Red Alaska

Family visits

2011-01-28T11:33:00.002-09:00

I'm in Nebraska. That sentence implies a sigh of melancholy. We flew back to the Midwest to show off our 6 month old to those friends and family who haven't met her yet.

My first attempt to fly down didn't work out because passengers from a canceled flight took all of the seats on the 3 flights I had as options to use with my stand-by pass. Wife made it down on her first try because she had a regular (civilian) ticket but she got to go solo with the baby (1-stop in Seattle). Baby did great and all was well in the end (although I missed a party that wife got to go to and didn't get to see a lot of our friends):

I got an extra day in ANC to ski which was fun because 1. I got to ski longer than the hour I can go with my daughter 2. got to ski trails that are more advanced than I like to with daughter or wife 3. got to see a wolf and her cub or coyote with her cub or a giant ferocious snow hare chasing some sort of k-9 but I couldn't tell from the distance 4. made the coolest ice beard EVER

The downside to skiing Saturday was the snain (it's not rain and it's not snow). The outside of me completely froze over while the inside got really sweaty hot. After 2.5 hours of this my headband was froze to my hair. That would have been nice to know before I ripped it off and removed some of my precious hair. My gun also rubbed against my sweaty left nipple and chafed it real good: not cool!).

Now I'm in NE reading about other's adventures back home. It's kind of an anti-vacation. Tomorrow we get up at 4 again to drive back up to MSP for more visiting. I don't mind driving the flatness of the Midwest in the dark as much.

Hiking at the beach

2010-06-26T18:27:00.004-08:00

So we made plans to go camping this weekend. After a nice lie-in this morning we thought better of it. We have just a few more weeks until the baby is here which makes sleep for the Mrs. difficult in a bed so we surmised that it might be worse in a tent.

So after a nice brunch of blueberry pancakes, we packed a picnic and headed out to Kincaid park for a hike on top of the ridge looking over the sea.

There she is after I scouted out the top of a sand dune to find the correct path.

The hound LOVES the sand dunes. She was very tired after a lot of running today.

This was our view for our picnic. Some folks saw us and decided we wanted company and hung out while we finished our food?!?!?! It's a big park and not a lot of folks are here: MOVE ALONG!

More playing on the beach. We were going to get some rays, but it was cloudy so we kept our windbreakers on.

Tonight it's fresh halibut with garlic/ lemon sauce: mmmmmm

MOUNTAIN Biking

2010-06-20T22:12:00.005-08:00

I've found some friends to MOUNTAIN Bike with and have been enjoying getting my legs back into Alaska shape. My commute this summer is a mere 10 miles round trip so it is not cutting it like it did last summer: 38 miles round trip.

It's amusing to me as a newbie up here again that folks will complain about an 11 mile slog up a dirt road when you get to look at views like this. This is the day we went down to the Kenai Peninsula to ride up the south side of Resurrection Trail, back down the Bean Creek trail, up the 11 mile slog of a dirt road so we could finish coming down the Russian Lakes trail: 3750 feet of elevation gain in 45 total miles with less than 2 miles on pavement! My legs were feeling it that day: some cramping.

This shot is out of order: it was taken around midnight the Friday before the 45 mile ride. This night we rode up Johnson Trail from the south side for 10 miles and then turned around because even here you can loose your daylight at some point. That was the night I got to ride with Jill. I was pretty intimidated having followed her blog for a few years, but she is a very cool cat and a pleasure to ride with. She has left Anchorage for a better job and will be missed.

Shortly after I took this shot I had a baby moose stroll out onto the highway in front of me. I slowed, saw an oncoming 18-wheeler, flashed my lights frantically, and the truck was able to move over just enough to not hit the moose but its draft blew the animal over. The moose got up and ambled back to "safety" (this is prime food for many of the big animals that roam these parts).

Here is my steed all happy in its element. This year it is sporting a new Cane Creek headset, rebuilt front shock (from 2001 YIKES!), and I built up a set of all mountain wheels: DT Swiss 480 rims, double butted spokes (2.0-1.8), with XT hubs. Might have to break down and buy a new seat this year because the original from 2001 is struggling to give up the ghost.

This is one of the gorgeous lakes that you can see from the Russian Lakes Trail.

I've been supplementing my commuting with some excellent single track riding on the east side of town above the Hillside trails (STA trails: Single Track Advocates) but you have to be careful when you are in that area: last week a guy (who gets to commute on dirt!) got mauled by a momma brown bear when he came zipping around a corner on Rover's Run and scared her and her cub (same place that happened several times in 2008). He is fine, but I'll be sticking with my bells and not riding near the stream where the bears like to eat. Tonight I managed to surprise a momma moose and her little one. They are not the brightest animals (no matter what my boss says) and they don't seem to know what bells are until you wave your arms around and start shouting at them. Of course then she proceeded straight down the trail so I had to turn around and leave the lame way out instead of the gnarly fun way. Oh well.

This week begins my first of consistent 2 days off a week at the bike shop. That will be nice and hopefully lead to more riding and more time with the Mrs.

It's been a while

2010-06-08T22:03:00.002-08:00

So I've had some time away from the blog (FB is getting most of my snarky attention). I'm back in Alaska and happy to be here. It's shaping up to be a gorgeous summer and I'm slowly getting back into fighting (MTB) shape. I've been back for less than three weeks and have already ridden with someone I have greatly admired from afar: Jill who writes the Up in Alaska blog.
I'm back working at a bike shop and that is going OK. I always want to be faster, which makes me tense thinking that those around me are faster, which leads to back pain. Fatigue usually calms things down and forces a weary relaxation that allows my body to heal. Meantime I'm enjoying the 5 mile one way commute (19 mile one way last summer!). And I think I'll be able to ride Sundays and Wednesday nights with groups which is somewhat unusual for me. Usually I ride solo, but this group thing is better in bear country. More later with pix and stuff.

Rocktober CAMBA trip

2009-10-13T09:17:00.005-08:00

It's been a while so how about a happy post: I've been Mountain biking! This is an annual trip to the beautiful trails in the Chequamegon National Forest of northern Wisconsin:

Friday was a nice ride on the new Makwa trail before the temps. really started to drop. Saturday we woke to snow sticking to the ground and 26F. The morning ride at Hatchery Creek Trail was just plain cold.

I changed my gear for the afternoon and I was much more comfortable.

Here is the deluxe cabin the seven of us stayed at:

Here is my steed hiding in the shadows of Rock Lake Trail on Saturday afternoon right before Tim saw a vampire:

We were trying to finish the ride before sunset (since none of us had lights and were getting pretty tired) when we came across two other bikers on a cross trail. They were chatty and with the sun racing for the horizon they did their best to keep us talking.

That was when Tim noticed the HUGE incisors on the bigger guy and realized this guy was a vampire trying to keep us in the woods until it was dark and he had his full powers. His diminutive friend also had a certain Renfield look to him so we ended the convo abruptly and headed back for the trail head. There was a strange feeling of reluctance at leaving these two, I think it was some sort of mind trickery!

Here is the steed all iced and snowed up after the morning ride:

Here is the gang of seven from left: Tim, Rob, Bob, Steve, Charlie, Mark.

None of us managed to get shot by any of the youth hunters out this weekend. When I did come across some deer I yelled at them at the top of my lungs to get out of there because I didn't want to be anywhere near them with the hunt in full swing.

Saturday night we ALWAYS have a big meal at the cabin and it tends to be spaghetti. After we were finished I threw Young Frankenstein in the DVD player and with a couple of beers in us it turned out to be the funniest movie any of us had ever seen.

There was also some kayaking and Fisher hunting involved, but I've got to get back to my books. No one got hurt, everyone had fun, and that's what counts.

The cat came back

2009-06-07T19:01:00.003-08:00

You know that song "The Cat Came Back?" Here is one version: http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/316_songs/Nedelle.mp3

My wife is in Africa for a few more weeks and that is pretty tough. I miss her something fierce. Then there is a bunch of stuff breaking around the house and just when it seems like I've got it all under control something else happens...like that cat coming back.

Speaking of: the cat has now bled on our one "good" couch and I can't get the stains out. He has also chosen another couch to be sick on AND to do it in such a way that his puke has run down between the cushions. The litter box has become more of a suggestion and he continues to bald himself by pulling out his own hair (until his little paws bleed). I sure love that little guy.

There is some good stuff. I've been biking a lot until the knee started hurting. I managed to replace my dishwasher with a new one and hooked it up all by myself. It rained yesterday.

Crotch of Iron

2009-04-26T15:36:00.002-08:00

It's been a while, you're just gonna have to deal.

Short version: laid off on January 5th, looked for job A LOT until I landed a bike mechanic position on April 6th.

I've been biking some this winter and spring. My commute to work is 36 miles round trip (to work 12 hour shifts mostly). I'm going to put a light, rack and basket on my bike this week to make it possible (Thanks http://3speedblog.blogspot.com). So I've been biking more this week and today I rode the annual Iron Crotch in Wisconsin.

This is an "alternative" ride to the Iron Man ride which is a popular spring ride in MN which involves a boring course, lots of car traffic and lots of inexperienced riders (and costs $30 more than the Iron Crotch). The Iron Crotch ride if you haven't guessed already is a gorgeous course through the countryside of Wisconsin, has much less car traffic, and the riders tend to be more experienced...and there is a lot less of them: 175 limit versus 1000s- billions depending on whether Greg Lemond shows up to give a grumpy pants speech or not.

Today's 60 mile ride was punctuated by rain. One of my fellow 8 riders had a leak in his camel back which got his backside wet right at the beginning of the ride. Turned out not to matter one bit. I'm not adverse to riding in the rain, but when it warms up to 43F that makes for some cold riding.

At the 1/2 way point some of my fellow band of riders were tempted to quit as they took in the warmth of a coffee house, but thankfully our fearless leader http://planetary-gears.blogspot.com/2009/04/long-distance-cycling.html talked them into continuing (props to Jim for riding 35 miles to the start of the event and then back, at least I hope he made it back, somebody with more energy should really check on that).

Since the weather forecasts all week said there would be rain today (90% chance when I checked again this morning) I brought my rain gear. I even had plastic bags for my feet (stick them around your socks, insert socks into shoes: works well for about 20 miles or so which I learned the hard way today). Next time I will try tucking them into the tops of my socks instead of just under my biker-tights ( I have no idea if that's the right term and I'm too tired to look it up right now so there).

To my amazement hardly any other riders showed up with rain gear???!?!? Even fearless Jim who was staring down 130 miles over the course of the day was wearing all wool?!?! When he started shivering I told him if he started taking off his clothes (one of the last things people with hypothermia do before they perish) I was going to tackle him and hold him down until the others got his pants back on.

It was a fun ride in that I got to spend some time talking to good folks. We only managed 13.5 MPH average, but it was more fun chatting than trying to stick to some sort of speed regimen. I have a much longer ride planned for later this summer so this was a good start for some of those base miles.

A dog's day

2009-02-24T17:15:00.003-09:00

I know I'm not supposed to be on the couch, but neither is Harold. Maybe if I look down you won't see me:

OK, now I'll just start flicking out my tounge and scare you out of disciplining me:

Stop pretending you can fly Harold! I think it's working:

Ewww! Get away Harold!

tobacco jerk

2009-02-24T17:06:00.003-09:00

Last night I was driving in California at about 70MPH when a guy walked in front of the car which was in front of me and tossed a cartons worth of tobacco into the grill of the car! I was pretty angry that he would do that to someone.

When I got to him he tossed more tobacco into my side window! Road rage took over and I swerved at him. He must have been pooned (see the novel Snowcrash) to something because I couldn't hit him and he appeared to be just floating or running at 70 MPH!

When I got to my destination restaurant he walked in after me and was challenging me to a fight. He was at least 6' 7" (my roommate is 6' 5" so I have a good feel for height estimates these days) and built like a tank!

I told him I was calling 911 and he responded by calling 911.

Then I started to worry that throwing tobacco into people's cars wasn't as bad as trying to run them over in revenge. This jerk was going to win!

Then, thankfully, I woke up.

BEWARE!!

2009-02-06T09:55:00.002-09:00

As my friend at http://planetary-gears.blogspot.com/ has pointed out: this story is making the rounds on the local blog scene: http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/cities-top-ten-lifestyle-real-estate_0129cities.html

So for those of you living in the sunbelt or on the coasts please take note: it's TERRIBLE here in Minnesota! You have it figured out and are totally right so stay where you are.

The winters are so excruciatingly painful that folks who grew up here talk in very brief sentences (e.g. we use folks instead of people: one less letter, one less syllable). People think we are dull here, nope we have been frozen so many times we can't risk the extra energy to use more words. Same goes for outward expression and dancing. Why do you think this blog doesn't come out very often for gosh sakes!

You are probably thinking you'd like to visit in the summer if at all: bad move! Summer is when most people are killed here like the 213 people two July's back when a blizzard took everyone by surprise. Most of those people were out in the endless woods we have here and weren't found until the following June when it finally thawed out.

There are also hordes of mosquitoes here which carry diseases like West Nile Virus, Malaria, Herpes, and the big ones have been known to transmit bird flu. During our very brief summer we Minnesotans spend our time running for cover from the incessant thunderstorms and totally random and unpredictable tornadoes all the while covered from head to toe on even the hottest of days (it can get as high as 40F) to try to keep safe from the mosquitoes.

I had a friend when I was growing up who rode his bike to the store on a completely clear sunny day only to be swept up by a tornado and dislodged two counties over! We never found his limbs, wolves probably got them.

Heaven forbid you don't get all the mosquitoes out of your house in the fall. When one of those pests gets into your attic for the winter it can lay 1000s of eggs and all it takes is one warm spell (20F or warmer) and your house now has a horde of infection raining down on you and your children.

You just have to live with it until spring (usually in June, sometimes later) when you can finally get out of the house, raze it , and re-build before winter comes (usually in August, sometimes sooner).

Play it safe people: stay away!

The Bolivian Shepard makes a statement

2009-01-30T14:03:00.002-09:00

Nothing to see here. I'm cool with this stylish Elizabethan cone thing you guys have me wearing.

No, as a matter of fact I DON'T KNOW how this thing came apart! Maybe you should have made it sturdier you silly man!

more about those bike balls

2009-01-27T07:41:00.002-09:00

This is from that clever Bike-snob in Brooklyn:

....and I was delighted to read that the XTR hub will actually "cradle the balls":If you've been looking for an excuse to upgrade, here it is. The XTR hub is a huge step up from the XT model, which merely cups the balls, and a significant upgrade from the LX hub, which kind of mushes them. I don't even want to say what a Deore hub does to the balls, but suffice to say unless you want to replace your balls on a regular basis you're better off walking. Actually, you might as well put the balls in a vise. On the other hand, if you want to experience pure bliss, try adding the Shimano's Yumeya aftermarket kit. Suki desu ka? Hai, suki desu! The balls will say domo arigato gozaimasu.

In these crazy times it's nice knowing he is there to brighten my day with his humorous pessimism.

Sorry I'm not writing anything myself but life has not been ueber-good these past two weeks and who wants to read about that shite, ken?

Bike Maintenance:rear wheel

2009-01-25T12:26:00.002-09:00

Authors note: I got spammed, so you are now going to have to jump through some hoops to post comments. Blame the bored, bloted teenagers with no lives and a fear of the world outside the grasp of their keyboard who waste society's time with spam and other things we could all do without: Britney, boy-bands, pants that sag, facebook/ myspace/ etc...

A friend of mine is replacing his rear wheel and asked about removing the cassette and free wheel from the old wheel to place on the new one. I've given him some advice and it may help you if you are in the same situation.

He has purchased a chainwhip and reported that it is too big. He also had an issue with bike nomenclature: "anyway, I took the long stick thing out and the old ball bearings are falling out. It's ucky in there."

Here is my response:

Don't worry about the chainwhip being too big: that's how they are made so that they fit every application: use black tape to hold back some of the links to make it small enough to work.

If you do go with the big bolt method all you need is a pair of vice grips and a # 7 iclono-wrench (IW): use the IW to hold the bolt and then take the vice grip to the IW and it's pretty easy from there.

It's kind of counter intuitive, but you need to store those bearings that fell out in salt water: they are not metal and without the original grease that they were packed they will actually expand if not kept in salt water (it's a weird bike thing, just do it!).

You should try to scrape out as much of the original grease as possible and save it because new grease will severely shorten the lifespan of the wheel.

I know one guy that used all new grease and because his bearings were allowed to sit out in the air for a couple weeks he had to cram them back in (I don't know how) and this caused the wheel to seize going down a hill and he lost his left leg when he slammed into a guardrail!

Of course you know me pretty well and I could be totally full of poo.

kitty porn

2009-01-15T07:00:00.003-09:00

Come hither:

Ladies he's got it going on:

Our cat gets really upset when we leave him alone for a few days, no matter how much love is doted on him by neighbors or relatives, he freaks out without his mama. Then he starts to pull out his hair in a form of protest.

It's definitely stress related, it might be allergies. At one point he was treated with hormones and HE started to lactate, (sorry no video available).

He has decided that no form of antihistamine is going in his body any more (the only thing that has helped so far). We are up to three different forms and no luck yet. Apparently cherry flavor is to cats as rancid flesh is to humans.

The Mrs. says it's getting better, I'm not so sure. Time will tell.

So what do you do when you have to keep your dog from licking a wound and she is flexible enough to get around the standard plastic head cone:

That's right: make it longer! She is not amused. She hated the original cone so much it became dubbed the cone of shame. She's one lucky puppy.

Hopefully she'll be healed enough by next week that she won't have to wear this contraption any more.

last post of the trip

2009-01-12T18:46:00.002-09:00

I was starting to get tired on day three, but I rebounded on days four and five and was "in the zone."

Here is a mounty keeping track of the traffic:

This is after day four:

We made it as far as Weyburn tonight before forward progress was halted by snow.

Today went really well and while the original plan was to get to Minot tonight, this works out a little better to use up the rest of our Canada money.

Depending on what kind of weather we get tomorrow in Dakota and Minnesota will determine when we get home. I'm pretty sure we can get through as much snow as we had today, it just might be a long day (the roads were much worse the next day due to drifting, but once we crossed the border it was smooth sailing).

If we get good roads it will be a 12 hour day (turned into 14 hours).

This is on the last day at the alleged geographical center of North America. It was so cold (the windchill finally got us that day) that it was hard to smile. I think I frost burned my teeth:

The last day took longer because we couldn't go diagonal across ND on 52 or straight south to Bismark and then over, but instead went east on 2 to Grand Forks and then south because of snow.

I got to show the Mrs. around the old stomping grounds although I don't recognize much of it anymore.

Here is after the last day:

We just got home. Today was a long one, but it's nice to be back. We drove through some pretty good snow drifts right before the Canadian border this morning, but the Saturn chugged right through.

At one point we had to share the one clear lane of the two lane road with oncoming traffic.

The parking lot wasn't plowed this morning at the motel, so we got stuck and I pushed us out onto the road after some effort. Lot's of people took the time to watch our struggles, but ironically no one stopped to help until we were already on the road.

I was happy to not have to use the tire chains this trip.

I was not happy being down 3 quarts of oil when we pulled into Devils Lake ND today. Sounds like it was caused by the extreme temps. because it's been holding oil since then.

We ended the journey by chipping out our garage door which had become frozen to the cement in our absence.

The next day:

We are starting to get used to me not having to scramble to get things done before rushing back to Anchorage. We are all unpacked and now it is on with the task of finding me a job.

The road trip went by quickly. I wish more of it had been during the day to take in the great scenery the first three days.

Here is a pix that shows all the stuff I had in my car:

The car is running great and we spent a little over $600 on the whole trip, so I'm glad I didn't sell it in Anchorage.

more from the big drive

2009-01-12T18:31:00.002-09:00

So we did 3200+ miles in 5 days (we had to add some travel distance/ time to get around snow in North Dakota).

Check out those Buffalo that hung out near the road:

That is much of what we saw on days two and three because we didn't get much time driving in the day.

Here is the capital building in Edmonton:

Some stuff I wrote after Day 2 was done:

We made it to Fort Nelson. The car started just fine after a night at -33C. No problems today as the temp didn't get below -35C (that I know of).

Right now it is -33C and the overnight low is supposed to be -42C. It feels strange when you get out of the car somewhere and -10F doesn't feel that bad.

We saw a bunch of moose today, a heard of elk and had a wolf run along side our car for about 30 yards!

The mountain roads from Watson Lake to Fort Nelson were challenging (I have never longed for boring prairie driving as much as I did tonight).

It was dark and there was flurries the whole way so I couldn't use the brights very much. The speed limit is around 60MPH but we could only go 40-50 MPH for the most part.

That's it for now. Time for bed and then off to Edmonton tomorrow.

Here is a guy (I think his middle name is HARDCORE) biking at about -20F:

Here is the impressive border sign between provinces:

Here is what I said after the 3rd day driving:

We made it to Edmonton. It was not without challenge today: snow and black ice were the challenges of the plains, but we still got to travel faster which made us "feel" better.

We did go slow on the black ice so as to not join the 5-6 cars in the ditch lying on their sides and up-side-down.

One thing I did not account for: we've lost 2 hours in three days because of time changes. We keep trying to get up early to squeeze every bit of daylight out that we can, but we are working against the sun and will lose another hour tomorrow.

Not sure where we'll wind up tomorrow: original plan was Minot, but may stop short of there depending on how we are doing.

The time thing was really challenging. Basically we stopped for about 10 hours each night and about 30-45 minutes for one meal a day (except day two where we didn't have a place to stop for dinner).

The dinner stop was always at night so we didn't burn up daylight. But we were basically on a constant time challenge from the start and wound up simply driving later each day to make it to the next big town.

We could have spent less time driving each day, but we were trying to make it on a budget and lodging was our biggest expense...or was it gas?

Leaving Alaska

2009-01-12T17:34:00.003-09:00

Well it's actually happened: the Mrs. and I have packed up my Saturn and drove from Anchorage back to Minnesota.

The weekend that we left was celebrating Alaska's 50th anniversary as a state. The fireworks were great, but it was hard to feel celebratory.

We got to listen to a couple of mediocre and one horrid bands, but one was really good: Bearfoot. They do blue grass the way it should be done.

It was so cold the shutter froze on this one:

So that was Saturday and we held off Sunday to start driving to avoid some snow (which it turned out was UN-avoidable.

Here are some Caribou along the ALCAN that Sara didn't shoot yet:

Here is a demon moose (you'll see it in her eyes if you click on it to make it big):

This is from the first day: Just got into Whitehorse (15 hours in the car) and staying at a backpackers hostel.

Drive was good, the frost heaves made it slow going at times. Had some snow and fog past Haines Junction but no big deal.

Got a little concerned when the clutch got stiff and sluggish but I guess that's what you get when you drive through -40 for a few hours (and colder it turned out). It's worked itself out.

I'm having to add heat to the gas because the gas tank door isn't keeping the snow out and some is getting past the cap into the tank..On to Fort Nelson tomorrow.

Much later in the trip this was the sign that I thought would impress my friend Allen:

Here are some of the splendid mountains we saw so much of the first three days (when it wasn't dark from 4PM to 10AM):

sara-meat

2008-12-30T19:30:00.003-09:00

So my roommate tells me he has never liked summer sausage. I have never met anyone who hasn't but I grew up very close to Wisconsin. Along with my German relatives almost half the population of Minnesota has roots back in Germany.

For Germans sausage is like water for the rest of the world. There are many different kinds, and I've never had a sausage I didn't like.

My roommate had a shaft of moose summer sausage in the freezer and it's been staring at me since I moved in last spring. I asked if I could try it and that's when I found out he didn't like it and that I should go ahead.

I tried it out and I now have had a sausage I didn't like. My old friend Craig would be so disappointed.

The sausage in question is gamy in the extreme. It might be my imagination but I keep thinking there are tufts of hide stuck in my teeth.

Since trying it I've discussed it with some hunters and they think it was made wrong. Sausage made wrong??? Who knew???

I used some suggestions to tame it a bit: I made a vat of spaghetti sauce (acid from the tomatoes) with lots of garlic, and added vinegar to further up the acid content (which is supposed to numb down the gamy-ness).

It still didn't work! I had some friends over and they were very polite about it, but I knew it was still too gamy.

I have since finished it off (too cheap to waste even this food). I meant to bring my roommate some fine sausage from http://www.louiesfinermeats.com/, but I forgot.

and the beat goes on...

2008-12-30T19:14:00.002-09:00

Yep, still here. It's been a busy season. The Mrs. has joined me in Anchorage for the last days of my job. She will be driving with me back to Minnesota on Jan. 4, weather permitting.

She got to come to Lihue Hawaii with me for Christmas and we attended a nice glow-stick Christmas eve service. The facility owners did not allow candles.

It sure was nice in Hawaii because it's been COLD in Anchorage (I don't think it's gotten above 10F since the 19th). Today it was -40 C/F in Fairbanks when I was there. (I love that -40 is the same temp on both of those scales. My favorite conversion is 61F = 16C).

I've been trying to get the Mrs. out hiking but she is having a tough time with the cold. If it weren't for our soon to be lack of income I would buy her a fancy mask, but instead she suffers the cold she avoided for 20 some years in Texas.

I've gotten her up along the gasline trail a couple times. Today (-5F) we went up to the Denali lookout trail and back up the powerline trail back to the car. Probably a solid hour and she was hurting pretty good.

I made the mistake of pointing out that it's not just the cold but the fact that she's no longer in good shape...turns out that's not a good thing to say.

Tonight we are nursing our sore limbs with hot chocolate and maybe some post-Christmas cutout cookies if they are finished this evening.

Doom and Gloom

2008-12-15T17:45:00.003-09:00

That's what airline folk say when we hit the lows of our roller coaster careers. I guess this time it is for real for me: I'm getting laid off in January.

So that's why I haven't posted in a while. The job market is bleak my friends. Turns out Obama doesn't want my help righting the ship, so I guess it's time to eek out a living doing a real job-type-job.

I've been using the MN Work Force Center to aide my job search. Not too many jobs I'm qualified for that meet our expenses (which we cut back to bare minimum a year ago to take my new job pay cut). The MWF has nothing to do with unemployment payments.

The MWF makes everyone attend an orientation meeting where they talk about some programs that interested me buuuut there's a catch (didn't see that coming didjya?): before you can sign up for the program you want you have to attend Employment U for five days a week for two weeks!

Today I found out that I can't do a week now and a week when I come back in January: all at once or nuthin! So when would the classes be in January? No one knows. They will call me when they have it figured out...or they won't...matterz.

So the hunt is on and I did find a snow shoveling job...if only my winter gear were here and not Anchorage (I don't think it got above 5F today and there are nasty windchills with the associated advisories going since last night).

The Mrs. will join me in January for the trek from Anchorage to Minneapolis in the mighty Saturn SC2! Yep, we're going over the Canadian Rockies in January. WOO HOO!

It will either be gorgeous, or miserable. Maybe we'll dress like this and see who can go the longest without car heat:

3.5 hours of fun

2008-11-19T18:05:00.003-09:00

Today I had my long call out where I get 4 hours from the call to get to the airport. So I went for a big ski.

I've never gotten all the way to Powerline Pass and I gave it a go today. I skied for 2 hours and wasn't there yet, but it was in my sights. I chose to turn back, but now I know it can be done in about half a day.

Here is a view of the mountains:

Here is the same view but from where I turned around:

This is a cool bridge that goes over the same creek that you may have seen in previous posts, but this one leads to Hidden Lake:

I saw a few dozen crows squawking over something in the distance. I suspect it was a moose kill from bear (they are still awake those bastards!).

I also found some bloody snow on the trail, but I suspect it was from a bloody nose of someone who needs more water in their diet.

Here is a picture of a trailing F-28. I tried to get my camera out to get the four which were flying in formation, but this is what I got. It also shows a good example of the valley walls I look at while I ski this trail:

Today is the most I've skied since I was on the ski team when I was 14. It felt good to know that I could do it, but I sure wish I had my 14 year old knees back. They took some ice when I got home and are doing pretty well. Have to see what they are like when I wake tomorrow.

another Tuesday hike

2008-11-18T15:26:00.002-09:00

Last night I went to the local theater pub and watched Elegy for a whopping $3. It was really well acted, which is good since the story has been done, A LOT!

Today I decided to hike in Kincaid park and took some paths less trodden. I think people ride these in the summer when the Devil's club and other plants don't overcome the trail.

It was pretty cold out there today:

I saw what I thought was a dog on another trail below me. Turned out to be the biggest fox I'd ever seen. Sometimes it's hard to tell because they poof out their fur so much.

I watched it for a while and got to see it pounce on some sort of vermin off the trail! Pretty cool. Too bad no pix, it was too far away.

But, here is an owl I came across later in my walk:

After taking the photo I walked closer and it did the cool head swivel to check me out. I did my only owl call to see what would happen*. This owl left it's perch to do a flyby, staying a safe distance away and then returned to its perch. It was beautiful!

*When I was a kid I got taught the screech owl call when I was at camp one summer. The next summer I went on a canoe trip down the St. Croix river with a different bunch of kids.

Every night after we'd be sitting a while around the campfire I'd try this call, and nothing happened. The other kids were kind of snickering at me even though the councilors were telling them that I had it down.

On the last night I got done calling and we all returned to conversation when an owl swooped down over us and the fire and screeched really loudly! Everyone was scared and amazed. A few minutes later the kids who were previously snickering were now trying to do the call but the owl never came back. I felt pretty good.

dreamy

2008-11-17T20:45:00.002-09:00

Yesterday I returned to Anchorage after a couple days at home with the Mrs. While back in Minneapolis I took the ol' Murray on the http://hiawathacyclery.com/ Saturday morning ride.

I should have understood when my friend from http://3speedblog.blogspot.com/ said I was going to keep the pace down that the ride was not the cream puff it had once been.

It used to be 45' of easy riding, 20' of pastry and coffee consumption, and then back to the shop to open it up by 10AM. Now the shop opens at noon and that means longer riding, and more consumption.

The Murray was not pleased. In the end I was bringing up the rear and the group split in two, with only two of us in the slower group. That's what I get for not having the right gear (almost all my bike stuff is in Anchorage).

This morning I awoke to the end of a recurring dream. Every recurring dream I've ever had seems to happen over a period of weeks to months before I wake up and realize that the things happening in my head are only just that!

Today was the end of my 1st good recurring dream: it was about MTBing. Basically there was an amazing piece of land that was all twisty turny single track all taking place in a huge oval field.

Some of it was sand and some was through long prairie grass and wheat, some through dark forest.

Out of this field two epic double track trails sprouted into the mountains. If you took them you always had pristine views of the mountains and the sea.

I sure hope this dream will keep coming back.

SNOW BABY!!

2008-11-12T19:07:00.003-09:00

Yesterday we got about 5 more inches of snow! That will help make a nice base here in town, but we will need another 5+ to make skiing at the parks in town do-able.

Today I went back up to gasline and powerline trails and had a blast on the new snow. I tried something I've never done before: ski-music.

There is a long slog (about 30 minutes) uphill from the car and I thought maybe I'd spice it up with some tunes. It may have been the first time I've had a headset on while skiing, it won't be the last!

I've always enjoyed working out to music and today it really helped me keep a good pace going. It was weird hearing the Hellakopters and the Clash while looking at the mountains, but it was sooo worth it!

I got to a union meeting yesterday to hear the state of negotiations. 2 1/2 hours later I had a "free" lunch in me and no new news.

This morning I got together with some other FOs on call for breakfast and it was nice meeting and re-meeting some folks.

Don't stare at this too long or it will consume you!

Check out the last day of the beard for tomorrow it goes away (sometimes the snow won't stop clinging to the hair):

Another day another hike

2008-11-10T20:47:00.004-09:00

Today I got out hiking while flakes of joy fell from the heavens! There was only a dusting when I was up there, but there were already people skiing and fat-biking on the new powder.

This is trying to capture the falling snow, but you have to look in the snaze of the background to tell it's snowing.

My legs are getting stronger and I'm getting faster. I've shaved 10 minutes off of my two hour route. I tried running downhill for a ways and nothing hurt or was sore. VERY HAPPY!

Here is near the end for today and the snow, as it has up to now, is only coming down in the mountains and leaving the town free from fun powder (or at least a descent base!).

So what does sitting reserve and not getting called out for a couple weeks look like:

I like the way the flash made some of the red hairs glow.

After about a week or so I have to shave because it starts to bug me. I think tomorrow will be the day. There is a much nastier close-up but I'm trying to keep this PG.

Hatcher Pass

2008-11-08T20:09:00.002-09:00

Today my roommate and I tried out our new avalanche knowledge by doing some back country skiing. Maybe I should start with last night:

We (including my friend James) attended a free REI sponsored avalanche safety class last night. Afterwards we went out for a drink to decide how to best apply our new avalanche avoidance expertise.

One of the things they pointed out is that you need a minimum of three things in avalanche country: a transponder, a shovel and a pole to poke the victim with. Neither of us has any of these things unless you count a ski pole that isn't as long as the fancy pole we should carry.

So we decided to go to Hatcher Pass today (one of the examples from last night where there are avalanches) and try some back country skiing. There were plenty of folks out on this sunny Saturday and we felt pretty certain that if none of them had caused any avalanches, neither would we.

Oh how wrong we were!

Sorry, I'm kidding.

We had a lot of fun with him taking the lead with his fancy back country skis, and me following with my cheap non-back country skis:

We pretty much didn't go anywhere that hadn't been traveled before, but it worked much better with him packing down the snow with his wider skis.

As I was descending one hill an unleashed dog chose to run up it, at me. Luckily she veered off because I don't think she would have liked being hit by the big sack of meat descending on those sticks right into her snout!

The area is right next to the Independence Gold mine. Here we are looking from one of the buildings down onto some others:

Here is a shot with Palmer and my car in the distance:

I managed to not fall on any of the downhills (the ungroomed ones were sketchy!). And I was enjoying the groomed downhills very much until the very end when I decided I'd do the fancy downhill ski stop where you slide on both skis sideways, tips pointing in the same direction. I used to have this difficult maneuver down back-in-the-day. Not any more. My only fall of the day came as I got back to the car. Only my pride was hurt. No one else seemed to care.

2008-11-06T21:15:00.003-09:00

Yesterday I hiked up the Gasline trail to the place where I saw all the moose last month. I still found a cow and calf hanging out. I think they are more mellow when it's cooler out.

Here is a movie of the stream from the bridge near the moose. It's surreal watching the water freeze into bits of ice and then unfreeze before my eyes:

I really like seeing the pink mountains at sunset. These two pix are at the same spot:

This second one shows the difference in colors that are out there:

I saw that there was enough snow for a couple of high school ski teams to be practicing. Today I decided to take my skis up there, but I walked a ways before I thought the snow was good enough for my only set of skis.

It is common up here to have a set of "rock" skis for the conditions we have now. On my way back to the car I took off the skis and was hiking down a hill with lots of obstructions when one of the high schoolers zipped by me.

Must be nice having rock-skis which can get battered on the rocks and roots I heard her scraping over in the corners as she sailed on by. At least her parents will be helping the economy this season.

Kincaid hike

2008-11-05T21:18:00.004-09:00

The days are getting shorter (especially without daylight savings) so my hikes are now all ending closer to sunset. At some point soon I'll have to go at noon or take a headlamp.

These were taken in Kincaid park on Tuesday November 4th, or as I like to call it Obama Day!

Here is a panoramic view of the mudflats (caused by the 30+ foot tide, 3rd largest in the world) and Fire Island:

I really like the variety of colors in this one. The snow looks blue to me, maybe that was some sort of sign?

The mudflats are frozen enough to reflect the light nicely:

It was a really beautiful day.

Rabbit Creek Trail

2008-11-05T20:58:00.005-09:00

Sunday I went for a hike on Rabbit Creek trail. It wasn't marked so I chose to stop where I saw all the other cars parked.

I chose to go up the left trail and got pretty tired going up a steep slope of rock. My achilles were getting so stretched that I actually needed to stop several times to get them to relax.

Near the top it got a little steeper and much more rocky. I decided to turn around because I was concerned if it got even more steep, I'd be stuck.

I was carefully picking my way back down in a crab walk fashion when I saw another hiker approaching from below.

She asked what I was doing. I told her about how high I'd gotten and was worried about coming down from higher. Turns out when you get to the top there is another trail which comes down the other side of a gully.

I'd been watching a bunch of other folks on the "down" trail without realizing I would soon be joining them. They were in the vicinity of three large moose, but based on their conversation, clearly had no idea that the animals were very close to them.

Here is a guy having some fun as we approached the peak:

I asked her if there was a name for the hill we were on, and it turns out we were climbing up the back of Flattop mountain! So I wasn't on Rabbit Creek trail as I had intended.

If I'd driven 100 more yards or so I'd have seen the start of Rabbit Creek trail.

Here is a view of Anchorage from the top:

The woman who let me tag along turned out to be from Minnesota and went to the school that the Mrs. attends now. Small world.

The next day I took a day of rest from hiking and my quads were so stiff it was painful going up and down stairs.

I've never been much of a hiker. I should say I've never gone out of my way to hike. But being this close to mountains with this abundance of trails has really turned me onto hiking.

Until we get more snow, it will be my workout. Next year I'll have studded tires for one of my bikes to add some variety.

Archangel road

2008-11-01T17:39:00.004-08:00

I returned to the road which is groomed for my ski-pleasure today. I wasn't alone, and that's OK.

Check out my crazy-expensive set-up:

Yep, those are bamboo poles made in Norway, or as I call it the mother-country. Nothing says bamboo like Norway, right?

I don't mind sharing the trail, but dogs that jump on strangers are not my favorites (especially the lab that pawed me in the jewels yesterday!). Better that the strangers jumping on me, of course Jitsu works better on humans than K-9s.

Here is one of the many streams that hasn't frozen over yet. Some of them have huge "steps" of ice with water flowing down them.

It felt really good to get back out on skis on descent snow AND not fall going downhill. I think I have my legs back. My max speed downhill was 21 MPH. It took me 1 hour and 34 minutes to get up, and only 36 minutes to get back down.

At the end of the road-trail I found this gate:

It says: FEET ONLY. I think the land owner doesn't like ATVs.

This leads to an old mine that is on private property. The owner doesn't like trespassers and has been known to shoot warning shots at people climbing the rocks on his land.

Not to leave you on a sour note, here is a nice mountain panorama for you to click on:

Halloween!!

2008-11-01T17:31:00.004-08:00

Nothing says Halloween like this huh?

The natives have 50 different names for snow and this is why:

This would be bad snow. It's been sublimating and just like when stuff gets freezer burn, it tastes bad. Look at this poor fur-log:

Hopefully we can get more snow sometime soon (tired of hiking) or I'll have to rack up the miles going to Archangel road and Hatcher Pass. That would be an excellent excuse for amazing skiing!

I chose to not wallflower last night, but instead watched a little Buffy for the harvest celebration.

Ryan Leach

2008-10-31T21:25:00.001-08:00

I saw this guy the first time in the bike-movie Roam. He blew me away, I still can't get enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wehmNVja_aI

Are you aware?

2008-10-31T20:50:00.001-08:00

This is a test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

"knowing is half the battle

2008-10-31T12:32:00.004-08:00

ultra-violence is the other half."

I'm bored today so I will share some catchy t-shirts that I found here:
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=108567&u=214918&m=5993&urllink=&afftrack=

Tonight I may go out into the raging energy that is downtown Anchorage to see what the kidz are wearing this year for Halloween (besides parkas, it's 16F). I'm on call, so no social lubricant for me. I'll probably be a wallflower as I can't find anyone interested in seeing the nightlife of this fine city. Not to worry, I'm good at being a wallflower.

A friend of mine from Minneapolis found a bottle of KARATE cologne when he was cleaning out what I hope were some very old boxes. He leads a Saturday bike ride and I suggested we do a KARATE ride where all the boys would wear this fine cologne.

I wish I had a bottle of that or this to see what kind of a ruckus it would cause tonight:

I'm pretty sure my flatulence will have the same effect.

made a friend, lost a friend

2008-10-28T20:24:00.004-08:00

It was a windless 20F today when I got outside for my hike. I tried skiing, but there have been so many hikers on the trails that the snow has been really packed down and is icy in many places.

I chose to leave gun at home today and managed to find a friend to protect me:

He was very friendly, had no collar or tags and just started following me. Once in a while he'd lead, but he always kept looking behind to make sure I was still coming along.

After a while we came up to the Powerline trail and he went his own way. I sure hope he found his way home because he's a real sweetheart.

When I got back to the car the same bitch from last week was doing her random bark at the world. Emboldened by meeting the other dog, I approached her and she took a few sniffs at my extended gloved hand. But she wasn't sure about petting, so I left her to her rant against the mountains and all who dared traverse them.

Here is Anchorage from the Tony Coastal Trail near the airport on this lovely day:

Here is a mighty freighter bound for the not-so-far-East:

My point in going down to the sea along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail was to see if I could see Denali and I wasn't disappointed. It's faint in the photo, but it's the definition of awesome in real life:

Fall

2008-10-23T21:35:00.003-08:00

This week, I decided to alternate my workout schedule with one day skiing, one day something else. Yesterday I took a nice walk and did some stuff in the apartment. Today I got back to skiing.

I sprayed my skis so they would actually slide today and they worked well. I got much farther than two days ago, over 5 miles out from the car by my reckoning.

I made it up to the trail where I had my moose-a-graphs and sure enough, they are still hanging out. Forgot my camera today in my efforts to get out the door quickly.

On the way back down the gasline trail (which is all downhill back to the car) I got confused as I arrived at a fork in the trail and in a moment of indecision I fell, hard, face down. There isn't a lot of snow yet, so I basically pushed the snow aside and landed on the frozen earth.

I moved a good sized rock from it's resting place in the dirt, but I shook it off and nothing got broke. I was really in a negative mood after that, and it took me a while to realize it wasn't because I fell. It was because I fell onto my gun.

Up here a lot of folks carry guns. I do it in a chest holster for bears in the summer, and randy moose this time of year.

I recently had a Canadian acquaintance, who has never touched a gun, ask me if I worry about crashing my MTB with the gun on me. My response was that I always ride very conservatively when carrying the gun. The holster I use also has a strap that prevents the hammer from moving back which gives me another layer of protection against accidental discharge.

Today I could have been more conservative, and I failed. I should have descended slower, and stopped when I couldn't make up my mind on the fork in the trail. Turns out, that is why I was upset after the wipeout. Well, that and I lost my 11th toe, but I've been meaning to shoot that off for a long time. Now if I could just get these snow lice out of my chest hair!

ski-hike

2008-10-21T21:59:00.003-08:00

October in Anchorage and that means skiing...sort of. I went out of the O'Malley trail head today and started skiing up the gas line trail.

Temp was just above freezing and I had forgotten to use the fancy spray on my waxless skis so they started grabbing and collecting snow.

As I was taking this shot there was barking from behind me:

Up trotted a greyhound wearing a sweater/ saddle. That dog is going to have a tough time when the cold hits:

A little while after this I took off the skis and carried them as I hiked up the gas line. When I was ready to turn around, I put the skis back on and had a fun descent.

Here is looking back towards Anchorage:

The alder trees look really good in this snow and I tried to capture the vast puzzle that they form, but it's one of those things you have to see in person:

When I got back to my car there was a bitch barking in the middle of the street...at nothing. I felt bad for her, but her ears were back and she was not approachable, so I couldn't get a look at her tags (or let her take me to her owner down the well as Lassie would have). Hopefully her owner heard her.

CAMBA video part 2

2008-10-21T21:28:00.003-08:00

I didn't take my still camera, so you are going to have to wait for my friends to send links to their pix.

Here is a video that isn't overly wobbly (trust me) where I'm following the good doctor and Herr Bacon. It gives a good sense of what the beauty of these trails is, unfortunately it is not as clear as I would have liked.

Chequamegon

2008-10-21T20:08:00.003-08:00

This past weekend I returned to the Chequamegon National Forest for some MTBing. I joined a group who goes there every October for a weekend, this was my 2nd year with them and I really enjoyed both times.

We stayed at a very nice "cabin" and as there were seven of us it was also pretty economical. My favorite part (besides the lack of mildew that we lived in last year) was that we could ride from the cabin to the trails (which were dry and in excellent condition!).

After not biking much this summer, and my last few rides being dirty, and costly, it was a real treat to get back to the old stomping grounds, and riding in the 50's most of the time. Thanks so much to Mr. and Mrs. Bacon http://3speedblog.blogspot.com/ for letting me use the Mrs. hard tail.

CAMBA is the organization that builds and maintains over 200 miles of MTB trails inside and outside of the Cheq. National Forest. There is a little over 60 miles of single track right now, and plans are to continue building single track until there will be over 100 miles of pure MTB bliss!!

60+ of those miles will be connected so one could ride 60 miles of single track without repeating one inch of trail! That would be over 120 miles out and back... if ever there was a thing that would be fun enough to kill ya.

We started on one of my favorite trails: Esker. It winds up a hill and then you ride a ridge of roller-coaster hills that ends in a large climb to an amazing vista. One of our group took a wrong turn and wound up skipping the hill+vista (he didn't mind) and got back to the cabin solo.

After a brief mission of seeking, he retraced his pedal-strokes to find us and we went into Cable for some supper.

The next day we went to Fish Hatchery trail to start what would be our day of single track. The following video shows me rubbing tires with Mr. Bacon (my helmet camera got whacked by a branch right at the start of the ride and I didn't realize it was loose the rest of the day):

Did you notice the orange vest? We found out when we got there that it was a special season for deer hunting because the DNR determined there are too many does and if we don't shoot them they will die.

We heard some gun shots, but nothing that was close enough to us to be of concern.

After a hearty lunch at my favorite Norske Nook in Hayward http://www.norskenook.com/ we spotted a bobcat on our way to the Rocklake trail!

We split into two groups for the afternoon ride. One of us was on trails for his first time and it wasn't really fair to him to take him on the longer route.

I was having a difficult time at the end and I felt really exhausted by my efforts, only to find out I'd been pedaling with the rear brake rubbing against the rim of the wheel! So my 36 miles on the day should have some factor added to it, but I'm not that smart.

Our group doctor had a run in with a stick at the very end of the trail that day and the stick won: it removed his rear derailleur and jammed it into his spokes. He had to walk less than 100 yards to the cars, very lucky in an unlucky kind of way.

That night we had a spaghetti feast and watched Terminator 2 (my favorite of the three) on the satellite TV.

The next day we rode briefly on the Ojibwe trail and took the Short&Fat/ Sleigh/ Birkibeiner trails back to the cabin. We were all pretty tired, next year we will not be doing single track on Sunday.

Snow-biking

2008-10-08T22:54:00.004-08:00

Lots of bikers like to expound the virtues of snow biking. They look down their noses at those of us who would rather not ride our bikes in the cold, wet, slimiest of months.

For me it is not the discomfort of self, but the love for my trusty steed that I choose not to drive it through the muck. You see bikes, even MTBs, like to be clean. All those mechanical parts work best when they are clean AND not frozen in place by things like mud, or as I experienced today: snud (snow and mud).

It was a nice day here, about 32F when the 11 of us departed on our off road ride this evening. The first hour was great.

Biking on snow is pretty fun although my brain was having trouble believing that I was biking on snow. Snow is for skiing, sledding and so forth, soon my bike would prove my brain correct.

SEE! In the words of Hank Hill: "That ain't right:"

The mud was not completely frozen and is now coating my precious steed (too tired and lazy to attempt cleaning it tonight). An hour into the ride the snud froze in several places on the bike leaving me with two gears, the easiest gears, the gears that would make me pedal like a mad-man for the last 20 minutes of the ride to attempt to keep up, which I did not.

By the time I could no longer shift I also couldn't clip into my pedals and was lucky to not bash my shins repeatedly as my feet slipped off the snud balls that were my pedals.

Lesson: the right equipment makes things much more fun...OK safe if you will (platform pedals and a single speed would have been really fun out there today).

I think my brain was just never into the ride because I had cleaned my steed really well on Saturday and here I was getting it filthy when I could have just as well gone skiing and put the steed away until better days: when the ground is completely frozen, Spring perhaps, or at least days when it was just snow to deal with and not snud.

It was really nice riding with these folks tonight for the fact that I like meeting more people from here and these are a great group of active people. Next time I'm going to skip the ride and just go to the dinner after ; P

Mooseagraphic!

2008-10-07T22:04:00.004-08:00

Yep, I'm making up words faster than a overwhelmed flight attendant (on my last trip I watched four of them become confused on how an elevator works, and no, not the kind on an airplane).

It's nice to be in a place that can offer things like this:

The city is in the background of this shot which means it took me less than an hour to be standing in the presence of The Harem (this was an awfully big bull):

I zoomed in til fuzzy so you could see his rack better and also one of his cows behind him that doesn't stand out as well in the other shots (you should be able to click on any photo to make it bigger):

On the way back I came across two bulls who thought I was curious. One kept walking closer to me, so I stopped taking pictures and retreated to a safer distance. Then I got to watch him rub his rack on some alders which made a good amount of noise after all had been silent for the last hour up there.

October 7, the day of ski

2008-10-07T21:31:00.005-08:00

When I woke up I saw that it was bright through my blinds. "Could the trails be frozen and dry enough to ride today," I had hoped! When I pulled back the blinds and saw that snow was accumulating I was not happy.

Last week I biked four times trying to squeeze every bit of riding I could out of myself, my bike and the trails before the winter set in. As you can see my MTB is now an Alaskan: it's sporting fenders:

Why I was sad about not being able to do this to my bike I don't know:

I had to wash my bike after every ride last week, and replace a shifter that got wrecked by an infestation of mud. Not cool when I'm trying to save $$ right now. My four rides last week averaged $53 per ride in bike accessories/ repairs.

Today I decided to drive up to the Glen Alps parking lot and see if I could hike to where the moose are determining who gets to play in the harem and who has to wait for the big guy to kick the bucket.

I took along the skis just in case and I'm sure glad I did: 6+ inches of snow up there!

Here's a stream crossing on the Middlefork trail heading toward the moose:

This is where I was camped out checking out the Harem. Can you find the moose in the left of this pix (see my next post for moose-a-graph galore):

Still pumping those pedals

2008-10-03T01:21:00.003-08:00

A lot has been going on and not much time to write...that will all change as I'm now on call for the graveyard shift.

I've been biking a bit up in the hills now that they've "dried out." Sept is really bad for rain here.

If you get onto the trail in the early part of the day, the mud has frozen and it's pretty good riding. Getting towards dusk after the sun has cooked the mud all day it can get pretty messy.

That was how it was for me riding between 4 and 5:30 tonight. At one point you couldn't see any links on my chain, it was just one big mud grabber. That was some serious Reese's Peanut Butter Cup mud.

The mud that is actually fun is the shapeshifter: looks wet but is hard and vice versa.

The biggest thing I don't like about riding right now is cleaning the bike afterwards EVERY STINKING TIME!!

But I gotta get in my rides to make up for lost summer...even at 30F.

Back in MN

2008-09-10T06:59:00.002-08:00

I'm typing this from my home in Minneapolis. I must admit, I missed the relative warmth here compared with Anchorage. I left Anchorage on Tuesday the 26th and with training in Seattle last week, I haven't been back yet.

I had my bike back long enough to get in two rides before I left and now I'm salivating at the thought of some longer rides this month.

Thanks to my good, no GREAT friend Rigtenzig I was loaned a bike to use while I've been home. It's his wife's hardtail which I have all dialed in now, just in time to give it back.

Yesterday I rode on the river bottoms trail (four whitetail deer, lots of squirrels including one albino, and a garder snake that tried to kill itself by going towards my front tire but managed to escape un-tread upon..I list these only because they are not seen in Alaska, except for the rare squirrel). Today I will take it on Lebanon Hills trail. Last week I got to ride with Rigtenzig on the Murphy single track and that was really fun. I tree-ed a coon on that ride. Then there was one in my neighbors basement egress "pit" last night. They are everywhere down here, not so in Alaska.

With all the different bikes that I wind up riding, I'm not sure I know what my "feel" is anymore. I'm getting good at making whatever I'm riding work. Even my gear is pretty whacked: almost all of it is in Anchorage right now. It's almost fun riding in my old pair of Sketchers, but I miss my clipless pedals.

Eklutna Lake

2008-09-03T21:57:00.006-08:00

Right before the Mrs. left Alaska we went camping as our last adventure before the school year started. It was car camping which was really nice since we could bring a lot more crap than we could if we went in a canoe or kayak.

Eklutna Lake feeds all the drinking water for Anchorage. It also is set between some really gorgeous mountains and is a state park.

When we got there it was raining. I set up a nice shelter to sit under using a tarp (lean-to??) and then it stopped raining and didn't rain the next three days we were there! That's pretty good for Alaska.

We hiked a bit of the Bold Ridge trail after biking to it. Then we went for the full-monty and biked all the way to the Eklutna Glacier (26 miles round trip) the next day:

My commuter (the MTB was not back in service at the time) has a knobby front tire and a smooth road tire on the rear (so as to power the tread turning knob for the lights). There were LOTS of rocks on that trail and, well, that old rear tire gave out right after the Bold airstrip. I changed the pinch flat (tube was under inflated and I was stupid enough not to check before the ride).

A few miles later, another pinch flat. I couldn't get enough pressure into the tube with the cheap hand pump we had so I wound up using all of my tube patches to nurse it back to camp. We were within a mile of the glacier when we turned back because we were running out of time and didn't want to be stuck out there over night.

Of course the way back was MUCH faster and it turned out we DID have time to see the glacier, but better safe than dead. On the way back we ran into a big group of bikers who had a floor pump and I was able to get the correct PSI into the tire. It hasn't gone flat since, although it does have my signature minimum two patches on it.

The next (last) day we rented a tandem sea kayak for a couple hours, had lunch and then hiked up the Twin Peaks trail. Here is the Mrs. levitating at our lunch spot:

The picture doesn't do it justice because from that angle it really looked like we were floating over the valley.

When we got to the top (2.5 miles and 2000 feet) it was all alpine tundra. It was really gorgeous, one of the best views either of us has ever seen.

We saw a bunch of dall sheep on the way up and then as we started back down we saw this:

A big black bear which was about 20-50 yards from the only trail back to camp! It was nice to see from a distance as it was the biggest bear either of us had seen outside a zoo. We made a lot of noise hiking back to camp.

We also saw a bear in camp on our second day, but it was being chased out by a ranger and wasn't in any hurry to get into a tussle with anything but a picnic basket.

Mrs. goes/ Steed comes

2008-08-22T21:45:00.002-08:00

The Mrs. left today to return to MSP to start school. It started as a sad day, but then:

I got my steed back! I brought my MTB to the LBS on 6/ 19 to solve a chain suck and shifting problem only to find out the frame was cracked.

2 months later, Gary Fisher has finally replaced my bike which was under warranty. It looks pretty good no?

The bike is leaning in some raspberry bushes. They tasted really good!

I had to upgrade to disc brakes (BB7) and new front (XT) and rear (LX) derailleurs to make this frame work with all of my old parts. The new rear shock is really cool!

I was able to get GF to pay for about 1/2 the labor (initially it was all on me!) and a new good friend nicknamed Slowpoke on AKspokes.com gave me the wheels (so as to fit the disc rotors) so I was only out $200 to basically upgrade my bike by A LOT!

I did loose a lot of time on the bike. It wore on me a lot this summer not being able to ride the dirt. I think if there is a next time I'll buy a used bike and sell it when I get my steed back.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to get in a big ride but I'm chomping at the bit right now. I just went for about 40' tonight to make sure all was well. It is.

More from the commute

2008-08-07T22:47:00.004-08:00

This is one more video from the Mrs. commute. I really like this spot because it has a street lamp in the shape of a fishing lure and a blue target sign embedded onto the pavement. Me thinks the new Target in town may "donate" in order to make it a red lure and sign to get a bit more advertising:

Today I had to go grocery shopping. Lot's of people comment on how big my basket is. Why would I want a smaller one when I can do this (I know: another alcohol reference, but this is really about the basket, not the two 12-packs that were on sale! And yes, that is a sack of groceries next to them):

Sometimes I get to pass other bikers while riding my Dahon fold-up/ compact/ travel bike (with 20" BMX tires) and it just feels good.

Today I was heading up a pretty good hill and a guy on a MTB was in front of me. I sucked up to his rear tire and after a while he smiled and said "Nice!" when he saw my little bike. I chose that point to pass him:

Mrs. on commute

2008-08-07T22:36:00.004-08:00

After doing my hill workout I decided to meet the Mrs. and ride home with her on her usual commute. Here is a sample of the grinding monotony she gets to ride to and from work every day:

Here is a shot I took trying to give some perspective to how steep the hills are when I've reached the 2/3 mark of up (I start about 100' above sea level):

We found a grazing moose for the Mrs. to pose in front of. Not sure what it's barfing up, we didn't stick around to find out:

4th of July

2008-07-30T14:54:00.002-08:00

Yep, I'm finally getting caught up. We went to Seward for the 4th and watched the fireworks at midnight of the 3rd (it was sort of dusky, the clouds helped) and sang patriotic songs as they exploded in the air between the mountains.

We camped in my roommates parent's yard and we went down in the morning to watch our friend Aubrey take 4th in the race...no, THE RACE!

The mount marathon race is a race up, then down a mountain. It's so steep that every year tourists have to be rescued off of it: http://www.adn.com/front/story/477169.html

The following are pix from the men's race (we couldn't get ourselves up early enough for the women's except to be at the finish line).

Here they are going up the part that you can see from the bottom:

Here is a few guys flying down the cliff face on the way back down (click on the pix to make it bigger):

And here is the winner running down the shale:

There is snow at the top so they kind of skid/ slide down on their butts until they get back to dirt and rock.

We also got to meet the Mrs. distant cousin who was coming though on a cruise. He is the district attorney for a huge area in northern Minnesota encompassing Duluth. He wrote a very nice letter of recommendation to help get her into law school for which we are very grateful.

The drive down and back were gorgeous between the mountains and next to the sea.

67.5

2008-07-30T14:27:00.006-08:00

An odd number for a title, but that's my mileage from biking yesterday. I used my Dahon fold-up bike and may have set an Alaskan record for most miles on a compact bike in a day.

My knee was getting pretty sore at the end, still is, but when a gorgeously sunny day presents itself here you have to take advantage (last week it rained for 6 days straight)

Here is how you treat a sore knee:

Here are some flowers from the Turnagain Arm where I ate my lunch. In the background you can see the clear strips on the mountain where the avalanches have removed the trees (too bad I didn't realize the camera was set at a low mega pixel when I took some of these):

Here is the view where I ate my lunch:

On my way back into town, I met up with the Mrs. when she was finished working. We went down the Tony Coastal trail to get home and got to see a bunch of these:

Now I've got helmet cam positioned right, but it's still doing 8mm quality video. Here is a sample of what you get to see riding/ driving to the Kenai Peninsula from Anchorage (can you tell it's an upright bike?):

Career Milestone

2008-07-24T23:50:00.002-08:00

So here I am at the big milestone: 10,000 flight hours! I've been logging flight time for 18 years and on July 9, 2008 at 7:51 Pacific Daylight time I snapped this picture when I hit the big number on my way from Seattle to Lihue, Hawaii.

If this keeps up I'll have over 30,000 hours when I retire.

cursed hill

2008-07-22T21:59:00.002-08:00

Today I biked my hill route. Last time I did it I got glass in a tire which was annoying to change since I had stuff piled up in my basket.

Today I managed to break a spoke on the way down some recently climbed large hills. It wasn't too bad, but the wheel would rub one side of the brake then the other. I gotta stop incorporating errands into my workout: I had the basket full again today.

I was able to get it fixed at the LBS so I can ride it to work tomorrow. It's always nice having something done at the bike shop when it comes back in better shape than I could have done and, of course, a lot less effort on my part.

Biking in Anchorage

2008-07-21T19:17:00.002-08:00

The Mrs. has been biking to work so she is getting in plenty o riding (17miles round trip) during the week. Thankfully, she still rides with me on her days off.

Here we are in downtown Anchorage where she is either being mauled or has some crazy new bruin dance moves:

The following images are from our bike ride on a path along the new Seward Highway which is next to the Turnagain arm.

I always intended to keep my ugly mug off this blog, but since I'm all over her Facebook I've given up:

It was VERY windy that day (usually is in that area) and it was much more hilly on the trail than it looks on the road so we didn't put on any big mileage. It was fun checking out all the info-histo signage that some local govt agency has placed along the trail.

We did see some Dall sheep on the cliffs above us to our east. These rocks are pretty high and steep only interrupted in their climb from the mudflats by the highway.

The mudflats are left by 30 foot tides which are famous for the bore tidal waves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bore_tide

I got the Mrs. to ride a beluga whale near beluga point. She said it was cold:

When I was in the Netherlands I took a day trip to Texel island and rented a bike for the day. It was one of my favorite days biking in my life. This photo reminded me of that day:

Sitka!

2008-07-21T19:00:00.002-08:00

It's been a while...we've been very busy and I STILL DON'T HAVE MY BIKE FIXED!! Getting a little cranky riding on the road so much.

Earlier this month the Mrs. came on an overnight with me to Sitka, Alaska. It was a pretty nice day for a hike so we went out to see some totem poles.

I like how Sarah Vowell puts it in her book Assassination Vacation: http://books.google.com/books?id=Lg7qfjQLPLoC&dq=Sarah+Vowell&pg=PP1&ots=LlgQ2tMzAW&sig=80bU__mlFK8JyZxaYSSrW7Lp53A&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

There is a really famous artist that does these totem poles and you get to see where he works and the wood he chooses, etc. It's like looking at the marble to be used by Michael Angelo, because if you are into totem poles he IS your guy. Too bad I can't remember his name.

Here is some of the lovely coast that day:

We had a fancy dinner at the hotel where we stayed because in Alaska it is expensive to eat out and I'll take the 20% off the hotel meals when I can.

We saw some Russian Orthodox architecture and climbed the historic hill where they exchanged the Russian flag for the American one when Seward got us a pretty good deal on some land.

Bike woes

2008-07-07T12:07:00.003-08:00

It's been a while...sorry about that, just been too busy having fun to spend much time posting. I'll post up some pix the next time the weather is bad or I'm too sore to get out and do stuff.

I recently discovered a crack in the frame of my MTB. Bad news if the frame were to fail leaving me stranded somewhere or worse fell apart on me as I was cruising down a hill. So the local bike shop (LBS) is trying to get the manufacturer to warranty it and get me a new frame.

In the mean time, I've decided that my 23 inch framed commuter is too big for me. I've slipped a couple times trying to get my foot over the top tube and I'm not comfortable taking it on the dirt with the top tube snugly against my crotch whenever I need to hop off the pedals.

So I "need" a new/ used bike.

I think what I'm shooting for is a rigid MTB so I can stay on the dirt while the broken frame gets sorted out. Then (more than likely this winter) I'd like to purchase an xtracycle http://www.xtracycle.com/models.php with which I'd not only have a commuter that fits, but for all intensive purposes a second car.

There is a Kona Ute http://www.konaworld.com/08_ute_w.htm at a LBS for $800. Problem is that it only comes in one size and it is too small for me.

$800 is steep for a brand new second car only in the sense that it didn't fit me and I'm done buying bikes that don't fit me no matter how cool they happen to be: Murray, current Trek commuter.

But wait (those of you who know me) say: you don't bike in the cold or the depths of winter, you told us you can't carry all your stuff to work on a bike, and even if you could there is no shower there for your sweaty self.

I have started biking to work, even carrying my full size suitcase (roller bag) in the jumbo basket of my current commuter. The advantage of using an xtracycle would be the fact that I could carry a garment bag+laptop case on one side and my roller bag on the other side and it wouldn't be so top heavy and difficult to handle as it is now with everything in the basket.

In the winter I could change at work and leave my stinky riding clothes in the crew room to dry out by the time I returned from my four days aloft.

Is this realistic? I think so. I'm not saying I'd be riding to work every time, but I could see myself doing it more than zero times.

MTB group ride

2008-06-16T10:51:00.003-08:00

On Saturday I rode with the Arctic Bicycle Club (ABC) on the Kenai Peninsula at Crescent Lake. The original ride was scheduled for Johnson Pass, but there is still too much snow at the pass (four feet!).

Here is the only snow that my tires came across on this ride:

It sprinkled lightly that day so I wore a bike jersey under a rain coat and that kept me plenty warm. I skipped the yellow rain pants that my friends love so much and just went with full spandex leg things (tights? pants?) I didn't even need a hat (rare for me when it's below 60F). It was in the upper40s to low 50s.

Here is some more snow covering the river/ stream:

Here is the melt water coming all the way from the mountains in the background to where we were:

If Blair witch rode a fat-tire

2008-06-13T12:07:00.002-08:00

This is from biking in Kincaid Park yesterday.

I'm still adjusting the helmet cam. It's still a little left:

LA

2008-06-12T14:05:00.003-08:00

Saturday: walk on a glacier. Sunday: walk around Manhattan Beach in LA.

I've never read the paper at the beach before. I recommend it.

We did feel a bit overdressed in t-shirts, but that's how our lack of pigment goes.

We slept in (after arriving around 6AM), took the free trolley to the beach, walked around a bit, had a nice meal at a french bistro on the sidewalk, and the return flight went smoothly...except for the bit when we got back to the hotel thinking we had an hour and the Captain had moved up the van time so we only had 25 minutes! It all worked out.

Matanuska Glacier

2008-06-12T13:29:00.003-08:00

On Saturday we drove with another couple to Matanuska Glacier. Here's a photo the Mrs. took from the backseat:

Driving in this great state is fun! There is a lot to see and makes the trip go by faster when there is actual changes in the road (unlike parts of the Midwest where I've driven many miles, almost all of them awake).

Here we are posing in front of the glacier which is 29 miles long:

Here is a cool amphitheater (TURBO-PUN!):

After we finished walking out in these parts we stopped at the Long Rifle cafe to have some $4 a slice pie and look at all the dead animals they had posed throughout the dining room.

Not too sure about a "cinnamon" bear. Is it the black one or the brown one? Do I duck and cover or fight it off? Now they tell me that 1 in 12 bears are albino! What then??

That evening I tried to take a nap before I flew the Los Angeles red-eye.

Hike to Flattop

2008-06-11T19:54:00.004-08:00

On Memorial Day we hiked up a trail to Flat-Top a ways above the city. It was tough going because the wind was over 30 MPH that day!

Here is some of the snow covered trail we scampered up:

Here we had someone take our photo at the top while we watched a bunch of 8-12 year olds climb up the last bit of vertical snow to reach the very top. We chose not to.

Here is a view of the Anchorage bowl from up there (if you click on any of these images they get bigger/ full size):

One the way back down the week before, the Mrs. saw a black bear stealing someones garbage can and haul it into the trees. No bears this day though.

We were pretty tired that night, so we chose to not play in my companies annual Captain versus First Officer softball game. We did enjoy the food.

down facing ride

2008-06-11T19:39:00.004-08:00

On Tuesday I went mountain biking on the Kenai Peninsula. I chose Resurrection Pass as my virgin trail and it pretty much kicked my butt.

It was beautiful scenery, and I made lots of noise so as to not spook grumpy furry beasts. I did manage to spook two grouse while biking and watched a porcupine waddle away as I was driving in.

There were lots of campers on the trail for mid-week. I like that when I'm biking solo.

I couldn't go all the way to the pass as there was 4' of snow there. In fact, I never made it to the snow.

I climbed 10 miles, over 1000' in a little over two hours. It only took 1.2 hours to get back down, definitely the fun part!

Here is the mighty steed:

Notice in this one you can see the exorbitantly priced stars and stripes bell (it's next to the bright yellow GPS/ radio):

This photo reminded me of the movie Into the Wild where a boy tries to live in the last frontier with no actual experience.

He tries to learn how to make it by reading books, taking notes as others tell him how to hunt. In other words: he had no experience, just the book-learning. I would compare that to reading how to walk and then thinking you are going to run a marathon.

I won't give away the ending, but it doesn't go well:

Ever wonder what it would feel like if you got injured and had to ride on the back of a bike/ horse/ ATV looking down as the rider tried to get you to help quick-like? Well my helmet cam was pointed a bit down so here ya go:

Fairbanks

2008-06-04T17:32:00.003-08:00

Today I'm in Fairbanks. I broke out the Dahon folder for an 18 mile jaunt. There is a pretty good bike path along Farmer's Road. Too bad I thought I was still on the highway.

I did manage to find College Road which had the Cosmonaut Cafe serving Russian food. Going to have to check that out next time.

A block or two later I came upon a restaurant called the Food Factory. Might be the winner for least appealing restaurant name...ever.

Right now I'm sipping a Stone smoked porter, listening to my Current via MPR.ORG. I'm thinking it's about time for some Thai food at the mom-n-pop across the road.

Today was the first time I brought the bike to work and it went really well. I may take it to Los Angeles on Sunday and see if I can find any bikeable places in the city of autos.

Later this month I have an overnight in San Francisco and can't decide whether to bring the bike.

Last night I showed up for the Arctic Bicycle Club MTB ride at Hillside in Anchorage. The ride started at 7:00, I was there at 7:05 and they had already left.

I saw another guy there and asked if he was there for the ride, he said yes, I said it's my first time, he said let me show you the place, he didn't know the place and couldn't read a map, I read and interpreted the maps and tried to instruct him, he ignored me, I left him somewhere convinced he was right and me left as he did loop upon loop trying to find his way back. Moral of the story: don't say you can do something that you can't.

SLOW DOWN

2008-05-28T11:50:00.003-08:00

On Memorial Day the Mrs. and I went for a hike in the foothills east of Anchorage at the O' Malley trail head. There is still some snow up there and lots of runoff, so it's still pretty wet.

After we finished up we drove to another more popular hiking spot called Flattop to check it out. It was really crowded and the views that day looked great. We were already tired, so we started heading back down the hills into Anchorage.

Ahead of us on a narrow road were two cars stopped and they left a space between them that I could fit in. I was hungry, and got frustrated so I started to go between them when I noticed the people in the car facing uphill getting out their cameras.

"What are they taking pictures of," I demanded of the Mrs.

"There's a bear stealing a garbage can and dragging it into the woods," she declared.

But in my haste I'd already driven too far and didn't get to see it.

The new steeds

2008-05-27T16:41:00.006-08:00

Here he is (you can click on all of the followig pix to make them big):

This bike spews it's aging testosterone. I bought it from a man who is about 6'3", (I'm a mere 5'10"). Here's the crazy part: my inseam is longer than his! He must have a long set of lungs in that stretched torso.

So far it's been about all I could ask for. There is some random ghost shifting, but I haven't cleaned up the drive train yet (just bought a bottle of simply green for the degreasing).

I'm going to try this chain cleaner:

I've tried the Park version and the thing fell apart in one season. Some may be attributed to a rookie trying to use it by moving the chain in the wrong direction a couple of times, but the majority would be due to the silliness of cleaning a series of metal objects with an assembly of plastic ones.

I bought this rack at Home Depot to transform the bike into my grocery/ beer getter.

We got a rack for my wife that is similar to this one, but sturdier last fall (mine is already bent and I've only brought home one 12-pack!). Her rack worked well throughout the school year and she was carrying a LOT (law school).

Here is the Mrs. new/ used bike:

She is using it to commute to work from our apartment (17 miles round trip). She is mostly on the Campbell Creek trail, so she gets a scenic ride to work. And an occasional moose.

I accompanied her on today's ride and we got spooked when we came around the corner to face a young moose (maybe one or two years old) about 10 yards away! He was a lot less concerned for us than we were of him.

Later in the ride the Mrs. spotted a big mama moose across the creek and when we looked closed we saw that she had a newborn hanging out almost under her legs.

The final ski day

2008-05-25T23:24:00.004-08:00

Here's a couple pix from the final day of skiing here in Anchorage.

This was one of the few times I actually saw someone else on the trail. He caught up with me while I was taking a pix and then my competitiveness kicked in and I kept up with him for a while and then passed him and then after a while headed back to the car. I do this on bikes too, but I'm not sure why. It just feels better to be in the lead.

Since that day I've traveled to Nebraska for a wedding and when I returned there was no more snow. I've been biking and that has been fun.

I bought a commuter which I'll have to post up a photo of and also one of my wife's new/used commuter. It's been a very busy time. Now that she is up here and life is settling down a bit I should be able to blog more.

Today we went on a HUGE bike ride after church. We were supposed to ride back to the apartment and change, but they fed us at church. So what I thought might take us an extra 1/2 hour, took us an extra hour and 10 minutes to bike home the scenic way (the two bull moose were cool)!

It was gorgeous, but we should have gone home first so we could have been more comfortable out of our church garb.

Later we hung out downtown and read the Sunday paper as ships were moving about on the sunlit harbor. I like it here.

The bad and the good

2008-04-26T21:39:00.003-08:00

When I arrived back in Anchorage two days ago I was able to move my new used bed into my soon to be new abode partly because it was in the 50's, sunny and dry out. It was finally time to go biking!

Yesterday the snow started and now 16 inches later, it is SLOWLY melting. This is from today, April 26, 2008:

Yesterday was just a bad day: the power went out at my place, because of the heavy snow. I also had a tough time making a car rental agreement work (it really should be more simple), AND I found out that I screwed up my bidding for next month so I have days of work that conflict with days of nuptials I must attend.

Today was much better: I got to go flying, and making lemons out of the vice-like grip of winter I went skiing up in the hills.

I tried using a slippery wax on my wax-less skis and it was great at keeping the wet snow from bunching up! It was a really good day of skiing.

Here's a panoramic view of the trail and some of the Chugach mountains:

This is just up the hill from my car. There are a lot of houses here and the sea is in the distance. This is the Hillside neighborhood where the mc-mansions have taken root.

There was some fog where I was skiing and I was thinking how people get spooked by that in the woods, but while I was there it made me feel very warm. I took this photo and when I got home realized it looked like a kreacher posing as a tree:

more helmet?

2008-04-25T14:44:00.002-08:00

Here is some wobbliness caused by frost heaves on the ALCAN. It will be very slow going in a U-Haul when the time comes. Maybe I can sell all the furniture and not use a big truck : )

Cassier snow moutain

2008-04-25T11:37:00.004-08:00

Well, blogger seems to be letting me post video today. I'll try some more tonight.

Here's some more helmet cam video. It's basically driving on snow-drifting roads, but at times you can see the mountains in the background.

helmet cam lives!

2008-04-19T12:15:00.003-08:00

I've finally downloaded my helmet cam videos from the drive North. Since blogger will only let me put one video on each post I'll have to do these separate.

This is just over the Canadian border:

My one day off

2008-04-16T21:27:00.003-08:00

Today I had a day off of being on call. Unfortunately, that's not enough time to get home to the Mrs. in Minnesota. So I went skiing.

People here, ski-people that is, recommended that I go to Flat-top trail head and head up to the Powerline trail.

Today was the first time since I've owned a truck (1995) that I was frustrated by not having 4WD. I couldn't get up the hill to Flat-top with my front wheel drive Saturn. I tried 3 times, and after some scary slides back down the hill I chose to go elsewhere.

I wound up at the Upper Huffman trail head instead and skied to the powerline trail from there. Here is a shot looking back at Anchorage from some off trail skiing I did:

I ran into a snow-shoer and told him where I was going. He asked if I was a good skier. I said I thought so, but what made my route difficult? Turns out it's difficult to turn and slow down when you are back-country skiing through these forests:

So I developed a technique of getting down the hills amongst the trees: sit down. I became a human sled, or at least one with skinny skis underneath me. It was fun until I stretched my knee oddly standing back up.

It was really windy out of the trees. It made me wish I had brought my pair of choppers. My camel back line actually started to freeze up, so it must have been around 10F or less with the wind (versus 35F in the trees).

The wind was so strong that here are what's left of my tracks (sideways) after 30 minutes:

AVALANCHE!!!

2008-04-16T21:17:00.003-08:00

Check out this avalanche I came across skiing today:

Those snow balls are 15' high!

OK, maybe 15 cm : )

The following sign says Snow Machine Access CLOSED insufficient snow:

There is about 2-3 feet of snow where the sign is posted and the drifts are well over 5 feet. Back in Minnesota that would be plenty of snow for snow-machines....of course some people in Iowa drive their machines through corn fields and across open water in the summer.

tax day

2008-04-16T00:27:00.002-08:00

Tax day, April 15th, a day of snow here in Anchorage. It's amusing and a little sad to hear those around me who bitch about the late spring. THIS IS ANCHORAGE! Yep, it snows in April.

So I made lemonade by skiing today. I went out to Hillside and did the Spencer loop. I had to remove my yellow tinted shades after a bit because the snow was making it impossible to see through them. No photos today, it was too wet to bring the camera.

I started out with black wind-pants and a blue windbreaker. When I finished I was all white and very wet.

The temp was about 34F and the snow was fiercely sticking to the skis. I may have to break down and by a wax that prevents that on my waxless skis. Ironical?

Tomorrow I plan to go higher into the foothills (Flattop to Powerline ridge) and get in some better skiing. The fresh snow should make conditions up there really good and I won't have the weekend crowds to pack down the fresh snow.

qwest for snow

2008-04-11T23:06:00.004-08:00

Today I finished a trip in the afternoon and decided to find some good snow up in the mountains for skiing (Anchorage has snow, but it's too warm for skiing today). I heard that Chugach State Park had some X-country ski trails so I drove there to check it out.

Turns out their snow was pretty much all gone. If I wanted to hike in, I could ski on the frozen creek but that might be difficult where the creek was open in spots.

Instead of being stupid, I chose to drive up to Palmer and from there up to Hatcher pass. I got some advice from some snowboarders on where to stop and ski and wound up on Archangel Road.

It's not used by cars and trucks, but was heavily traveled by snow machines. I found the drivers today to be nice and slowed down as they approached me. Too bad they couldn't stay off the ski tracks also.

Here are a couple of shots showing the trail and the background:

The first one is a panoramic which the blog doesn't do justice. I think I'll make it the banner for my blogger and see if it gets to be any bigger.

Here's a video of my limited back country skiing:

April skiing 2

2008-04-11T22:55:00.004-08:00

So I tried to do another video on a steep hill called the Big Dipper, but the snow was so sticky I had trouble getting the skis to slide. Check out the snow pile I make which goes out past the end of the ski tips:

I managed to take most of the snow down the hill with me.

It was sticking to the skis so much that it was easier going up hill than down because they wouldn't slide. It was a lot of work that day and I was pretty tired after an hour and 10 minutes.

Here's a shot of that gorgeous day:

Here is a moose I saw that day:

Not to be confused with the moose in our yard a couple weeks ago:

April skiing

2008-04-11T22:37:00.003-08:00

I got called out for a trip as the snow started to fall. I was bummed that I was going to miss the fresh snow.

As it turns out, I got back to Anchorage the next day in time for some very sticky (35F) skiing. Check out the snow piling up in front of the skis:

Turns out I can 't post more than one video so please check out the next post.....

Saving $80

2008-04-03T12:01:00.009-08:00

I flew on Redtail yesterday to get back to Anchorage. I brought my fold-up mini-bicycle which fits into a duffel bag about the same size as a carry on roller bag.

I brought the bike through security, to the gate and expected to plane-side check it (as I've done before) and get a stroller tag so that the bike wouldn't have to go through the baggage claim abuses.

Short version: gate agents weren't going to allow it on board without me paying $80, Captain saved the day, waived the $80 and on it went. Unfortunately, it had to be checked through to baggage claim.

So all is well until I pick up the bike and two plastic parts fall out of the bag
(sorry about the fuzzy images, but my macro isn't working correctly):

It turns out that the adjustment knob broke off, I just can't tell what else is broke. I had the bike shifted into the largest cog in the back, but now the chain is really close to the tire and I think the frame could be bent where the derailleur is attached. What do you think?

Professional Skier

2008-03-29T13:35:00.004-08:00

Yesterday I got out skiing as I do most days, but I wanted to ski a little longer than usual. I had been waiting until all my errands were finished and going about an hour each day. Yesterday I made an effort to make sure I'd have enough time to ski for two hours (I started getting tired 90 minutes into it).

As I was enjoying myself in Kincaid Park I was thinking how I've become a professional skier. I'm being paid to sit on call, which means from the time I get the call I have two hours to get to the airport to fill in where they need me. But they haven't needed me all week and I've been skiing every day, so I must be a professional skier!

It has all the perks of being a professional athlete, minus the negative things like: steroids, pressure, groupies, training through the pain, pain in general, etc. And I never say I'm going to work out or train, I'm always "going skiing."

So as the days get warmer, the trails get worse. See if you can pick out the good from the bad trails below:

I really liked the warning sign to the right on this trail. It was supposed to warn of an upcoming downhill, but as you can see now serves a dual purpose.

A lot of what you see is dirt-ice. There is no traction on dirt-ice. Not good.

Here is a movie from a day later when I'm water-skiing:

So as I was skiing along I kept checking my cellphone to make sure I was in coverage. I was always at a couple bars except for a couple of valleys. To account for this I would rest at the top of the hills in order to see if I had missed any calls.

I got a call from my wife telling me that we had found renters for the summer for our house (HUGE relief!), so I was growing confident in my system.

It was all going so well until near the end of my two hours (around 3:20PM) I heard the dreaded beep which means I missed a call. I checked my messages and it turns out the company had called me 20 minutes ago! This is very bad as I'm supposed to return their call within 5 minutes or they treat it as though I didn't show up for work (a no-show I think they call it)! Very bad for a new hire on probation such as myself.

The company was very nice about it, she understood Anchorage has spotty cellphone coverage as long as I could make it to the airport by 5PM. I raced back to my car, threw the skiis into it and was driving out of the park in less than 20 minutes (now physically tired, emotionally panicked and sweating like a one armed ditch digger).

As I was leaving a mama moose decided that would be a good time to escort her calf across the road! I yelled out my window at her and she thought it best not to mess with the crazy car yelling at her.

I not only made it to the airport in time, but I was at the gate by 4:10! And that's WITH a shower!

Then of course, as is usually the case in my industry, I had to wait another 2 1/2 hours before we could take off. The passengers had been boarded and deplaned twice by the time my crew got there. Then the gate agents couldn't come up with the correct number of passengers once we had boarded. Three of them kept coming up with three different numbers. Once the circus was over and we got out of the gate everything else went smoothly.

Are you aware??

2008-03-28T11:09:00.004-08:00

So this week I've been sitting around a lot as I haven't been called for a trip yet.

Here is a photo from my honeymoon last fall. I don't remember which harbor it is, do you know?

I enjoy biking a lot in the summer and have been involved in building and maintaning mountain bike trails back in Minnesota. I just bought a trail guide for anchorage and can't wait for June when the trails open up!

The following is from the morcmtb.org forums (which I haven't been keeping up on through my winter of training: there were 10,500 unread posts when I logged on!):

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

Hawaii

2008-03-20T19:30:00.004-08:00

I think I like Hawaii : )

The way my trip works is we got into Lihue last night at about 8 PM and today we leave again for Seattle at 9 PM.

So last night I tried my first Mai Thai and it was mighty tasty. It was pretty fun night. Except for the locals who I asked about surfing and were convinced I needed $80/ hour lessons. They didn't seem interested in just renting me a board (I learned to surf when I was a teenager).

I wanted to stay up late so I'd sleep more today to prepare for the red eye back to Seattle. I didn't sleep as much as I wished, but I have managed to get one nap in.

When I woke this morning I ate my breakfast looking out at palm trees and a mountain while listening to Air's Moon Safari. Not a bad way to make a living.

I did manage a 5 mile hike along the beach today and I'll be posting pix later because the flowers here are gorgeous!

Anchorage workout

2008-03-18T22:36:00.003-08:00

Today I went x-country skiing for the third day in a row. The place where I'm staying (my crash-pad) is about a 5 minute drive from Kincaid Park.

Here is how it's described by some locals:

Kincaid Park
Accessible west on Raspberry Road or via the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, Kincaid Park has 43 miles (69 km) of maintained trails throughout 1,400 acres (566 hectare). Runners World picked this park as one of the country's top 50 running trails. Kincaid Park is one of only two Nordic ski areas in the U.S. certified for international 5K, 10K, 15K, and 30K competition.

It's been really nice getting back on the skis (having not skied all winter). Today I had a big adrenaline rush by shooting down "little" niagara, an intense downhill, followed by my moose encounter. I looked to the side of the trail and there was a moose watching me from 15 yards away (they blend into the foliage pretty well). I slowly backed up and she went back to grazing.

I've been warned to stay away from these big ornery critters, and then my captain on tonight's flight shows me a video where he is feeding one an apple through his kitchen window!

Anchorage completed

2008-03-18T22:19:00.002-08:00

Hello from Anchorage!

After 2400 miles in my Saturn two-door, I got in around 7PM Alaska time. The place I'm staying is nice, but I have 4 room-mates. 2 of them are only here a couple nights a month, but the rest of us are on call, so I expect we'll be here most of the time.

The drive went well today. No dead birds. Here's another picture of perspective:

When I got in last night the temps were OK, but this morning it was bitter cold. I put my camel-back in my car at the motel, went inside to eat, and 1/2 hour later the tube was frozen!

If I had realized it was going to get so cold I would have plugged in my oil and battery heaters overnight, but the mighty Saturn started anyways.

The road into Anchorage is really amazing cutting through the mountains. Almost my whole trip (probably 2200+ miles) was on two lane highway.

I felt a kind of relief getting back into the USA even though I still had 7 hours of driving left.

I really lucked out with the weather. If a person made that trip in a storm, it could take well over a week.

Here's a movie a couple hours out of Anchorage with some unintentional Verdi:

Anchorage drive drei

2008-03-18T22:11:00.003-08:00

These are taken on the ALCAN

So I made it through the Yukon today to Destruction Bay (after two phone calls to Capital One to get the card working again. Later I will find out that they did attempt to call me when they turned off the card, but my phone doesn't have coverage outside the USA).

Destruction Bay is next to the biggest lake in the province which is letting out some eerie cracking sounds. No snow on the lake, but everywhere else.

Sorry, this one is sideways so you may have to adjust your seated position: P

Saw more moose and caribou today, but I'm not so good at imitating Allen's voice of rut so they won't come near me for a photo.

This morning I had pancakes and bacon before I left Dease Lake. I was in this all in one store with the locals. They were really nice. It reminded me of a doughnut shop I used to skip school to go hang out at in Stillwater.

I managed to takeout another bird today and this one left some bloody remnants on my hood (which stayed there for over 500 miles because none of the gas stations had any windshield cleaner. I finally wiped it off with some hot water on a paper towel from a men's room).

The drive went well. I started off in some snow this morning, but it wasn't too bad and only lasted a couple hours. Here's a video and a picture of my start:

The ALCAN feels a little too much like I-94 at times after being on the Cassier. But the scenery continues to impress.

I should only have 10 hours or so of driving tomorrow.

I brought some books on tape and the only one that I've really enjoyed is Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy. I keep listening to this 30 hour novel, but I wish it was abridged because the story is good but meanders into dullness a lot.

Anchorage drive day deaux

2008-03-18T22:06:00.001-08:00

This is the gas station at the start of the Cassier Highway

Today went pretty well. Got another 11 hours in. Same amount as yesterday, but each day I end a little sooner so less dangerous DDT, (dark driving time).

Tonight I am in Dease Lake, BC which is about 2/3 up the Cassier/ Highway 35.

As dusk came, there were 2 moose on the road, and a family of 5 caribou a little later on. I only hit one animal today, thankfully it was a little bird.

This road has been really fun and as you can see it's in pretty good shape. I love that it's very twisty and hilly for hours on end. Reminds me of New Zealand but I can't drive as fast because of pockets of ice and large animals. Still pretty fun.

My Capital One card decided to shut down (theft protection) so luckily I had enough loonies on me to get by for a while today (the only phone at the gas station where it was denied was a satellite phone).

If the weather keeps up I should be in Anchorage on Saturday afternoon.

Here's a little big of the scenery next to a big lake listening to Tom Petty:

Day one of Anchorage drive

2008-03-18T22:02:00.002-08:00

I'm in Prince George at the Hi-way 97 motor inn. Today was a good drive.

There was some great scenery just north of the border.

Took some moving pix. Even tried out the helmet camera. I hope you don't mind the Rolling Stones in the background:

The only wildlife that got in my way was a coyote who thought it wise to run in front of me. She made it.

Tomorrow I'll be attempting the Cassier highway shortcut to shave a couple hours off of travel time. The truckers (OK, one trucker, but he was very enthusiastic!) I've been talking to all say it's in good shape.

One part is gravel, hopefully it's not slushy.