As I traveled up the East Palmer-Wasilla Highway, I had come full circle…this road took me to and through Hatcher Pass and back out through Willow and back down the Parks into Wasilla, and now back toward Palmer. As I looked to the left, Hatcher Pass was under a major downpour. Yet, toward the right [...]

I stopped off at Mocha Moose for breakfast and ordered my usual: sausage, egg and cheese burrito, and a large Mocha spiked with orange. The large mocha has four shots of Good Morning Alaska as espresso. The burrito probably has four to six eggs in it. The Breakfast of Champions! From here, I stopped at [...]

I woke up in the morning to find Lake Lucille shrouded in advection fog (see page 15 on the link). Visibility was less than 1/8 of a mile. As the sun rose, the fog eventually lifted. This sequence captured it all. Today I would be going to the Mocha Moose, then straight to Hatcher Pass.

The rain continued well into Palmer, but just as I got to the area of the Alaska State Fair, it had stopped….My first order of business was to go on the Super Round-Up.

I headed back to Wasilla from The Butte the same way I came. I passed the Alaska State Fair several times now these past two days and I wanted to go. It’s one of the things I had come up here to do. Tonight was the fireworks, so I did not want to miss it….I had time to stop at the Wasilla Visitor’s Center and the Veteran’s Wall of Honor.

New York City’s Four WTC at 977′ superimposed over the 875′ Butte for perspective. The Butte is larger than it looks from a distance. Standing at 875 feet AGL (Above Ground Level), The Bodenburg Butte or simply The Butte is 102 feet shorter than New York’s Four WTC. I had never climbed any significant mountains

I pulled off the Matanuska Bridge and into the turnoff just like I had done yesterday. The low clouds clung to the mountains and you could see how it was steamy at the cloud base. When I was working on my instrument rating, my instructor told me that when you first enter clouds its like [...]

First thing I did in the morning was visit Wunderground to check the weather. Wasilla was a rain-out, but Palmer had localized rain cells and was otherwise clear. The conditions in Palmer were semi-favorable to hike the Bodenburg Butte, but I would have to play it by the seat of my pants….

If it flies, floats, has wheels or a crawler track, and is unique, chances are you’ll find it at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. …