Hello Hello.

Well we are back. So far Alaska has been sweet. We went to Anchorage for the first few days and that was pretty awesome. We spent the first day chillin and getting comfortable. Turns out our camp selection was a little ghetto. Seems it was a permenent residence for the less-than-desirables. We had people living in trailers with creative foundations (old trucks with flat tires), people paying mortages on camp sites, and a bum camp in the bushes with residents that you could time your watch against for when they (literally) stumbled past your site, in to the forest. But is was pretty quiet (except for this one little dog that sounded like a recording yapping EVERY 3 seconds)

On the second day we explored the city and had a pretty sweet time. We went to Anchorages climbing gym and had a session with some of the locals. The session was awesome. climbed to failure and afterwards went out for pizza and beer with Matt Lowber and his girlfriend, Taylor. Matt is a local and has a website for bouldering in Alaska. http://www.akbouldering.com/ Anyways we had a wicked time with them. Probably the beer was probably some of the best I've ever had and the pizza was likewise. Sam had an apple beer that tasted close to Hunters apple cider in South Africa. Those who've had Hunters, know.

Since then we've come to Denali national Park and it is stunning. We went for a hike yesterday, deciding to just start walking in to the bush and see where we end up. We ended up on top of a big ass mountain, called Fang Peak. It was high and perfect. On the hike up the ground was more lush than I've ever seen any hill side. Each step had an eight inch give due to the moss and made for exhausting hiking. I taught Sam a call my Dad used shout when hiking in the woods, it was "NO BEAR" meaning that you were saying to the bear "no thanks". Well that was a mistake as Sam is a little spooked (terrified) of running into bears and took up the mantra "no bear... please no bear" ... all... the... way... up. It was actually pretty cute. And after 8 hours, we arrived back at the truck and sat on the road and ate a bag of chips and guacamole (the hike was the first sun we've seen in over a week, so we were pretty ecstatic.

Here's Sammy

ha ha - I think Lukes favorite part was when I would bellow "Luke!!" because he would be slightly off beat with his response of "NO BEAR!" - that and when I basically STOMPED my way to the car for the last 150 feet because I was angry that Cobs insisted on hiking between Luke and I in our line making me take up the end ... "I could've been eaten by a Bear - it's very likely you know ..." - which is why I insisted on timely responses to our mantra of ...'no bear ...'