Finally it warms up!

As the temperature climbed up into the single digits, then the teens and finally -- BALMY -- the twenties, we ice skated on the lagoon and skied again.  After a few inches of fresh snow on Friday, we skied for a couple of hours on the Coastal Trail, one of the first times that we had classical skied in a while.  On Sunday after our Meet Up group canceled a cross-country ski to the Portage Glacier due to high winds forecast south of here, we re-grouped and took our off-trail skis to the Eagle River Valley.  We started out on the Dew Mound Trail, and it was pretty good though pretty scant cover.  As we continued up, not knowing the route, we got higher and rockier, and we ended up taking our skis off and carrying them.  It was slick underneath the little bit of snow, pure ice in spots, and especially difficult hiking in ski boots!  We felt like we'd had a trashing by the time we hiked and then were able to ski again - out just under 4 hours.  It was actually only about 8 degrees when we started, as it had cooled more than forecast overnight.  We finished with an hour lecture on volcanoes -- the Eagle River Nature Center offers a lot of neat talks on Sunday afternoons!  This picture of Brian will give you an idea of just how gorgeous it is in the Eagle River Valley. 

Moose in Town!

Alright, we were wimps today.  We got up and got ready to hike at 10 with the meetup group, and then we checked to make sure the time was still the same - and found out the hike was canceled - it was minus 8 degrees - maybe that was why?  We were still going to go but decided to do our errands on the way first, and . . . well, it never got much warmer -- maybe tomorrow!  Tonight Judy went outside to deliver something next door and came back up to get Brian because there was a BIG bullmoose right at the corner chomping on a tree!  We went out and watched it for awhile and tried to take pictures, but it is pretty dark and hard to see.  What a riot though!  More adventures tomorrow . . . stay tuned! 

Hiking at 0 degrees

We got new climbing skins for our skis!  Haven't used them yet, but you'll see Brian here getting them ready - we haven't used them yet, because we're still waiting for new snow -- forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week!  In the meantime, the snow is hard and icy -- and it's COLD!!  We hiked the Winner Creek Trail in Girdwood today and took a new turn from the last time to do the Upper Winner Creek Trail.  Judy started to do it in August but was alone and it turned to tall grass -- she decided not to risk the bear company that we heard frequents that trail!  Today we saw a lot of moose prints and "other evidence" of moose close by and recently!  It was gorgeous, as you'll see from the pictures but so tiring to hike on the very uneven and hardened snow and with it so cold -- our hands and feet never warmed up in the 3 hours we were out.  Hanging out tonight on Saturday night uninspired to move!  Planning an even longer one tomorrow but the forecast is still 0 degrees, so we'll see.  We're supposed to begin to warm up on Monday to 11 and Tuesday back to the 20s.  Hope those of you on the East Coast are appreciating your snow! 

Settling in at Home

Back in Alaska SHOULD mean great skiing again -- but no new snow in quite a while.  Because they groom the trails, we skate skied on Saturday and it was still good -- and pretty fast.  Judy got new skate skis for Christmas, so it was a good chance to try them out!  On Sunday we decided to do a longer hike and spent 3 hrs on the trails from Prospect Heights, up in the hills, on hard-packed snow.

Saturday morning Brian walked down to the trails while Judy was at yoga to check out the ski trails.  Bikers were flashing by on their "fat tire" bikes, and it turned out they were doing a 25K or 50 K race!  Then skiers and runners, so it was everything, but Brian was most impressed by anyone biking at 10 degrees on fat tires for a 50K race!

Last night we had a meet up pot-luck again with a presentation by a diver in the Antarctic - - great pictures and by a student about 27 yrs old from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks who got hooked up with a National Science Foundation trip with Norman Chu, photographer.  Leopard seals, penguins, lots of birds, and he spent 6 wks at a substation in the Antarctic diving and photographing any wildlife and lots of undersea life.

Always interesting here!  Brian walked down to the trail this afternoon since Judy had the car and changed direction to avoid a moose on the trail!  We've had fog, fog, and more fog, that becomes an ice fog and truly turns the trees into a winter wonderland, everything is frosted white as the fog freezes.  We're enjoying all of the stories we'll have about our life in Alaska! 

A Long Way Home!

Back in Anchorage, but we have to say that Central New York surely felt like home too for 2 1/2 weeks!  Thanks to everyone for their hospitality and just so good to be with friends and family again!  It was a wonderful holiday for both of us.  We've included a few pictures here of our activities while we were gone.  Judy has been knitting and practicing "felting" for mittens and hats, so if you see some goofy big mittens here, it's before they are shrunk down in hot water to make them dense and warm.  Some of you have done that accidentally in the laundry, but this is intentional!

We've arrived back to find there is not much snow here!  Anchorage also had a warm few days and some rain after some bitter cold that we happily missed -- so we thought we would dump our bags and ski last night, but we were sadly mistaken.  We got up at 4 am EST to go the airport and arrived in Anchorage at 8 pm EST, so we mostly tried to stay up past 6 pm Alaska time and made it til 8 before we just had to turn in!  (Midnight EST)  Enjoyed skiing in Osceola with friends and hiking, Christmas with family, even saw a couple of movies while we were gone!  We'll be back -- when it's time to sail!