is loose

Went for a run this morning and remembered to bring the camera. We ran across this mid size moose on the trail. They remind me of a cow with an attitude.

Alaska part 2

I'm up here in Anchorage again helping Jesse and Kristy move into their new place and riding my mountain bike every day on some of the most awesome trails I've ever seen.

The day before I left Marianne and I did the Dick Evans around the island bike race which is 112 miles. It went well except I crashed and then killed myself chasing back to the pack. I've never been in a race with so many crashes, not sure what the root cause was. Probably to many riders ( 200) of varying abilities riding together. I still managed an 18th place finish and Marianne finished strong which enabled the HACC to finish 3rd in the team competition.

So with my loss of skin on my left hip and leg Jesse and I started doing more mountain biking then I've done in years. Kristy and I did a cyclocross race on Wednesday night. It was my first and I had a great time although not a great finish. Thursday I went down hard and scraped a bunch of skin off my right hip so now at least I'm symetrical., then yesterday flying down a hill we spotted 3 moose laying right next to the trail. Jesse shot by them but I saw them in time to stop, ( I thought) instead I wiped out again about 10 feet from a moose the size of a truck. It just watched me pick myself up and hurriedly leave the area. We had just been talking about how moose kill people every year up here and after seeing how huge they are I believe it. Of course I didn't have my camera so no pictures. My mission is to take get some photo's of them while i'm here.