Iditarod Dog Sled Race 2016

Many of you may know that we live on the Iditarod trail here in Unalakleet.  Unalakleet is also a check point, it is the location of where the trail hits the coast and then heads north on its way to Nome.  We have now been here for ten years and have been able to see this race first hand.

The village becomes active with the hustle and bustle of the event. More planes are arriving bring in the mushers feed bags.  The Iditarod Air Force arrives hauling people, press, vets, and dropped dogs.  These bags are full of dog food, booties, mushers food and snacks, plus anything they think they might need at certain spots along the trail.  Often mushers send out replacement sleds or replacement runners for their sleds which are often in their food bags.  The feed bags have dry food as well as frozen salmon, moose, chicken, and a wide variety of frozen meats.

The checkpoint becomes full of straw bales for the dogs to rest on, boxes of heat to warm water for dog food, sleds, and feed bags.  The press arrives and the communications for the Iditarod race itself.  Lets not forget the vets and the checkers who help to run the check point.

The Iditarod is a fun festive  time full of action, new people, and excitement of the event.  This year we had two long time friends arrive and this added a bit more fun to the race.  It was great to see the race through their eyes which brought a newness back to the race for us.

The front runners are fun to see as they are obviously more serious and have different goals they are after.  I do enjoy the middle of the pack and later teams more as they have time to chat and they are of course on a different schedule.

More photos from the checkpoint:

Spring Sea Ice Ski

One of the many things I enjoy about living way out here on "The Edge" as I often call it is my spring sea ice skis.  Norton Sound freezes over in the winter to varying degrees.  The sea ice moves about all winter long.  Sometimes we get a west wind which floods the sea ice and pushes it under water.  Sometimes an east wind blows it out to sea.  Recently, we had a north wind which pushes the sea ice right back into us here in Unalakleet.

Yesterday's after work ski was wonderful.  Nice sea ice to ski on and we just cruised north along the beach it was perfect!  +16ºF, hardly an wind and sunshine!  The dogs ran around finding caribou bones to chew on and the token left over silver salmon parts to try their best to eat before we caught them.

4/16/15 sea ice ski on Norton Sound

We just love winter and sliding around on snow!

Saturday Sled Dog Race 12/20/14

Unalakleet is a mushing community and there are several active dog sled teams.  Their activity varies from year to year.  This year Norton Sound Sled Dog Club will be hosting and running the Paul Johnson Memorial Norton Sound 450 race in February.  I haven't asked but I am assuming this is why the club has more Saturday race participants this year.  These Saturday races help teams prepare for the up coming race.  These photos I took off of FaceBook and are from 12/20/14.  I took my elementary skiers over to watch a team start after ski practice.

Racers getting ready at the start which in on the slough.  Behind us is the Unalakleet check point for the Iditarod Dog Sled Race which comes through in March.  All those short people are the elementary skiers!

Musher heading up the Unalakleet River.

Mushers leaving the river ice.

This is actually a retired musher who jumped in to help a team.  He ran the Iditarod years ago and still helps his son with his teams.

Fall on the Tundra

Winter is my favorite season with fall a very close second in the season line up.  I love the cool crisp air, the deep blue sky, and here in Alaska the changing colors on the tundra.  After living overseas for many years, all I wanted was to be back with FOUR real seasons.  I longed to see the trees change colors!  Once in Alaska, I realized fall is a completely different beast.  The trees turn color but the real colors are on the tundra.  We live pretty far north which means fall is happening now!

Blueberries!  This year the berries have been fabulous!  This photo is from a week ago while things were still green.

Looking down at Unalakleet, Norton Sound, and the Unalakleet River.  The hills are staring to turn yellowish-gold to brown.

This is fall on the tundra!  Look at these colors! Berries and plants changing colors that rival any maple in my books!

I am not sure what this red plant is called.  I really need to learn its name!  Lichen in the back ground with a bit of Ayu.

90 Degrees Bike Ride

In the summer amongst all the great summer time activities I love biking.  I usually ride twice a day for the most part.  An early morning road bike ride on my very old Miyata 1000 touring bike.  

 

I cruise around Whitefish, Montana on the trail system and the back roads.  This ride is to get the blood pumping and to enjoy the greenery, mountains and this place I love.  As you can see this is not a serious road bike ride.  I have changed out my handle bars from drops to upright, tossed out the old toe clips and straps for a nice platform pedals.  I run errands with my panniers and my wonderful new handle bar bag by detours.


This bike ride is not about air temperature but rather about turns.  One of the areas I enjoy to ride around is farm land and true to farm land you have a lot of 90 degree turns.  Each turn one gets to view another part of the valley and the mountains.

Here is a smattering of 90 degree turn photos:

You might say why is this all a big deal the other 10 months of the year this is my world:

Early season skiing Oct. 2012 we call this "Tundra Cruising." 

Dec 2012 short days of daylight about 4.5 hours.

Checking drifts so we can groom once the wind stops blowing.

Groomer working hard.

Oh Sadie!

Groomer for nordic trails.

My love classic skiing.

Beach Unalakleet, Alaska April 2013.

May 2013

May 2013

As much as I love winter and skiing I do enjoy the green world too!