Sunny Solstice

Last Thursday, June 21, marked the summer solstice--the longest day of the year, and the glorious day of my birth. I had an amazing day filled with treats and adventures, making it quite possibly my Best Birthday Ever, and certainly Most Unique Birthday Ever.


Fire-juggler on Flat Top
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.

I began the day by sleeping in until 9:30. (This means I slept an additional 5 hours after sunrise, which was at 4:20am, but sunrise is kind of irrelevant nowadays...) The day shaped up as the warmest so far this year, and we took advantage by having an outdoor reindeer sausage picnic. My coclerks brought me this delightful cake in the afternoon. After work, we had a delicious outdoor dinner at the Gumbo House, followed by a softball game against a snarky, cheating team, who we beat to retain our UNDEFEATED status. Ninjustice was served, and so were many beautiful cupcakes.

After softball, we headed out to take advantage of a local favorite Solstice activity: a nighttime hike up Flat Top. Alaska's summer is messing with my body clock even more than the winter did--it is light ALL NIGHT now. Legitimately light. On a clear night, you could sit outside and read a book all night long. So in order to not waste one minute of the light on the longest day of the year (not counting the hours I slept through), we set off for the trailhead, and started our hike at about 10:30pm.


Solstice hike up to Flat Top, 10:45pm
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.

About half of the hike is uphill, and the last bit is really steep rock scrambling. We reached the peak at just a little before sunset, which was at 11:43pm. Here's a nice shot of me and my coclerk at the peak, with Powerline Pass behind us:


Coclerks and Powerline Pass
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.

Sunset itself was kind of anticlimactic, though, because it continued to be light, and because the spectacle of the actual passing of the sun below the horizon was blocked by smoke hanging in the Anchorage Bowl, blowing in from bunch of local wildfires. (We've had really hot dry weather recently, which has resulted in a lot of bad fires, including this one, two doors down from my house, in which two of my friends lost their home.)

The hike was amazing--there were lots of revelers at the top, the views were fantastic, and there were a fire-juggler and a fire-breather to entertain us. We hiked back down around 1am, and it was still plenty light enough to safely see all our footholds on the way down. Best Birthday Ever...!?