Great hike

I guess that usually, or at least in the "olden days," Anchorage would have snow by now. But it didn't happen last year and it hasn't happened this year, so maybe snow free Halloweens are what people should start expecting up here. So to make use of the good weather Bella and I grabbed Louis and Dash from across the alley and headed off to hike up Wolverine Peak, right at the edge of town. What follows is a photographic chronicle of our adventures:

I think its a rule that if you go for a hike around Anchorage and Denali is visible you have to take way too many shots of it even though you already have 60 such photos and it will never look as impressive in the picture as it does at the time. So let's get this out of the way early:

That was pretty easy, right? Back to the hike. All of the leaves have been off of the trees for several weeks now, which really opened up all the views. On top of that, the Devils Club and Cow Parsnip have both died way back, so the brambles and thick underbrush are much less of a problem. At the bottom of the hike we crossed a number of meadows like this, with tall, dormant grasses, a few trees and a glimpse of our destination.
More of the same, but this shows you just how nice the day was becoming. Cool at first but bright sunshine after the forecast was for nothing but clouds.

There's Wolverine Peak for the first time. The plan is to hike up to the knob on the far right, follow the ridge that ascends from right-to-left below the snowline and then traverse back across the ridge to the right to get to the top.

Here we are a little further up the trail, waiting for Dash to come back from chasing rabbits. That's downtown Anchorage in the background.
Near the top, with a bit of snow on the ground, Bella decided to check out the view down into the valley of the North Fork of Campbell Creek. It looks really cliffy, but aside from the top couple feet its actually a steep but steady slope straight down at least a thousand feet to the creek.
Here Bella models her Halti. There was another dog at the summit, so I decided to leash her up just in case, but she was pretty good.
I don't think Louis dropped his snack ever, but if he had the pups were ready. You'd think we never fed them.
No, Louis! The view's that way!
The head of the North Fork of Campbell Creek. That's Williwaw Lake in the center, and the mountain on the far right is Williwaw Peak. Nobody knows who Willy Waw was, but he picked some pretty stuff to name. Looking at this view just made me want to keep hiking to see what was on the far side of that ridge.
Here we are just after starting back down the mountain, with town in the distance. If you look closely, the white building along the water directly above the snow patch in the foreground is where Beth works. If you click the photo to zoom in you can also see a lake about halfway between the snow in the foreground and Beth's building. That's Goose Lake and it's only about a quarter mile from our house. What a great way to spend a sunny Saturday in late October!