The Unmade Plans of Mice and (wo)Men

Summer's passing quickly. It's the middle of July, the fireweed are blooming, the salmon are heading upstream to spawn, the last of the snow is finally melting off of the mountain tops, and it's time to start planning berry picking trips. August is almost here. Alex and I talked during the winter about all the hiking trips we would love to take after work. To date, we haven't taken any!

We were talking yesterday about the fact that I am the planner, he's the executor. I come up with the plans, he follows through on them. I haven't come up with any plans, hence, no plans to execute. I'll have to remedy that.

This week is already filled with activity. Tonight is camping gear purchasing night (we are going with friends to stay on their property near the Kenai River to do some fishing and camping this weekend), tomorrow is karate practice, the weekend is booked. I'm going to sit down tonight and go through my "Hiking the Chugach: 50 Hikes" book and find some hikes for us to start doing after work. I know he'd be really excited if I put some bicycling excursions on that list, but he'd better not hold his breath. There won't be any "Bird to Gird" trips in my near future. Maybe I'll plan a few bikes around the neighborhood, or a few to the bridge on the highway over Eagle River, but I'm not planning a mini Tour d'France for us around Anchorage any time soon.

I've decided to stop doing karate for a while. It's a sin (it is, really, I read it in the bible somewhere) to not be outside in Alaska during the summer when it's sunny. It read something like "Though shalt not waste beautiful Alaskan summer days!" Maybe I paraphrased what I read, but I'm sure it's something like that. Since I won't have karate tomorrow, I'll take the dog(s) and head up Hiland and check out part of the Symphony Lakes path.

The thing I'm learning about activity is that I'm a leader when it comes to planning. If I plan it, they will come. If I don't plan it, and no one else does, then I'm the one at fault for my wasted summer. The only one better at planning than I am is Angie! She's already got the camping trip for the girl's to Kennicott booked, complete with a mine tour, for the weekend of August 11th. And, if nothing else comes up (meaning if nothing else is planned by me), she's wanting to make another girl trip the weekend of August 17th up the Denali Highway to camp and enjoy the views. The colors at that time should be amazing! They will be fall colors, which means possibly the last trip of the "summer." Again, full circle, back to pondering where the summer went!