April and May

In April, Julia had the wonderful opportunity to head home to Michigan and do fun things like this:

Real eggs!

Plastic eggs!!!!

Looking good wife.

While Julia was in Michigan, I was in Alaska doing fun stuff like this:

Getting towed up the lateral moraine of Canwell Glacier.
Photo by Erik.

Making tracks up and down the slopes south of the
Canwell. Photo by Nick.

Skiing back down the lateral moraine on the Canwell.
Photo by Nick.

That was so much fun I decided to take Julia out there the next weekend to try to ski in the same area. We spent the night in a friend's cabin on Fielding Lake and woke up early the next morning to head to the mountains. Alaska is a spectacular place, both in terms of the people we have met and places we have seen. 

We have stopped and taken pictures at this spot nearly every time we have
 driven down the Richardson Highway. This time we had wonderful light.

We weren't able to get up there with downhill skiing equipment. So we switched to skate skis and scooted along the same trail I had taken a week earlier. Though we didn't have cloudless skies and we didn't put in any new skin tracks up the hill, it was still a spectacular outing.

Julia above the Canwell.

On the way back I found a soft spot in the trail. 

An outline of my face was visible in the snow.

Julia entering the canyon where our car was parked.

Before Julia headed to Michigan, her old ski coach and I had begun planning for competing in the Hot Springs 100 adventure race (also referred to as AlaskAcross). This was helpful when Julia was gone as it provided something to distract me from missing my lovely wife (though it wasn't even close to being adequately effective). We did a few hikes and long runs on weekends during April and May. One weekend we checked out the first nine miles of the route we planned to take. A walk on the Angel Rocks Trail, hike down to the river, and float back to a bike stashed in the woods was also enjoyable.

Angel Rocks

Looking down the Upper Chena River from near the top of the
Angel Rocks Trail.

Floating the Middle Fork of the Chena River.

When Julia had to leave Alaska again in May, I started to do all sorts of weird things, such as crying myself to sleep, eating only pasta and olive oil with a glass of water for a meal, and eating six pounds of Cocoa Crunchies and Magic Stars. I also started doing a few abnormal things to prepare for the race, like walking to and from a teacher inservice in Fairbanks and hiking all night to train for the race. On the second to last day of work at Ben Eielson Jr./Sr. High School, I walked to work and it took all night. I ferried across the raging Chena River at 2:30 AM in the morning. I very much by chance avoided an encounter with a pipeline service truck at 2:00 AM. I definitely didn't want to explain myself. He didn't see me, I wasn't going to wave. It probably wasn't the wisest adventure to go on, but whatever. I had lots of fun anyway. I followed an owl for about 45 minutes along the pipeline as I chased it from tree to tree. I sang nice and loud and nobody told me to shut it. It was good to be alone for a while.

The pipeline at twilight. The first ten piles of bear scat along
the pipeline service road weren't that disconcerting. But that
eleventh one really got me thinking.

Dawn breaking on very quiet Chena Lakes.

Finish line.

Tak for turen!

WikiMapia is fun.

After walking to work, there were less than two weeks left before the race. My tapering period began, mostly because my heel hurt from walking 27 miles on gravel and pavement. Thankfully everything was ready to roll for the race.

It's a very good thing when Julia is present. I eat and sleep far better than when she is around. Also Julia doesn't think my adventure choosing mechanism has enough checks and balances. But I'm still alive!

Ha!