autumn awesomeness

I think we picked the best week of the year for a road trip through Alaska. We'd been trying to decide what to do with our whole week off this summer (OK, i had more than a week off, but Mike only had one), and we decided on a sight-seeing trip south. I had only been to Seward for about an hour before - as part of a field trip for a tectonics conference in Girdwood - and Mike still likes to show me around the state... So we headed south the first week of September, which I'm telling you is the best time to travel. Most tourists and mosquitoes have cleared out, and the fall colors are just incredible. We also lucked out with great weather almost all 10 days.
Our first stop was Talkeetna (another place I'd never been). We checked out the Denali Brewing Company which had good beer but so-so ambience, so we opted for the more fun and established West Rib Cafe across the street for dinner. We stayed at our friends' son's new place up the hill and woke up to this amazing view of the Alaska Range:Heading south, we drove through Hatcher Pass (another first for me), which was overrun with hunters, trucks, ATVs at that time of year. We decided moose season must have just opened. The road to Hatcher pass is slow going, but offers amazing views and hikes the whole way.

We spent a fun night in Anchorage visiting old Fairbanks friends and eating delicious Indian food (there is not a single Indian restaurant in Fairbanks!), then headed toward Whittier the next day. Our hike up to the Byron Glacier was an unexpected surprise. The trail ends about 1 mile in, but we kept going until we were stopped by steeper ice (when we wished we had brought crampons).
We camped on Portage road. Clear, calm water in the morning......and drove down to Seward. The weather in Seward was glorious when we arrived! We camped two nights at Miller's Landing, just south of Seward.
It clouded over for the next couple of days, so our kayak trip was cool and a bit rainy, but much calmer seas than Valdez earlier this year. Lots of seals and otters. There was one otter floating on his back that we thought was dead. In fact, we couldn't tell if it was driftwood or an otter until we got close. We paddled right past him and he never moved, but then we didn't see him on our way back.
At the Alaska SeaLife Center the next day, we learned that otters will sleep wrapped in kelp so they don't drift. Smart little critters.

Spent two rainy nights at the Exit Glacier Lodge (great little hotel!) and ate at the delicious Salmon Bake next door. A very cold, wet hike up to the Harding Ice Field was a little disappointing because it was socked in at the top, so we couldn't see much besides grey. And we were freezing, so we hightailed it back down the trail. Mike's been there on a clearer day and says there's nothing like it!

With fantastic weather the following day, we left Seward and stopped to hike up the new North Face trail in Girdwood. It was super muddy in sections, but super awesome nonetheless. It takes you up to where the tram ends at the Alyeska upper mountain lodge. We heard hushed exclamations of tourists "they just walked up here!" as we watched a few paragliders take off from the top. BEAUTIFUL!
The weather was just so incredible that we spent another night camping along the Portage Glacier road, and the following day hiked up the Bird Ridge trail along the Turnagain Arm. Mike was pretty stoked about the view from the top:
We drove back along the Glenn Highway (yep, another Lena first), which Mike declared "officially the most beautiful place in Alaska". As usual, photos don't do the colors justice, but it gives you an idea.Stopped to camp at the Matanuska Glacier - wow!!!
I'll end with one of my experimental long-exposure night shots. Mike and I had a lot of fun coming up with new headlamp-on-the-bridge designs. This is my favorite:

Some Summer Pics

We are finally headed out today for our summer vacation. Mike took a whole week off so we're headed south to Seward with Talkeetna, Anchorage, Whittier stops along the way... So although we haven't had an actual vacation, we've had a great summer - gardening, a few day hikes, barbecuing on the deck. Most importantly, very little work on the house! A nice change from last summer.
Our garden (lettuce, chard, beets, cabbage, (cukes died early)):
Tomatoes and basil in the little greenhouse:
Sun-lit cabbage leaf:
Norma taught me this great trick of laying blueberries/raspberries out on the cookie sheet so that they freeze individually before putting them in a big ziploc for the freezer. These are all from our yard! Bad-ass Mike with the berries:

The plane is on fire?

F-18s in the hangar at Eielson AFB. Watching these planes take off and land was pretty cool, and really loud!
This sign cracks me up because it seems like it's for the birds:I love this tilty tree out by the OSS (Operations Support Squadron) building:So the gravity surveys ended with a bang. Well, with flames anyway. Here are the pilots just before our right engine caught fire!!
The sortof order of events, within 4 minutes or so: weird sound in the headsets, fumes, flames, fire extinguisher, right engine shut down, right propeller stopped. Then a while trying to decide where to land with our single engine. We were way out by Bettles, which is about 200 km from Eielson. The pilots decided to fly all the way back, but there was a lot of discussion of alternate landing sites the whole way.

The landing was actually very smooth, and the entire Air Force fire brigade was out on the tarmac waiting for us. Here's our plane getting towed off the tarmac once we got back to Eielson:I got to ride in the tow truck!
Left engine:Right engine:This is about half of our group, some of the pilots swtiched out halfway through the survey. Navy in the green camo color. Mechanic in black, NOAA peeps in blue. Left to right: Tim, Mike, Bob, Adam, Theresa, Keith, me. Thanks for an exciting season!

the state is on fire

This is our King Air, C-12, twin-engine Navy plane:
My 'desk':
Denali!At least 70 wildfires are burning throughout the state at the moment. This is a major one down near Nenana, just west of where we takeoff and land at Eielson Air Force Base:Flying through smokey clouds is pretty crazy. outside of the airplane is a yellow-gray glow, and everything inside the airplane smells like a campfire.The eastern edge of the Alaska Range, just south of Eielson, on the horizon:

I'm in the Navy?

I headed down to Pensacola, Florida for Aviation Physiology Training at the Naval Air Station. Why did I have to go get trained by the Navy? Well, I'm flying airborne gravity surveys for a NOAA-funded project this summer, and since the planes are Navy-operated, everyone on board has to be Navy certified. The soonest training available was in Pcola, so I crossed the entire country for 3 days of power point presentations and semi-fun simulations.

I was one of two civilians in a class of 25, and one of 4 women. I felt really tough in the flight gear until I saw this photo of myself. Maybe I'm not cut out for the military after all.The simulations included the MSDD (Multi-Spatial Disorientation Demonstrator) - sortof a glorified "teacups", but the cups are fully enclosed, dark pods with a dashboard and visor thing with moving lines. The idea is that you can't tell what horizontal is or what direction you are spinning. It works, and I didn't puke!

We were also put in a hyperbaric chamber, which I only went up to 9000 feet in, but others went to 25,000 feet to experience the effects of hypoxia. At 25,000' they had to take off their oxygen masks and play patty-cake with a partner. After less than 1 minute, most people were screwing up patty-cake pretty bad. A few people lasted a long time with a goofy smile on their faces (later reported feeling euphoric), but were still unable to follow very basic instructions.

The final day was in the pool, we had to swim, tread water, and do some basic underwater tasks in a flight suit, vest, helmet, boots, gloves. Then we got flipped upside down while strapped into a chair with a 5-point seatbelt, and needed to pull out the window, release the belt and swim through the window frame. I also practiced inflating my life vest and climbing into a rescue basket as if being rescued from the water by a Navy helicopter. Exciting!

NAS Pensacola is home to the National Naval Aviation Museum, which is a super cool place, and I don't even like airplanes much.
The missiles on this plane are clearly labeled "Inert".
The command module for the month-long Skylab II mission flown to the orbiting space station in May-June 1973 is on loan from the Smithsonian:The Naval cemetery:
Pensacola Beach was crazy crowded (especially between July 4 weekend and Blue Angels weekend), but I found a nice chill spot for afternoon swims and naps.I stayed in a cute B&B, close to historic downtown Pensacola - established in 1859! - which is very cool, and with interesting architecture, but sortof ghosttowny. My last night in town I went to a tapas place and met a famous DJ (A-Trak) because of his polar bear action figure, although i didn't know how famous he was until afterwards.

Shoup Glacier

"the paddle takes 4 hours or less depending how often you have to pee" - Dea. We headed out of Valdez to kayak out to Shoup Bay, but got a later start since some of us had to take the self-rescue class in the morning. (dry suits really do work!) The afternoon start had us paddling into strong winds and current, so it actually took close to 7 hours to get out to the cabin. High tide meant we avoided the portage into Shoup Bay, but we were all pretty beat by the time we got there. Kittiwake Cabin offers an awesome view of the glacier right from the window!We set out the next morning for a closer look at the glacier...
Looking out from inside the cave:
Anthony - glaciologist, pHd - had been to the Shoup a few years before and said the glacier had changed a lot. In fact, it can hardly be considered a tidewater glacier anymore because it's barely in the water. Anthony and Kristen looking water sporty:All in all, an awesome trip with amazing scenery and fantastic company! The water/weather was even stormier on the way home, but it took half the time riding the big swells back into port.

update

Oops, another long hiatus from blogging. It was a very busy Spring with the end of the teaching program, but now it's over, thankfully. Mike's sister had a cute baby girl, Michaila, in March! So we now collectively have 5 nieces and nephews. We visited my family in Texas in May. The other big news is that Mike and Matisse finally became friends, although in this picture Matisse looks like he is hungry for a Wisconsinian:The dogs found a pretty big turtle in the backyard:My brother and Ash had a fun Memorial Day party, complete with a jumping castle for the kids. Reid and Vance got some last jumps in the following morning. This summer I have been enjoying my freedom while Mike works the mine grind. Although he doesn't seem to mind it, besides the long bus ride and having to stay out there all week. It would be great if he could come home every night!

Lena in Kiana

I have another blog!  I'm in the village of Kiana for week and keeping a blog for my Multicultural Education class.  Check it out at http://ruralpracticum09lena.blogspot.com/

lake nyos

On the morning of August 22, 1986, a man hopped onto his bicycle and began riding from Wum, a village in Cameroon, towards the village of Nyos. On the way he noticed an antelope lying dead next to the road. Why let it go to waste? The man tied the antelope onto his bicycle and continued on. A short distance later he noticed two dead rats, and further on, a dead dog and other dead animals. He wondered if they'd all been killed by a lightning strike – when lightning hits the ground it's not unusual for animals nearby to be killed by the shock.

Soon the man came upon a group of huts. He decided to see if anyone there knew what had happened to the animals. But as he walked up to the huts he was stunned to see dead bodies strewn everywhere. He didn't find a single person still alive—everyone in the huts was dead. The man threw down his bicycle and ran all the way back to Wum.

For the full, fascinating story, read on... http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1070068&site_id=1#import

Redoubt blows

So I was supposed to teach in a rural village for a week as part of my teacher certification program. I was slated to go to Kiana (pop. 401) with two other guys from the program. Kiana is 60 miles east of Kotzebue in northwest Alaska. We even went to Sam's and stocked up on freshies to bring out to the teachers and staff of Kiana school. But about 10 hours before we were supposed to leave, stinking Mt Redoubt decided to let off some more steam and FAA closed the Anchorage airport. (more volcanic photos and info can be found at AVO)

Bummer! I have not been off of the road system in Alaska save for my undergraduate research (which was just published by my former advisor!) near Prince of Wales Island in southeast, and a handful of not-very-far-off-the-road hiking trips.

As for the northern latitudes, I'm amazed that people have been able to survive for so long in such an unforgiving environment. For anyone interested in the history and science of Arctic survival - mostly humans and other animals - I recommend Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. Certainly a western perspective, but highly informative, a good read and winner of the National Book Award.

Spring Break in Oregon

We spent a wonderful day hiking in the Columbia River Gorge with Amanda, Sebastien, Alec and Chickenman. It was pretty cold and rainy, but still beautiful. We walked out to the Devil's Punch Bowl waterfall:Alec pretending to be a penguin dad: The following day we biked around town taking in the sights and sounds of Portland. Mike and I headed out to the coast for a couple of days, which turned out to be gloriously sunny! We got to hike both days - first out to Cape Lookout where we saw whales off the coast. Gray whales migrate from the Bay of California (between mainland Mexico and Baja) all the way up to the North Sea in the spring, and back down south in the fall. It is the longest migration of any mammal on the planet (12,000 miles). We were really lucky to spot them as some locals on the coast had never even seen whales. (They should get out more.)
We stumbled upon the cutest hotel ever in Wheeler, Oregon. It was renovated in 2004, but they kept a few of the old artifacts around, including phones and a typewriter, but with modern touches like jacuzzis and WiFi. The amazing view from our room:The absolute best happy hour spot in Oregon (from my limited experience) is at Ecola State Park on the bench on the Capistola Trail near Indian Beach:Great, and plentiful, microbrews in Oregon. There are dozens of microbreweries in Portland alone. My favorite was the Ninkasi Believer Double Red Ale, yum. Mike is hogging the beer as usual. A nice sunset on Cannon Beach. After a winter in Fairbanks, I'm amazed at how quickly the sun sets.

wood stove tile project update

We FINALLY got the tiling project started last weekend. It took a ridiculously long time to decide which tile to use. Originally I had planned an elaborate mosaic wall painting made of tiny little 1 inch tiles, but as time wore on, we just wanted to get the damn DUROCK covered up with something. First I thought I might paint it a nice color so while I waffled on tile style, but it turns out painting cement backerboard is a bad idea. The point of the cement is to absorb the adhesive for a stronger bond to the tile, and paint interferes with cement porosity. Thankfully we learned that before painting the walls the hideous peach color I picked out. (For some reason, I thought it looked nice at the Home Depot mixing station). I had done the hearth floor (with Amanda's help) over a year ago in 6x6 slate, but we thought it was a bit too dark for the walls. Mike and I finally decided on a tumbled slate called "amber gold" which is lighter and has a lot of texture. 5-6 weeks for delivery, and then -40 temps (which required the use of the wood stove) further delayed this project, but we finally got a wall done last weekend: before:

here you go, heike!

Brass Monkey Weather

I just learned of a new term for cold weather, which comes from the saying "cold enough to freeze the balls on a brass monkey". Well, it's definitely that cold here in Interior Alaska these days. In the last 15 days the temperature has ranged between -23 and -47 with only a handful of days getting over -30. BRR. Our thermometer bottoms out at -30, so we have only seen "--" on it for the past 2 weeks: Mike and I ventured out for a uber brisk walk on New Years Day:The cold weather does freeze in the prettiness of snow-covered trees, icicles, snow hanging off the edge of roofs, snow everywhere.We finally got out of town this past weekend to take advantage of the ice-fog free air and steamy hot springs of Chena Hot Springs Road. We hiked up to Angel Rocks with our poofy friends Heike and Ben:Cool sastrugi on the upper Chena:Blue shadows:

Winter is moving fast this year

We had a really fun day just before Christmas in Chicago with Mike's sister Sara and her husband Allen:We took the train from Aurora IL to downtown Chicago, here's Mike in Union Station:These stairs are famous for the final scene in The Untouchables, when a baby carriage (with the baby in it) goes careening down the steps in the midst of the final shootout. It's been named one of the "Greatest Moments in Film History":The "Bean" in Millenium Park is SO COOL:
It was pretty darn chilly in Chicago too, the Chicago River reminded me of the Antarctic coastline:
A nice day of xc skiing near Skiland. We found two benches hidden behind an outcrop in the woods:
Upper Angel Creek ski trip earlier this winter:
with Kristen and Justin and Kita:
Full Moon on Ookpik Way:

aurora photos take I

The phone rang around 10 pm on Tuesday night, and Allison says "Aurora, outside, now." I said, "Awesome, thanks!" and ran outside with my camera. This was my first 'real' attempt at taking aurora pictures, and a few came out alright:

some favorite pics from the summer

Los Anchorage

- as Alec likes to call it...
Mike and I headed out of town for the first time in months last weekend. It was such a busy summer that we just haven't had/made time to leave in a while. Ken and Kristin were having a housewarming in Anchorage, and Alec left for Houston on Monday, so it was a good time to visit. Except for the wet snow on the road. About 3 hours after leaving town, we were (ok, I was) driving through some big wet snowflakes - the kind that splat when they hit the windshield - and there was already a few inches of accumulation on the ground. I was saying something about sliding off the road, and next thing we are sliding sideways, then backwards, then down the embankment on the opposite side of the road. The spin/slide was scary, but we only took out a few willows and thankfully there wasn't any (apparent) damage to us or the car. But we couldn't get out, it was way too slick. Within 5 minutes a guy with a giant Toyota pulled over and hooked up his winch and pulled us right out! The whole thing from skid to being back on the road only took about a half hour. We saw at least 6 other cars off the road between there (Broad Pass) and Trapper Creek. We stayed at the adorable and very homey Copper Whale Inn in Anchorage. It's not too affordable in the summer, but winter rates begin Oct. 1 and there's an Alaskan resident discount. They don't advertise it, shhh. Some pretty fresh snow fell Sunday morning, here's our balcony:Hiked up Flat Top one day, which I'd never done. It was awesome! I was being a total wuss when we turned around to come down, it was so much steeper at the very top than I thought going up... Mike wasn't worried at all and completely ignored my terror. Here he is telling me to suck it up:
Views from the top:

Palinoid?

Frank Rich's article "The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama" points out some really scary facts. Did you know that there hasn’t been a single new black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years? and Palin's quote "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity" in her convention speech is attributed to Westbrook Pegler who is famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetoric. Is this country really still that racist?

more people showed up for the anti-Palin rally than the pro-Palin rally that was highly televised in September. Good to know we live among some non six-packers, although the polls claim Palin's approval rating in Alaska has only dropped to 65% from 85%! Yikes.
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/alaska-women-reject-palin-rally-is-huge/

can this campaign season please end soon, please?

If McCain says "my friends" one more time, I'm going to have to shoot the TV!!
Toles' version of the senator is pretty funny, he looks like a bag of potatoes with a mouthguard.