Yes summer has come and gone in the Alaska Range.

Our summers are typically filled with a combination of sunshine and rain, warm but not too hot temperatures  Generally we spend our time BBQing, eating out, visiting with friends, wrenching on the fleet, hiking with big dogs and then in a quick 3 months it is all over.

If you refer back to our last few posts we have tried to capture the Alaska Range summer metamorphosis in photos and videos.

September signals the end of this short cycle and by the middle of the month it has begun to frost at night and we have already received a few inches of snow.

The good news…most of the tourists have departed to lower elevations or even the lower 48 and life returns to a more normal pace.

This is the month we put our greenhouse and garden to bed, shutdown the outside water systems, winterize our fleet of vehicles and eventually winterize the house.

Later in the month the time arrives when we move the Zepfyr into our heated garage and begin to pack for our pending departure.

We will finish up any routine maintenance and fine tune interior packing details.

Denise keeps a “lessons learned” list from the previous winter excursions which really helps us to reduce any un-needed stuff and carry only items that fit our mobile lifestyle.

This packing process can become very difficult when you have 30 lbs of freshly picked carrots and buckets of wild blueberries that you want to take with you.

Along with the excitement of leaving for the winter, hiking through the fall colors is always a great time and it has been already been extraordinarily good so far.

All our favorite walking locales have become a vibrant carpet of oranges, reds and yellows. The bugs are long gone, the pungent smell of falling leaves fills the crisp air.

As the tops of the peaks become dusted with the first snows the full spectrum of fall colors becomes complete. Truly a magical time.

Unfortunately it does not last very long at these elevations and if we are lucky we get 3 weeks of eye popping countryside to enjoy.

Our upcoming departure plans are set for September 28th with travel through Fairbanks and then down the Alaskan and maybe the Stewart Cassier Hwys, weather dependent of course.

The big dogs can’t wait and have already been scoping out their favorite spots in the motorhome.

Unfortunately we must leave Otis our cat behind. He will winter with our good friends Brad and Brenda and to be honest I think he likes the pampered life at their palatial home anyway.

Below is our latest video be sure to watch it in 1080 HD to get the rich details. Enjoy!!

The next post should find us on the road again and fully engaged in adventuring south.

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