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| 1/7/15; Eagle River |
Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts
Aurora Borealis photo collection
Tolovana Hotsprings
Arctic Caribou Hunt
August 25-29, 2016
We drive the entire Dalton Highway to Deadhorse, AK, then spend a few days hunting for caribou in the Brooks Mountains.
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Dad visits Alaska
August 1-9, 2016
We go on a fishing float on the Kenai river with friends, then visit Homer before coming back to Anchorage for blueberry picking
Click here to see all photos from this trip
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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska 2016
June 15-28, 2018
We join friends for a South-to-North traverse of the Brooks Mountains in ANWR
Video from the trip here
Video from the trip here
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Denali Highway Overnight Cycle
May 7-8, 2016
Kalyn joins Kristy for a 19 mile, one-night, out-and-back bikepack on the Denali Highway
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2016 Iditarod Volunteering
A friend of mine volunteers with the Iditarod every year. This year she brought me on board to help with the sled dog races:
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Wednesday, February 17, 2016:
Spent a couple hours loading the musher's food/supply drop with Stacey, her husband Jansen, and their friend Lucy. Alaska Dispatch News did a nice little article on what we did. Local TV news station bit here. Official Iditarod photos from the day are here.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2016:
Spent a couple hours loading the musher's food/supply drop with Stacey, her husband Jansen, and their friend Lucy. Alaska Dispatch News did a nice little article on what we did. Local TV news station bit here. Official Iditarod photos from the day are here.
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| The Warehouse: Mushers drop off piles of supply bags, we weigh them and sort by drop-off location |
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| Impersonating Ivan the Big Loaf, honorary volunteer |
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| Wrapped pallets of Musher's supplies ready to be flown out to different checkpoints |
7.1 Earthquake
At 1:30 AM an earthquake struck Old Iliamna, 162 miles from Anchorage. It registered 7.1 on the Richter scale. We were at work. Mat was on the first floor, I was on the second. The building started shaking distinctly, which indicated it was a larger earthquake. Earthquakes happen very frequently in Alaska, which is something I hadn't realized. We have an earthquake in the 3-4 range almost every month. When they occur while at work, I will see equipment sway but not actually feel the building move. Tonight I felt the building
move quite noticeably, which meant it was a big earthquake. After about 30 seconds, the real shaking started. Drawers pulled out of their slots, booms swayed in the rooms, carts & equipment jumped around, and my confused patient yelled at me to stop rattling her bed. All the nurses jumped up and ran under door jams. This major shaking lasted for a number of seconds followed by large ripple or wave movements until the end (which actually felt pretty cool, being heaved up & down). The whole earthquake lasted 72 seconds. It was pretty terrifying mostly because Barley was home alone and we didn't know what kind of condition the house was in or the roads home for that matter. Reports came trickling in of only minor damage throughout the city, no major disruptions (unlike the damage reported on the Kenai). The hospital itself sustained some cracked walls and a broken water pipe. Adrenaline was coursing through everyone's veins for a while afterwards. After that shift, I caught a flight to Seattle to visit my family. Mat went home and found Barley in good spirits and minimal disruption to the house; turns out places built on bedrock felt less movement than places built on the mud & sand flats of downtown Anchorage.
Lots of videos show dramatic swaying of buildings but the best descriptor I've found is my friends' recording of the earthquake. He has an app to record sleep talking and it kicked on to record the entire earthquake.
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| Map of epicenter location |
Getting an Alaskan Christmas Tree
It's our first holiday season in Alaska. With multiple feet of snow already on the ground, I start thinking about how to get my Christmas tree. I get a christmas tree every year. I love the way they smell and I think they look so pretty with christmas lights. Being from Oregon, we would go to the christmas tree farm and cut down our tree every year. When I moved to California for college, I didn't cut down a tree but my roomies and I would always get a fresh tree from a store. When Mat & I moved back to Oregon, I went back to cutting our own (well, Mat would cut it down for me). When we bought our house with a two-story living room, Mat would indulge me and let me get giant 12-15ft trees!
Well now we're in Alaska and I need to find out where I can get my tree. I ask around at work and find out that there are no tree farms here (makes sense actually, since it would take many, many years to grow a good sized tree up here in the subarctic) and the few places that do offer pre-cut fresh trees charge $100 for a 6 ft tree or $150 for an 8 ft tree! No wonder everyone here gets an artificial tree!
Doing some research, we found that cutting down your own christmas tree is allowed, free of charge, in certain areas of local national forests. So that's what we decided to do. It snowed a couple of feet recently so we figured the national forest road won't be accessible by car; we should bring our backcountry x-country skis. But the real kicker: we have been working a very sporadic schedule on nights for the last month, thanks to Mat's training as Charge RN for the ER. With no kids or family around, there has been no incentive to switch back to day schedule on our days off. We've been on the night schedule for a month straight. So we decided we'll be getting our christmas tree in the middle of the night.
Well now we're in Alaska and I need to find out where I can get my tree. I ask around at work and find out that there are no tree farms here (makes sense actually, since it would take many, many years to grow a good sized tree up here in the subarctic) and the few places that do offer pre-cut fresh trees charge $100 for a 6 ft tree or $150 for an 8 ft tree! No wonder everyone here gets an artificial tree!
Doing some research, we found that cutting down your own christmas tree is allowed, free of charge, in certain areas of local national forests. So that's what we decided to do. It snowed a couple of feet recently so we figured the national forest road won't be accessible by car; we should bring our backcountry x-country skis. But the real kicker: we have been working a very sporadic schedule on nights for the last month, thanks to Mat's training as Charge RN for the ER. With no kids or family around, there has been no incentive to switch back to day schedule on our days off. We've been on the night schedule for a month straight. So we decided we'll be getting our christmas tree in the middle of the night.
Brooks Camp, Katmai National Park, Alaska 2015
September 13-15, 2015
We go to see the bears with Berta & Gary at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, AK
Click here for the video
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Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska 2015
August 14-22, 2015
A 58-mile hike, 58-mile packraft loop in the Gates of the Arctic National Park
Sanctuary River Packraft, Denali National Park, Alaska 2015
June 26-30, 2015
A backpacking-packrafting trip in Denali National Park
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Move In Day!
We received a phone call that our shipping container arrived in Anchorage. In Alaska, the shipping pod is delivered to the Lynden Transport shipping yard instead to your front door and it is your responsibility to move your items from the container to your place of residence. So we rented a u-haul and drove down to the shipping yard. We checked in at the front office where we received our reflective bright-yellow safety vests and orange reflective hard hats, then proceeded to our container. We unloaded the container into our u-haul in while it was six degrees Fahrenheit outside. It felt cold but we were able to stay warm if we kept moving & lifting heavy boxes.
Once the container was empty, we returned our nifty vests & hats and drove the u-haul back to our house where we proceeded to move everything out of the u-haul & into the house. Quite a memorable move but nice to get settled in finally.
Once the container was empty, we returned our nifty vests & hats and drove the u-haul back to our house where we proceeded to move everything out of the u-haul & into the house. Quite a memorable move but nice to get settled in finally.
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| All of our belongings in that shipping container |
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| Looking good in our safety gear |
First Aurora Borealis sighting
We found an awesome home to rent. We were fortunate because the family who lived here prior to us had to move away abruptly (military family being relocated) and moved out of the house on Christmas almost two weeks ago. The landlords were thinking they would have a difficult time finding renters for their house in the middle of winter. But we came along, needing a place to move into without delay, and they having a house needing to be occupied as soon as possible. Everything definitely worked out for the best.
We were able to 'move' into the house yesterday. I say 'move' because the shipping container with all of our belongings hasn't arrived yet. But we have our sleeping pads and sleeping bags and all the essentials we brought up with us in our truck. We snuggled in to spend our first night on the living room floor of our new place, in our new town, in our new state. Well I woke up around 4AM feeling hungry so I got up to sneak around the kitchen. I grabbed something to nibble then walked over to the sliding glass doors and I see it: a green glowing ribbon in the night sky. I immediately gasp and drop down to sit on my knees. I've always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis but had no idea what it would look like; I had heard it appears much more vibrant in photos than in real life so I had no idea what I'd be looking for. Well, early this morning, we had a solar storm strong enough to produce that bright green ribbon, making sure I had no reason to doubt what I was seeing.
After watching it a few seconds, I woke Mat up and we both sat up against the sliding glass door looking up at this amazing new thing we've always wanted to witness. I would later come to realize that a bright green ribbon that far up from the horizon is fairly rare, most typical auroras sit lower on the northern horizon and are blocked by the massive mountains behind our house. It was an amazing and most memorable first night in our new home.
We were able to 'move' into the house yesterday. I say 'move' because the shipping container with all of our belongings hasn't arrived yet. But we have our sleeping pads and sleeping bags and all the essentials we brought up with us in our truck. We snuggled in to spend our first night on the living room floor of our new place, in our new town, in our new state. Well I woke up around 4AM feeling hungry so I got up to sneak around the kitchen. I grabbed something to nibble then walked over to the sliding glass doors and I see it: a green glowing ribbon in the night sky. I immediately gasp and drop down to sit on my knees. I've always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis but had no idea what it would look like; I had heard it appears much more vibrant in photos than in real life so I had no idea what I'd be looking for. Well, early this morning, we had a solar storm strong enough to produce that bright green ribbon, making sure I had no reason to doubt what I was seeing.
After watching it a few seconds, I woke Mat up and we both sat up against the sliding glass door looking up at this amazing new thing we've always wanted to witness. I would later come to realize that a bright green ribbon that far up from the horizon is fairly rare, most typical auroras sit lower on the northern horizon and are blocked by the massive mountains behind our house. It was an amazing and most memorable first night in our new home.
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| First (very blurry) photo of Aurora Borealis |
Move to Alaska 2014
December 24, 2014 - January 1, 2015
Mid-winter move from Oregon to Alaska
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