23 jun 14 denali

My friend Annette visited from NJ and we drove to Denali National Park for a couple of days. This view of the High One is from a highway viewpoint in Denali State Park south of the national park. (click the photo to get a bigger version - we had a spectacular viewing day)

3 mar 12 iditarod parade

There are many unique aspects to life in Anchorage.  Dog mushing, arguably our most popular spectator sport, epitomizes that Alaska ideal of self-sufficiency against the harsh climate.  Thousands of people line the course of the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race as it winds 11 miles from downtown Anchorage to the Campbell Tract, just a few miles from our house.

Paul and I decided to get to the finish in an Alaskan way. We drove to a close trailhead and cross-country skied a couple of miles to the finish chute.  Despite the falling snow and low clouds obscuring the mountains, the climate didn't feel very harsh today with temperatures in the mid-20s.  Alaskans of all ages and a few tourists were hanging around trucks where the mushers who had finished were loading their dogs and sleds for the trip north to Willow and the real start of the race tomorrow.  The well-known mushers, most who finish regularly in the top ten, were answering questions and posing for photos.

Everyone wants to be close to the trail to cheer on the mushers.  The ceremonial start is more of a parade than a race.

We skied along the route, opposite to the mushers' progress, and stopped along the way to watch and take photos.  We eventually found ourselves on the other end of the Campbell Tract where the mushers were emerging from several miles in the woods with few spectators.  We watched and clapped until the last musher, a rapping rookie, passed. 

We skied to the Campbell Creek Science Center to play Iditarod trivia and listen to a long-time musher talk about the first Iditarod race 40 years ago.  Dan Seavey is mushing the trail this year to promote the race, dog sledding, and the trail.  His son and a grandson are also mushing dogs to Nome this year.

Happy Dogs! Though these leaders might have been a little warm with their jerseys encouraging the immunization of Alaska kids

When we left the science center, it seemed that everyone had gone home.  A lone moose stood on the trail near where we had watched the last mushers.  We saw no people on the ski back to the car.  That's life here in Anchorage on the edge of the last frontier, it could be 65 dog sled teams coming through town, or it could be the absence of any people on a trail within the city limits that contain a quarter of a million people, that reminds you that the wilderness and pioneers aren't very far away.

Karen Ramstead's team is always handsome though usually nearer the back of the pack on the trail to Nome.

sep 11 golden Alaska

So quickly the sunlight of long summer days is replaced by the golden glow of leaves ...

highlights 2010

Over dinner on New Year's Eve, we remembered some of the fun and travels of 2010. Again, we are grateful for the good fortune that continues in our lives: good friends, great family, stable jobs, good health, and being with each other.

Here are some of the highlights of each month of 2010:

January: Good skiing when the snow was fresh and great mountain biking on packed trails in the local parks. Never a dull moment in Anchor-town.

February: An active trip of hiking, biking, and snorkeling with good friends in Hawaii.

March: We skied out to Dalteli, a small lake in the Alaska Range foothills with a group of friends.

April: A warm sun made spring skiing solar powered and brought a smile to everyone's face. Even the ptarmigan got friendly.

May: With the return of the green came more biking and hiking, and gardening. This little footpath became a regular route on evening walks in Bicentennial Park.

June: When we weren't on the boat in Prince William Sound, we rode the singletrack trails in Bicentennial Park.

July: We spent most weekends and an entire week on the sailboat in Prince William Sound. One of the highlights of our time in the Sound were hikes through bogs with abundant shooting stars.

August: A silver-lining of the wet summer were the mushrooms. We spent many evenings harvesting boletes in the parks. This red bolete dramatically and quickly exhibited a change in coloration to blue when cut, which signifies a poisonous bolete.

September: The annual backcountry bike trip with the Alaska Dirt Divas to the Serenity Cabin near Eklutna Lake in Chugach State Park. Blue skies, stunning fall colors, and fun friends.

October: Mountain biking with the Alaska Dirt Divas on the White Rim Trail, in Canyonlands National Park, Utah - an adventure with good friends

November: Spending Thanksgiving with my mom, step-dad, brother, and sister-in-law in central New York. My brother and I wandered the farm's woodlands, just the two of us, and appreciated the big trees.
December: Santa found us in Talkeetna, bringing us more than we deserved and helping to remind us how blessed we are with friends, family, and a happy pack.

A post about the highlights of the year begs a mention of the sadnesses of our year as we lost family, friends, and acquaintances who have touched our lives and hearts. In August a plane carrying three young maintenance workers from Katmai National Park disappeared in bad weather on the coast. Paul knew one of the young men and they worked with some of our friends at Katmai. In September Sandy Kogl, a good friend of good friends in Talkeetna, died after a gracious struggle with ALS. In October Paul's aunt Norine succumbed to a rare form of lung cancer caused by her exposure to asbestos as an infant. We saw Norine each Christmas that we spent with Paul's parents and we traveled to Italy twice with Norine. Norine and Sandy were both just 68.

31 may 10 and it's summer

You know it's summer in Alaska when ...

I'm never quite sure when to say that summer begins here. If you're Paul, you stick strictly to the idea that equinoxes and solstices bookend each season. I tend to think of those dates as the halfway marks. But when spring is really only a couple of weeks long, how can you call that a season? Or is Memorial Day the true kickoff, with a long weekend, holiday events, and the start of outdoor gardening?

I don't know when it truly starts, but this past weekend, I knew it was summer in Anchortown. I wore shorts all weekend and it was 60 degrees on Sunday morning at 7:00! I swapped out the flannel sheets with the 'cool-feel' summer sheets. All the leaves are full-fledged and green now and the elderberries are starting to bloom. And the surest sign -- the mosquitoes are so thick in the lower elevations of Bicentennial Park that I couldn't let the dog stop to do much of anything that wasn't vital.

Paul is reunioning back East with the Buttons so I devoted the weekend primarily to gardening. On Saturday, I rebuilt two raised beds for vegetables and planted all my seeds and seedlings (except the last few that I bought that morning at the farmer's market). On Sunday I pedaled around town on the Veggie Roll, a tour of vegetable gardens organized by Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage. We saw some creative and productive gardens where people are trying really hard to grow most of their produce right here in the big city. On Monday I turned to the flower beds. I weeded, watered, and mulched with leaves and wood shavings from Paul's 2009 winter project. I still need to weed and mulch the raspberry patch, but by Monday evening, I had accomplished all the big tasks on the garden to-do list.

Yes, it's summer in Alaska ... go-go-go while the sun shines.

B taking a little break on Sunday evening in Bicentennial Park

fall 09 highlight #1 eklutna

Despite the fall seeming long and seamlessly transitioning from a beautiful summer, I've hardly felt like I had the time to process my photos of it or write about it. So now as the rains wash the last bits of color from the trees, I will attempt to record my personal highlights from a golden September.

In the top three was the Divas 3rd annual weekend at the Serenity Falls cabin beyond the east end of Eklutna Lake. The weather was just as beautiful as last year, only warmer and with less termination dust on the mountains. We also filled the cabin both nights with Divas, which doubled the turnout from past years. Like last year, we hired the concessionaire to take firewood, wine, water, and other heavy consumables out for us the day before. That left us with our personal clothes and overnight gear, group kitchen ware, and most of the food that we would eat.

The fun was being together -- shimmying across log bridges, playing rousing games of Yachtzee and combat-style Sporks, enjoying good food cooked on a woodstove, trying to finish off 4 5-liter boxes of wine, relaxing in the sun by a pond, pedaling under the golden fall leaves and bright blue sky. We were blessed.

more photos from the weekend are on my photo page:

1 aug 09 north of seward

B jumping drainage ruts on the Ptarmigan Creek Trail

Summertime .. little time for editing photos and blogging ... so another mostly pictorial edition of the (somewhat) weekly.

We spent the first weekend of the month in the Seward area. We camped two nights at Primrose Campground, the Forest Service campground at the very southern tip of Kenai Lake.

Paul and I biked part of the Primrose Creek trail up to Lost Lake. It was not one of my stronger performances. At least the woods were pretty.

Bhikkhu found a moose femur in the campsite. A little slice of doggie heaven. The bone was almost as big as he is.

On Sunday we hiked the Ptarmigan Creek trail before joining the long lines of cars wanting to beat the traffic.

04 jul 09 independence

Despite the irrational actions our (almost former) governor may take, this will remain a Palin-free blog. Besides, greater minds than mine are covering the speculations and twists and turns in the latest Sarah drama. Here are some of my favorites, including one local moderate conservative who would have been a good governor for Alaska. Where would our state be now if Andrew Halcro had won in 2006? We wouldn't have been sidelined by the campaign circus and follow-up traveling show of the 2008 Presidential race.

Andrew Halcro

Shannyn Moore

Mudflats

Alaska Muckraker at Huffington Post

Watch out Lower 48 ... she's probably coming your way next.

The rest of us Alaskans will get back to truly treasuring our great state and being good citizens.

Happy Independence Day!

29 jun 09 living in a park

I'm trying so hard not to take this beautiful weather and this beautiful place we call home for granted. June continues to be mostly clear and warm(ish) and like the summers I remember before 2008. The mosquitoes are worse than normal, however, so often I'm still wearing long pants and long sleeves unless I'm biking. But that is a small price to pay for a perfect Alaska summer.

My parents were here from New York state this past week. Visitors are always a good reminder that we are very lucky to live in Alaska. We toured locally and had no trouble coming up with spectacular destinations for a few days. Some of our state parks would be national parks in other states and the municipal parks could be state parks in the Lower 48. One day we hiked to 'the beach' at Kincaid and walked the new boardwalk at Potter Marsh. Another day we drove to Independence Mine at Hatcher Pass. On Sunday, the best weather of the entire summer so far, we walked out the Powerline Pass trail in search of wildlife and wild flowers. We were rewarded with moose, colorful songbirds, and fields of flowers.

Even Saturday's outing near downtown reminded me that even Anchorage has something few cities of its size or larger can boast of -- natural channel streams that support salmon. We pedaled the Ship Creek trail that opened last summer. Even though this portion of the creek passes mostly through an industrial zone and along the railroad, the river hasn't been confined to a concrete trough so typical of other urban streams. Large bright red king salmon were heading upstream as we rode by. I am glad to call this state and this city home.