huffblog

Robertson River

2011-08-27T12:13:00.007-08:00

The hike up from Cathedral Rapids near Tok was beautiful.
We were able to hike straight up the drainage to the start of the climb and there was one waterfall after another.

The climb up the pass was relativity short and ended just below snow line.

We had a few solid sheep trails that made for easy climbing on and off.

The pass was guarded by the sheep.

Ann and I before the unknown decent to the Robertson River. The last 6 miles of the 17 mile hike was filled with brush, deep creek crossings and alder cliffs. We used the new term alder elevators to swing back down the cliffs to the creek and finally arrived at the Robertson River at 10 pm. It was one long awesome hike.

The next morning we floated the fast, fun and braided Roberton River 25 miles back to the bridge.

Trevor at the pullout and conclusion of our kidney reunion packraft tour. We even caught up with Ben at one campsite, had a bonfire and many laughs.

Moody Creek!

2011-08-24T20:39:00.009-08:00

The hike to packraft Moody Creek starts at the Dragon Fly drainage at mile 273. Trevor, Ed, Ann, Shook and I started trip two of the kidney reunion packraft tour straight up to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain and off the back side.

Tbone, not texting :)

We arrive at Moody Creek, excited to get on this new unscouted river.

One of many fun manoeuvers through a solid class three river. Ann (a.k.a. Scout), famously said just go ahead it looks good.

Trevor headed through a rocky set.

I loved this river!

Sea Kayaking Hoonah to Tenakee

2011-07-18T20:43:00.012-08:00

Point Retreat lighthouse, just north of Juneau and the ferry is ready to turn into Lynn Canal, then icy straight and starting destination Hoonah, Alaska.

We poured over maps, gps coordinates of the cabin, the portage and poured a few beers. The M/V LeConte left Juneau and our week long sea kayak vacation began with tons of whale watching.As we hurried off from Hoonah down Port Fredrick to our only night at a cabin, we spread way out over the sound. The weather was warm and falling seas were calm. Then, amazingly, a whale breached between our group of kayaks and some of us were screaming like little girls.

Heather cooking a smoked salmon dinner the first night. Ben headed to the stream for fresh water and had our closest bear encounter of the trip.

We lined our kayaks through the mile long hidden stream that ended at our portage over to Tenakee Inlet.

Muddy in parts.

The actual portage was only 300 ft over a small hill.

Every inlet on the Tenakee Inlet side were filled with wildlife, including many bears. There were 7 bears that we could see before moving on to the next camp spot. (photo by Ed)

As standard practice in heavily populated brown bear areas like Chichagof Island, we cooked dinner and then paddled to our campsite.

...and then another campsite. This sow had three very small cubs.

Juvenile bald eagle.

Long bay had hundreds of seals and seal bay had only a few.

Every night camping we had great weather and views.

Marke just completed an intensive marine biology course at Cape Decision, and acted as our trip marine biologist. Here he is holding a jelly (no longer called a jellyfish, sea star are no longer starfish....).

Sea cucumber.
Grassy Rock.

This image shows the exact precision of Jeff Oatley's tide predication, and a source of some doubters who shall remain nameless. High tide at 00:36, 17.6 feet, water on three sides, and no bear worries.

A few miles from Tenakee we saw our first fishing vessel Miss Tammy, a seiner, catching salmon.Kayaking into Tenakee, population 100 in the summer.

Tenakee hot spring community bath house and the only local government, the bath house committee.

The 8 hour ferry ride back from Tenakee to Juneau was filled with relaxing, story telling and a few beers.

Juneau and finally pics of the house

2011-02-01T11:37:00.011-09:00

Back in December, we packed up the cars and drove to Haines to board the M/V Fairfeather ferry. Bad choice in the winter on Alaska Marine Highway, it only runs in fair weather. So we were stuck in Haines for 3 days waiting for the M/V Kennicott and we loved it! Pella's new past time is muching on mussels on the beach.

Pulling into Juneau on the M/V Kennicott ferry in route from Haines.
We love our new house! It is on steep hill with a view of the mountains and the ocean through the kitchen window. We live right downtown. Now that Ben is back in Fairbanks teaching photography for the semester, I have no car and walk everywhere.

I love the open kitchen cabinets. The house is an old mine shack from Kennsington Mine that has been renovated. Hopefully it will not slide down the hill like part Gastineau Ave has in the past....It was built in 1935.

Upstairs bedroom. The downstairs has another bedroom and gear closet. Ben is making that his studio, so currently it is an empty room/bathroom for all of guests that have been visiting!

Ben on the front porch with his coffee.

Post Defense, Prauge, Good bye Fairbanks and Hello Juneau

2011-01-30T09:40:00.008-09:00

Defended my PhD thesis in Environmental Chemistry on Oct. 15th. It was a wild 5.5 years living in Fairbanks. Studying atmospheric chemistry, meeting the most incredible lifelong friends, dialysis for 3 years while waiting for a kidney transplant, one of my good friends Trevor White donating his kidney, and countless backcountry adventures! Finished the final on Dec. 3rd 2010 and just waiting the hard bound copy.
Heather made awesome pomegranate martini's for all and of course we had a dance party in the living at the Shook/Huff house.

Ben poured champagne for a toast.

Two weeks before the defense some of my crazy Fairbanks friends and I flew over the North pole on the direct Condor flight to Europe, we had a great week in Praha! We bought the tickets months before when I thought I would be done with school. So the timing was not ideal, but what a fun trip!

I accepted a job with the Department of Environmental Conservation- Air Quality in Juneau! We had a good-bye party of sorts in Fairbanks before the move. One of the big projects I am working on is the PM 2.5 problem in Fairbanks. That and I am on the Endurance North board and we have our White Mountains 100 mile ski-bike- run race to attend to in March 2011!

Jackson. (Ben's punisher tshirt has finally been passed down)

Packrafting Upper East Fork Chulitna River

2011-01-29T21:33:00.005-09:00

Finally getting around to updating my blog. Several great packrafting trips I have skipped, but this one was dynamite.

Windy Creek - Fall

2010-08-23T10:40:00.006-08:00

Bill, Ben and I did Windy Creek packraft trip on Sunday. It is a favorite day trip to really get out and paddle some easy rapids. It was a beautiful fall day with only a few showers later on.

All the leaves are changing, the leaves were all green a few days ago when we picked berries here.

This was Bill's first packraft trip, but he has navigated many rivers in a canoe and it was not a problem at all.

Bill and Ben negotiating the river.

The river was still high enough for another run before the snow fall in a few weeks. Though, where the Windy Creek tributary entered the Jack River was barley floatable.

Cantwell Creek

2010-08-18T10:11:00.006-08:00

Heather, Laura and I did the Cantwell Creek Loop. We started up the regular Windy Creek Route, over Foggy Pass and descended down to the Cantwell River. Floated the Cantwell River to the Jack and took out at the bridge over the Jack River in Cantwell. It was a quick, fun overnight trip. Around 20 miles hiking and 20miles to float.
After the 5 mile hike into Windy Creek, we did not follow the narrow ridge down to the East Fork drainage and it was less climbing.....
But, a lot more bushwhacking.

Heading down the final descent to the East Fork, there were a few nice game trails to follow.

We camped at the far end of the drainage before going up Foggy Pass.

The next day we had 10 miles left to hike to the river and 20 mile paddle back to Cantwell.

Junjik River Packrafting trip

2010-07-05T21:19:00.003-08:00

We hiked from mile 315 of the Haul Road up the Ribdon River over the continental divide in the Brooks Range. We traversed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and paddled down the Junjik River to the East fork of the Chandalar River and ened in Arctic Village for a flight back to Fairbanks. We saw musk ox, an old rocket, bears and caribou...it was an incredible trip. Here are links to my pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2061456&id=1459790183&l=3374ae527a

and Ben's pictures: www.alaskasnapshots.blogspot.com

Mt. Prindle

2010-06-04T23:51:00.004-08:00

Pella and Harriet near the summit of Mt. Prindle. Heather and I had a beautiful hike up Mt. Prindlel from Nome Creek it was 15 miles round trip. Pella and Harriet were a little tired of the rocks, but they both did great.
Wind Chime tors.
The ridge we hiked up in the background. Nice lunch break spot before heading down.
Heather on the way up the vally.

Kilo Hot Springs

2010-06-04T22:55:00.012-08:00

(photo Ben) November 3148 Mike ( tail dragger plane- 3rd wheel is under the tail)
Leaving Hagglin field next to Martin's house we head to the ridge above Kilo hot springs to meet Ed, Ann and Dan (and Sky!) who paddled the Yukon to the Ray Mountains and hiked 40miles in to the remote hot springs. It was my first flight in a bush plane and Martin was great pilot. He even let me control yoke and fly the plane!

On our way from Fairbanks we stopped on a sand bar on the Yukon River near the village of Rampart.

(photo Ed) Martin dropped me off on the ridge while he went to pick up Ben near the Yukon River. A thunderstorm moved in and I was unsure if they would be able to land. After a few passes they landed and in the rain we descended down off the ridge and into the bush to find the hotsprings.

The hiking was not too bad and we were so excited to find Dan, Ed, Ann and Sky amongst the trees. They had seen a grizzly not too far before this and were wondering what was stirring in the trees.

The hot springs were amazing! A section of river with many natural pools at different temperatures.
and room for all!

Right at the hot springs there is a gravel bar that made for great camping. Ben constructed a nice log bench to hang out. The rain ended and 24 hour daylight was nice at midnight.

Spooky valley from the plane and nearing the ridge for a landing.

The next day we all hiked up to the ridge above Kilo and Martin shuttled us out 2 at a time to the Haul Road where Ben had parked a car. The smoke was pretty heavy from wildfires and visibility was lower.

Dan and Sky flew last and Sky loved it.

Martin did several fly bys for Ben on the Haul road, it was quite a rush with him flying so close. Then he landed right next to the road on an abandon airstrip. What an incredible trip with good friends...

Eleazar's cabin

2010-05-25T13:05:00.005-08:00

We started our hike up the summit trail from the Wickersham Dome trail head. The summit trail is in great shape. We hiked past the trail shelter at mile 8 until around mile 10.5 to start our bush whack to Eleazar's cabin in the White Mountains.

We headed toward the cabin off the ridge and half way through we came to a nice clearing to get a view of our direction. The cabin is just beyond the hilltop directly behind Dan's head.

The hiking was not bad off trail some bushwhacking, but mostly trees and a lot of bear scat, though we saw no bears.
The cabin has great views in the summer, but no water. So Dan and Ted hiked 1 mile down to the winter trail and filtered some yummy brown tundra water.
I was able to get a little editing done on a chapter of my thesis. Multitasking my weekends so I can still get out on a great hike.

Dan on the other hand carried his entire biochemistry text book out to the cabin and he really did get some studying in(easy with 24 hours of daylight).

Packraft day trip! CHST to Middle Fork Chena River

2010-05-17T19:58:00.008-08:00

We started out with a beautiful day for our first packraft trip of this year. We headed up Angel Rocks to the ridge and down the back side to find the middle fork of the Chena River and paddle back to the road.

The hike was 12 miles and we followed a winter trail that started near the trail shelter and it was not yet too boggy down towards the middle fork.

We had to bushwhack the last 1/2 mile (or so.....) and a beaver dam flooded the area so in true pack raft trip style we walked through a large area of water before we found the river.

We found a small gravel bar to inflate the boats and had a great paddle back to the road, about 2 hours.Ann stlyin' in her new pack raft boat. The middle fork Chena is a nice mellow float back to the road. We had few twists and turns and that made the day even more memorable!

Thesis writing, knitting, running, ice and berry jams

2010-05-14T16:00:00.007-08:00

Moose Mtn ski area is great for running and hiking up. We have been going on Thursdays and woman's running group intervals on Wednesday...it is shaping up to be a great summer of running, and backpacking/packraft trips. The biggest thing I have on my agenda for the summer is....

..writing my thesis for PhD defense in the beginning of August! I move in and out of the lab to get a better view of the ski trails. We had good timing for the Chatanika River break up and ice jam this year. Though not as massive as the break up of the Yukon River last year, ice jam's are always cool and timing is pretty good thanks to Ed being a hydrologist.

Knitting on the deck at Brown's is a favorite spring time activity in the short period where it is warm enough to knit and the mosquitoes are not taking over. We also made a great batch of Boreal Berry Hat trick Jam- blueberry, raspberry and cranberry.

Brooks Range

2010-04-06T12:44:00.005-08:00

Ben and I had a fantastic short weekend trip to the Brooks Range. The Brooks Range is 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle and around 300 miles north of Fairbanks. We stopped in Wiseman at Bernie and Uda's B&B to say hi to the winter classic guys too.

Atigun Pass was so beautiful, Ben shot the 4x5 and I could not wait to get out the skis. Over the pass it was still winter at -12F, but sunny and no wind.

Team Arctic Thunder with their shaved faces and angry looks. They are getting ready to traverse the Brooks Range on skis and back to Wiseman unsupported over the next week.

Heading toward the Brooks Range and Ben stopped to take a pic of the road with one of many haul semi's coming towards us.

Skiing early the next morning over Galbrith Lake and up the ridge.

We saw hundreds of Caribou and Sky was going crazy.

Sky

We also skied up the Atigun River Gorge before heading back to Fairbanks.

We ended missing the very start of winter classic, but you can the little dots of the skiers starting off over the ridge. We also took the traditional shots of the Farthest North Spruce Tree and the Arcticle Circle. It a blast being so far up north and I can not wait to explore far from the road this summer on our packraft trip.

Sonot Weekend

2010-03-29T17:01:00.003-08:00

We had bright sunny warm weekend here in Fairbanks. It started out wishing Ned a happy birthday!

Of course baby G was there and looking cute as ever with Ben!

We did the Sonot 20 km on the frozen Chena river right by our house. We both had a great ski with all of our friends and it was on March 28th, love winter in Fairbanks. I ended up 11th out of 68 women and was really surprised.

Dan, Kristen and Steve finishing the 50 km.

To top off the weekend we had a supurb dinner at Kat and Mike's. Kat is the checkpoint and dinner cooking diva!

White Mountains 100mile Race!

2010-03-25T15:23:00.018-08:00

The view from Windy Gap cabin check point 3 (cp3). Jason, Ben and I arrived just in time to get out the food, complete our duties and call in the checkpoint open on the sat phone. Shortly after, race leaders Jeff and Pete, arrived at cp3( 62 miles into the 100mile race). The racers just descended the continental divide and miles of ice lakes and overflow. Later in the night the racers bindings were stuck to their skis and Ben was running out with hot water to unfreeze them. It was such a fun crazy adventure. I loved seeing all my good friends do the race and the new friends I met on the trail.

Ben and I making our first Sat phone call into headquarters. Later on we had to stand in the middle of the overflow river to make the call without being dropped, but it all worked out.

Jeff and Pete the first two bikers into the checkpoint. Jeff ended up winning the race and Pete was second.
Pete rides off toward Borealis cabin.

Mike Kramer the first skier coming into the checkpoint.

Another biker, Mike Kramer, Brad and then Heather came through! She past them all to get third overall in the race and had one heck of a ride. After Heather the checkpoint was a madhouse for the rest of the night and I have no more pics of racers coming in.

Shook and Robin having some meatball soup. They had no idea they had on matching leg warmer and shirt combo's. Robin is from Anchorage, what are the odds?

Our awesome race directors Ed and Ann who both had countless sleepless nights of work before the race and still skied 100miles starting long after the racers left. It was great to hang with them at Windy Gap.

By 3am every spot in the cabin was full and Ben tried to snooze under the table, Amy was on the other side. We had 11 people sleep for an hour or two and 2 people outside in a tent. The slushy overflow and ice lakes was making for a cold ski with below zero temps and high wind. The course was still in super fast shape and everyone finished by the next day, 24 hours earlier than expected!

The sketchiest walk to an outhouse in all of the white mountains. The overflow surrounds the cabin and some of the snow is misleading, we had two people fall into the slushy overflow up to their knees in this area.

Even with the overflow ice, I love this cabin. It is my favorite in the White Mountains. It is the farthest out cabin and with amazing views and challenging terrain. The racers we so impressive that they had no major problems with the trail.

Our snow machines were so overloaded with gear on the way out, we had couple of spills. These are just the gas cans on the back.
This is one short section of angled overflow and Ben's machine slid off the trail towards the tree. IWe had no major mishaps on the way out. This is on the trail from Wolf Run Cabin to Windy Gap Cabin.

A packed house last night at the award ceremony at the community center next to Ivory Jack's. Ann and Ed gave out fun awards to volunteers and racers. I received a check point award for monitoring those meatballs to the very last one! I did not have much time to take pictures and there are many more and great pics at www.whitemountains100.org. Thanks to Ed and Ann for putting on a great event.This is Dan Young's photo that I just love of Robin crossing the ice lakes, what a ski when this is the trail! My pics do not do justice to the scenery check out more @ to the race picasa album.

Skiing to Wolf Run Cabin

2010-03-25T14:53:00.004-08:00

Kristen and I on the overflow at Beaver Creek(Dan's pic). We all skied out to Wolf Run Cabin the night before the Whites 100 race, which was awesome and will be my next post. We had such a late start skiing the 23 miles in to Wolf Run, we hit Beaver Creek at sunset. Anna did great in the chariot. There were tons of wolf pack tracks in this area and around the cabin from a moose kill.

The beautiful view from Wolf Run cabin. Ben and Jason came in late on snow machines with all of our gear for the race and to go the last 9 miles to the Windy Gap Check point.

Sky found the hoof of the moose so her and Molly had a great time chewing this all night and the next morning.

Sky the wonder dog pulling Kristen and the chariot so we could make the ski in a reasonable time with the extra 60 lbs she was skiing with. That chariot is hard to ski with and very impressive to ski with it 23miles and for Anna to ride, she did great!
Anna the cabin girl.

...and the first racer into to Windy Gap is Dan?? The morning after Wolf Run, Ben, Jason and I were headed to Windy Gap Cabin for three days for the race and Kristen and Dan were headed back towards the car and Colorado Creek cabin. I left with the car keys they needed! Dan was happy to ski the extra 40miles to get the car keys. We were very surprised to see him at Windy Gap cabin!

Windy Gap Cabin Whites 100 Pre Race Gear Haul

2010-03-15T11:23:00.009-08:00

The beautiful arch and scenery in the White Mountains.

We headed to Windy Gap Cabin for some White Mountain 100 pre race gear stash and to cut firewood. I have only skied to this junction from Caribou bluff, here we are on snow machines with our sleds full of gear. Thanks to Jamie and Jason for snow machining with us to help out at Windy Gap and letting us borrow snow machines.

Jason, Jamie and Ben cutting the downed and dead trees for firewood.

Ben on the overflow past Windy Gap.

This was the first time on a snow machine for a long ride. Both Ben and I had fun on the trail and learning the ropes from Jason and Jamie.

Ed was out flying and did a close fly by of the cabin. It was so cool to see him in the plane. I shot some video on the second fly by. He was out doing some hydrology stuff, but we think he was checking to make sure we were wearing our Whites 100 volunteer sweatshirts :-)

Cache Mtn Cabin

2010-03-08T09:55:00.003-09:00

Lisa skating up McKay Creek trail head on our way out to Cache Mtn Cabin. The sun was shining and it warm skate ski in towards the cabin.

The view out towards the Cache Mountain. We descended down into this valley about 10 miles into our 20mile ski and Lisa ran into some friends. It turns out they had the cabin Saturday night and she mistook her permit. We ended up turning around and skiing back to the car! We still had a nice long ski...and a funny story.

On the way back to the car we saw another friend Lisa out mushing.

Sailing in Rosario Strait, north of Seattle

2010-03-02T14:58:00.010-09:00

Audrey took us out for another great sail yesterday on our layover back to Fairbanks. We sailed from Anacortes on Fidalgo Island down Rosario Strait, around bird rocks and back to the harbor. There was so much wildlife this time; birds, sea otters and even a porpoise swimming next to the sail boat.

(Julie's pic)

Captain Audrey and 1st mate Kody.

Steve and Leila also came sailing and itwas fun to catchup with cousin Steve. Steve was put to work by Auds raising the mail sail. We were also able to Mike for a beer Sunday night.

Audrey directing Ben on how to sail Windbird. He did great for his first time sailing and was at the helm the majority of the day.

Audrey and Julie treated us to a great dinner at Adrift. We cannot wait to come visit again and are already making plans for the next sail.

1 year kidney transplant anniversary at Mayo!

2010-02-24T11:54:00.008-09:00

Ben and I are at Mayo this week for my 1 year kidney transplant anniversary! It has been an amazing year and hard to sum up in one blog post. The biopsy is over, and all of the other major testing this week, Ben, our families and friends have been super supportive throughout.

Everything looks great so far. I have one more of my biweekly infusion tomorrow, and hopefully that will be my last. The eculizmab study has been very successful and traveling from Alaska to Mayo every other week this year has been worth it!

Ben also did a charity photo auction and sold out all of his prints so we could present Gift of Life Transplant house with a check for $800.00 today and they were so grateful. The check in is Trevor (my donor) and my honor. Of course the transplant would not be a success with out Trevor. So I have posted a few pics from this past year.

Trevor and I about 2 months after the kidney transplant - dubbed "the big hairy man kidney".

Trevor and I the day after surgery trying to get up and walk around.

In this past year I have accomplished so much with my transplant. I have been on too many incredible Alaskan trips to name them all. My Fairbanks friends have been my home away from home. In addition to backpacking, packrafting and cabin ski trips, I have just completed my first 50 K skate ski race. Thanks to Trevor, whose generosity is amazing. Since the transplant he has moved to Washington DC to do foreign disaster aid and has been to Sri Lanka, Darfur and Haiti (he is still there).

Part of Mayo Clinic from the largest building, 19th floor of the Gonda.

The doctors and care have been unmatched here, especially Dr. Gloor, Dr. Stegall, Cindy and the rest of the kidney transplant staff we worked with.

Litte Su 50K and the 100 mile Susitna race

2010-02-18T11:46:00.007-09:00

We drove 5 hours south down to the Susitna 100 mile ski, bike or run race on remote Alaska rivers and lakes. I did the sister race the Little Su 50k (32 miles) by skate skiing. We started 2 hours after the "big" race and went on a similar trail out near Flat Horn lake check point and turned around for the 50 K. We skied back on the same course as the 100 mile race's last leg. I had a great day and all of the long cabin trip skis getting by butt kicked my really fast friends paid off. I ended up 6th for in the women ski division in 6.5hrs. I then supported the 100mile race and waited for Robin, Kevin, Lisa and Chris to finish.
It was my first 50k ski race so I took along my camera and snaps a few shots when I was getting out a GU to eat. There was miles of brushy narrow trails and a few steep short climbs, but this part of the race was flat making for a beautiful day with temps in the 30'sF.

Robin and Lisa just minutes before the start of the 100mile race.

Robin, Lisa and Kevin at the start line. Kevin (2nd) was the first to finish of our crew and I totally missed it while in the general store.

Robin finished in just over 15 hours around 1:30am for a 100 mile ski. She was the 1st women in and 6th overall in the race.

Lisa(3rd) and Chris(6th) finished strong later that morning. This race is really impressive and I don't think I could do it. In addition they carry mandatory packs with a -20F sleeping bag and bivy. All three of them are doing the Whitemountains100.org race in a few weeks and I will be at the Windy Gap checkpoint for that race.

Fairbanks weekend

2010-02-08T11:54:00.003-09:00

After skiing the Whites on our cabin trip, we skijored with Ted at Creamer's field. Here is Julie with Ty and me with Sky. It was great to have Julie up for the weekend, she is always up for anything on skis! She skied again at Birch Hill later in the day. Nothing like packing it in on the weekend.
We had dinner and Kristen and Ned's. Anna is the newest photographer. Here is one of her best shots of the night. "Daddy".

She also liked the Mushers in the Yukon Quest, of course we are following the sled dog race online. www.yukonquest.com

Ben and Anna.

Lee's Cabin

2010-02-08T11:27:00.005-09:00

We had girls trip to Lee's cabin this weekend and great visit with Julie.
Julie relaxing with Sky in the morning before she headed out on an additional 18mile ski.

Dinner at Lee's and Ann showed us how to do a Tim Tam(cookie) shot with what was supposed to be hot tea, but used Brandy. My only group shot, Kristen, me, Ann, Julie and Lisa.

Julie skiing towards Moose Creek cabin. We all skated the route because it was 15 degrees above zero! We love the heat wave's in February.

Stiles Creek Cabin

2010-02-01T05:54:00.005-09:00

Another great cabin trip this weekend into Stiles Creek Cabin. Ed and Kristen ready to ski back to the car. Kristen pulled Anna the Chariot on skis. It was a warm ski at -5F to 5F on the ridge.

The Rozell's eating breakfast. We had a great sunny day to ski out of Stiles.

The cabin is a 7 mile climb and then 1 mile descent down to the cabin. So in the morning we hooked sky up to Kristen to Anna in the chariot to pull on the uphill portion.

Anna, Sky and I enjoying some Sin Dawg Cinnamon bread. We had fun during story and nap time, but I think Pella was still her favorite. (Pella likes Anna too and on the way out we had two cars, so Pella curled up in the kiddie car seat in my car all the way home).

Anna is already a veteran cabin tripper. She was a tropper in the chariot while we were skiing down the the steep hills.

Caribou Bluff Cabin

2010-01-25T10:05:00.008-09:00

We skied 30miles into Caribou Bluff cabin on Saturday for Ed's birthday. Then on Sunday we skied out 31 miles via Fossil Gap Trail and out the Colorado Creek trail head. Ben skied in to meet us and drive back to the Wickersham trailhead and get the cars. The crew of amazing skiers were Ed, Brian, John, Dan, Robin and Heather on a bike. They were so crazy fast that I had Sky to skijor with for most of the ski. It was still the longest two skiis I have ever done into the most beautiful part of the White Mountains and I am so glad I was able to go! We had northern lights to top off our great night at Caribou Bluff Cabin, this is Ed's picture of the night.

The view of the cabin during the day.

The small cabin was tight for 7 people and 2 dogs so Dan slept outside in his tent.

Robin descending down from the Cabin towards Beaver Creek. I left early in the morning to get a jump on the ski and Sky and crew joined us later.

Skiing on Fossil Creek towards Beaver Creek.

The beautiful scenery skiing on Fossil Creek.

Jackson, John and I skiing along Beaver Creek(photo Ed).

Ed, Sky and I on the windswept area on the climb up to Colorado Creek Trail.
Sky pulling and Robin's fresh tracks, the trail out(photo Robin).

Dan carried a fat man pie in for Ed's birthday and we all did a flaming pumpkin shot. Thanks everyone for a great ski weekend, this one is my favorite cabin trip in Alaska (so far).

Skiing the Tanana and Chena Rivers

2010-01-19T13:35:00.006-09:00

Dan and I headed out to the Tanana River for a long ski and kite ski. It was around -2oF and Dan is setting up his homemade Alaska flag kite ski.

and he is off. The Tanana River has endless amounts of skiing, but just not enough wind today for his smaller kite.

a cool picture of the kite. i was trying to get a closeup of the flag.

The next day I skied the Chena River from my house. I started out on the slough and that joins the Chena River. The slough pops out at the new Cultural center downtown with plently of room to skate ski, skijor or whatever. We headed toward Ft. Wainwright, the Sonot course and back.

This part of the river is just past the boundary of Ft. Wainwright. The no trespassing signs allow you to stay on the river as long as you do not go on land. The best part about this section of the ski is the culverts are blocked off and Pella can concentrate on keeping up instead of crawling in the culverts!

Moose Mountain

2010-01-13T23:47:00.006-09:00

Magan and Jack after our run on Moose Mountain. Ben and I were house sitting for friends on the top of Moose Mountain. Their house is above the inversion and warm at only -10F, while in town it was -30 to 40 below (with out a wind chill). There are limitless ski trails right from the house so we took the dogs out everyday for a ski or run.

Enjoying the low sun, no warmth...but still nice.

We took Wilson and Pella for a long ski at Creamer's, it was -26F and we all loved it!
Our only visitor to ski over to the house, Ed. He linked some trails together to get from town to the Moose Mountain...around 20miles.
Pella and Wilson after our ski.

Happy Birthday Ben!

2010-01-05T23:32:00.002-09:00

We had a fun dinner at Silver Gulch tonight for Ben's birthday, thanks everyone for joining. He is going to be Cob's neighbor in Scotland with his 1x1 square foot of land. Apparently you get one when you buy certain scotch or something like that.

Happy New Year from Tolovana Hot Springs

2010-01-04T17:30:00.005-09:00

Skiing up Tolovana Dome on the way out to the hot springs. We had a great New Year's with good friends, food, wine and fireworks.

Mike took his snowmachine in and the rest of us skied or walked. I was glad to have the opportunity to drive it with a sled on the back. He directed me how to snow machine with a large sled for my upcoming check point during the whites 100mile ski race.

Dinner after the hot springs in the cabin .

The temperature without a wind chill was only -20F and not too cold for Tolovana or fireworks, but the wind made them hard to light. Markie was all over it though.

Colorado Creek Cabin (DNR)

2009-12-28T18:55:00.005-09:00

We were very cozy inside the Colorado Creek cabin, just a few over the max amount. It was no problem though because a snowcave was built and Ann slept in there. It was great ski into the cabin and only 6miles. On the way out we went up Compeau Trail to the ridge.
Ben skiing on the way out.

Trevor quickly skiing over the overflow we encountered. We only had to scrap the skis once though.Fernie in the snowcave with Ann.

Christmas 2009 at home in Alaska

2009-12-28T18:41:00.003-09:00

Trevor is in town and we had super fun party on Christmas Eve with polish food and wine. What a great holiday to celebrate with Trevor in town, Trevor donated his kidney to me and it has been almost a year!
The girls in front of Brown's amazing chocolate dessert.We all walked down the trail to John's house for the dessert and champagne.
Ed and I skied the trails behind his house on Christmas, I love the winter wonderland of Fairbanks skiing.

Chicago, eating sledzie and jarobie uszki

2009-12-20T21:03:00.006-09:00

I was at AGU in San Francisco for a week and decided at the very last minute to fly to Chicago for the weekend before my regular every other week Mayo visit. We headed out to the North Ave shops and met up with my brother Jeff and his finance Jen.

Later that night, we drove to New Buffalo Michigan to visit my brother Tim and his girlfriend Jill. We ate at the usual Skips and then went down to the beach for a huge snowball fight. It was such a fun time and we all laughed a ton. I even took a video of the event, but you can not see much in the dark. Jeff, Tim and I raced to the lake and back...Jeff won. Jen's sister Beth threw a crazy snow curve ball. I am the dork with my new backpack on.

Sunday we went to Babcia's house to make uszka. Babcia made the dough and mushroom filling before we arrived. Here is my mom rolling the dough.

Moja robzinia uszka. Babcia ma doswiatezenie jarobicz uszka. My grandma passes along the tradition of making the uszka for the borscht. I am making borscht in Alaska for a Christmas eve for a group of friends, but I may have to buy mushroom tortalleni instead of homemade uszka.
We then boiled the uszka for 5 minutes and cooled.
The final uszka ready for the soup that will be cooked this week. The cooking takes days and it is all for Christmas eve.

AGU Conference in San Francisco

2009-12-20T14:09:00.003-09:00

I went to the AGU conference for a week in San Francisco and saw a ton of science talks as well as other colleagues. My lab was there showing posters and giving presentations. It was also a time catch up with old friends....
Megan and I hanging out at a fancy Italian restaurant downtown. We met bike racing in Boulder Colorado, but she is also an Atmospheric Chemist and was attending AGU.
Michelle and I met ice climbing in Colorado many years ago and now lives in San Francisco. We had so much fun seeing the city from the local point of view. She lives in Bernal Heights and we hiked to see great veiws of the city as well as hooping and hanging with Nina eating Indian pizza.
Dan and I on a coffee run to Peet's from the conference. Dan is overlooking the Moscone convention center where the conference was.

White Mountains- Richard's Cabin

2009-12-11T14:02:00.004-09:00

The is Richard's cabin in the now famous White Mountains from all the publicity from Ed and Ann's White 100 mile race that was out on AP from Washington to NC. We skied in at night 21 miles one way on a unknown trail and I still have a cast on my broken wrist! Kristen and I skied in together and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but of course super fun.

Kristen and I started skiing in at 2pm up the 5 mile climb from the McKay Creek trail head off the Steese. It was dark in about an hour and the rest of the long evening was dark. I am glad I have my new 3/4 metal edge waxable backcountry skis, the trail was steeper then we thought & we had some fun descents on skinny skiis.

Ed, Dan and Lisa skied in later that night. This is Dan the next day on the ski out. He brought Sky in and I was so thankful to have a skijor dog for the ski out.

Sky pulled like a champ. I stopped to take a self portrait and give her a ham sandwich.

We all went out to Chatanika Lodge on the drive home. Richard's cabin landscape is diverse with overflow on Champion Creek and old growth spruce trees, a real treat in the Whites.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T17:51:00.003-09:00

The girls at Kat's Thanksgiving dinner. Kat served up a great meal and everyone brought sides and wine. A few hilarious stories too, a good time was had by all. I have a cool purple cast for my broken wrist, but still have another ski trip planned.
Ben and Galen toasting at scotch and socks night.

A group of us met for Thanksgiving day ski. I skijored using a split skijor leash, Pella and Lucy. We still were no match for Sky and Ty, but we had a good ski chasing them.

Great Tolovana Trip

2009-11-23T07:47:00.005-09:00

We skied into Tolovana Hot Springs on Friday night and it was around -27F. At mile 3 of 12, a totally flat part of the trail, I fell hard on my wrist. It swelled and bruised immediately, but I made it skiing with 1 pole. Dan and Ed made a splint by chopping fire wood. The trail was in excellent conditions and the temps were warm for Tolovana.

I am glad we stayed the weekend, because the weather was great and the hot springs beautiful. We also had great Northern Lights on the ski in.

Ben enjoying the hot springs.Sky soaking up the sunshine in the cabin.
Skiing out with splint and sling in some daylight near the top of the dome. From our last 50 below trip, Pella has a new polartech windproof fleece jacket for frostbite (she had it last year on her belly). The jacket worked great from Cold Spot Feed, no frostbite.

Made by Dan

2009-11-19T11:51:00.003-09:00

Dan made Ben and I some awesome ski pogies last night for our upcoming cold ski trip this weekend to Tolovana. He started by using the solder iron to cut the rip stop fabric and we used Ed's as a model pogie.
Dan sewing the ski pogies.
The finished product! Go Dan!

Enjoying more new snow

2009-11-17T23:16:00.002-09:00

I went for a walk today with Kristen and Anna. The new snow has been great for skiing.
Poops(Molly) and Pella. Pella's paws were cold and it is only -12F. It is bootie time for Pella

Cob's bday dinner party

2009-11-09T23:40:00.003-09:00

Brown had a nice dinner party for Cob's birthday tonight. Anna is helping hold Galen in this picture. Cob received some great new music I am going burn soon. Tim Easton and Swell Season (the Frames couple from Once) as well as some other great gifts.
Brown made a Boston Cream pie and Cob blew out a lighter instead of candles, really 62 is too many for a cake :-)

Skate skiing

2009-11-08T18:20:00.004-09:00

It is that time of year for endless skate skiing and winter cabin trip pictures. The trails at UAF are pretty good and the girls and Jackson were out for a ski both days this weekend. I am still in field at night, but trying to get some skiing in. I ski my butt off trying to keep up with these ladies and it sure is fun. I have also started a new work blog for my field work www.n2o5.blogspot.com

Jackson and Magan gearing up for the Backcountry Winter Classic this year.

First skate skiing / skijoring weekend

2009-11-01T19:17:00.009-09:00

The snow came late this year, but at least we are still skiing on Halloween. Dan gave Patrick two seconds of instruction with fast Sky and they were off. He did great his first time skijoring and only a few times skate skiing. I am working nights in the field finally, but still get out to ski when I wake up.
Starting off again for a last leg back to the cars. I switched Pella for Lucy after a mile and Lucy played great. Pella played in the culvert...what else is new?

Ben and I skate skiing UAF skarland loop today. It was a bit slow at -9 F, but still super fun. Ben is skiing fast already.

Ben feeding baby Galen. Aw, they are both so cute. Ben is wearing his halloween costume, he dressed up as an environmental chemistry graduate student and helped all night in the field :-)

more pond hockey.... 12F but when will it snow?

2009-10-25T16:38:00.004-08:00

Birthday girl Kat and Mike on the ice. Mike gave me some great pointers today, Trevor will be so proud :-)

Group shot. Maybe a Kat b-day tradition, but I sure hope not. We really need to be skiing!

Magan and Dan going at it. Though (and this is my first Hockey term I'll through out there), I think they are high sticking??

Ice Hockey on Smith Lake

2009-10-19T22:22:00.008-08:00

Ed corralled us all into a hockey game on frozen Smith Lake. The light was awesome, the temp warm 18F, and ice frozen. We usually have snow by now and we are skiing the groomed Smith Lake, but not this year so we are playing hockey instead. There were some impressive players, Lars jumping, young Tanner and graceful Ed.

These would be the some of the other players :-)

Ed going after the puck.

Ed, Adrian, Sharon and Lars...practicing for our next game.

Silhouette of Ben playing "old school Iowa pond hockey".

Sausage making, Glasses and Babies

2009-10-19T15:37:00.003-08:00

I was fortunate to start learning how to make sausage a weekend or two ago. Luke and I cutting up Sheep and Caribou. Hopefully the final outcome will be caribou polish sausage this spring. Magan and I had to leave early to knit, so I am still waiting to learn part 2,3,4....

Sophisticated measuring method of beef fat to meat.

I always take random pictures out on the trail, this was a great sunset with Ann, Kristen and Anna. This is the moment I lost my eye glasses on the trail. After a dinner and some wine we attempted to find them with no luck. I ran the same trail a few times this weekend and the last time with Ben we found them!

Baby Galen is so cute!

Kristen's Birthday Dinner

2009-10-04T16:27:00.002-08:00

K-Bar turned 35 last night and we had a great dinner at Lavelle's. Anthony also made an incredible cheesecake for desert.

6 year Anniversary at Hutlinana Hot Springs

2009-09-28T16:33:00.007-08:00

Ben and I went to Hutlinana Hot Springs for our Anniversary. Hutlinana hot springs is an unmarked trail on off the Elliot 128 miles north of Fairbanks. The trail is 14 miles round trip slightly up hill with 1 stream crossing. We did it as a long day trip, the drive is about 3 hours depending on the snowy roads.
The trail was nice and snowy, we can ski it soon! We were aided in the begining by anniversary style sock markers left by friends.

We made it! The trail stops right here and it was so quiet and beautiful, the hot springs were nice and hot.
View from in the hot springs.

Ben and I enjoying our soak before the hike back to the car.

Galen James McCaa

2009-09-28T12:06:00.004-08:00

Galen James McCaa was born on 12:44pm Sept. 26th, 2009. He was 7.7lbs. Brown and Galen a few hours after the birth of their beautiful baby boy! It was very exciting Saturday.Cob a few hours later. He was up shortly though and took the picture of Brown and Galen above.

Brown's newly knit socks.

Equinox Ultra/Marathon/Relay

2009-09-20T15:38:00.006-08:00

The start of the 47th Annual Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks, AK. It is a huge community event and in addition to the marathon and the relay..this year we had an Ultra Marathon as well. This race is almost all on trails and goes up Ester Dome and back down to UAF and ends at the patty center. The Ultra did an extra 6 miles around the trails at UAF. So many of us did one form of the race and we all had a great day. I ran with Kristen Barton and Patrick as the "5 kidney's" relay team. I ran the third leg and only Ben had his iphone for a few pics. He was busy timing at the top of Ester Dome with Brown and the rest of the timing crew. Jackon's team was best dressed in Zubaz's zebra print pants and mesh tops, I don't have a picture, but the News-Miner does.
Matias in the lead off the trail and heading back on the trail and to the top of Ester Dome. He won the marathon again this year in time 2hrs 51min.

Finishing the third leg, only 9.5 miles and mostly down hill from the top of Ester Dome.

We had a breakfast party this morning to send off Robin, Chris and Mara back down to Anchorage. Robin is the new legend, winning the ultra marathon for the women's and 3rd overall. She ran a very impressive fast run that caught everyone's eye. She has an impressive resume that we embellished and it turned into she did the Wilderness Classic solo when she was twelve by the end of the day :-)

Chris and John relaxing after the marathon. What a great day it was! I am sure everyone else has more pics, I just thought I would post a few.

AK Range Traverse and East Fork Susitna

2009-09-09T09:24:00.010-08:00

We headed down to the Denali Highway and into the Alaska Range this weekend for a packraft trip. We started out driving up Valdez Creek Trail and left the car. We hiked over numerous passes with many rivers, caribou, blueberries and alpine lakes to swim. It was a 30 mile hike, 30 mile paddle and 10 mile run back to the car. Ed, Heather, Ben, Dea and Patrick hiked this awesome Alaska tundra and did a first decent in packrafts on the East Fork of the Susitna river. It was a great trip! This picture is the first of a million stream crossings on our hike.

The the first pass and the rest of the trip we had incredible weather and aweome views of the Alaska Range. Heather, Patrick, Ben, Ed and me falling over as I ran from the self timer.

Saddle of the first pass.

Ben and Heather hiking along side Mt. Deborah and caribou.

Just two of many curious caribou on the hike (Ed Plumb photo).

Some small scree fields over the passes, but for the most part great tundra hiking.

Ed filtering water at an alpine lake before we all took a dive in.

Finally day2 decending down to the East Fork Glacier River.

About to start our descent down the river in the packrafts.

A few sprinkles during the paddle and one big thunderstorm with hail 1/4 mile from our take out bridge.

2nd portage around some large rapids, part of the excitement of an unknown river in a remote area.
Another unknown was downstream from the headwaters of the glacier, the river fanned out into many shallow channels over a mile wide. This is Heather pushing off with her paddle to break loose(Ed Plumb photo), but mostly we had to walk in the middle of this shallow glacier river until we could jump in again. I don't think it is technically a portage or line when you're walking with your boat down the middle of a river. We will call it as ed says, a good experience :-) We all had a great time!

Mt Healy Challenge

2009-08-24T09:21:00.003-08:00

Mt Healy Challenge was a running race 1.5 mile and 1600 feet of vertical. It was pouring rain and around 37 degrees, fun running weather. It was a little tough for me, but I took my waterproof camera to get some pics. Here is the top, with Ben and Matias the race director.

The flags mark the course up from the road, this picture is on our way down.

Ned and Anna at the start watching Kristen race. She had to run fast so Ned could get to his book signing in Denali Park, but this was no problem she won.

Mayo ,taco night and running

2009-08-19T15:12:00.006-08:00

I am still on my every other week schedule for Mayo. My 6 month transplant biospy/IV infusion went OK yesterday. I had a few complications that were scary for a few hours, but everything turned out. The kidney is working great of course, but still high anti bodies :-( I have not gone on any trips lately, but I thought I would blog a few random pics because my flight is delayed 2 hours today because of some cool big thunderstorms in MN.
I raced a 5k this past weekend that felt pretty good....there was also a 10k race that most did. Heather won and Kristen was second.
Ben ran the 10k too!

Jackson had a taco party at his house. Magan cooked up some great Mexican food.

Lena and I enjoying the food!

Housitting/Hard Luck Creek Fire

2009-08-07T21:22:00.006-08:00

Magan and I having a nice dinner and wine out on the deck during the ash fall from yet another new fire, 2.7 million acres so far in Alaska. This fire however is near Murphy Dome, very close to where Magan is house sitting (Jackson's) and then I am house sitting much farther down the road then that.

The yellow orange sky with limited visibility before it became nearly zero for the next day. The airport canceled flights and hard travel on the roads. We are surrounded on all sides with fires this year.
Tonight there was a community meeting for the Hard Luck Creek fire. We were given the map with the red line as the fire perimeter they think (too much smoke to tell yet for sure) and the blue line the point when they start to evacuate certain subdivisions....today though we have had rain all day, nice.

There were so many people they had to move the meeting outside. It was great to see all the communication and hopefully the firefighters can keep the fire at a safe distance. The incident base is at the bottom of Moose Mountain.

Trail Running Moose Mountain

2009-07-27T14:12:00.006-08:00

Kristen is training for the Humpy's Marathon in Anchorage. So we all did some of her 20 mile training run with her. I suggested the Moose Mountain mountain bike ride that I have done in the past and the route was great. I only did the out and back, but everyone else did the loop. This is my first outing with my new waterproof camera, finally. I just ruined another one packrafting.

Kristen, Ed, Ted and Ben starting off the trail run.

After our run we went to Ivory Jack's for burgers and it was open mic night so Dan played some Jack Johnson for us.

The crowd goes wild. OK, to be fair they just ran 20 miles :-)

Sailing Puget Sound

2009-07-20T12:37:00.003-08:00

Audrey moved from Fairbanks Alaska to Anachordes Island in the San Juan Islands outside of Seattle. She bought this boat and lives on it. We went on a great sail it was fun to be out on the ocean. I have sailed many times on dad's boat on Lake Michigan, but in the last few years only once or twice. Audrey taught us the ropes. Julie lives not far from the boat so we were all able to hang out and sail on a beautiful sunny windy day.

Coming out from the channel and heading into the straight. The funny thing about this picture is we were kidding around, put up sails and almost missed seeing a tug boat with a tanker on the back.

We sailed up wind and then on a broad reach on the way back.

Julie and Audrey trying to catch all the wind, our top boat speed was 7 knots!

Heading back to the harbor. Next time we hope to sail longer and stay over night at another more remote island. It was great to see the ladies and Julie's house with the new remodel and meet her parents.

Cantwell Windy Creek to Jack River

2009-07-12T11:51:00.007-08:00

Super fun Windy Creek packraft day trip. We started in Cantwell with a pretty easy 5 mile hike into Windy Creek. Mark, Ben, Ed, Dea, Magan and Tyler(taking pic).
Looking down from the trail to Windy Creek.

Blowing up the packrafts and getting ready to paddle.
Windy Creek was a big rapid the entire way with no flat water. A great river for such a short hike. Here is Ben and Tyler in the rapids. Nothing too scary, just a whole lot of awesome. Then the jack river is a calm float back to the take out and a 5 mile run back to the car.

Magan in the sinking packraft. It had a small leak and needed to be blown up several times, but it was no problem for her!

July 4th weekend

2009-07-06T10:23:00.007-08:00

We drove down to the Denali Highway to backpack into 7 mile lake as the rest of the crew headed on a packraft trip. The trail ended in a few miles and we decided not to carry the chariot and Ann another 5 miles or so into the lake. We hiked McLaren summit trail instead. Both Ben and Ned were away for the weekend....Ben went into the Arctic Ocean! So we had a fun girls weekend while they were away.

After 7 mile lake we had a great dinner at McLaren Lodge.

The dogs ran free inside and out at the lodge. Here is another lab Denali and this cute little baby bird with it's mouth open wanting food from the lab. Denali did not know quite what to do.

Kristen and Anna hiking on McLaren Summit. Anna was a trooper at camping and hiked a ways with us each day.

Birthday Dinner

2009-06-22T09:46:00.002-08:00

Brown cooked this amazing Indian feast for my birthday. It was incredible food complete with homemade decorations and garland. Thanks Brown!

We packed my new backpack with a ton of stuff to make sure it could handle it. The packraft is in there too!
The dinner table, Ted Wu took this shot.

Packraft with Pella!

2009-06-22T09:23:00.005-08:00

Mark, Mara and Ed on the upper Chena River. Ed wanted to take his nephew Mark and friend Mara out on the packrafts before their big Brooks Range packrafting trip this weekend.
I took the opportunity to take Pella out on the packraft on a mellow river before our next big trip.
She did great and after a mile or so just laid down and took in the beautiful surroundings.

Sea Kayaking from Valdez out to Shoup

2009-06-16T10:06:00.004-08:00

This year we had rough seas all the way in and out to Shoup Bay. It was super fun paddling the big swells and a little frustrating on the way in because we were going no where fast up wind. Once in the bay though the waters were calm. Here we are paddling into the cabin.

Kristen and Anthony getting up close and personal with the glacier. Ben even brought his medium format camera and tripod. It is amazing what you can fit in a kayak.

Lena and Mike.Kristen and Anthony.
Ben making some coffee with the jet boil. It was great group and super fun trip as always. I am glad we had rough weather to learn how to paddle in the high seas! I have no pics of that part of course, we had to keep paddling so we did not flip.

Coffee/Pizza Traverse Packraft Trip Part 1

2009-06-09T08:04:00.019-08:00

We started out our backpacking/ packraft trip at Carlo Creek pizza place. Check out the map. The hike was supposed to be a 15 miles by the red line Ed drew on the topo map above, and a 16 mile paddle on the Nenana River. You never know what the terrain will be without a trail, or how many times you have to cross creeks and rivers, cliffs and drop-offs. The hike was more like 22 miles, and terrain over the pass was snowy and steep...it was awesome and I was really tired after this one - 3 months, 1 week and 1 day after my kidney transplant.

Ann at the start, overjoyed to be out again.

Ed, John and Ben getting some calories in. Eat and hike - that is the way on these trips. The hike up Carlo Creek was amazing, great skiing back there.
Farther up Carlo Creek there was aufeis , but it was perfect hiking up the valley instead of bush whacking.

Above the brush and starting the ascent to the pass still up in the clouds at this point.

Ben and this sweet waterfall. We only had to cross the creek once or twice, always hiking with wet shoes.

Group shot near an alpine lake. Dea, John, Ann, Ed and Ben and Fernie.

Almost there! A view of our tracks, and the caribou tracks we followed. The caribou knew exactly where to go to avoid the rotten snow.

The ascent was not too bad, but we did not know what lie on the other side. The descent turned out to be steeper than expected and Fernie had be carried down a rock or two. She didn't seem to mind too much.

Ann and John loving the rocky descent and Fernie's cute little head poking around to see what was next.

Ed on the descent way out in front on a ridge.

I skip a few miles of photos, trying hard to keep up with these guys, so no pics and finally the Nenana River!

This steep descent really drops off and the bushwhacking was crazy, but only 1 mile. After this it was really deep and we could not see each other at all, we did lots of doowhooping to keep the bears away. We did see Dall sheep and caribou...bear signs, but no bears. Once we get to the river we pull the packrafts out of our packs and begin to blow them up by capturing the wind in a parachute bag adapter and squeezing it in. It actually does not take that long, I have no pics past this point....so I turn to Ed for part two. Maybe in a few days. All in all it was an amazing trip!

Ben's solo show the Annex

2009-06-08T18:29:00.002-08:00

Ben and Dennis observing the pictures just for the opening of Ben's solo show at the Annex. The night was a great success!
Our good friends purchased a group photo of the German's and they are going to pass it from house to house.

A video for family and friends who could not make it! Thanks for everyone that came out to support Ben.

Trevor's Going Away Party

2009-06-05T09:42:00.005-08:00

The gang out on the deck one last time(double click pic to see)! Trevor will so be missed. I can not say enough about how great Trevor is! We are all fortunate to have had so many good times with him in Alaska. I still get to see him the last time Sat. before we leave for pack rafting.

Trevor and Kate being silly.

As everyone knows Trevor donated his kidney to me in February and I will be forever grateful. I'll miss you TrevAH!

Finished the Sweater

2009-06-05T09:36:00.003-08:00

Here it is finally, the sweater is done. I have not blocked it yet in the picture.
Thanks Brown! Pizza, beer and wine on the deck is the perfect way to seam.

Sailing in Chicago

2009-05-30T06:54:00.006-08:00

After Mayo this week, I went to Chicago for the weekend to visit my family for my nieces baptism. We were able to put the top down on my dad's mustang and take my first ride in it downtown to sail on the boat.

Jeff, Jen and I riding the tender out to the can, where the boat is docked in Monroe Harbor. This is the harbor right in front of Buckingham Fountain downtown Chicago.

Jen and Jeff are recently engaged and getting married next summer in Chicago. It was great to catch up with them and talk all about the wedding!

Dad and I on the bow of the boat before we raised the sails.

Dad inspecting the new furling jib sail. Jeff at the helm.

Dad and I taking off the main sail cover.

use the wench on the main halyard, raising the main sail.
Jeff sailing us into the sunset over Chicago. It was great night to be out on the water.

The skyline at night. Jen used my camera in night mode to get this shot. Nice work Jen.

of course sailing is not complete without Taylor Street stuffed pizza, just down the street from Jeff and Jen's place.

Julie's visit

2009-05-25T22:36:00.003-08:00

Taco and Marg party at Kristen and Ned's on Friday.

Angel rocks to Chena Hot Springs and back. This shot is from the ridge above the rocks. The views were awesome. Kristen and Julie did the 16 mile out and back hike/run.
Ben and I turned around before that. It was a great day to be out! It was good to see Julie and tomorrow morning I will make her one last Huff Latte (not as good a Ben latte :-))

Running...

2009-05-18T09:47:00.002-08:00

Getting back into shape is going pretty good. I have been running with both the Kristen's lately. We need some good nick names for these two! Even while flying to Mayo every other week for my infusion, I have been keeping up with the running. I am excited to try a race soon. Maybe run up Ester Dome or something fun like that. Ben is a printing machine only two weeks left until his big show at the Annex!

Record Yukon River Break Up and Ice Jam

2009-05-11T12:41:00.011-08:00

From the bridge, notice the shear edge where the ice was flowing down river and is now an ice jam.
The beginning of break up on the Yukon River at the Yukon River Bridge. The Yukon River starts in Canada and runs the entire width of Alaska and feeds into the Bering Sea. This year the the record levels of the Yukon and flooding up river in villages prompted us to drive to the only bridge on the Yukon, all other camps you have to fly to. In this picture the river has just began to break up and we are giddy over the inches the river has raised.....little did we know over the next few hours the river would rise 15 feet and completely ice jam the 3/4 mile wide Yukon nearly taking our camping spot down river. Notice the three levels on the pillars spaced at 10ft each by the next morning, barely one is showing.

Pella was only a little interested in the River break up and some time at this culvert.

Ed and I setting up the tents at our campsite.

Waiting for break up.

From the campsite looking down the embankment at the dock that would be completely covered in ice over the next few hours.

The ice beginning to come up the bank towards the fire.
The view from the tent around midnight, notice the trees blocking the view. The ice rose and took down all the trees.
The jumbled ice less than a few inches from the fire! Now we have a clear view and no trees.

I took a lot of video and tried to splice it together to get the picture of the enormity of this break up, but it is hard tell completely from the video how fast the river rose....except for the excitement in our voices. Ed also took video and used his official National Weather Service hydrologist voice. It is a much better video and he will post it soon on his blog. www.edplumb.blogspot.com.

Delta Clearwater Float/Paddle

2009-05-04T14:24:00.007-08:00

Our paddle down the Delta Clearwater to the Tanana to Clearwater Lake was a perfect sunny day. We are waiting for the cars to shuttle back before we can shove off.

Trevor and I toasting.
Ben and Kate.

The long flotilla portion of our paddle, perfect for hanging out, chatting and listening to Mike tell us about "nature".
Kat and Tina and the dogs. Pella always wanted in their canoe and climbed over all the canoes a few times.

Mostly though she was a great dog and had a ton of fun swimming along side the canoe.

Entering the Tanana, looking back at all the icebergs and downed trees we had to navigate through...this was not a floating part of the trip, it was fun and a little intense depending on your steering ability.
Finally Clearwater Lake and the take out. Clearwater is always the first to break up and so people float it every year. Most of the other rivers are just breaking up or still frozen.

Flying back from Mayo, again.

2009-04-29T18:05:00.005-08:00

This picture was our lovely Sunday in Fairbanks, purlin' on the porch at Brown's. I'll be back in Fairbanks on Thursday night. I have to continue the research drug treatments every other week for a year. This is really not bad news, just inconvenient. The kidney is working great and that is the most important!
I really need to finish this sweater, it is an ugly vest currently. I am out of yarn on the right arm, I can hear Brown in my head " i told you so!". So I guess it will be a 3/4 arm length sweater.

Girls Night and Scotch and Socks round two

2009-04-26T14:37:00.003-08:00

We had a great girls night last night. Thanks everyone for coming!
Friday night was our scotch and socks night at Brown and Cob's. Though we did not knit socks, only sweaters. There was a lot of scotch drinking by Ben and cob. Then the photos books came out and this time Kat was all over it....the photo book has a lot of thatch. What a fun weekend and tomorrow back to Mayo for a week.

Fairbanks has Bubble Tea!

2009-04-23T10:28:00.005-08:00

Brown and I met for tea at Sipping Streams new loose leaf tea shop. I had a bubble tea that was awesome.

Skate skiing in warm weather!

I never got around to blogging Easter or anything lately. I fly back to Mayo on Monday. We had a big Polish Feast at Ed and Trevor's and it was great to see everyone! Fairbanks in the Spring time is so fun, but now we are entering break up and it is a bit muddy.

skiing the Yukon Quest Trail

2009-04-13T07:49:00.002-08:00

We drove out to 12 mile summit to ski the Yukon Quest dog sled trail. It is 1000miles total from Fairbanks to Whitehorse. Ed and Jackson skied from BirchCreek off the Steese to Chena Hotsprings in record time with great weather and ski conditions, the ski was 40 miles.

This was my first long ski and it went great. Ben and I parted ways from Ed and Brian about 1/4 mile into the ski at this large overflow ice section. We headed up the Yukon Quest trail towards Eagle Summit, we only skied a few hours...it was great to be out!

Ben and Pella on the Quest trail. The ski conditions are still good here, 12 mile summit is about 80 miles north/NE of Fairbanks.

Ben's on the NPR blog, how cool is that?

2009-04-12T09:17:00.003-08:00

Check out this link, scroll down to April 7th:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/

Transplant Update, back to AK for a few days!

2009-04-05T08:14:00.005-08:00

I flew home to Alaska on Friday. Ben, Ed and Trevor met me at the airport. It is so great to be home. Trevor's kidney is working great, but I still have antibodies against it. Currently I am on an infusion every week/ every other week to prevent the antibodies from attacking the kidney. I do have to fly back to Mayo for the infusion week 7 and week 9. I am going to try and "commute" from Alaska to Mayo during those weeks and fly back so I do not have to stay there for 3 weeks. I also fly back in May for my 3 month check up. Thanks to everyone for the great support and frequent flyer miles. Also to my mom who has been my caretaker at Mayo for 5 weeks and flew me home to Alaska until my next treatment. My parents and family are just great and I am so thankful for their support.

Ben and I on the Chena River yesterday. It was a beautiful long sunny day in Alaska.

of course i really missed Pella too!

Mary Beth, Brad, Grace and Charlie came to visit!

2009-03-28T15:42:00.004-08:00

It was super fun to have the Forester family visit today. Grace went down the big slide like a hundred times, she had this look of terror on her face, but she was really having fun. Charlie was happy go lucky all day while we shopped, hit the local hot spots: coffee, Mac's gyros, gelatto, park and coffee again. We all went to Michigan Tech together and it is always nice to catch up.

Chicago

2009-03-22T08:19:00.002-08:00

My parents and I went to Frankie's authentic Italian restaurant. After dinner they brought out this ice sculpture thing with a ladel and gave us Lemonchello shots...my parents know Frankie. The food was sooo good, I love big city food.
My brother Jeff and I went downtown to do some shopping. Typical Chi-town traffic jam at 90/94 and 290 interchange. Jeff lives downtown so we took side streets all the way up to North Ave, pretty slick driving.
Jeff and I shopping in the Lincoln Park area.
We also visited with my nieces Katie and Jenny. Back to Rochester today, but not for long...I should be heading home to Alaska soon.

Lake City, Redwing

2009-03-22T08:16:00.001-08:00

My mom and I took a drive up the Mississippi River to Lake City and Redwing Minnesota.

River Trails

2009-03-16T13:45:00.002-08:00

My mom and I headed out on another fast paced walk today. It is so great to be exercising everyday. The river trails go for 12 miles in either direction out from downtown. It is 65F today in Rochester and -55 below zero with the wind chill in Fairbanks! I am missing my Fairbanks friends of course, but not the weather. First time in short sleeves since September.

After our walk, I had to have another piece of this brandy soaked fig and apricot tart from the Italian shop...a latte and short journal writing session. Recovering can be rough sometimes :-)

Out for a long walk

2009-03-14T10:42:00.006-08:00

I had the weekend off from the hospital and so I bought some new running shoes and did a nice long walk down by the river. I think the Nitrate Radicals are going to make a come back this year at the Equinox Marathon/Relay. I don't know if we can get the original team together, Martin has moved to DC, but we can work something out!
The original Nitrate Radical relay team, looking tough!

Gift of Life Transplant House

2009-03-09T09:52:00.003-08:00

Trevor came down from Minneapolis today for a final visit. Ben and Trevor leave tomorrow to fly back to Fairbanks. We had a great lunch feast after our blood draws and meetings today. I have not had a day off yet from the hospital, but I think soon I will. My labs looks great, but they have to monitor closely now my rejection med levels. This is because my immune system is really suppressed with high dosages that need to be adjusted daily. This may take up to 8 weeks! I will be still be here for awhile before transferring the blood tests to Fairbanks where I still start out with at 3 days a week. This is a long time to stay away from home and work. This is made so much easier by staying at the Gift of Life Transplant House. There are also an entire group of positive cross match transplants here and we are all doing well. Mayo and Gift of Life give real hope to us "special" cases that no other hospital in the country will do transplants on.
Ben made these great salads today with goat cheese, pear and salmon!

hanging out at Mayo

2009-03-07T17:28:00.003-09:00

The new kidney is just doing great. In addition to learning to eat everything and drink all the time, I apparently have to relearn to do a jumping picture. We tried a sad number of times and could not time it right. Trevor is coming back to tomorrow for a final visit before heading back to AK, everything has just gone amazing. It feels so great to feel good all the time again, can't wait to get back to Alaska and out in the back country. Trevor also did a really nice post on donating a kidney and the whole experience. I am already getting a little restless and plenty of time in between tests so if you ever really wanted to visit Rochester....
Ben's parents came to visit today and brought our niece Taylor with. Here is Ben getting on Taylor's good side by painting her nails, he is pretty good.
After watching Taylor swim and dinner we went out to get some gelato and chocolate. I also now have bangs!

Visiting Minneapolis

2009-03-05T18:02:00.005-09:00

I had a break today at Mayo with only a blood test. So, Ben and I rented a car and drove 45min up to Minneapolis. I met up with Trevor for shopping, coffee and kidney talk. Ben met with his friend and big time photographer Alec Soth, he had a great day talking photography. Ben has been on the radar lately with the 50 states project and Flak photo. Soon we can all say we knew him way back when.....I am so glad he is becoming such a photog stud.
Later on Ben and I made it out to our first dinner since surgery. It was great to be out all day and recovering well. I have another routine biopsy Monday and a rejection study drug, but things are just going great!

My brothers Tim and Jeff visit

2009-03-01T18:02:00.004-09:00

My brothers Jeff and Time came to visit. It was great to see them. We even left the hospital today for lunch and a little shopping. I still had the wheel chair, but we had some fun with that. Ben's parents, my parents, my Uncle Ken and Aunt Irene and Trevor's parents were all here too for the surgery...but I was not feeling as good as I am now.

This is a funny video of us watching the bulls game in my hospital room. OK maybe it is not that funny, but I posted it anyway. Those two are pretty into sports and it was good game. Thanks for coming guys!

Out for a walk

2009-02-28T09:27:00.003-09:00

Trevor came to visit today he was released Thursday. He is doing and looking great. Ben has of course been here the whole time supporting. The surgery was really tough, 8 hours instead of 3! I lost a lot of blood and had to have blood transfusion during surgery and for days after. We had some other surgery complications with my arteries, but everything has worked out great. My creatine, measure of toxins in the blood, is 1.7 today. This is really amazing considering we also had antibody cross match numbers. I still have to under go a treatment this week and kidney and bone marrow biopsies for the next few weeks at least. Everything looks good so far. Trevor is on his back to Minnapolis on Sunday and I already had my first tbone moment so we will see what happens with his kidney! Thanks for all of your support. I should be out of the hospital by Tuesday and back to the Gift of Life Transplant House. www.gift-of-life.org 705 Second Street SW Room 24.

Transplant Update

2009-02-25T15:20:00.002-09:00

Trevor came up to visit today, I just returned from the Intensive Care Unit, we had some complications and I had stay there longer than expected. The kidney is doing well though. Trevor is feeling pretty good. I guess I'll update later in the week. For now I am just resting, getting some blood ect...Thanks for all the support.

Success!

2009-02-25T08:02:00.002-09:00

Just a very quick update. The transplant was a success. Dea & Trev are both recovering well. Dea is still in the icu, but will be released to her room later today. I will do a more indepth post then.

- ben

It's a GO!

2009-02-24T11:14:00.002-09:00

as of yesterday, Dea and Trevor's cross match #s were still in the 330s (need to be under 300 for a transplant) but after more treatment for Dea and another blood test this morning....297! Trevor started his surgery at 12:40 and Dea at 1:30. The Great Midwestern Kidney Swap is underway! thanks to everyone for the positive thoughts.

i'll keep posting here as time allows.

ben

Trevor's here!

2009-02-22T15:51:00.005-09:00

Trevor arrived at Mayo last night. Today we met up for coffee at this little Italian shop after IVIG. Trevor and Ben are having fun roaming the grounds here at the Transplant House, our home away home. They are currently playing pool while I rest. I will be here for 6-8 weeks, same room 705 Second Street , Room 24 Rochester, MN 55902.
Trevor is a good friend of mine from Fairbanks and I am so grateful that he is willing to donate his kidney. Here is a pic from Casner Glacier, one of my favs. Typical Trevor picture, he is always goofing around and super fun to hang with. Trevor is known for his great laugh and Liser and Trevor's birthday last year we laughed a lot (aka the toiletini)....
...also his great dance moves, he is always king of the dance floor with the ladies...
Thanks to all of our friends in Fairbanks for their awesome support. Thanks to everyone for making our temporary move to Mayo easy. Thanks to our friends and family everywhere for all of their help and good thoughts. Well, back to facebooking for Ben, Trevor and I...as I said on Facebook, we are dorks.

Mayo in Winter

2009-02-21T07:52:00.003-09:00

Ben arrived today and it is great to have him here. We received 6" of new snow last and it is super windy .

Ben and I at IVIG, Intervenous Immune Gobulin is a treatment that you have after PlasmaExchange to trick your body into thinking you have antibodies. Trevor will be in tonight to Mayo and hopefully he does not get stuck in the snow storm.

Update

2009-02-18T13:13:00.004-09:00

They had an ice sculpture contest the other day. Now it is all covered in snow. Here in Minnesota, it is cold and windy(not as cold as Fairbanks). We did get the cross match numbers back today and they were OK. I do have to have a catheter placement surgery tomorrow and start Plasma Exchange, followed by IVIG. Together it is about 6 hours of treatment a day, 10 hours on dialysis days. I have this routine Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We do another blood test Monday morning and hope for the best! So good thing I am starting my sweater project today, I have plenty of time to knit!

Mayo Clinic

2009-02-14T18:24:00.003-09:00

We have been at Mayo Clinic since Wednesday and so far so good. They ran a crossmatch blood test with Trevor and I and the results were still good. So far no plasma exchange/IVIG routine, but we have another test Monday. We are going to take it day by day with the blood tests until the Transplant on Feb. 24th. We decided to get out of town today and drove to Lanesboro, which is a ghost town in winter. This picture is suppose to be of a waterfall in the background, but all I seemed to get was the brown tress. The sun was shining and it was great to be out walking around.
My mom and I went out to this bad Italian restaurant for dinner, but then we ran to the Gelato store and they were closed. I gave them my "Pella sad face" and they totally opened up! Score!

The Gelato, I love this stuff. I guess I won't be posting any crazy AK pictures for awhile, but the Midwest is fun too.

Last Weekend in Fairbanks

2009-02-09T14:25:00.003-09:00

We had a busy last weekend in Fairbanks. i fly on Wednesday morning to Mayo Clinic in Rochester and begin the pre transplant tests. I was able to have one more big knit session with Kristen on Sunday and of course Kita came to visit Pella. they are totally buds!

Zoe

2009-02-01T22:02:00.003-09:00

Zoe Strauss was in town this weekend, a good photography friend of Ben's. She is really doing well and it was exciting for Ben and all of us to spend time with her. She loved Fairbanks and Alaska and her positive energy was just great. We headed out to Ivory Jacks for a burger and show her a good local Fairbanks restaurant.

We drove up Murphy dome road to Jackson's for a house warming party. Here is Ben giving the old grizzly bear a pat.

his driveway was long and on the way out the truck would not engage the 4 wheel drive because of the cold and we got stuck! luckily there were plenty of people to help.
ben and i have been looking for houses lately. this can be tough in Fairbanks, where literally anything goes. here the DC10 house next to this house off the old Steese we were looking at.

Socks and Scotch and Brown and Cob's

2009-01-31T10:16:00.005-09:00

we had a great night of scotch and socks. Brown finished my socks and they are awesome!
Brown, me, and the socks. They are the sweetest knit socks I have owned, they have a very intricate leaf pattern.
close-up of the leaf pattern.

as the night went, the boys drank more scotch and we took out more yarn. i came up with three new projects to take me through being at Mayo for the transplant. I leave in a week. Brown gave me this cool hank of yarn that is from a local sheep named "Jessie", it's for a scarf for Ben...it is great to know where your wool comes from.

skijoring

2009-01-27T21:47:00.003-09:00

we found a great new skijor spot that Ted told us about. Pella was fired up tonight and pulled the entire time. the trails were sweet and of course no one was there.

Happy Birthday Ed!

2009-01-23T22:27:00.007-09:00

we went out for a nice dinner to Lemongrass to celebrate my good friend Ed's birthday. Ed is a seriously generous and adventurous friend. if you have not become a fan of his blog about his adventures than you should. he lives the quintessential Alaskan life and i love his energy for life and the crazy trips he goes on(once in awhile with me). of course after our trips, we "hang out" at Ed's, his house is almost as famous as his "into the wild" blog post about going to the bus....if you have not read it, click this!
Ed skiing out after a trip into the wild, bus 142. Ben and I are so glad we have become great friends....not bff's, cause i can not become obsessed with Coldplay :-) i am looking so forward to our next packrafting trip!

Colorado Creek Cabin

2009-01-18T18:26:00.006-09:00

ben and crew starting out our 14 mile ski into Colorado Creek Cabin in the White Mountains. we had the most unbelievably warm weather for Jan. in AK and the trail was a little icy. Pella has not been on a trip since our 50 below Tolovana ski and she was loving it! Ann arranged this cabin trip, it was her birthday..so we had a little party too. It was a big trip for me, the first one without a catheter in my neck. Ben did not have to carry my gear, I was able to carry a backpack and push my skiing. I can not imagine living somewhere you could not do this stuff every weekend!
Tina and Fernie near the start of the ski.
this is the view from Colorado Creek Cabin!
the four girls getting ready to ski out and onward. Tina and Ann were heading farther into the white mountains to another cabin and another 30 miles. Kat, Ben and I came in and out the same 14 mile trail to the cabin.
Ann is wearing the purple and yellow pimp hat, Kat drug the hat all the way out here..among other things.
Ben dealing with four girls having a birthday party and talking about relationships. he did read us the Cremation of Sam McGee, a classic.

Pella and I skiing out today.

Carl Sandburg High School

2009-01-14T12:04:00.001-09:00

Carl Sandburg High School, were I went, was selected to play at the Inaugural Parade! I was not in band or anything, but still pretty cool.