Winter Is Here!

Today is the shortest day of the year, which means we get exactly 5 hours and 25 minutes of daylight - but tomorrow the days start getting longer. As we last posted in August, its been fall and the start of winter in Alaska. Spring and fall are both really short up here, and fall is particularly tough as we lose daylight rapidly and the temperature drops fast. We have both been staying really busy with work, plus, Jennah has been studying for a test she has on Christmas eve and Nate has been busy training for the ski season.

We've had several fun weekend adventures with friends in and around south-central Alaska. One such trip was a bike-packing trip to a cabin on the Kenai Peninsula. The trail was a ton of fun and we had excellent weather.

We had a nice couple of nights at Hatcher's Pass to celebrate our 5th (!) wedding anniversary.

Nate had a couple field work stints up near the village of Bettles in north-central Alaska, just on the south side of the Brook's Range. The first trip, they drove from Fairbanks, so Nate was able to stop at the Arctic Circle! This selfie (taken at about 11pm) was really hard to take because of the density of mosquitoes!

On the second trip, they flew, which allowed some great views of the mighty Yukon River.

We spent another weekend in Hope, and did a short bike ride on the Resurrection Pass trail. Being August, it was pretty darn muddy!

Jennah and her friend Amber have been doing some stand-up-paddleboarding around the area as well. Some might call them crazy for going when its well below freezing. These photos are from warmer days.

We've also been getting out around Anchorage quite a bit as well. These photos are from along Turnagain Arm.

And here is Sanuk at the summit of "The Ramp" on a hike/run with Nate. 

We also have been doing a bunch of fat biking / trail running both at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, and up in the Matanuska Valley in the town of Palmer.

But all this running really tuckers out little Sanuk!

We've got a good group of friends that enjoy getting out in the cold on bikes and skis as well. Here we are Global Fat Bike Day in Anchorage.

We also are becoming a bit more Alaskan with each year. This year Nate had some success salmon fishing and we picked several gallons of wild blueberries from the Chugach mountains just outside of town.

We would ride our bikes to the patch (which hopefully explains the helmet).

Sanuk even learned to pick blueberries too, but she ate every one she picked!

In September, we spent a weekend in Portland, Oregon. Jennah spent the days in a pilates instructor class, while Nate explored the city.

Over Thanksgiving we had a really nice trip home to Buena Vista. It was great to spend some time with family, meet up with friends, and enjoy the sunshine!

We had an excellent Thanksgiving meal all together at Nate's Grandma's home.

While we don't have much snow in Anchorage right now, we do have enough to do some nordic skiing. Nate has his quiver of skis ready to go for what we hope will be a fun and snowy winter!

And finally, a photo from Nate's ski today up on Hatcher Pass (where there is plenty of snow). This shot was taken at noon! The sun went directly from a sunrise to a sunset! Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year!

Summer 2014

Wow! We are having another great summer in Alaska and it's flying by even faster than the last one. Since we last posted we have been all over the state for fun and work and had some great times with friends and family. We have traveled almost every weekend, packing in as much as we can during our short summer!

First, over Memorial Day we joined some new friends on a three night sea kayaking and camping trip in Prince William Sound. We had great weather, much better than our last PWS kayak trip! We spent two days paddling among icebergs and calving glaciers in Blackstone Bay and our third day paddling to Surprise Cove.

The day after we returned from our kayak trip, Nate headed to the field for three weeks. Again this year he lead a giant bird survey in interior and south-central Alaska. The work required waking at 1am (about sunrise) and riding in helicopters to ever changing locations to count birds. It was exhausting but very rewarding work. While Nate was gone, Jennah stayed busy with weekend adventures near Anchorage including paddle boarding and even a couple mountain bike races.

In late June and early July we took a week to complete a bicycle tour of southeast Alaska. We drove to Haines (16 hours one-way) then hopped on the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry system) to Juneau, where we spent two days.

After Juneau we spent two days in Sitka. Then we followed the same route back home. Although the trip involved a lot of driving and bike packing was harder than we expected, we enjoyed seeing this incredibly beautiful part of the world. This multi-day trip was just a tiny blip on the AK  map and really made us appreciate the immense span of this state!

The third week in July we were happy to have Jennah's parents, Kathy and Jeff, visit us for ten days. We enjoyed showing off Anchorage, Girdwood, Seward, Talkeetna and Hatcher's Pass. A highlight of the trip was spending two nights at Kayaker's Cove, a rustic hostel in Resurrection Bay out of Seward. We kayaked and enjoyed soaking up the sun for two days in perfect weather.

Over the course of the summer, somehow, we found the time to fix up our yard. The following photos show its progression from before planting grass to today. It still needs a lot of work, and a deck, but we are happy with it so far.

In August, Jennah will be going to Fairbanks twice for continuing education classes and Nate will be doing a few field work assignments - in Kodiak! We are also looking forward to celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary at Hatcher's Pass on August 8th. Times flies!

Happy Summer!
Jennah and Nate