Hiking to Mt. Gordon Lyons

Another beautiful weekend - we took our first bike ride on our tandem yesterday on the Ship Creek Trail, just checking it out.  At a certain point, it got too slushy, not dry enough yet, but we're looking for information and places that we'll be able to ride!  We also spent the day re-organizing our stuff, since we sub-leased our apartment for two months this summer while we'll be back in upstate New York. Kind of like spring cleaning!

Today we hiked in an area that we've hiked twice before, the trail to either Mt. Gordon Lyons or Rendezvous.  Our landlords went with us, Lance & Mary, and we again took the "straight up" route that you'll be able to appreciate from our pictures.  The summer route is a more gradual climb.  The snow was deeper than we thought it would be, but not so bad and intermittent with some bare spots and shallow snow.  The photo at the top, with Brian, Lance, and Judy, was taken by Mary, and that spot we're standing on is the only ground at the summit, which dropped off on all 4 sides other than where we were standing!

We saw several people skiing down, so we are thinking of going back tomorrow after work with our climbing skins, which we haven't used yet, climbing up and skiing down the notch between the two peaks!  It's still gorgeous out, about 40 degrees, and it stays light now til about 9 pm, so it's hard to come in and quit for the day!  Brian leaves for upstate NY on May 18 to see Colleen graduate that weekend from RIT, and Judy will be back between conferences for Memorial Day weekend, then back June 10 til the 1st of August.

We REALLY like it here!  You should be able to tell why from the pictures!

Our First Trip to Talkeetna

Talkeetna is a little town of about 2,000 people about 2 hours north of Anchorage.  We drove up there Saturday morning in time for lunch, and after bowls of chowder and a little local beer (Denali Brewing Co), we meandered over to the Meandering Moose Lodge, about 1 1/2 out of town.  You can also stay right in the "historic downtown Talkeetna" which is about 4 restaurant/bars, a general store/liquor store, a couple of gift shops, and a bead store - and must be a small hotel?  There are also suites above the Wildflower Cafe, where we had dinner Saturday night.  Great halibut, my favorite fish!  We had the suite at the Meandering Moose which is a queen-size bed in the upstairs of a house with a couch and chair, large private bath, nice views out the windows, and sled dog serenades from the kennels next door at feeding times and when they're getting selected for the day's training!  Seriously, Brian didn't even hear them, and they were far enough away that they sounded pretty distant!  They do run the Iditarod, and you can visit the kennels if you wish to. 

We weren't sure how much snow there would be, and on Saturday we didn't have a klister wax with us and just hiked for a couple of hours, but we went back the next day with the right wax and had one of the nicest skis of the season.  We were at Talkeetna Lakes Park, and the only ones there, so for two hours we were just skiing through woods, then popping out on a small frozen lake, then back through some more woods, out on another lake, about 4 times or so and then in reverse for about a 2 hour ski.  Nice trails through the woods that you could skate sometimes, the skis were good! 

We would go back and back to the Meandering Moose too.  They have cabins too, so maybe we'll try that the next time.  We think we've had our last ski of the season, but who knows?!  Time to move on?  Hiking might fill in the spaces til biking gets better.  Happy Trails! 

A late March weekend and our first long hike of the year

We met a MeetUp group at the Prospect Heights trailhead to climb Wolverine Peak on Sunday, and we ran out of time before we got quite to the peak.  It has a high point of 4455 ft, and an elevation gain of 3400 ft. One of the hiking points describes Wolverine as rising gently from a large valley and forming a natural amphitheatre.  It also says that a wrecked and rusted airplane litters the slopes near the top, "a jarring sight in this pristine landscape", and sure enough, it was there!  Gorgeous views and another beautiful day!

We think that we found someone to sub-lease our apt. this summer so that is good news for us!  We're plotting out the six weekends that we have left here before we're back in Central NY for a couple of months -- so much to do, so little time!

Skiing again -- how much longer can this go on?!

I know, more skiing, more blue skies, more mountains, no moose this weekend though - maybe that bigger and brighter moon kept them in the woods!  We had fresh snow on Wednesday night for the first time in a long time, so finally had some fresh stuff to ski on.  We went close to home on Saturday, starting by our house and classical skiing up beyond Earthquake Park (so named because a part of the land fell into the water during the 1964 earthquake) and on to the airport parking lot.  The trails were pretty close to perfect, and it was another beautiful, sunny day, temps in the 30s - see pictures - the trail follows Cook Inlet, after we pass Westchester Lagoon, and you have vistas or views of the Chugach Mountains to the east, the Talkeetna Mountains to the North, Sleeping Lady, the volcano, and in the distance on a clear day like this one, Denali, about 250 miles away.  Saturday night we went to the Banff Film Festival at the university and watched several great films.  Sunday we got up late and went for a back-country ski up in the mountains that wasn't up to our usual standards!  It was still a beautiful day and a beautiful area, but the trail with our no-wax skis just wasn't working, and we were side-slipping all of the way.  It's hard to have a bad day in the mountains though -- we weren't exactly suffering!

Ice Biking

Conditions right today for what could be our once in a lifetime frozen river biking trip!  Met the Meetup group at the Matanuska River outside of Palmer -- it was billed as a "bike and skate" trip -- we'd never heard of that before -- some people ice skated, and others just biked down the frozen river, a lot of it smooth as glass.  High winds at times this winter contribute to the snow being blown off the ice and it staying smooth.  You can only do it with special tires with studs, and one person had some that looked "home constructed" with self-tapping screws - he had the best traction!  We had unobstructed views of the mountains, and you're in a place that you wouldn't ordinarily be able to go.  They said it was unusual for the ice to be this good, so they're taking advantage of it this year!  The water isn't very deep in the river, but almost every nice here is 0 or below 0 degrees.  We went over snow in some places, cracks in the ice, etc.  Judy, who is not a mountain biker fell twice, and even Brian fell once -- that ice is slippery!  Another beautiful sunny day in Alaska -- this actually is the easiest winter we've ever gone through - who would have thought we would say that in Alaska!  Tonight we took a walk downtown from our house and had out choice of restaurants for a glass of wine and calamari -- wish you were here! 

We have to pinch ourselves!

Skiing is great this week - trails were groomed for the Tour of Anchorage and are in great shape, and the sun has been shining here for about 10 days straight - temps in 20s up to 30 and the skiing is unbelieveable -- our first ski after work in full daylight, and with daylight savings time going into force this weekend, it will be light here til at least 8:00 - gaining almost 1/2 hour a week now I think. 

Look at the moose pictures we took this morning as we left for Brian to take me to work -- we saw one out our dining room window just down from us, really close, so we took the camera - then as we raised the garage door to back out, there was one right in back of us!  The guy across the alley in back of us was sitting there with his car running, because he didn't dare move!  We were able to turn around in our driveway and then get past him but got another couple of pictures of this one.  Only in Alaska (or Maine too?!) 

Brian discovered growlers filled by Moose's Tooth with their own selection of brews after our landlord gave him one for doing him a favor.  So now we've kicked the beer can or bottle habit and are living green by filling up at the local brewery -- highly recommended!  Wish there was a wine jug system we could find!  They don't recycle glass here . . . I won't tell you how many wine bottles we throw away and feel guilty about. 

Tour of Anchorage Ski Race for Brian

The big news this weekend, in addition to the Iditarod start on Saturday, was Brian's first ski race here in Anchorage on Sunday!  They had a 25k, 40k or 50k, and he decided to try the 25k this first year.  He didn't have any idea where to place himself, and he over-estimated how much time it would take him, so he started further back in a corral than he should have -- they had chips for the race in ankle bracelets.  I'll try to upload two short videos that I took by mistake trying to take pictures and see if that works here.  One is a warm up and the other is the start of his group -- they had 12 corrals, and he was in the 6th one I think - 2 minute intervals.  It's a beautiful route, taking in parts of the trails that we ski on most of the time, right through town and out to Kincaid Park, a world class ski area with a stadium finish.  He was pretty happy with the race, and it was a really sunny pretty day. 

We watched teams for a while starting the Iditarod on Saturday but the start from Anchorage through town is a ceremonial start, and they start again on Sunday from Willow, about 35 miles from here.  Still pretty interesting!  That will be on the news here for the next couple of weeks.  Brian and I are coming up to a year anniversary - it's been almost a year since we came up here for the interview at UAA - my interview was on 3/16.  We're going to go to dinner at Sak's Cafe on the 16th to celebrate, as that's where they took us last year for dinner that night after a full day of meetings and presentations with different groups at the university.   It doesn't seem possible that a whole year has gone by.  We miss everyone in NY though!