A Tribute to a Beloved Friend

For all the amazing adventure that Alaska has shown me and continues to promise more, I have had one bad thing occur here. My beloved dog had to be put to sleep. He loved being here with me and I wanted to post some pictures of him. If anyone has pictures of him, feel free to email them to me! When he first got here, he found that running out on the frozen Sound was his favorite thing to do daily! Glad that he didn't have to see it thaw. It would have taken away his favorite place in town.
When we went for our first walk on the Sound, it became apparent that Jake needed boots. He kept stopping to dig snow or bits of ice out of his paws. When I first bought the boots, he hated them! Every time I put them on, he would act like I was just the meanest person in the world. It probably didn't help that he walked like a cat with tape on his paws at first, and I couldn't help laughing! That put me right on the mean person list. He actually refused to stand up the first time I put them on him. He just gave me this look, " What kind of person are you?"Jake and I had countless adventures together including Jake being the mascot for my paramedic class, a Colorado 14ner, summers where both of us were more often covered in mud and dirt than clean, Arctic walks and countless snuggle times. When I went to find a puppy, Jake picked me, not the other way around. I am a better person for him choosing to spend his life with me.

Nome

My travels have now led me to Nome. You really can't travel this far north and NOT visit the legendary Nome. I have a friend who has started working there so I had prime opportunity to visit. Nome is different than any of the "villages" I have been to so far in the fact that it was established as a non-native mining town. All of the villages I have been to so far are native established.

Nome has a few lovely things that I have missed sorely in my part of the world. They have bars and restaurants. sigh. Though it is still not quite civilized in the fact that you can't get your haircut in town. Oh, for a haircut!

Nome had their harbor break up before ours did. The middle picture is what is left of their ice and it was taken on one of the few "nights" left in this part of the world. I think was taken around 0200 in the morning.

Really didn't get to see much of Nome, but took these pictures to share. I liked Nome, but it is certainly a place to visit only.

Ice Fishing

I finally got to go fishing on our frozen Sound. Everyone kept telling me how easy it was, but I was complete taken off guard with HOW easy it really was. I have seen folks in Colorado out in the middle of frozen lakes with their little chairs and heated shelters, spending hours and hours trying to catching fish. I envisioned a similar experience here, without the shelter 'cause we do things the tough way up here! One of my neighbors called me up one morning last week at 0700 and asked if I still wanted to go fishing. My first thought was that I didn't think I wanted to spend all of my very precious one day off, out in the middle of the Sound, trying to catch fish. I had been asking to go and so my adventurous little spirit kicked in and I said, "Sure! Just give me 15 minutes to get my cold weather stuff on." He said that he was thinking more around noon and we could spend about an hour before he had to go to work. An hour? I was sure that it would be a good learning experience in the fact that I would figure out where to go and what to use, but there was no way I could ever catch anything in an hour!
So we meet at noon and off we go on his 4 wheeler. We zipped along the "beach" for 5 minutes and then we went out on the Sound about 100 yards. My guide used his GPS to find his favorite hole. When we got to the right area, there were about 5 holes that had been cut. We each picked a hole and broke the thin layer of ice that had formed on them. I scooped out the ice bits and drop my fishing line in. My fishing pole is a piece of molding with tuna line attached to it with a silver lure on the end. I find the edge of the ice, which is about 2 feet down, and drop my line about another foot below that. I am not really sure what to do so I look to my guide. He tells me," Just kind of jig it." Jig it? It is kind of like playing with a pencil when you are nervous, just lazier and slower. I had my line in the water for about 3 minutes when I felt something hit my line. It is just kind of this dull, not so impressive hit. There is no way I believe this can be a fish, so I don't try to set the hook. Then my piece of molding is being pulled from my hands! So I take a better hold and try pulling the line up just by using a hand-over-hand kind of action. This fish shows up in the hole and I just kind of stare at him for a minute.
I am not always the quickest fisherman! He really doesn't put up any kind of fight. Of course, how could he? He had two options for places to go, up or down. The ice really limits his options! After I got him onto the ice, I am instructed on the multiple uses of the molding. I am supposed to "thump" him on the head with it. So, I thump and he opens his mouth. Handy, now I can get the lure unhooked. It took about 20 minutes to have 4 more fish go through the same routine. I let one go because I thought I only needed 4.
There was a certain amount of awe at how easy this was! I never used bait and really had no idea what I was doing. My friend and I cleaned and filleted the fish where we were. All in all, I took about 25-30 pounds of fresh Shee fish back to my apartment. Shee fish are the largest white fish, and I would have to say the sweetest. The meat is probably a cross between crab and halibut, at least to me. The problem with Shee fish is that they have 2 sets of rib bones. If you go fishing for these things, go with someone who knows how to get around the first set of rib bones when you are filleting them.
Fishing in the Arctic Circle has its definite advantages! I think the fish are eating in their hibernating state. The water makes them slow and stupid, but oh so tasty!

Perils of Traveling in the Arctic

This week I have had a lesson in traveling in the Arctic Circle. We decided that we were going to help a family move from our village to a nearby village. It was about 75 miles give or take. We had a caravan of one truck and two snowmobiles heading out to the village mid morning. The truck was taking our local "Ice Highway" and the two of us on the snowmobiles pretty much stuck close to the "highway". Let me explain about the "highway" so that you can picture what insanity was starting to possess us. This is a path that has been grated and cleared of snow about 2 weeks ago from the frozen bodies of water in the area, including lakes and rivers so that vehicles can make it to the village. Apparently this is not a yearly event. Not real sure what dictates the grating or lack of each year. We are traveling along at a decent speed of about 35 miles an hour when we are stopped by a very impressive "Pressure Ridge." The ridge is in the first picture. I am standing in the area that had opened in the past and frozen over again when the ice "plates" separated. I think I have mentioned these in the past. The best way to visualize them is to imagine the tectonic plates in an earthquake. This ridge is about 3 feet high and has some wood by it to help folks over. It doesn't really seem to have any real width to it so we use the wood to build up the opposite side, as it is a wee bit lower, and drive over. All the vehicles make it with little effort. I am having a blast at this point! We are speeding across a huge Alaskan lake in March on snow mobiles and it is a beautiful day! How amazing is my life! It is actually not freezing, no real wind, except what the speed of the machine is causing. I have to admit, I got to speeds of 70 miles per hour in the smoother area's. The snow mobiles really had the advantage over the truck here. This isn't a smooth ride, but it is incredible! I had never jumped a snow mobile before, and certainly didn't plan it the first time it happened. However, for those of you who know me, you can only imagine what happened after I had my first taste of that rush! Yep, then I was looking for the good snow hills to jump! My fellow snow mobile rider suddenly stops, turns around and stares back at me at one point. I quickly understood why, about 10 seconds later to be exact. We had just flown over a crack in the surface! It was an impressive 3 foot gap in the snow and ice that was about a foot deep, we had just zipped right over it! What a rush! The truck seemed to do OK and the crack was not quite as wide on the "highway." This is probably what happened as the ice ridge was shifting. It seems the side of ice we came from was being shoved up by the piece of ice we were currently on. Is anyone seeing where this story is going? Wish we had. sigh. As I am zipping across the frozen lake, there are some spots that suddenly forcefully remind me that I am on ice. Most of the surface is covered in piles and piles of snow so it is easy to forget that it is a lake. Until we got to this intersection where the lake met one of the larger rivers. When you looked at the ice, it was so clear! You can see where the cracks show through the ice like it was glass. You can even get an idea of how deep it is, maybe. I did mention that this is what we were driving on, right? We get to the village and spend just a little bit of time there. We then turn around, leaving the snow mobiles at the village because they belong to folks who live there. The wind has picked up a bit and the clear areas on the "highway" are now covered in some impressive drifts. It takes us about 2 hours to get to the point of the journey where reality and travel in the Arctic come crashing together in an extraordinary manner. The picture here shows what happens to Pressure Ridges when left alone for several hours. The fact that the weather had been getting warmer for the past few days also helps. We found that the ice slab that we were on had shifted and had been shoved under the other side, quite a bit in fact. What had been a small inconvenience had now turned into a huge obstacle. It was about 6 feet or more in width and about 4+feet high on the other side. I thought someone had shoved ice and snow against the far side until I realized that what I was looking at was actually the piece of ice that we had driven over originally. Notice the poles on each side of the "highway." They mark where it WAS safe to travel. I was told later that folks here will come out with chain saws and wood to make this passable for as long as possible. The chain saws are for the ice. I think that option may be over for this year. While we were standing there, realizing we were seriously stuck on the wrong side of the ridge, another truck showed up. They chose to drive along the ridge and JUMPED a smaller area. The ice slab sunk down where they crossed and their tracks filled with WATER! More cracks showed up where we were standing, about half a mile from where they crossed. We decided that though we were on the wrong side of the ridge, we were heading back to the safety of land..which was 2 hours behind us. We spent the night with the folks who we helped move. The decision was made to try again in the morning, only this time we would take a different path. It included more land and less lake... It is the local snow mobile trail that folk use through the winter. It is not normally recommend for vehicles but we are ready to give it a try! It is marked on the river and water areas with tree branches that stand fairly high, and on the land, it is marked with crossed poles. Everything has reflectors on them and surprisingly, they manage to withstand the weather. We head out the next morning to try and get the truck and one of the snow mobiles back to my village. We are taking the snowmobile on the chance that the truck doesn't make it, since two of us MUST be back in my village. Our little caravan is stopped once again at an older pressure ridge that is marked by the brightest fluorescent paint I have ever seen, plus little orange flags. The signs of danger are apparent by the broken snow mobiles on the far side of the ridge. It appears that they hit the ridge at some speed.... snow mobiles really don't bounce as well as you would hope. The truck was forced to turn back to the village, perhaps meant to stay there until the next solid winter freeze. Off I go on the little snow mobile back to my village. Did I mention the visibility had become an issue? While we had been sleeping happily in our little borrowed beds, a bit of a snow storm had blown in and was starting to BLOW more seriously by now. The markers that I mentioned above are about 50 feet apart and I had originally thought,"How strange that someone would make them that close." Now, I was very thankful that they were so close together! Although several folks knew where I was and what time I should be back to my village, I still would rather not be stuck out in the weather with a snow mobile that decided to break down or if I lost the trail. I had a rider with me, and it still seemed intimidating as we started to SLOWLY zip off across the trail. Slowly because the visibility not only affected our long distance vision, but it was making EVERYTHING look the same level. This was demonstrated as I attempted to toss my rider on an unexpected hill. It all looked the same! We noticed that as we continued across the lake, it showed more and more signs of "breaking up." We saw sudden shards of ice that were shoved up out of the lake at sharp angles, sometimes as large as 5 feet high! We even seemed to be traveling along another pressure ridge at one point. When we finally pulled into our village, we both gave a huge sigh of relief! Until I found that the throttle on our snow mobile was stuck open! Of course, what was I thinking?? Found this out as we popped into town over a snowbank about 4 feet high (we meant to do this part) and instead of slowing down when I let off the throttle, we suddenly sped up (didn't mean to do this part)! Up and almost over the other embankment, that was about the same size, and into a utility pole of some sort! Managed to hit the kill switch and turn the snow mobile off the embankment and onto the road, missing the utility pole. My shoulders, and low back hate me at this point. I don't think I am in the worlds best shape, but I do work out regularly. Just not usually by wrenching a 600 pound machine 144 + miles. It was one of the most amazing trips and most challenging that I have ever been on! The amazing Alaskan wilderness did show me that as beautiful as it is, it can take my life at the smallest sign of weakness. Weakness here is shown by a lack of planning for the absolute worse. When you leave your house, you need to plan on being stranded for 2 days, for the temperatures to drop, and for your vehicle to try dying. Oh, but remember, it really was worth it!

Night Flying in Alaska

I have seen the Northern Lights a few times, but not bright enough to actually capture them on film. They are like a living wave of color and energy. However, the one thing I have been able to get on film is the longest lasting sunsets. When we reach an altitude of 2500 feet and it is a clear night, we get these sunsets that last FOREVER. I wanted to share the pictures that I got the other night on flight. If you look, you can notice that there is a star in the upper left hand corner of the picture. This lasted the entire 2 hours that we were in the air!

Flying Low in Alaska

This last week I had a most incredible experience! One of our pilots was on a mission to find some Musk Ox so asked if it was ok if we could take a bit longer to get to one of the villages. Never having been through this experience, I didn't realize what he was asking. When you are at a lower altitude when flying, your air speed has to be slower. It makes sense when you think about it, but I had not really ever thought about it. You see all these wild pilots flying low over hills in movies and then popping up over the edges of cliffs and hills....
That is exactly what we got to do! What a rush! The views were spectacular and the feelings were hard to describe! At moments it felt as though we were barely skimming across the earth and at other moments, it was like we were going to crash into it! I was never scared, I completely trust my pilots! It was truly an experience to remember.
Oh, and another thing I found out this week is that flying with pilots you know, is somehow so much more comforting than flying commercial jets with pilots I have never met. That was something I had never considered before. The pilots who I fly with know me and I certainly have more and more faith in their skill each time they safely bring me into very rocky landings. At times I have felt like a little cork in a blender and yet my pilots always manage to get us safely down and even comfortably so! Alaska bush pilots are truly an elite class!
Here are a few of the pictures we got flying at about 300 feet. Pretty amazing shots!

The changing of the season

Mostly just blogging this week to add this picture. Isn't it incredible!

The moon is just so neat right now! Remember my fascination with the sun 's movement? Now the moon has my undivided attention! It is staying at about the same height in the sky but rotating around through the day in an amazing orbit! It is probably because it is full right now that it is so noticeable. This picture was take out next to our hanger. It is around midnight when this picture was taken.