2010

Living in a remote part of Alaska, there isn't much to do that isn't related to being outside, which is a large part of why I love living here. This winter has been more of a challenge. Our late winter has yielded unfair amounts of snow which means we have to be much more creative about our outdoor activities. Last year we were snowmobiling across large rivers in the middle of December! This year, well, it's been tough.

Yesterday, for better or for worse we gave Dillingham a fighting chance. Brian, Kirk, Peter, me and two other young men from the village ventured out at 12:30 p.m. Parts of the tundra were nearly barren with only ice, while other parts were fairly snowy. The otherwise raging rivers were well frozen, but seeing the crunchy river banks with their deep cracks, resulting from the daily the twenty foot tide increase and decrease, made me focus to a degree I didn't know was possible. It wasn't pretty, but we made it and home by 12:30 a.m., making the usual hour long jaunt a solid three hour challenge.

I am most thankful for my arctic Carhart bib overalls, my beaver fur mittens, my new helmet and my good friend Brian. Phew! I won't be doing that again until we have some real snow.

Here's a view of the tundra from yesterday: Ice, snow and tundra. Nasty.

More of the same. It's still beautiful, even without snow.

I've been snowshoeing a lot in the evenings. I like how the pink sunset touches the slope. I can only imagine what it looked like beyond the left slope.

Boats by the river. You can see Hank as a little blur tearing towards me. He's the best!

This is my friend Brian. He also biked with me around Lake Superior. He's engaged to my good friend here, Kirsten. Brian just bought this amazing snow bike. It's called the Fat Bike and tailored for riding on snow trails. The plan is for him to ride his bike and me to skate ski to Dillingham and home on the snowmobile trails. I just got my skis and I'm super excited by this new expectation.

Fat Tire!