And, the scarce snow this year certainly has made it a very different race for the mushers if you've followed the news at all!
Saturday night we went to a "house concert" which is a wonderful idea and one that Tom Begich provides for a group of about 45 people at his house periodically to bring wonderful talent to Anchorage or make use of the talented musicians who are going to be here. Throw in a suggested donation, Tom supplies the wine, and have a wonderful evening of music and great company!
The skiing was almost dreadful on Saturday, and I've gotten so picky about lousy skiing given the wonderful conditions we ordinarily have! Sunday we went to the South Fork Trail in Eagle River again, which we did in the fall before snow. We took our backcountry skis in case the conditions were good enough, but they were very hardened and icy and much better for hiking than skiing and with our katoolahs, which are the "spikys" if you don't know what they are that clamp onto your boots to bite into the ice. We hiked about 2 1/2 hours which seemed like enough and it was a gorgeous sunny day in the 20s.
Busy, busy week, and then thank God, another weekend! Friday was a First Friday but we had Tom and Sarah here for dinner along with TK, who is a post-doc visiting from Boston (I met him at an Imagining America conference last Oct. in Syracuse, and he decided to travel to Alaska for some community engagement events we were having). Saturday morning we tried texting TK that there was a moose right outside of our dining room window, walking down the sidewalk, chewing on the bushes and the ends of branches!
Saturday was a work day for both of us, but we ended up about 4:00 taking a walk for a couple of hours with TK, and then collapsed on the couch with dinner, a movie (Blue Jasmine, On Demand), and popcorn. Springing ahead, we got up late but after breakfast, headed north while we picked out our hike for Sunday - what a day! We ended up heading to Eagle River again off Upper Skyline Drive, and soon into the hike, two moose! We never get tired of seeing them!
Beautiful sunny weather up in the mountains, hike to Baldy Mt. though we stopped short of getting quite to the top -- we'll go back as I'm sure you can see - the views are really great and a fun hike. We're just getting our fitness levels back after Brian's pulmonary emboli.
It's hard to describe what a special place this is - we so enjoy being outdoors here and exploring the many places there are to go! We'll come back to this trail in all different seasons - it's a good one!
