Auke Lake trail

Sunday we woke up to gorgeous weather – clearing skies and temps heading towards the mid-60s.  Perfect!  Unfortunately, we spent almost all day installing plastic over the windows to help with the indoor moisture issue.  First we used bubble wrap to cover the metal trim around all the windows (moisture would really condense on the cold metal), then placed the plastic over that and the windows.  We also talked with some of our neighbors about what they do to control indoor humidity, and most use a dehumidifier.  We’ll look for one of those.  So far (after two nights) the plastic over the windows seems to be working well.  You can still see some condensation lines on the ceiling where there must be metal studs running through the ceiling without any insulation around them.  That’s a bummer and I don’t know what to do about that short of reducing total moisture with a dehumidifier.  

After working hard all day we took a long walk around Auke Lake.  It’s a short walk to the lake from where we live, and there is a trail along one side of the lake and you follow the road for the other part around the lake.  It was a very nice stroll, and it felt good to get out for a walk.  

There were people waterskiing in the lake!  Holy crap.  The water couldn’t have been warmer than 55-65 degrees.  It was sunny but only about 66 degrees outside!  Oh, and there was a float plane parked in the weeds.  It doesn’t seem like a big enough lake to fly in and out of, but what do I know?

A lot of the foliage looks similar to what we had in Wisconsin, though it’s greener here and there’s a lot more moss and far, far bigger trees (and different tree species too).  We thought this plant looked a lot like giant spinach.  Very ‘Jurassic Park’ if you ask me.

When the sun is out and the clouds are gone, the mountains are stunningly beautiful.  This is the University of Alaska – Southeast campus (a different school than what I am attending).  Love the view!

Part of our hike took us across a small creek that feeds the lake from the mountains.  There were Sockeye salmon in there, along with these flatfish, and I don’t know (yet) what they are.  In general, it smells a bit like dead fish around the city, because there are so many streams and the salmon die (and then smell bad) after they spawn.  Oh, and we saw a dead salmon on the road.  It must have been dropped by a bird or bear or some other animal, but we laughed really hard when we saw it.  This is the first place we’ve lived where a fish could be considered road kill…

Gratuitous dead fish picture.  Kinda gross.  Definitely stinky.