Winter Grilling

If Becky wants to grill, she grills. I got home this evening around 6pm from work. The sun had set hours ago and the temp was well below freezing. When I turned into the driveway the yard was dark except for the normal path lighting to the house. Standard program. As I open the car door a mouth watering burger odor hit my nose. If figured it was coming through the exhaust vent from inside. As I got closer to the house Becky comes outside with her apron on and spatula in hand.... Strange, I thought. Then she flipped open the grill, flipped the burgers and slapped on the cheese. Wow! What a surprise. She wanted red meat on the grill..... she got red meat on the grill. Who cares how dark or cold it is outside! And it tasted damn good.

Stary Night

Star light star bright,

The first star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish I wish tonight.

This morning the sun rose at 10:37am and set at 2:48 pm giving us 4 hours and 11 minutes of daylight today. Only 14 days until we round the corner to days getting longer instead of shorter. The aurora has not been to active this year but the stars have been amazing and nights have been warm making for a great star gazing winter.

The Chicken Coop Cam

After endless amounts of fan mail requesting an update on the ladies of Cripple Creek I finally decided to divulge what our laying hens have been up to. In short they are staying warm, laying lots o' eggs and doing great! They have allot of time during the day to socialize in the coop while the outdoor run is closed off to them until the snow melts. At present count we have 16 birds, 4 are the old girls, 12 are this years chicks. Out of that we have been getting between 8-14 eggs per day. Quiche anyone?

Another Denali Sunset

Sunrise 9:40am......Sunset 3:50pm.....beautiful, beautiful light throughout the day...... Is it sunrise or sunset? Hard to tell sometimes. Temps between 0F - 35F.... pretty warm.... very enjoyable temperatures..

Another Denali Sunset.

Denali Sunset

We woke up this morning to the true meaning of an arctic winter.... -35F. Today is a great day to enjoy the relaxing confines of the great indoors doing chores and reading books.

It sounds cold, and it is but beautiful also. The sun rose at 9:50am today and will set at 3:20. It's still a month away from the shortest day with each day getting shorter by about 6 minutes each day. During these shorter days the sun stays low on the horizon providing Alaska with an amazing quality of light most of the day. It's almost like the sun goes right from sunrise straight to sunset without the midday sun.
Who can name the mountain in the background of this photo? Come on now, think... think... Hint: tallest mtn. in AK. This is a photo of Denali taken from our neighborhood yesterday. We can't see it from our house exactly but we do get great glimpses of it while driving through our neighborhood on cold clear days.

Winter Settles In

Temperatures have remained low for a few weeks now. Winter feels like it's finally here to stay. With day light savings switching over recently and the rapid shortening of days we are waking up and getting to work in the dark and leaving work in the dark. Days seem really short but the mid-day sun is now beautiful low angle light if one remembers to get out of a building and enjoy it. Snow..... has fallen and is starting to accumulate a few inches at a time. Right now is the time for us to really savor the cold because soon it will be dropping down to the -40F temperatures and we will become selective about recreating outside.

Our Last Summer Walk

Winter has taunted us with it's elusive coming long enough. We've had some cold, but not much, enough to freeze some lakes but not the normal temps for this time of year. It's been really nice though. With the soil frozen but no snow on the ground it has allowed us to explore areas along our neighborhood trails that we normally wouldn't due to the boggy nature of some of the lower areas. Last weekend Beck and I went on our last snow free walk until Fairbanks thaws out 6 months from now. The walk was spectacular. We found trails we did not know existed although we had walked past them dozens of times. One trail in particular lead us to the top of a nice little wood knob, maybe 100 feet of elevation above the surrounding area, covered in moss and an old forest. The trees on the knob were primarily birch and aspen which really stood out from the surrounding scrawny black spruce forest. The soft moss forest floor made for a really nice spot to lay down and soak it all in.

Shortly after our walk interior Alaska finally got the respectable snowstorm we've been expecting, leaving behind 4-5 inches of snow and cold temperatures to prevent the snow from melting.
This weekend, Halloween weekend, our temperatures finally reached subzero. Oddly enough winter is starting to feel really good. I know you are probably thinking it's nuts to desire subzero temperatures but the air feels really clean and crisp once your body adjust to it (or you go numb from hypothermia or frost bite).

Bubbles

Winter keeps on playing games and taunting us, seemingly hiding just around the corner like a little kid playing hide and seek. Everyone is ready for the snow to show itself and stay so they can start playing on their skis, snow machines and dog sleds. At the same time folks are really happy to have the extra time to get out and go on one last bike ride or hike and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. While there is no real snow on the ground yet the temperatures did finally start dropping to seasonably reasonable temperatures this weekend. I did not really appreciate how much they had droped until Sunday when I drove past Balaine Lake and noticed people gliding around on ice skates. I thought they were nuts at first for skating on such thin ice so I pulled over to watch. After all just two weeks before UAF had a log rolling competition in that very spot. To my surprise the lake had frozen deep and crystal clear. It was as if I had just crossed over to a wintry Alice in Wonderland so I pulled out my camera and started marveling at all the shapes frozen in the ice. These bubble particularly caught my attention. The way they were layered and textured under the ice blew my mind. I have never seen anything like it. I was not the only one. Many folks that day were stopping by to marvel at the newly frozen lake. I'm sure a few of them returned the next day with skates.

Fall Canoe in the Hot Sun

Fall arrived right on time this year in it's normal fashion. Leaves turned brilliant red, orange and yellow colors, frost rested on the cars at night, then snow started to fall. We even had a few inches of snow sticking to the ground for a few days. Winter was on it's way!

We were convinced it was the end of summer. I'm not goofy to the idea that each year temperatures dip down fooling folks into a sense of winter then rise for a brief period before cooling off again. Indian summers aren't an anomaly. But since our last snow record warm temperatures have surprised everyone. This past weekend was so warm and sunny that Becky and I decided to get the canoe back out and go for a float with our good friends Dave and Amy. We could not have asked for a nicer paddle. We knew the weather would be good but we had no idea how good. By mid-day I was roasting and wishing I had brought a baseball hat and sunscreen to hide from the sun.I was talking with a friend that remembers skiing in early October in the early 90's. Not this year..... Who knows, maybe we will get out for another good paddle before the rivers freeze over and we seeing ice fishing huts on the water instead of canoes.

Fairbanks Fall

It is really hard to beat the beauty of a boreal forest fall with all the berries, vibrant colors, cool crisp morning air and the arrival of dark nights so we can see stars again.Need I say more?
Enjoy your fall.

Summer to Fall

Summer started showing signs of ageing to fall a few weeks back around Fairbanks. Flowers going to seed was the first indicator of winter's approach. While the beauty of flowers disappearing may not be exciting, what comes next is always highly anticipated...... berry season! An ambitious berry picker can fill their freezer with gallons wild fruits like raspberries, cloudberries, cranberries and blueberries.

Some years are better than others. This year was not one of the better seasons but Becky still managed to hunt down a phenomenal blueberry patch where she was able to pick several gallons of berries in a few hours. I know what you are thinking right about now. No! We won't tell you the location of our top secret berry patch. You can't make us talk....... unless..... nope, you can't make us talk.

Now the berries are on their way out, the leaves have turned orange, yellow and red and have started to fall to the ground. Three days ago we got our first snow but it has since melted. Soon it will stick and we will move on to skiing and plugging our cars in so they start.

Water

Yep. That's how we get our water every week. Fill the five gallon buckets and carry them to the house to use for drinking and dishes..... no flush toilet It really makes you appreciate how much water you use in your daily routines.

Kongakut River June 2009

It's been a crazy busy summer juggling between working the desk job at DNR and getting out in the field and guiding for Arctic Wild. I'm just now getting around to finding time to sit down and catch up on posting pictures of this summers activities. Where did we leave off?.... Oh yes... The Joe Creek backpack went well and ended at Whale Mountain along the Kongakut River. At the end of the backpack 5 clients flew back to Fairbanks while 4 new clients flew in with the river gear needed to float north to the coast. It took two flights in a Cessna 185 to get both the rafts and clients in but once they were in we were able to sit back and relax. The weather was perfect so we decided to stay an extra day and do a bit of day hiking while we were still in the mountains before inflating the boats and moving on. What a great decision. Not only did the extra day at Whale Mountain afford me an extra day with my wife, it also was an exceptional caribou watching day. We woke up to see a few caribou walking along the hill sides and down the valley toward us. While we were eating breakfast we saw close to 30 caribou approaching camp. They saw us, stopped, looked curiously then crossed the river to the other side. Because of the lay of the land they had to cross just above our camp anyway, we just happened to be in the right spot. The caribou would cross, we'd watch until they were gone then the continue to get ready for a day hike. Before we could focus on organizing another group would approach. We watched, they left. Then another and another and another all day long. We eventually got our packs together and crossed the river to hike across the tundra and watch from different vantage points. We easily saw several thousand caribou on day 1. Day 2 we blew up the rafts and headed down river. It is hard to tell in the photo above but the ice field on the left side (the little patch of white) had close to one thousand caribou on it seeking refuge from mosquitoes and other nuisances. It's a classic maneuver the caribou use to get away from insects. Just before dinner we found a nice Dryas bench to set up camp on. The camp was beautifully located on the edge of the mountains. Our view south was of the jagged Brooks Range, where we had been, and to the north the flat coastal plane, where we were headed. The next few days were spent day hiking and making our way out to the Arctic Ocean.

We made it out to the barrier islands on the coast with four days remaining. At first glance many folks would think the trip was over because there's nothing left to do. For us the trip was just starting to get really good. The bird life along the coast is incredibly diverse, historical native and whaling sites are to be explored and watching the midnight sun circle around your head 24 hours a day makes for nonstop awe.
I keep trying to convey the how incredibly fascinating and beautiful the arctic is but I can't do it with words. It just has to be experienced first hand to fully appreciate it.

Joe Creek Backpack

For 18 days in June I had the opportunity to take a break from my 9-5 day job and put back on my guiding hat for two different wilderness trips in the Brooks Range. The first trip was backpacking from the head waters of Joe Creek over a pass and down a different drainage to the Kongakut River with 5 clients. The second trip was rafting down the Kongakut from where the backpack trip ended with a different set of 4 clients (more on that trip later).
June 13: We arrived at Wright Air's office bright and early to catch our two hour commuter flight to Fort Yukon. The morning was partly sunny and cool in Fairbanks, minimal winds, a perfect day for flying. In Fort Yukon we met our bush pilot, Kirk Sweetsir of Yukon Air, for the last leg of our flight into the north eastern portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Two hours later we were being dropped off in the middle of the Brooks Range far from anything that suggested civilization. Since Kirk's plane only fits 3 people plus gear it took him two round trip flights to get everyone to the starting point on Joe Creek. Once everyone arrived and the plane was out of ear shot, not to be heard from for 8 days, the realization of how remote we really were started to sink in with folks. That tends to be the moment where even the most serious adults on the trip expose the little kid curiosity and wonder in them they thought disappeared decades ago. You can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voice, everything lights them up. It is one of the main reasons I thoroughly enjoy guiding.

A long day of flying can be very exhausting so we only hiked two miles and set up camp. A light rain set in shortly after dinner.

June 14: Woke up to light rain but thought nothing of it. Had breakfast, broke camp, and started hiking up the drainage to the pass. A few miles into the hike we came to a mandatory creek crossing. Folks were wet from walking in the rain for a few hours so we stopped for lunch so folks could rest, get refueled and warm up. That was a convenient reason to stop. The real reason I wanted to stop was because I wanted to buy time to figure out our options. In my head I was thinking, "How the hell are we going to cross this thing safely?" The water was knee deep, fast and as cold as it gets without freezing. Since we had time built into the trip for layovers we went ahead and set up camp early to wait out the rain and let people warm up in their sleeping bags. An hour later the rain stopped and the sun came out. An hour after that we could see a noticeable difference in the water level as it dropped.

June 15: We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, cool and calm. Over night the creek went from a knee deep raging torrent to a shoe lace deep mellow meander. After breakfast we crossed to the other side by using one rock as midstream stepping stone. No wet boots. From there we followed the almost canyon like narrow drainage up to the pass for several miles. Along the way we crossed the creek over 30 times, fortunately without needing to take our boots off. After several hours of climbing we reached the high point of our hike and broke for lunch. The rest of the day was spent walking down the new drainage.

June 16: There were a few caribou around camp last night but not the herds of thousands this area is famous for. During breakfast most of the group caught a quick glimpse of a wolverine which is very rare to see.... vicious little buggers. Around lunch we noticed a group of 100+ caribou. Naturally we dropped our packs, pulled out our cameras and watched the herd move around for 30 minutes. Right as we started to put our packs back on I noticed a large brown spot moving around on the creek bed. We could not make out what it was but I assumed it was a grizzly bear due to its size and movement. A closer look through the binoculars showed it was a muskox. I almost wet myself with excitement until the person beside me said, "look, I see 9 more!"... That's when it was no longer an almost. We dropped our packs again and watched the muskoxen for another 45 minutes. June 17-18: As we moved down the drainage to the Kongakut over the next few days the herds of caribou got larger and larger until, at one point, there were easily several thousand in the valley around us. During this time we also started to notice tiny day old calves wobbling through the tundra. June 19: This was our last day backpacking and our largest river crossing of the trip. We made it to the Kongakut around lunch, skies were clear but it was a bit windy and temperatures were around 55F. For the crossing we took our boots off and put on our river crossing shoes. There were 4 braids to the river, each about thigh deep and moving fairly swift. Did I mention it was ice cold. I don't mean ice cold as in just cold and uncomfortable, I mean ice cold as in this water was coming from ice fields and glaciers less than 24 hours ago. One little slip into this water would quickly make a person hypodermic. The crossing went well. On the other side I noticed a person far off in the distance, the first person we saw since getting dropped off by Kirk 8 days ago. To make a really long story short, it ended up being my wife, Becky. She ended up doing a base camp trip with a photographer in the area. It was not preplanned that we would run into each other. Complete surprise! She doubled back to warn our group about a grizzly sitting on a caribou kill. Good thing too, she saved our bacon on that one. Ask her sometime to tell you the story.

June 20: Backpack clients flew out around noon on the same flights the new rafting clients came in on. Old trip ends, new trip begins. On to the Kongakut from here. More on that soon.

Ester Quakes

Alaska sits on a pretty fascinating part of the globe geologically speaking. We sit at the northern extent of the Ring of Fire which tectonically speaking provides the state with volcanic activity and earthquakes. If you've been paying attention to Alaska's local news over the last few months you would have noticed Mount Redoubt's series of rumblings and volcanic eruptions southwest of Anchorage. It's not uncommon for earthquakes to be felt somewhere in the state once or twice a year either. Normally it does not make the news unless it's rather large. About a week ago Becky and I were shaken awake around 5am by a 3 something tremor. It was short and not to bad so we thought nothing of it. It's a pretty fascinating thing to feel every once in a while. Over the next week we felt another six moderate tremors (maybe it was 5 or 7, I've lost count). A tremor once or twice a year is par for the course but to feel one almost every day for a week is unusual for around here. I just happen to work with a few inquisitive GIS savvy geologist that also happen to be our neighbors. They were aware the epicenters for the quakes were within miles of Fairbanks so they got the data from their sources and plotted it on a satellite image. The image above is the result.......It's our neighborhood. We live on the small kink in the road directly below the two largest yellow dots. Most of the tremors have been large enough to feel but all have been too small to cause damage. Mother Earth never fails to amaze. (I have not ruled out the notion that one of my neighbors is in cahoots with North Korea and top secret nuclear testing is taking place just down the street from us).

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung which has brought a rush of activity around the house. Not much time for play during the last few weeks. Beck and I have been working feverishly getting ready for garden production by building raised beds, moving 10 yards of soil across the yard to fill them, building a sizable green house, tilling existing garden beds, doubling the size of our chicken run to accommodate 13 new laying hens and moving the shed from the front yard to the back (which took 15 people to lift and carry 120 ft, a monumental accomplishment). For the lower 48 this may seem late for starting agricultural activities. For interior AK it's right on time. The deciduous trees are just now filling out with leaves and the first flowers of the season just started popping up days ago. The game plan is to finish all the busy work, get the garden started and chicks established then it's playtime for the rest of the summer. Ahhhh..... Play time in the summer.....coming soon.

Winter Turns to Spring

Winter finally turned to Spring a few weeks back. It feels good. The sun is back in the sky longer than we can stay awake. Buds are coming out on the Aspen and Birch trees trying to turn the forest from brown to green. Migratory birds are slowly showing up for their summer mating rituals and filling the air with songs. One of the grandest benefits of spring is the opening up of once frozen rivers. In the Fairbanks area most of the rivers are just now becoming ice free. Some rivers, such as the Delta Clearwater, open and are free of ice sooner than others. Because of this the Delta Clearwater tends to be the traditional first trip of the season for many boaters.

Becky and I normally float the river as a day trip but this year we decided to join a group of friends and turn it into an over night trip. It turned out to be one of the nicest weekends we've seen in a long time. There was not a cloud in the sky and the temperatures got as high as the mid-70s.

Becky solo paddling an Ally canoe.

First flowers of the season.

My lovely bride keeping me out of trouble.

My Peeps Are In The House

As many of you know, Becky and I got 9 laying hens last May from some friends of ours. They raised the birds from chickhood so they were full grown and already laying eggs when we got them. That made for a nice gradual transition into raising birds. This is most likely the last summer for most of the flock since they are getting old and their egg production is dropping.... I have a feeling we will be eating lots of chicken soup this winter. Keeping chickens in the arctic is not necessarily easy in the winter when it's -40F for weeks on end, but it's fun. When summer finally comes around and the ladies are able to be let loose in the run it's even more enjoyable. With that in mind, this year I could not resist getting more chickens.One of the local feed stores in town sales day old baby chicks this time of year so I went down and picked some up. We got a variety of breeds primarily based on egg production and cold hardness. Those are what I call my business birds because they are doing what they were hired to do. We also got a Polish for her fashion statement with her crazy head feathers. She is still pretty small so her adult plumage has not developed yet but when it does she will look like someone combed her hair with a firecracker. We started out by getting just 9 chicks just barely larger than a fuzzy golf ball. A week went by before I lost all restraint and went back for 4 more. We now have 13 chicks and 8 adult birds.

The pictures above were taken just after we got them. They've doubled in size in the last week and a half and started flapping their wings. All our ladies are layers so we won't be eating them any time soon but each time they stretch their wings I can't help but picture them covered in hot sauce on a plate with ranch dressing.

Alaska Range Cabin Trip

Becky and I woke up early Saturday morning, finished packing our bags, loaded the dogs in the car and headed south. Our first destination was Coal Mine Rd., just over two hours south of Fairbanks along the Richardson Hwy where it slices through the Alaska Range. There we met a group of friends for a 5 mile ski into a reasonably remote public use cabin operated by the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game.

Snow was falling at the trail head when we got there leaving the location of the mountains a mystery to Becky and I. With only a 1/4 mile visibility at best allot was left to the imagination. Even with the grand vista potential being gone the ski in was still incredibly beautiful. Fresh snow had just fallen and was still falling, rabbits and ptarmigan kept crossing our paths and temperatures where finally feeling warm after a long cold winter.We got to the cabin around dinner time, a fire was started inside while a few of us set up tents. The cabin sleeps 8 people but with 13 folks in the group we needed additional housing for the night. The evening carried on with good conversation, games and a bit of recreational skiing around the area. The next morning we woke up to a spectacular view of the mountains and not a cloud in the sky. I had to take the pictures above as evidence for later to make sure I was not dreaming or hallucinating from eating Steve's moose sausage for breakfast. We really could not have asked for a better weekend.

Open North American Sled Dog Race

Last weekend Fairbanks hosted the 64th annual Open North American Championship sled dog race. This three day race comprises of twenty mile sprints the first two days and a thirty mile sprint the third day. It's hard to convey how much fun it is to watch a sled dog event. The only comparison I can really think of is to have you imagine how excited your dog gets when you pull out the leach to take them for a walk around the neighborhood. If your dog doesn't go crazy with enthusiasm something is wrong. Now add another twelve dogs to that leach and watch the energy explode! The races are particularly exciting at the start where the dogs are waiting for their chance to run. Once in their harnesses and hooked into the line they start jumping and barking with excitement, then...... the snow hook is released from the sled, the dogs are free to run, and all goes silent as you see the dogs focus on their task at hand.

50 Years of Statehood

January 3, 1959 President Eisenhower signed the official declaration making Alaska the 49th state. With a little elementary math it's easy to figure out that means this year Alaska celebrated it's 50th anniversary. And what better way to celebrate 50 years than an extravagant display of fireworks. Becky and I have the good fortune of having a friend that works for the Geophysical Institute. That may not seem like much on the surface, but that friend has keys, and those keys were able to get us on top of the tallest building on the UAF campus which was right beside the firework launch location. Ahhh... what a good friend and what a great firework display.
Side note, other historical notables celebrating 50 years this year include: Castro becomes leader of Cuba as the Cuban Revolution unfolds, the Dalai Lama was run out of Tibet by the Chinese invasion, the USSR launches Luna 1 becoming the first craft to leave Earth's orbit, and Barbie makes her first debut.

Ice Art

Every spring, as the sun starts coming back and the temperatures consistently stay above -20F, all the pent up energy from a cold dark winter manifest itself in creative ways. In March one of the most intriguingly popular events is the World Ice Art Championships. That's right, people pay to enter a competition where they stand around their very own piece of ice, spend a week carving some shape from their imagination, then watch it melt.

The displays created at this event are no small feat of artistry. With sculptures ranging from 1-10 blocks of ice, each block about 6'x4'x3' in size, the size of these objects are breath taking. And the detail..... the detail is phenomenal! Most competitors start by rough cutting their shape with a chainsaw followed with more detail oriented tools such as chisels, files, hair dryers and sand paper. Their imagination is the limitation on their tools.

As one of my favorites from this year, Godzilla stands at close to thirty feet tall with a small crushed bi-wing plane in his upper hand. To see more on the event go to: http://www.icealaska.com/

Race Hard Play Hard

On your mark... Get set.... Go! It's time for the dogs to earn their keep. Becky, Charlie, Riga and I have been involved with a local group of fun loving folks (and dogs) in the greater Fairbanks area that like to get together once a month during the winter months to race. It's completely informal. No entry fee. No official organizer. No ESPN coverage (yet). Some time before the snow falls the dates and locations are set for the season. Here is how it works: As long as you are non motorized you can compete. The most common form of competing is skiing, skijoring and dog mushing but on occasion someone will run or bike the course. Normally you would not think a team of 8 dogs would be fair against a skier or runner. True, so a point deduction system is used where you get a set number of minutes added to your time for each dog. Strategy plays a big part in preparing for the big day. Do you take two fast dogs and travel light or four steady dogs with good endurance and sacrifice the minutes? Beck and I only have two dogs (one if you consider Charlie lets Riga do all the pulling) so we skijor with two. They are not the fastest dogs but it's a grand ol' time. So far our best placing was 10th out of 70 competitors. We don't have fancy high dollar prizes such as the Chevy truck the Iditarod hands out but we do get prizes for top finishers. Normally it's something inappropriately funny from the thrift store. That's all for now, I've got to get back to training for next month's race.

Hot Spring Heaven

Alaska is a hot bed of geologic activity. With it's proximity along the northern extent of the ring of fire we have everything from erupting volcanoes to glaciers and actively moving faults causing earth quakes. This may not seem appealing when considering a move here (this is the stuff the tourism board leaves out of the brochure). The plus side is that due to these unique features we also have a fair amount of geothermic activity which often leads to hot springs. That's right, hot springs all over the state. Some are car accessible with resorts built up around them, others are more remote and require a bit of effort to reach. One of the local favorites around the Fairbanks area is Tolovana Hot Springs. The shortest way to get there requires an 11 mile ski, walk, or snow machine in to get there from the road system but you are rewarded when you get there with a nice dry cabin to stay in. With this tempting treat close to home Becky and I decided to head out there with a couple of friends, and of course the dogs, for a three day weekend. When we left Fairbanks the temperatures were around -10F with the forecast ranging from high to low. From the trail head we decided to walk the 11 miles in and pull sleds with our food and gear. We got to the hot spring just after dark, started the fire in the cabin and started to soak in the tubs under the starts. What a beautiful place.

Saturday was spent relaxing, hiking around the area and playing cards in the evening along with more soaking in the tubs. Temperatures remained around -20F. Sunday morning we woke up to temps close to -30F and a fairly stiff wind blowing. As nice as it would have been to stay in the cabin until spring, we had to get moving. So we had a filling breakfast, suited up, and headed out. It was easy to dress from the cold when the wind was not blowing but add the wind and it's hard to hide from. Tip: when you are in subzero temps do not face into the wind to pee. Everyone managed to keep moving and stay warm until we got back to the cars. The parking lot is known for being the windiest and coldest place of the entire trip. Needless to say, many cars have trouble starting when it's that cold. Fortunately our truck started with only a little effort. The other cars in the parking lot had to be jump started due to cold batteries. Sure it was cold, but what a great time we had. Now if we can talk someone into putting hot tubs in the parking lot we will have it made.

Peru 2008

It's taken a while to sort through all the photos from Peru. For all the patient people out there here is a quick run down of our trip in December and a few pics.

I'll take a walk on the wild side and cut to the closing statement here in the opening.... The trip was wildly enriching and well worth the time and money spent to be there. Great times were has by all. As with any travels it would not be an adventure if everything went according to script. With that in mind our trip started out true to adventure fashion. We had the typical late departures out of Fairbanks and Seattle due to snow storm delays out of the Seattle airport. No big deal. Things got interesting when we arrived in Atlanta to the minute of when the flight to Lima was suppose to depart. The Delta folks made a blanket statement on the plane that due to our late arrival no one should try to make their flights and that Delta would make sure folks got to their destination ASAP. We figured, what the hell, since we were going to be stuck in an airport for a while waiting for a new flight we might as well run to our next flight on the off chance it was running late like the rest. With Atlanta being the large airport that it is we had to run down the terminal, down the escalator, ride the subway two terminals over then back up the escalators to ground level. Out of excitement of the moment we unloaded the subway and followed the crowd (neither of us saw directional signs so we played the odds). We were bobbing and weaving through the elderly and little children to get to our gate at break neck speeds. Little did we know the one-way escalators took us straight out of security and into baggage claim with no way to retreat. After a brief moment of shock and sinking spell of defeat we realized we weren't defeated until we saw that there was no plane at the gate... so we ran back to security, took shoes off, emptied our pockets, got through screening and started running again. Three minutes later and pretty sweaty we arrived at a closed gate with two other Peruvians begging to be let on as well. They had arrived on a late flight like us. The plane was still sitting at the gate. With a bit of pleading the lady let us on. Near miss on that one. The down side is that they had given away our seats so we had to separate but what excitement on the chase. We remained on the plane at the gate for over 25 minutes after they let us on. Glad we tried.

We woke up early the next day in Lima and found a bus to take us to Huaraz in the middle of the Peruvian Andes. Out of the city, into the mountains. The bus ride was mostly at night so I can't give you any mind blowing descriptions of a beautiful ride, it was dark on winding roads, but waking up the next morning in Huaraz was breath taking (figuratively and literally). The mountains were amazingly beautiful and the air was noticeably thin from the altitude of about 10,000 ft. But not as thin as it was going to get when we moved to 12,000 feet to stay at a little lodge in the mountains. It was noticeably difficult to breath and any physical effort left us light headed.
The lodge, The Way Inn, was 15km out of town and past any development with tremendous hiking opportunities right out the front door in the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountains). The first day we were both so winded coming straight from sea level that a 200 yard walk from our room was a victory in itself. Day two I had food poisoning which made a 50 yard trek tough. Day three I was feeling well enough to go about a mile. Day four a new visitor came to the lodge. A visitor who happens to live one mile away from us in Fairbanks and did not know. With our new found friend we headed off into the mountains for a nice day long trek.

We moved from The Way Inn back to Huaraz for the rest of the trip with one excursion to Chavin de Huantar on the other side of the Cordillera Blanca. Chavin is a pre-Incan archaeological site dating back to about 900 BC. The road to the ruins took us over a high pass with lots of switch backs and sharp drop offs with no guard rails. While very few cars/buses go off the side, the road is intimidating enough that Spanish missionaries erected a 100ft tall Jesus statue at the top of the pass to bless travelers on their journeys.

After Chavin we moved back to Huaraz for the duration. From there we spent our days exploring the myriad of markets with everything from chickens and pigs hanging from hooks in the butcher booths to clothes, dishes and crafts. Two different days we hired a taxi through our hostel to take us to different valleys in the Andes for day hikes.

There really is no way to use words to describe the mountain scenery so these pictures will have to do.

All in all the trip was a big success until..... We arrived at the Lima airport for departure with no problems. Stood in line to get our boarding passes with no problems. Exchanged the last of our Peruvian currency no problem. 30 minutes before boarding we had a problem. Becky started to feel sick to her stomach which took her to the bathroom. They started boarding the plane, I still saw no Becky. When she finally came out she looked pale and drained but said she was good to board the plane (what other option did we have if we did not want to buy new tickets, right?). While we were standing in the gang way, Becky doing her best to stand in the slowly moving line without hurling on the elderly lady in front of us, we hear someone hit the floor..... "That man just fell, we need help!" came from 20 feet back. Followed by, "Oh, that was the drunk dude in the bar.... I think he just past out". So we continued to move to our seats while the airline folks took the drunk guy away in an ambulance. Over the next 7 hours, from Lima to Atlanta, Becky filled......I don't want to be too graphic here. lets just say she was as sick as I've every seen anyone from food poisoning and it could not have been at a worst time. By the time we reached Atlanta Becky had it mostly out of her system but was very exhausted and doing her best to hold down water and food.

There is so much more to say and many more stories to embellish but those will have to wait until next time. Until then.

Good night Peru.