Beauty in the eye of the beholden

The snow is blowing in from the Northeast in drifting white versions of dust devils. The mist of snow is picked up by the cold winter wind and blown clear across the frozen fields of hay, only to land god knows where; in a gully, against a tree, pulverized and sucked of all moisture until it evaporates completely. The sky is a deep gray haze, a blustery winter day if I’ve ever seen one. The winds are howling at around 30 miles per hour, and the blowing snow has increased to blowing snow and precipitation. While the grayness is dreary, it adds a sigh of relief to nature, a return to precipitation and a quick respite from bitter cold and moisture sucking arctic sunlight.

The snow is beautiful, no matter the color of the sky, but what’s even more beautiful is the way a snow drift piles against bails of hay, hiding from the wind behind other snowflakes, building up until the snowflakes make a windblown, semi-wind proof barrier. A cornice of sorts, yet only set behind rolled bails of hay. The deep brown of the hay, lingering through the coldest winter days, has been frosted ever so slightly by a layer of white fluffy snow, resembling confectioner’s sugar coated on top of a tasty cinnamon roll. The whole scene of blowing snow is backdropped by dark, tall and foreboding stands of spruce/hardwood mix forest, the tall trees swaying in the wind like divinely made metronomes swinging to the beat of some distant drum.

It is a beautiful day. God bless!

Copyright Art by Erin 2008

Well, for some reason that I don’t know I decided to give skiing a try today. As a pretty die hard board sports fan, I really hate to admit it but skiing was so much fun. It was more muscle intensive, better balanced on my knees and felt way faster. The technicality was very surprising to me. I will definitely keep snowboarding, but I’d like to try skiing more as well. For the deep powder stuff it’s a snowboard all the way, but for groomers and minimal snow, the skis are killer!! I somehow managed to pull off a few black runs in my first day. Hey, I guess the skis count as boards too right?

The weather was amazing with clear skies, misting crystals of snow and plenty of sunshine to warm up the snow into a buttery pleasantness. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the story telling!

Girdwood, AK

Rob in the Glacier Bowl

View of Upper mountain from chair 6

Carrie not looking and Sierra making a weird face

Snow or Ice Crystals...either way it looked cool

View from bottom of High Traverse

Top of Chair 6 looking north

Elusive Florida Skunk Ape

To top off the day, on the last run we saw a rainbow rising vertically out of the center of town above a single light cloud dropping snow on the valley. The Rainbow had no arch but shot straight up into the sky. I thought about taking a picture, but figured that a photo would never do something so beautiful any justice…it just never does. Tomorrow back to the daily grind.

Sun and Moon

Well school started this week and again I have been extremely busy juggling with school and working as a substitute teacher. I have a job interview on Monday with AK Fish and Game, so perhaps my days as a sub are numbered…we will see. On another possible high point, Erin and I might get the cottage up by Hatcher Pass that I went to look at. I think I’ll find out some time next week.

While I’m not extremely enthused that I have to spend all day in Anchorage for my rock climbing class, it could be a lot worse. I think the best part of the day occurred on my drive home, about 10 miles outside of Palmer. As you come down from the foothills of the Chugach Mountains, you cross the Knik and Matanuska rivers and then enter an area known as the Palmer Hay Flats. This seems to be some type of tidal estuary or marsh, but most of the time it is not really going through huge tidal changes. Geologists think the land used to be lower, but when the Chugach Terrane ran into the continental shelf of what is now the Talkeetna mountains something like 30 million years ago, the land rose quite a bit, leaving stunted black spruce and meandering creeks in its wake. The area used to flood every spring, but decreasing snowfall since the 1960’s have left less melt water or mountain runoff.

Ok, back to my drive. So these Hay Flats sit at the edge of the Cook Inlet, and looking due south, the horizon is open with no mountains except for the Chugach and Talkeetnas on the sides of the valley. It’s amazing how perfectly these two mountain ranges frame a sunset, which just so happens to occur right in the middle of the valley to the south. All of a sudden I looked left across the hay flats and to my amazement, I saw the most beautiful twilight scene I’ve ever seen in possibly my whole life. The sun had already set leaving the sky a dampened pinkish orange. To the left or southeast side of the valley, a sliver of moon had risen just of the peaks of the Chugach. This sliver of moon had a background of bluish-purple sky melding into the orange and pink in the center of the valley. Rising in uniform parallel formation from the horizon and stacked into infinity were line of cirrus clouds, rising ever higher and only widening with the valley as your eyes gained elevation. It was as if a giant V of clouds was filling up the entire Matsu Valley. These clouds had the background of orange and pink, and as I looked time seemed to stop so that I could sit their, mouth agape, staring at this beautiful display of god’s infinitely great wisdom and choice of location.

Perhaps it’s just the way we as human beings perceive what is beautiful, but I can’t help thinking that this place was created by a higher power. Everything here is in motion, working together, and in a way that it all fits into the scheme of subarctic winter weather cycles, which will eventually give way to summer and high sundogs in the sky, and then again turn into the beautiful harvest moon of September. All of this perpetual motion of nature and change must have been planned, at least at some point by someone or some thing; it’s just all too perfect...and fragile. I only hope it stays that way. I don’t know if I could stand to see what has happened to my beautiful home state happen here.

Thanks a lot Punxatonie Phil

“Dude, it warmed up to 5 degrees, let’s head up to Hatcher!” These are words I never thought I would hear myself say, let alone live out. You see, this morning started out a balmy 20 below, but in all honestly it felt as cold as it did yesterday. They say that once it drops below zero you don’t notice the temperature change, just the effects on your skin. It really wasn’t so bad. Our plans to head to Girdwood for a Superbowl 2 for 1 lift ticket day were quickly heading down the drain. It was going to be cold, windy and there was no new snow. So, instead of heading south to the Gird, I made some rounds around the farm, stopping in for a chat with Steve in the moose cabin and discussing numerous things, then off to say hellos to Kelly and Jonathon who were dog sitting for Steve and Anne Corinne. This quick jaunt hi with everyone turned into a 3 hour morning of delightful conversation among many cups of coffee.

Talkeetnas & Chugach Ranges

All the while the sun was making its perpetual cycle, slowly increasing its brightness and intensity due to the low angle sub arctic latitude. By the time we were ready to even think about heading out, the sun had cleared high above pioneer peak and was heating everything in sight. The thermometer, which happened to be in direct glorious sunlight, jumped quickly to 10 degrees above freezing. Not a temperature for a picnic or a dip in the river, but certainly agreeable for a nice ski or snowboard, albeit with 2 layers, and full facial protection (at least for my face…beardless).

Pioneer Peak over Mat Valley

The thermometer lied a bit, but by the time we got the crew together up at Hatcher, it was a steady 4 or 5 degrees above zero. Carry, Kelly, Jonathon, Sierra, Rob and I ran about 5 or 6 runs at the mile 16 roads runs. It was pretty fun, the left side of lower marmot was pretty tracked up and skied out, but farther to the north there was untouched powder and great trails through low alder and willow thickets. It was a blast and the cold was no big deal at all, especially with the glaring sun to deal with. In fact, I’m almost positive my ears are sunburned from skinning up the triple benches at Murphy road yesterday, and having to remove gloves, hat, jacket and vest due to a serious sweat I worked up. I mean, it was 10 degree and I was hatless and gloveless, I was seriously that warm from the trek.

Anywho, it was a great day, the Pats lost, and Pat Williams won the game for the giants, oops, I mean Eli Manning. Back to work tomorrow subbing at Colony Middle. It’s not so bad, and it’s hilarious to listen to the things the kids say. I'll have some video up tomorrow hopefully, but nothing too great, and perhaps we will have a third night of northern lights, I keep passing out before they shine in all their triumphant neon brightnessThe pictures were taken just before sunset, overlooking the Matanuska River, and as soon as the sun went down, so did the temperature again…it’s going to be a chilly one tonight. BRRRRR!

Moose Range of the Talkeetna Mountains
(Hatcher Pass)

Welcome back to the last frontier!

I’ve made it safely back to the North Country. My flights weren’t too bad, although I did get stuck in front of the exit row where your seat does not recline. I would complain more about this, but I made no concerted effort to move. By the time it started to bother me, we were half way between Seattle and anchorage and I just gave in and slept. The flight was pretty sparsely populated, so it wasn’t all that bad, I just slept on my side.

When we landed I was pleasantly surprised to see a pretty good amount of snow accumulation on the ground in Anchorage, over a foot in some spots. This was not a foot of new snow, but inches piled on top of inches. The difference this time is that it stayed. It wasn’t snowing in the urban metropolis of Anchorage (haha that’s funny) but as soon as we hit Eagle River the snow increased and became steadily thicker as we came closer to the valley. The temperature was about 17 when I landed in Anchorage and 11 when we pulled on to the farm at about 1 in the morning. All in all, considering this is the coldest month I am pleased with the temps I’ve observed.

My roommate had to let me in for lack of key, but she was still awake, therefore I only felt a slight guilt in bothering her. She’s really cool and I think we might head to Alyeska today. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy opening up peoples eyes to the wonder up here. I feel like if I give them a slight push towards all the options, than maybe I can influence them to get out and explore on their own. In the summer time I had minimal guidance in finding and scouting places to head in the outdoors, but I guess I did alright. All I did was get off my butt and head out…into the wild. Well, not really but in a sense of the manner that is what I did. Snow was a little more precarious, so I was really fortunate to have Sierra and Rob give me a heads up on some stuff and I also met a few other people from the mountaineering club that gave me some pointers. That’s what it’s all about, people sharing the desire to be in the outdoors. A tip from a person will only go so far, so I really took it upon myself to explore the option and get dialed in. I’ve learned a ton and I still have so much more to explore.

Perhaps this bug for exploration is what drove Shackleton to tackle the Antarctic, or Hillary to attempt a summit at Everest, or even Magellan to circumnavigate the globe. There’s this strange human instinct to find what’s around the next corner, to always keep going around that next bend. They say that is why people lost in the wilds should stay put, because the constant searching around the next bend just leads you further into the unknown. It’s good to know when to say when. There’s one instance where I’ve explored some of Hatcher with my friend Jonathon, and we began down Reed Lakes Trail and had to turn around. We were 5 miles from the road on cross country skis already, the sun was extremely low on the horizon and all we had for warmth were our fleeces and thermals. We’d left our outer shells back at the car because it was relatively warm (about 25 – 30) and we had no plans to continue past the reed lakes trail head. We carried about 30 ounces of water each and lacked any food to keep the body warm. The trail was calling us and the conditions seemed right for exploration. We headed off the main trail, skimming through low alder and old tracked snow about 1 to 2 ft deep. The trail descended and rose rapidly, and the alpenglow rising rapidly along the mountains in archangel valley meant we needed to make it a quick jaunt. We headed down the trail for a ways and stopped at a step below a massive granite peak. We could see the trail wrapping slowly up the side of the valley and towards the glacier, intermingling among car size boulders and patches of alder, another 5 – 8 miles away. The sun was waning quickly and we therefore decided not to press on, but to wait for another day. This trail leads to an old mine and the reed glacier, so I think I’m going to make it an overnight event. I will update more tomorrow and try and get some pictures up.

The last few days have been filled with a somber happiness.  Erin and I are married now, but as quickly as it happened I now have to head back to Alaska for school.  I'm looking forward to returning to school in Alaska, to hanging out with friends and playing in snow but I can't help but feel a melancholy cloud sink over me.  I'm leaving Erin again, and there's no other way to say it.  It stinks.

This past week has been filled with joy from seeing old faces, sharing old stories and toasting to good times with friends. but every time I forget the good times will end, some one gives me a hug and reminds me that I won't see them for a long time. It's very sobering and definitely puts a downer on any situation.  I can't be mad at anyone though.  I miss everyone so much, but Erin and I can't put the next phase of our lives on hold to hang out in Orlando.  If there's a caveat to these moments, it's knowing that the good times were so good because we all planned to "move on" or "get out of here."  Erin is extremely ready to get out of Orlando, and any thing I try to stay to focused her on finishing school sounds, well, stupid.  I have full confidence that many people will come visit us up in the north country, and vice versa as well. We've just signed up for the Alaska Airlines frequent flier car, so we've excepted the fate of carbon consuming giants. I don't care though, there's nothing as important as family and friends, and not seeing these people is not even an option.

  

On the topic of family and friends, I was extremely touched that so many people came to be part of our wedding, especially those not in our family.  The Scius' from France, Jesse from Washington, Matt Rossen from Boston, Ryan and Kelly, Joe and Kristen and then the dozens of other people who I had not seen in a very long time.  It meant so much to Erin and I to have all these people at the wedding, I almost started tearing up before the ceremony even started. Ok, damn, I lied...I did tear up. All said and done it was a momentous occasion.  Today I have to begin sending packages up to Alaska, the first of many many packages. Our gifts are piled up in the garage and Im sure they've begun to irk Erin's room mates quite a bit.  

Like I said, I'm ready to return, I'm just not ready to leave Erin.  She's slowly increasing the pleads for me not to leave her, not in a serious manner but more of a; You bastard, you're leaving me here in this dump while you go play in the snow type of manner.  It's ok, I accept this guilt trip with smiles and provide hugs.  If only I could just go play in the snow.  As soon as I get back I need to start working and looking for a better job.  Subbing is great but there's only so much a person can stand. 

Oh yeah, I'm bringing back two things that weren't on the wedding list.  I name them and not wedding gifts because I find it rude to single out wedding gifts on this weblog, especially since all of them were so great.  Sig, Erin grandfather had a bolt action, 12 shot magazine 22 rifle.  Lynn gave it to me because she said it was of no use to her or Mike in Vero.  The rifle looked pretty ancient, so we gave it a look on the old internet and found it to be between 30 - 60 years old.  It's a Mossberg 22-S-LR.  A pretty sweet little shooter if you ask me. It's not going to bag me any moose or bear, but it's a great little gun, and very accurate to boot.  Dustin came over with his cleaning kit, and we shined, oiled and polished her right up. She shoots like a beauty and has the weight and barrel length of a larger caliber and more powerful rifle.  The other gift was a fly fishing rod. Spencer handed this down to me for some unknown reason, and literally would not let me say no.  It's good to have great friends, and I only hope I can return the favor some day.  Fly fishing is not easy, but I like it, it's complicated, technical and takes more effort (I.e. it's not as boring as laying a line out there and reeling it in).  I've been practicing the last couple days and I've almost got the cast down, just need to work on a couple of more techniques.  I can't wait to try this stuff out up in AK.  I'm leaving the rod here until May when Erin and I drive up north, so she'll probably dominate the Fly fishing category in our family.

FOG and clearing of the mind

I didn't sleep too well last night, so I gave up around 6 in the morning and got up.  After feeding the animals I for some ridiculous reason decided to turn on the TV and watch the news.  I've missed a lot of large news stories over the past months, mainly due in part to my lack of television, but also to my growing lack of interest in what is considered "Thorough and good news."  Watching the ridiculous political stories play out like a B movie made my stomach queasy.  There's really no better way to say it other than this; American news media is crap.  Where are the real stories?  I want to hear about the economy, what's going on in congress, is Iraq still going on?  These domestic issues are of great importance to not only myself but to other Americans as well.  More importantly, in the eyes of American News outlets, it seems there are two maybe three regions of the world; The United States, Western Europe and China.  I dare not say the middle east, because in the eyes of the media the middle east runs from Libya clear across the Asian subcontinent to Persia, an insulting geographical trend that I am embarrassed by.  

Why aren't we hearing more stories about India, Indonesia, Korea??  Indonesia has the largest muslim population in the world, with many terrorist activites; yet we hear nothing about them in the news.  Korea has nuclear weapons!  What's going on there...I want to know because they ACTUALLY have WMD's.  India has a vastly increasing middle class, created by western nations needs for cheap labor.  They've been so successful that now they need to outsource jobs as well...oh yeah, they also have nuclear weapons.  

Instead all we hear is long and drawn out, supposedly "expert analysis" of who said what and who's a point above who in the '08 presidential race. What happened to solid leads and actualy journalistic research? The media has already narrowed down the winner to be a democratic candidate, Hillary or Obama.  This is evident in their lackluster and minute coverage of any republican candidate. This omission of a conservative and GOP candidate race also annoys me.  News is supposed to be objective and unbiased! Probably the worst story this morning besides the constant bickering between Obama and Hillary, was the story about the golden globes.  WHO CARES!  Educators, law enforcement, rescue workers and service corps don't have million dollar award ceremonies where they constantly inflate their egos and pat themselves on the back. Why should I care if the golden globes were "a bore."  I understand wanting to follow and know about celebrities, but honestly who gives a hoot if their awards were a bore, guess they can't go out and get wasted or pregnant and then publish it in the newest issues of Us or People....I miss my lack of TV.

Ok, on to better things.  Erin and I get married this weekend.  WOO HOO!!  To say I'm excited is quite an understatement.  Both of our families as well as most of our friends will be here and it's going to be one hell of a time.  I would write more about this monumental occasion, but I will just let the suspense build and update next week.

I took Cody to the state forest with Sean, Pat and their dog Brutus.  we went canoeing/walking upstream for about 2 or 3 miles.  We all traded off walking at some point, and it required crossing the tannin filled brown water of the Econolockhatchee River.  What an adventure it was.  With Cody following in toe I had to run through the brush, sandal clad, eyeing spider webs and thorn covered smilack vines.  You either ran along the bank or in the brush, but when the brush got too thick or the wall of the riverbank too high, you had to ford the river and swim across.  It was a little hairy, but the cool water and cooler rains kept the gators at bay.  At one point Brutus, Sean's dog, jumped across the river and up the other side, chasing two or three huge river otters up the bank and into a secluded den; it was a pretty amazing site.  

After I had crossed the stream, I came upon the mountain bike path I used to ride.  My sandals became only a hindrance, so opted to throw them in the canoe and run the trail barefoot.  This may sound stupid and asking for an injury, but I felt confident I would be alright, after all, our ancestors managed for thousands of year, I figured I would do okay for a mile or two.  I ran up and down hills, over roots, nimble as I could be.  Cody and Brutus followed, and I felt very free.  There's something very primeval and enchanting about running through the forest barefooted, with only a light pack on your back and not a care in the world.  My feet made almost no sound as I ran the trail through saw palmetto, cypress knees, leaf litter, over logs and gullies and back down to the river.

We got to the bridge over the econ and hung out as the thunderstorm passed.  We waited under the bridge with several bikers, hikers and horseback riders.  We decided the rain probably wasn't going to stop and that it was better to brave the far off thunder than wait for the storm to worsen.  The three of us jumped in the canoe and paddled downstream to our launch point.  The dogs ran and swam behind and in front of us most of the way.  It was pretty neat to watch the dogs interact and keep up.  Cody was a little nervous that I would leave him, but once he got the hang of things he was in and out of the water, running up on the ridge or bank over logjams and under palmettos frawns.  It was a very wild experience and also a great way to shed some of the haze that suburban living will put over your mind.  It's weird to see that even our domesticated animals miss the freedom and, need I say "call of the wild."  Cody is a pretty free dog, and he's much more at home running in the woods than laying on the couch like most dogs. It was a good day.