In case you were starting to question . . .

In case you were starting to question why you still choose to read this blog and put up with our lame jokes and weird stories:

Steve's friend Mark, who is going to be on jeopardy this Friday, April 1st, just let us know that our blog helped him answer a question in a (non-Jeopardy) trivia contest the other day. Apparently the answer was Lance Mackey, which he would not necessarily have known without reading our post on the Iditarod.

So, to quote Avenue Q (which we saw here!) totally out of context: "We provide a vital service to society."

(P.S. the point of this blog post was to encourage everyone to watch Mark on Jeopardy tomorrow.)

To keep things our-life-in-Alaska related, recent news reports around Alaska state that the bears are starting to wake up.

Guess it's time to start hiking and skiing with bear spray again . . .

Mt. Baldy Hunting Trip

Hi, Everyone:

This morning one of Steve's co-clerks, Peter, invited us to go out hiking with him.  His mission was to head to an area about 15 minutes outside of Anchorage to climb a small mountain called Mt. Baldy.   He was looking to hunt ptarmigan for some delicious meat.

Ptarmigan is a small bird in Alaska: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_Ptarmigan

Anyway, we went along (with some of Steve's other co-clerks) for the hike.  The views were awesome.  Here's Anchorage/Eagle River looking down upon them from the mountain.

The hike up the mountain was pretty steep.   It made for quite the work-out on the way up.

Once we got to the top, Peter went out looking for birds.

The rest of the group stood around eating granola bars and taking in the amazing views of the surrounding mountain ranges.

It was beautiful up there; some of the best top-of-the-mountain views that we've seen in Alaska thus far.

You could see 360-degrees around.  It was amazing!

We also got the chance to take our classic backward facing picture.  Tammy was wearing her Michigan hat, which of course just made the picture even more beautiful.  We took this same picture in Big Bend National Park when we were together with Tammy's family 2 winter breaks ago.  We really like this pose, though it looks a bit different with the small Rio Grande in front of us rather than beautiful Mt. Baldy.

Here's the picture from the Rio Grande:

On the way down, the mountain seemed a bit steeper.  Steve ran down it just hoping to make it to the bottom without hurting himself.  Tammy took her windbreaker off and used it as a sled.  This made for some amusing video, as can be seen below:



It was a beautiful day for a hike (about 40 degrees) and we had some great company.  Tonight we're going to one of Steve's co-clerk's improv comedy shows.  We'll let you all know how it goes!

Walkin' to the Glacier

Hi, Everyone:

First of all, to our Jewish followers, Happy Purim.  Second of all, to our University of Michigan followers, GO BLUE!  Beat Duke!

Today we had one of the coolest experiences we've had in Alaska thus far, and we simply could not wait to share it.  We had heard this was possible, but the level of discussion in no way could describe how amazing it was.

Basically, we walked to a glacier and got close enough to touch it.  Let me explain.  As you may remember, at the beginning of the year we took a ferry across a lake to a glacier called Portage Glacier.  The glacier calves a lot (a lot of chunks fall off) and so the boat ride is supposed to be this cool experience to see it crack and fall.  Well, we didn't see much calving but it was still nice to see the glacier from a distance.

But now that it is winter, the lake has frozen over.  This provides an awesome experience where one can walk across the lake (about 3miles) and get right up close to the glacier.  Which we did . . . with one of Steve's co-clerks, Rebecca.

Now the lake is of course icy (seeing as how it is frozen).  But thanks to the snow clip things Steve's parents sent us, we were able to navigate pretty well.  Tammy and Rebecca used the clips, while Steve just kind of slid along the lake.

For those of you who don't remember (or just want to see an awesome change), here's what the glacier looked like in September:

If you want to see more pictures of the glacier in September, go here: http://moosespotting.blogspot.com/2010/09/glacier.html. Obviously the lake below it is what is now frozen.

Now here are out pictures from today.  Look at how different the glacier looks, and how much closer we were able to get.

You can see how large the glacier actually is by comparing the people standing next to it with the mammoth sized pieces of ice.

These pictures are not done with a telephoto lens or zoom.  This is literally how close to the glacier we could get.

One of the neatest ways to cross the lake is to bike across.  Yes, you read me right.  Bike across the frozen lake.  People go out and buy snow tires for their bikes, which allows them to bike on ice.

Anyway, definitely one of the more unique and awesome things we've done in Alaska.  We're both still kind of getting over that we could get so close.  So cool!

That's all for now.  We're almost at 12 hours of sunlight and temperatures are in the 30s.  Warming up and staying bright; summer is on the way!

I Hope I Don't Make a Bad Joke About Hope . . . Darn it.

Hi, Everyone!

Sorry for the delay in writing this post, but we got temporarily sidetracked with Iditarod stuff.  For people who are still interested, Lance Mackey had to send home a few of his top dogs, and he has dropped from 3rd place to 9th.  It's looking like there is little chance of him winning.  The current leader, John Baker from the Alaska town of Kotzebue, just left Kaltag and is heading to the coast.  We're nearing the end!

Anyway, 2 weeks ago we joined Steve's co-clerk Aesha and her boyfriend Dario for a skiing weekend out in a cabin in Hope, Alaska.  Hope is an approx. 2 hour drive south of Anchorage (it's on the Kenai), though most of that drive time is because it is on the other side of an inlet . . . and there is no bridge crossing the water.

The cabin was a ton of fun.  It was a small cabin with benches on the first floor for sleeping and a loft on the second floor with some mattresses.  It was a dry cabin, like Sheep Mountain, so we had to use the outhouse outside.  And there was no electricity in the cabin, so we were lit by our battery-powered lantern all evening.

The coolest part of the cabin, though, was that there was no electric or gas heating.  Rather, the whole place was kept warm by a giant stove in the middle, in which we had to build a fire.

Of course, when we got there there was not a fire because people hadn't been there in a while.  We got one started and within a few minutes the place started warming up.  What we didn't realize we just how warm it would get.  We kept putting logs in throughout the evening, and by 9p or so we probably had the cabin to 70-80 degrees.  It was really really warm; like down to t-shirts warm.

Anyway, we went to bed and woke up around 3a to find the fire had gone out and we were sans heat once again.  After Steve stoked a new fire, the place heated up again until 8a or so, when we re-awoke to find the fire dead.  It was a really interesting experience to self-heat a place using chopped firewood, and to see how quickly the cabin would change temperatures depending on the length of the time the fire had gone/gone out for.

We also did some awesome cross-country skiing around the area.

It was really scenic out in Hope.

The trip was awesome and we loved the company.  Much thanks to Aesha and Dario for planning it!

As a side note, this week has been a bit of a bucket-list buster for us here.  On Thursday, we decided to check out the Midnight Sun brewery in Anchorage, which is the only commercial brewery in the city.  The beers were delicious and we loved the tour.

Then that evening we got a call from Henry letting us know the Northern Lights were out.  We quickly drove about 30min outside of the city, and got an amazing view of the green bands stretching across the sky.  Sadly, we couldn't get any good pictures, but hopefully we'll have another opportunity.  And, as Steve says, he can no longer sing the Phish song "Farmhouse," for now he has seen the Northern Lights.

For those keeping track, here's what the bucket list looks like now:

• Catch a salmon and eat it
• Ice climb (likely happening this summer on Matanuska Glacier)
• Snow machine
• Fly an airplane
• Skydive
• Visit Midnight Sun brewery
• Ice skate on a lake
• Go on a 3-day backcountry trip
• Sea-kayak by glaciers
• Ski at Alyeska
• Hike in Denali
• Go dog mushing
• See Northern Lights
• Hike Flat Top (a hike near Anchorage)

More to come soon!  Be well!

IDITAROD!!!!

Hi, Everyone!

Tammy is in Washington D.C. this weekend, but have no fear . . . the blog continues with more tales of sled dog races.

Today is a very important day in Alaska.  It marks the beginning of the 39th annual Iditarod race.  This race is the big deal for dog mushers; it's the one that people aspire to.  The race starts in Anchorage ceremonial, and ends in Nome approximately a week to two weeks later (depending on how fast the mushers go).  The race covers 1049 miles, and it covers all types of terrains and weather, including temperatures that can reach in the negative 50s with wind.

The start of the race is a bit odd.  This morning the mushers ceremonially leave Anchorage and head about 30 minutes (driving time) north.  They then disembark, load the dogs onto their trailers, and drive to Williow (about 1.5 hours driving time north of Anchorage), where the official start of the race will begin tomorrow morning.

Nonetheless, the ceremonial start in Anchorage provided tons of entertainment.  I (Steve) headed downtown with my co-clerks Tiffany and Irene (visiting from Juneau!) this morning.

The race started pretty much the same way as the Fur Rondy races last week.  The mushers took off from downtown on streets packed with snow.

That team is led by DeeDee Jonrowe.  She's a local musher who has gained tons of respect over her 30 years mushing in the Iditarod.  She has the 5th fastest time ever, and in 1998 she won second in the Iditarod.  There is speculation she may be able to win the full race this year.

But her biggest competition is Lance Mackey.  Mackey is a Fairbanks local who has won the last 4 CONSECUTIVE Iditarods.  Tammy and I watched a documentary on the Iditarod last week, and all of the mushers agreed that they had no idea how Lance does it.  He not only wins, but he often wins by a landslide.  Here he is before the start of the race taking some questions from media:

In 2007, this guy became the first person to ever win the Yukon Quest (another 1000 mile dog sled race) and the Iditarod in the same year.  Pretty impressive.

After we watched a few mushers take off from downtown, the three clerks drove to a nearby airstrip to get a bit of a closer view of the mushers in action.

There are mushers from all over the world who come to compete; this year there are competitors from the US, Canada, Jamaica, and more!  Of course, mushers from the US come from a variety of states, including Alaska, Colorado, and Michigan!

The coolest moment of this morning was getting to see Lance Mackey go by from such a close distance.  Here he comes:

And there he goes:

(P.S. the people in the sled and the backsled is for the ceremonial part of the race.  I don't believe those things will exist once the race starts up again tomorrow).

We'll keep you posted over the next week on the Iditarod stats.  If you want to follow along yourself, you can track the mushers here: http://www.iditarod.com/race/race/currentstandings.html.  Good luck to all the mushers (though I doubt any are reading this blog)!  Gee!  Haw!  Whoa!