Rabbit Lake Hike

About a week ago I went on a hike with a couple of friends from work to Rabbit Lake. Its up just east from town and there had been talk about how frozen it still was (we have had a cool summer...have only hit 70 a few times!), we thought we'd check it out.

The beginning of the trail, with Suicide Peaks in the distance

Beautiful valley shot with North Suicide Peak

There she is! Rabbit Lake, probably still about 60-70% frozen over! And its mid July!!! Louise and Heidi...bewildered :)

I was there, see!

Windy Pass, right between both peaksMcHugh Lake, also still partially frozen

Eagle and Symphony Lakes Backpacking Trip

For the July 4th weekend, Rennau, Ben and I decided to do a short backpacking trip up South Eagle River Valley to Eagle and Symphony Lakes.
The Crew.

Kaena, enjoying the fresh taste of the Eagle River :)

A large flat rock where we had dinner so as not to have food near our camp (to keep bears and wildlife away, but this was irrelevant as you'll see later)

Ben, Rennau and his friend pausing before heading through a big boulder field.

E&S Lakes Trip

We had quite a few boulders to traverse

Some plant life inbetween the boulders

Ben and I in front of the beginning of Eagle Lake, a glacial fed lake

Symphony Lake - a deep blue lake, right on the other side of the left hand side hill is Eagle Lake

We found our campsite!!!!!

E&S Lakes Camping

Settling into our camp for the evening.....can't believe the view

Kaena scoutin out the camp

Hangin by our sweet Marmot tent - can't get enough of it!

E&S Lakes Trip contd

Eagle Lake in the morning, like a mirror

The previous pictures were taken at 5am in the morning, which right after Rennau got up and decided that Spam sounded really good....and cooked it right beside our tent!!!!! So much for playing it safe the day before by cooking our meals away from our tent - way to go S.D.!

Rennau and the dogs going for a glacial swim!

The view on the way out, it was a great trip! :)

Our Kenai River Trip

So, as we said in the last post of us moving to Boulder, here is the beginning of getting in and posting all about our last Alaskan adventures before we leave. This one was excellent!

A couple weekends ago, the Life Team (an exclusive team made up of members Lisa, Ben, Kevin and Chris Rennau - each exhibiting an essential Life Talent that when combined, we can conquer any catastrophe at any time - seriously) decided to take a trip down the Kenai River. We brought our canoe and Kevins kayak.

Life Team Unites!

Ben and Rennau fashioning the latest trends in the river world....

Kevin and Lisa laughing at the other lame Life Team members and their silly fashion

Funny story....Kevin forgot his spray skirt for his kayak, kind of an important piece when going down a glacial fed river. This ultimately led to a catastrophe later on in the trip.....but we conquered it no problem!

Kenai River Trip contd

Kevin, takin it easy with no skirt :)

Rennau, Lisa and Ben cruisin down in the good ol Old Town

Ben carefully drinkin his beer as to not spill A DROP!

Rennau, the courageous front paddler!

Kenai River Trip Contd

Rennau had his fun with the skirtless kayak. We have a movie shortly after this photo of him blasting through some awesome rapids. He made it through but at the end the kayak filled with water and he went under! We went and rescued him, he held on to the kayak the whole time!

After the mishap, full of adrenaline, little scratched up

The ending of our sweet ride on the Kenai

We did it, and with only one catastrophe! Good work Life Team!

Kenai River Trip Contd

Went and set up camp nearby, Ben and I THOROUGHLY enjoyed our awesome campchairs - we highly recommend them to EVERYONE...made by Thermarest.

Set up our new Marmot tent....this tent ROCKS! Again, something we'd totally recommend for a backpacking tent, 3 person, spacious, totally light!

Kevin loving the fire

Kenai River Trip contd

We woke up the next morning to the beautiful Alaskan landscape

The puppies were right at home!

Rennau and Ben had some early morning wrestling

Skilak Lake, where the Kenai dumps into

Then the puppies enjoyed a nice bath when we got home, as Kaena shows on her face!

Boulder, Colorado....here we come!

If you haven't heard by now, Lisa just got offered a position at the Boulder, CO National Weather Service office, and of course accepted! We are so excited to be moving back to the CONUS, closer to family and old friends and being able to travel a LOT easier! Oh how we've missed road trips! (however, with the price of gas, they may be a bit limited!) We are both super excited at this opportunity and to start a new chapter of adventure in Colorado!
However, it is very sad to leave Alaska, an amazingly beautiful and majestic state, our house we've completely remodeled and made it our Home, and all the wonderful people we know up here and have come to call our friends - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! You will all be sorely missed, and all the fun times, wacky adventures, and personal moments will never be forgotten.
And YES! We will of course be keeping this blog going as we move on, as this is how we like to keep all our loved ones updated on what we're doing! So please, keep checking back. We will be posting on our last Alaskan adventures - we'll be trying to get as many as possible in the next month! (By the way, we'll probably be leaving around the end of August).
To end this post.....we'll leave you with the map of our upcoming drive down to Boulder, our new adventurous home!

Our Professional Wedding Pictures!

Our wedding photographers (some of our amazing friends) did a fantastic job capturing all the events and moments of our wedding! They have posted the images online (link below) and are available for you to browse through them! They did a fantastic slideshow of some of them, but then you can also go to the "Gallery" and see all of them! I'm sure you will all love them as much as we do!

www.nmgphotography.com

click on 'clients'
choose: Kriederman Wedding
password: Reed

Love you all!
Ben and Lisa