Last Mushing Trip of the Year

Jeremy, Cody, Tom and Lily got one last dog mushing trip in for the season, though Cody will be traveling to the North Slope with his team to go caribou hunting next week. They decided to mush out to Minto Flats and try out Jeremy's Snow Trekker tent. It was a beautiful trip, though on the warm side for the dogs.

This is the group traveling out to the Flats. There were 33 dogs on this trip.

This is where the people slept.

And this is where the dogs slept. Jeremy said that he's pretty sure those gloves in the tree on the right are still in that tree.

This is a photo taken on the way out. Another beautiful spring day in Alaska.

Mushing commentary.

Last Winter Cabin Trip

Upper Angel Creek

It's the end of March and time for our last winter cabin trip.

This trip was to Upper Angel Creek, which is 7 miles in from the road.

This is the view up the valley towards the cabin.

Jeremy mushed in.

I skijored with Tommy and Crash.

This is the Upper Angle Creek Cabin.

This is an inside look at the cabin. Most cabins look similar. They have a stove, table with benches, and plywood bunks. This is a view of the "kitchen." The big pot on the stove is to melt snow for dog water.

This is Skidder our old lead dog. Because he is the lead dog and an old dog he gets to stay in the cabin. He's gotten quite used to it and wastes no time in finding the soft places.

On the way out I took this picture of a burned area. It's a black spruce burn area. There are lots of these in interior Alaska as black spruces burns particularly well.

And this is us at the end of the trip. Another successful cabin trip.

Colorado Creek, Upper and Lower Angel Creek cabins are within the Chena River State Recreation Area. We refer to it as the Chena Rec Area. It's about 30 miles east of Fairbanks and includes 397 square miles of forests, rivers and alpine tundra. Jeremy recently became a member of the state park's northern region Citizens' Advisory Board (CAB). Because he now has this very important position, he is "required" to recreate in the area. He tells me it's his duty.

Winter Cabin Trips

Well, only 4 months since our last post. That's better than two years. I thought I'd post some pictures of our winter cabin trips, before spring arrives and we are all thinking of summer.

Tolovana Hot Springs

This is the log cabin at Tolovana Hot Springs. Tolovana Hot Springs is a couple of hours from Fairbanks and requires an 11 mile ski or mush in (or snow machine ride).

This is the upper tub. There are two other tubs, but the lower one is not so hot and the middle one is scalding. I'm not exaggerating; I know this from personal experience.

This is a photo from the top of the dome (hill). It can be very brutal at the top of the dome if the wind is blowing. We've been fortunate the last couple of years, though, with pretty nice weather for December. It's really beautiful if you are on the dome at sun set.

(I stole all the Tolovana pictures from Rachel's blog.)

Lower Angel Creek

Our next cabin trip was Lower Angel Creek. This cabin is only 3 miles in which makes it an easy trip. Tom and Lily were with us on this trip.

Only two pictures from this trip. Here Jeremy is on dog duty (scooping poop). Looks like he's headed to the woods with it.


Colorado Creek

Our third cabin trip was Colorado Creek. We had just had a ton of snow, but were fortunate that the trail groomer showed up shortly before we headed out. While the trail was still soft, it sure did help us out.

Here I am at the cabin with Crash and Tommy. We really liked this cabin.

Here's Jeremy mushing out with the dogs. It was a warm day.

Last, but not least is Tommy Dog. Tommy is too furry and slow to run in team with the sled dogs. Sometimes I skijor with him, but on this trip I had the snow machine, so he had to follow. I would stop every now and then and wait for him to catch up.

Our next trip is Upper Angel Creek.

Vermont

Okay, so it's been almost 2 years since our last post. We've decided to try this blogging thing again. This post is from our trip to Vermont earlier this fall.

The cliffs at Lake Willoughby above the old "Boulders" hotel are home to some of the best ice climbing in the east. The hotel was a destination spot for rich drunks from New York City and Boston during Prohibition.


This is the Puking Pig in Lyndonville, Vermont. I think this is on the National Register of historical places. For at least the last 150 years drunk LSC students have been getting their pictures taken with the Puking Pig. It's a time honored tradition.

Grandpa's homemade apple sauce. This is quite a business grandpa has. At least he doesn't have to spend a lot on overhead.


This is near Stowe. We just missed the peak of the colors but it was still really great to see again. Dianna can spot a post card picture.

This is from our hike up to Sterling Pond above Smugglers Notch ski area. This is right on the Long Trail.

Start the Blog

Well we decided that because we are both so far from family and because it is so hard to keep up with everyone that we would start A blog. This way at least everyone could find out what we are up to at their convenience. Also because we live in Alaska and try to get out as much as possible to experience this amazing state, we decided that we could start documenting some of the stuff that we do. Most of the recreational activities that we participate in are of the Dog Mushing, Skiing, Mountaineering/Climbing variety. I hope by doing this blog that at the very least our family will be able to keep up with our lives. Our family in the lower 48 is who this blog is really for anyway. We hope that you enjoy it.
-J