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/