4th of July on the Brushkana River

We decided to spend our first couple of nights at the Brushkana River on the Denali Highway. When I say Denali Highway...it's a dirt road about 134 miles long. It connects the VERY small "towns" of Cantwell & Paxson. It's closed in the winter, but in the summer it has all kinds of creeks, lakes, rivers, hikes, and great fishing for Grayling. We were initially planning on driving the Highway from Cantwell to Paxson, stopping and camping along the way, taking about 3-4 days to drive it. This first stop is about 30 miles in from the Cantwell side. We were using a truck tent, so had to unpack the truck and set up the tent each time we stopped to camp. These are few a pics of Lachlan as we were setting up camp.

He started out on his blanket with toys, but wouldn't stay on the blanket...imagine that! So...we created a little corral for him while I helped Shayne set up the tent. The mosquitoes were INSANE!! Seriously...have never seen so many mosquitoes in a single swarm. That's why Lachlan is all bundled up...it was not cold. I had to make sure he was completely covered or he would have been eaten alive. I also used my good ole' Burt's Bees Insect Repellent to cover those places I couldn't cover with clothes. In case you had ever wondered about non-chemical laden bug sprays...Burt's Bees works...the Brushkana was the ultimate testing spot for it. However, as you will see in some later pics...I didn't put it on soon enough that night...our little monster still got eaten up pretty good. Poor thing!

The last pic shows how tired our little bug was. That last pic was probably taken about 10-10:30 at night...we had finally got the tent put up and I put him to bed shortly after this pic. He was sooo tired. Such a cute little pic though.

So, that was our 4th of July. Gotta love camping in Alaska!!!