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!

Back in Central New York

You might think we didn't go out and play this past weekend, since we didn't post any winter wonderland pictures -- but now we're back playing in Central New York!  Brian skied on Sunday at Osceola, the only place here with sufficient snow right now -- hopefully that will change with a snowstorm predicted for Christmas night or the day after.  We'll ski at Osceola again tomorrow.  Judy's making "felted" hats and mittens for Christmas -- we'll post pictures in a few days.  You make GIANT mittens and then shrink them in the washer down to a very dense "felt" that is warm and toasty -- so far the hats are two big -- they need another turn through the washer!
It's great to be back and seeing all of you CNY people!  We love being here too, and then our thoughts, of course, turn to -- SAILING!  Planning now for June-Aug.  Happy Holidays!  

Brian Skis ALL WEEKEND!!

Judy was in Seattle Thurs-Sat night, but Brian got some skiing in -- Friday on the Coastal Trail past the lagoon and out to Earthquake Park, a part of Anchorage that fell into the water in the 1964 Earthquake.  The trail had just been groomed, and he skate skied it.  Then he went up to his friend Carl's and worked on waxing skis.  Saturday he skied classical on fresh snow as it snowed overnight, and they take care of grooming the trails before anybody touches the roads!  He went in the evening and skied again, skate skied on the trails close to our house and ran into a drunk that on the return trip had curled up on the trail to go to sleep -- in the single digits.  Brian skied by and then called 911 -- there have been several people already who have been found dead in the city after drinking and then going to sleep outside.  He was at the airport at midnight to pick Judy up and we saw another inebriate coming home -- a Santa Claus trying to make it across  6 lanes of traffic who could barely stand up -- hope he made it!

Sunday was cold and clear!  We went to the Campbell Creek trails on the southeast side of the city, and the temperature (showing on our dash) went from 12 degrees to 5 degrees on the way over!  As soon as we started out (with just a little face showing!),  we ran into the moose that you see here in the pictures, almost right on the trail.  It was close enough this time that we weren't feeling like we could ski past her, but just as we turned around to go back and find another trail, she moved off to the side a little bit, and several of us scooted by!  You often get a little line at both ends trying to decide what to do.  People often have dogs too -- have you heard of "skijouring?"  I don't think we've had a picture of that yet -- being pulled by a dog while on skis.  It was another gorgeous day with fresh snow on the trees -- Brian picked this trail because they have mushing trails that intersect our trail, and he was hoping to see a dog team -- no luck that day. 


We finished the day with a party at one of the faculty's houses that Judy works with -- we were the oldest ones there, but a good outdoor group of people to talk too!  New ways of fishing, kayaking, finding out all of the places to go -- even the ones you have to fly into!  We're leaving on Wednesday night late to fly back to New York for the holidays -- so hope to see most of you while we're there! 

Living in Bear Country Talk Tonight

Went to a MeetUp Pot-luck dinner tonight with a speaker afterwards from the Fish & Game Club, talking about living with bears within the municipality.  Brown bears and black bears are not only outside of the city on the trails but also sometimes within the city due to salmon streams running throughout.  It was a pretty interesting talk -- and good company -- and we came home and turned on the television to find a show about the Adirondacks, beginning with the 90 mile canoe race, then the 46 high peaks and on to other Adirondack activities!  There are definitely similarities.  Brian says he is now going to go and buy bear spray for us, which most people carry spring through fall for hiking, biking, etc.  Of course, the bears are hunkered down now but we hear they wake up about mid-April, just waiting for those little moose calves to be born!  We saw moose tracks on the way into this business tonight where the talk took place, and they have plastic "sandwich" signs that they set out saying "Caution, Moose Sighting" like the signs that they put out in public bathrooms when they are cleaning or when the floors are wet!  This is on one of the busiest streets in town! 

Back Country Ski from Peter's Creek Trailhead

Of course we started at the bakery again for the most delicious scones (rasberry with lemon zest) and coffee.  We woke up at 8:50 am, it's still dark, and had promised to meet people to ski at 9:45, about 40 minutes away.  We were meeting a MeetUp group to go to a trail that we were unable to find on our own a week ago - it wound up the mountain enough to get to the trailhead that we're unlikely to go back if it has snowed much without a 4 wheel drive or chains!  From the start, we headed up and up and up - a lot of climbing!  It was a beautiful day, and one of the people with us was ski-jouring -- being pulled by a dog in harness while on skis - big sport around here.  Eventually the other 3 people added skins to their skis to make it up the rest of the way, and we decided to turn around and take another loop back!  We still had a 3 hour ski, which felt like plenty by the time we got back, and some great downhill on the way!  Now it's another trip to REI on Monday to check out the price of skins!  You have to have the right equipment to play, wherever you are!  It's skins or dogs, and we choose skins!