Life Through the Eyes of Emily

something i'd never thought i'd do...

2012-01-27T14:35:00.007-09:00

Alaska can be cold, however, Anchorage is colder than any Alaskan I've ever felt, -8 degrees cold in fact. Maybe in my lifetime I've experienced -8, but then again maybe not. But today, no question, I did.

This morning I woke up, looked out my window, and put on my running shoes at -8 degrees.

I ran 40 minutes at that temperature and actually was quite warm (thanks to the beanie, 2 pairs of mittens, neck gator, base layer, fleece and down puff I was wearing). With the exception of my eye lashes, which were frozen, and my belly (my base layer had ridden up and I was wearing two many pairs of mittens to fix it) it felt like a normal sunny day.

But -8 is cold, so cold in fact that when you walk outside you loose your breathe and when you finally catch it, you begin coughing because it burns your lungs. Tomorrow I plan on going back out with cross-country skis, Sunday hopefully to the ski hill, but come Monday I'll be happy to be back in Sitka where it may even be above freezing!

Yesterday

2012-01-15T07:37:00.006-09:00

Sorry all you down south folks who are still skiing between snow and grassy patches, this is what sitka snowboarding as to offer this year and boy is it amazing. Fuffly heaven, will try to send some your way! Here's some video coverage:

Second annual shelikof trip

2012-01-13T21:38:00.008-09:00

I've been so busy with my new teaching position at Mount Edgecumbe High School I haven't made my "blob" reflections a top priority. Plus without my number one blob reading fan/grandfather to send me email encouragements urging me to keep sharing my adventures another motivation ceased. However I would like to share one other adventure from this past fall, it would be ashame for this trip to go undocumented.

It was our friend groups second annual Thanksgiving trip to Shelikof. The first annual trip was 2 years prior in 09'. However this year was a whole different can of worms.

Here's the summary:
3 feet of snow
2 skiffs
6 sea faring miles
14 miles of trail
4 cross country skiers
1 split boarder
3 hikers
1 sled dog
1 sled
1 Aframe cabin: Shelikof
Another Island: Kruzoff
one wood stove
1 rifle
2 gun shots
2 dead deer
beautiful private beach
sand dollars
no clams
no surfing
3 days
2 nights
Another Nice Alaskan Vacation to write home about

looking for a vacation?

2012-01-08T09:23:00.005-09:00

Hawaii is overrated! The beautiful rudgedness of Alaska is like nowhere else on earth. Aaron and I over a lovely Christmas break of hosting Aaron's parents and Christmas dinner decided to take the ferry over to Juneau for 4 days for a good old fashion Alaskan vacation.

Now if you like snowboarding Juneau ski mnt. is the spot right now with currently the biggest snow base in North America. The resort is maintained by the city and it is not only affordable but it is dream to carve in the fresh power. So some of our time in Juneau was spent on this snow mountain, but our favorite part of our trip was our backcountry crosscountry skiing adventure! 13 miles of hiking and backcountry skiing over lakes and to cabins and descending mnts. and crossing narrow bridges returning just as the moon fully took over as the main source of light reflecting on the snowy mountain side. We did a poor job of properly documenting this vacation but this is what we've got for now. I'll included also some Christmas day photos! Happy New Year all!

O-Party

2011-10-23T09:14:00.004-08:00

Brandon as the game Operation.

Aaron was overboard and I was on fire!

Amber was Oriental and Arther made an amazing Oreo costume.

Ohio and Oscar the grench.

One of the most memorable parties of all times, for me, was in Asheville, NC right before a good friend moved to Oregon for grad school. In her honor an "O" party was thrown. Everyone was asked to dress in costumes beginning with the letter O.

The party was an amazing success! People went above and beyond with their costumes, and in fact, the party was so impressionable for me, I have always wanted to throw an O party of my own. So, finally 4 1/2 years later I did. This time the reason for the occasion was October, not someone moving, so their was no element of sadness just a fun filled evening of enjoying everyone's creative costumes. Just like "O" party #1 the costumes were dynamite.

Here are some photos: unfortunately, many of the amazing costumes were not properly documented!

Those costumes included: oragami, oragami paper crane, and an owl.

home

2011-09-06T19:15:00.006-08:00

It is good to be home.

Since returning from our summer whirlwind we've begun a different sort of whirlwind. Aaron and I have both been busy juggling life somewhere in the midst of our 10-11 hour work days. We've been have been thrown back into work, coaching, responsibilities we'd forgotten we'd ever had and those daily and weekly routines, but somehow we're managing. This weekend we even squeezed in a nice hike.

Aaron wanted to take me up Arrowhead, a hike that somehow even after 4+ years living here I had never climbed! And boy it was exactly what I needed. It was breathtaking up there crossing the ridge, tucked in between the countless mountain peeks.

The beauty touched my spirits, reminded me of the uniqueness of our life here and how good it was to be home.

Bikin' Down a Dream

2011-07-15T18:06:00.006-08:00

Here is a four minute video Aaron made to give the appropriate feel to our trip! It is set to a tune that you most likely will recognize and one we found ourselves singing throughout the ride.

the final days...

2011-07-11T10:32:00.010-08:00

Kristin and her folks at their beautiful home in Missoula!
Pete and Rachel came to visit in Missoula! Kristin's sister took this photo, we didn't really try to match like this.

Us at the top of the pass on our victory lap through Glacier National Park!Me and Aaron at the top of the pass!

The pickup! No more biking, Kristin's sister to the rescue (don't get me wrong we loved every minute of the trip) it was just good to be done.

We were picked up by the Park Rangers because we were 15 minutes late biking off the road, thank goodness no fine.

View on the bike ride up Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun road.

Aaron and David!

Kristin, Aaron, me, Shelly and David in Glacier, friends reunited!

We made it!

Me and my celebratory single scoop of ice cream.

One break we took somewhere on the road.

day 19:
We made it! We arrived in Glacier National Park on Thursday afternoon. Kristin biked with vengeance as we pulled up to a restaurant in Glacier that had a neon light reading CONES in big letters. "I think this is the place we used to come for ice cream" she stated as she walked right in and told me to order her a double scoop of Huckleberry ice cream. "Have you ever been her before" the soda jerk asked me. "This is one scoop" he explained to me as he continued to stuff more and more ice cream into the cone. When Kristin came back from the bathroom I asked her I asked her if she still wanted a double scoop. She looked at me and asked if I was getting a double, no way I said laughing. The single was HUGE!

After our ice cream we headed to meet the Kindigs, Shelley's family (who just so happened to be in Glacier for a family reunion) at the campground. They weren't there to be our greeting committee right when we arrived so we attempted to entertain ourselves, just as we were deciding to head down to the lake and take a swim they appeared. What a greeting we received, question after question was thrown our way as we all made our way down to the glacier feed lake for a swim. That night was a delight as we hung out with the family, played music and ate smores. Nearly 1300 miles later we arrived at our final destination and boy did it feel good.

The next day we made our victory lap. We took off bright at early at 7am to head up toward the pass on Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park. To our advantage the road was closed to everyone but pedestrians and bicyclers from mile 16 on so we made our way up the pass vehicle free from that point forward. At mile 25 they had the road closed to everyone and we sat and absorbed the beauty for quite some time before making our way down and to the very same restaurant we had stopped at the day before for ice cream for our final celebratory burger and ice cream. The next day we packed up to hit the road one more day. Thank goodness that same day for Kristin's sweet sister, Kelly, who rescued us from a crazy head wind and horrible roads with no shoulder to take us back to Missoula where we would hang out with Kristin's family and meet up with Rachel, a former roommate and dear friend, and her husband Pete, who now live in Boseman. It felt good to be off the bike and in the social zone after weeks of entertaining ourselves.

Overall I wouldn't do the trip any differently. Beautiful sites and people, the trip was a gift on so many different levels. Thanks for reading alongside me.

day 14 - 18!

2011-07-05T13:42:00.011-08:00

Who's who?

Last night in Fort Steele :)

On the road again!
Hobos for the 3rd, a 93-mile bike ride for the 4th!
The sites... still gorgeous!
Our secret campground we chanced upon, our favorite one yet, plus it was free!

Yikes! We are on day 18! 1 more day until GLACIER, then no more biking! We have traveled 1170ish miles so far and only have 76 left!

A lot has happened in a little time these days. Saturday we left Lake Louise and headed off back into beautiful oblivion. We biked our little legs off and with a late start time (of noon) that meant 50 miles! It was delightful ride day and we landed upon the most perfect campground where I might have had the most random dinner of my life: canned ravioli we dipped with tortilla chips and cheese and salsa tortillas!

The next day we were off bright and early because we wanted to beat the heat. We did alright, we beat the heat right into a giant rain storm. Thankfully the storm came 4 miles outside of Raidum Hot Springs, (where we wabbled in frozen solid into the hot tubs). Here we were planning on taking a "rest day" however we don't rest so well. This so called "rest day" consisted of a 40-mile bike, a 2km straight uphill climb to our campsite, a hike down to the hot springs and back up, less restful. The night ended with hobos, yum!

Day 17, Monday was awesome. We biked a grand total of 93 miles, but 70 of them was done before our 2pm ice cream date in Wasa. We lounged in Wasa all afternoon at a lovely lake, took a nap, swam, and then another round of burgers before our 20 mile evening ride to our campsite.

We crashed hard last night and today, day 18, we ended back in the U S of A! Boy is it different than Canada! Just 9 miles across the border we landed in the biggest store we've been in the entire trip, plus we lost our wide shoulder and beautiful road and we had our first person yell at us from their car. Canada was good to us. Hopefully Montana will improve. We have another 16 miles to do this evening and then 61 miles tomorrow until we reach West Glacier and do our victory ride through the park.

Highlights on the trip: the people we've met, the stories we've made and songs we've sung, the surprises, ice cream shops and bakeries that have appeared along the way

Wildlife (so far): many a deer and elk, 3 black bears, 1 fox, 1 wolf and 3 big horn sheep

Road kill: 13 birds, 2 deer and a possum

Burger count: 27

Favorite songs to sing: Running Down a Dream and Into the Great Wide Open both by Tom Petty

Thanks for following along. Wish everyone could have been along for the ride. More to come...

Rest Day! (and day 11-13)

2011-07-01T18:49:00.006-08:00

Aaron and me at Earl's, a delicious cafe on top of the world in Jasper!

A fun shot of three mnts and three bikes. Who's who?

Kristin on top of today's pass!

Today on the bike.

Part of rest day fun... here is Kristin giving the slack line a shot.

Group shot! (they are hard to come by!)

Yesterday's pass!

Aaron and me at Lake Louise!

Lake Louise

First off, rest days have got to be the best days! On Tuesday of this week we took one. Who knew we were so wiped out. I was having so much fun biking I didn't know my body need to re-coup, well it did, big time. Tuesday we took a much deserved day off... a day of fun in Jasper. We wished we had a week of fun in Jasper, awesome town!

Jasper is a town much like Sitka (in my opinion). Nice people everywhere, tourist everywhere, fun things to do everywhere, unpredictable weather, plus yummy food. It was the best resting spot, except that we didn't rest much. We checked out the local bike shop, incredible! Then the brewery, delicious as well as ice cream and a sweet little restaurant that sat on top of the town as we watched the world go by. After leaving the restaurant we became friends with a group of locals, Eric, Jasmine and James who were slack lining. We all gave it a shot, Aaron was actually quite good, and thankfully no one got flossed! (There is a picture of slack lining above, and you probably won't have to think to hard to figure out what flossed means).

The following day, day 11 on the bike, was harder. After a delicious breakfast of huge tasty sticky bun (almost as popular on this trip as the burger) at the local bakery, The Bear Paw, we were back on the road. Magical morning tail wind did not take place and we moved like slugs. At mile 48 we called through in the towel and set up camp at a mosquito infested campground and cooked dinner as we swatted at bugs and pleaded with "the vampires" as Aaron calls them.

Day 12 was slow go as well. We were hoping for a mega day but it didn't quite happen that way, fortunately. The weather was against us, BIG TIME, and we found ourselves plopped down in the middle of a cafe, napping and drying out gear and eating over priced less delicious foods that at least weren't nuts and berries, power bars or peanut butter, foods we find ourselves eating more than we would like. After our 3 1/2 hour stint at the cafe we finally ventured out into the weather for one final push to the campground. We meet lots and lots of people at the campground and found ourselves laughing by huge, very warm fire for the remainder of the night hanging out with people from all over. It was a great ending to a long cold wet day.

Today we had a GORGEOUS day on the bike and off. Today we landed in the cute community of Lake Louise where the tourist almost out number the trees, but the beauty here is a strong reflection of why. Aaron made a comment at dinner tonight of where else on earth would you find so many people coming just to look at the natural beauty of a place. Maybe the Grand Canyon could compare?

The bike in today was quick, 38 miles total, Kristin didn't want it to end because of the beauty of everything. The morning started with us climbing a big pass in the snow (elevation 7,000ft), that ended up not being as scary as we had thought, and then a quick, cold descent into Lake Louise. We hopped right off the bike, and headed on a 11k hike up to a tea house. We shared the trail with horses, climbers and people from all over the world. In terms of beauty, this day took the cake. We can't wait to see what tomorrow is going to bring, but we are also really looking forward to a long hard night of sleep!

day 8 -10 Sat., Sun., Monday

2011-06-28T10:19:00.006-08:00

Aaron is an amazing photographer!

Burger time at crazy cones, this is our halfway point and we celebrated with burgers and ice cream!

This is the beauty I'm talking about!

Here is some more beauty...

And more loveliness, it keeps coming! And they say it is just going to get better!

Oops, wanted to state that I accidentally combined day 5/6 on my last blog, being a 86 mile long day I realized somehow in the blur of trying to blog quickly due to the time table allowed in the library. Anyhow, I think I have corrected the mistake.

And speaking of blur these last few days have been a blur of beauty. I can't describe all that we have seen and experienced but it has been breathtaking. Around every bend has been something more spectacular than the second before. We have been spending lots and lots of time on the bike. One day we were riding for 8 hours for a grand total of 100 miles. Yes, the burger count is growing, 22 patties, 20 burgers. And today we have found ourselves in Jasper, a quaint picture perfect town. Deservedly, we are taking a day off. A day of rest.

The hills, mountains are coming so wish us the best...

day 4 - day 7

2011-06-24T13:02:00.003-08:00

Our campground at Mark's.

Mark the photographer, took this photo of all 3 of us, our 1st and only one.

Kristin and I trip planning.

Our campground last night, outside of Prince George.

Me and Aaron

What is Canadian Food?

How many burgers can one eat before becoming sick of burgers?

How is "Ah" supposed to be used ah?

If one (ah hum, Kristin) has to spend $550 fixing a bike that you are going to replace soon anyway, should you just spend $1000 plus %12 sales tax on a new one?

These are all questions that we are trying hard to have answered on this trip. So far we have one answered, yes, spend the money on a new bike! The others as of now go unanswered.

So the miles plug forward, the first 4 days were sunny and luxurious, these last few have been rainy and chilly, but some how we manage. The burger count is now at 13 total. Today we opted for a buffet, Aaron's choice, and now regret (he is currently lying on a couch in the Prince George Public Library.

Day 4 we departed Smithers, one of our many happy places and spent the night 67 miles later in Topley a cute extremely tiny landing where we became friends with maybe half the town, Leanne the Topley Grocery employee and Mark a photographer and kind man who let us stay in his yard, which he used to open as a campground.

Day 5 our sun ended but not before Kristin and Aaron managed to get a sunburn. Kristin looked very red and white, just like Canada (and her new bike!) with the combination of bug bits vs. sun burn. We also cranked out an 86 mile day and landed in the evening in Fraser Lake a community not much larger than Topley after getting caught in a big storm. Kristin and I ate Chinese food at a place called Tony's, bad idea. Not seconds after we set up our tent that night a massive thunder storm hit, we were warm and cozy in our tents. The storm was awesome, being able to count the number of times I've send lighting on one hand in Sitka, it was so wonderful to experience a thunderstorm again. In the morning something magical happened, something I call magical morning tail wind. We zipped out of Fraser lake so quickly. We were averaging 15+ miles per hour, very fast for our typical 12 mph maybe pace and ended up at the most lovely community of Burns Lake. At Burns Lake we realized the severity of Kristin's need to replace her bike part. Kristin and I discovery the most delicious organic restaurant where we got Portabella burgers (do those count as burgers?) and Aaron found a greasy burger spot where he became friends with Lyle and Lawrence, old loggers from the area.

Day 7 was the uneventful day. At least that is what I said it was, uneventful. Kristin and Aaron thought otherwise. I guess when I said uneventful I meant easy breezy. We just rolled out of bed, slowly, cooked up breakfast, again slowly, experienced more magical morning tail wind, hung out in Vonderhoof for 3 hours eating, you guessed it, burgers and Aaron paid a lady to do our laundry, biked some more and then set up camp before supper, fire and bed. Uneventful or easy breezy, you decide?!

Today is Day 8, very eventful. We had magical morning tail wind this morning, a Chinese buffet (every bit is eventful, what is it?) and Kristin just bought a bike! A beautiful red and white Canadian bike to serve as a trip momentum. No pictures as of yet because the guy at the bike shop who we are calling Bruce because we haven't figure out his name yet, is putting all her gear on it now, but it will come.

So overall, a delightful trip in every way shape and form.

And to sign off, an observation. I call the phenomenon "man conventions." These are very prevalent around here. In each restaurant we go to we find ourselves surrounded by large parties of 15-20 males. Is it Canada? Is it because we are in logging country? Is it the restaurant selections we have been making?

Odd.

day 4 update

2011-06-21T11:16:00.004-08:00

Me at Emily's bakery in Petersburg, AK. This is one of the towns where our ferry stopped. Adorable!

Me and Aaron taking a snack break!

Our campsite the first night in Terrace, 91 miles from the ferry terminal in Prince Rupert.

Me and Kristin following the Skeena River

Well Canada and Canadians are a delight. If you are every lacking on a vacation destination it comes highly recommended.

We are on day 4 of our bike trip since we arrived in Prince Rupert on the ferry.

Day one was delightful. We road 91 miles with a tail wind the entire day. We collapsed in our tents after gobbling burgers at Mr. Mikes. YUM! (My veggi ways have disappeared for this trip)!

Day 2 we were weary, sluggish but we plugged forward for approximately 60 miles before collapsing at the most beautiful campsite of all time atop a hill over looking the Skeena River.

Yesterday, Day 3, 60 miles later we arrived in Smithers and here we stay eating and swimming and saunaing and hot tubing and eating some more. We are waiting for a bike part to arrive for Kristin's bike and couldn't be more happy about it.

We hope to get around 60 more miles in this afternoon, it is the solstice after all so we'll be fine on light. I've coined the trip the burger tour and we seem to have never run out of room in our bellies. Aaron just bought a box of doughnuts, and I see him outside the window globing them so I am going to join him now. I hope to give a more detailed update in Jasper, so check back then!

Oh, and has anyone ever heard of the expression "muscles in your poo?" We were told that is what we would have after this bike trip... :0)

Packing List

2011-06-15T22:53:00.006-08:00

Aaron's bike

The trailer Aaron and I are going to pull

My bike

Tomorrow Aaron, Kristin and I depart on the M/V Matanuska ferry to Prince Rupert for a 1200 mile bike trip on the Yellowhead highway 16 where we will bike through Banff, Jasper and end in Glacier national park. This trip we have been planning and anticipating since last summer. We can't wait to begin. We will be our bikes for 3 weeks, 21 total days and are planning to average around 60-miles per day give or take.

Last year about this time my buddy Heang took a cross country bike trip. And though I was unable to go with him I enjoyed reading about his trip via blog. His initial pre-trip blog consisted of a packing list that I use in the early stages of forming my packing list for this trip. Using Heang's model I hope to give you an idea of the 45 pounds of gear we are bringing to make the trek possible.

Equipment List

Bike:
A beautiful orange Orbea that I bought with my first teaching paycheck almost 7 years ago!

Bike Accessories:

fenders
sweet handlebar bag (it is on loan from Bill the owner of Yellow Jersey, the bike shop here in town) and nice rear bag
fenders
tail lights
a reflective triangle

Trailer:

a two wheel cycle tote Aaron bought at a garage sale and paid $125 for last fall, it weighs approximately 25# but has an incredible breaking system so we don't have to worry about fishtailing when we cycle down the Rockies

camping equipment:

MSR hubba hubba 2-man tent with footprint
my dad's old down sleeping bag he bought after college in a new OR waterproof compression sack
Thermarest 2-lite (a wedding gift)
Coleman dual fuel stove (another wedding gift)
various quick dry towels
an old Petzl headlamp Aaron bought at a garage sale last weekend (thank goodness all our other ones have either disappeared or stopped working)
Pur waterfilter
nike running bag
1 large waterproof stuff sack, just in case
Chamious butt'er (for chafing)

Clothes:

2 cycling shorts
2 jerseys (Heang gave me one, Mike Pruett the other)
1 OR baselayer
1 OR rainjacket and rainpaints - both black
1 pair of nike running shorts and running shirt for when I am not biking
a skirt, great idea Kristin!
tights
1 synthetic hoodie
4 pairs of wicking underware
2 sports bras
3 bike socks
1 smartwool socks
1 tank top for sleeping
OR mittens
trek biking gloves
ip arm warmers
teva flip flops
ip biking shoes designed also for hiking post ride
some old sunglasses

Bike stuff:

1 spare tube
1 spare tire
patch kit
2 multitools
lots of zip ties
lube
break cable
gear shift cable
and a random assortment of other goodies like a trailer nut (this is not Aaron by the way)

Other items include:

Canon power shot SD1300
lots and lots of Clif bars, goos and shot blocks for quick energy
sports drink mix
other food items
hygiene products
Aaron's cell phone for texting and emergencies
leatherman
mini first aid kit

Partners in crime:

My wonderful husband
and dear friend Kristin

Now off to the races...

205 crabapple drive

2011-06-14T14:44:00.007-08:00

i

Well our house remodel/face lift #1 is finished, for the most part, for now. The projects since Dec. 1 when we purchased the home have been continual: ripping out walls, drywall, floors, trim, lighting, a fresh coat of paint on every square inch of the house minus the laundry room and ceilings and various other odds and ends including shelving in the garage and closets. Right now Aaron is in our crawl space drilling holes for ventilation. And we still have a growing list of projects, but for now here are some photos to enjoy. We also had the joys of dog sitting a sweet dog name Trout whom you'll notice in the first photo, not much of a swimmer, but sure is cute! Enjoy!

husbandless, a poem

2011-05-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

busy season?!

I guess Spring is the busy season,
at least it seems so for my husband!

who is a committed member of the Sitka high track coaching staff:
jumping coach,
8th season!

(His attention span is obviously longer than mine)

Last weekend he flew out to Ketchican for a track meet.

Right now he is in Juneau,
he ferried out on Wednesday afternoon
and I think he gets back today (it is Sunday),
it's hard to keep the dates straight,
cus' next weekend I'll do it again...

when the team ferries to Haines
and then the weekend after that when the teams is in Juneau for regions,
the dates and times tend to get all fuzzy after all that shuffle

Yes, Spring is the busy season,
at least for my husband!

He will miss Fairbanks for state
because the day after he gets back from regions
he has to boat out to Biorka
he'll be there for work for 10 days
to teach school in a little cedar schoolhouse.

Absolutely, Spring is the busiest season,
at least for one person whom I happen to know pretty well.

work!

2011-04-29T15:32:00.016-08:00

I am one week out until my much anticipated SUMMER! May 6th I will find myself with 4 months off before I return to my current job working at Mount Edgecumbe High School as a Recreation Staff.

Mount Edgecumbe is a public boarding school made up of 95% Alaska natives. Students come here from villages all over the state. Here I meet students who are ESL and grew up speaking Yupik at home and many of which speak in very different English dialects. They love saying phrases like "I jokes" and "not eeeeeeven" and come from villages like Eeek, Chefernak, Tuntutulak and from places as far away as Diomede Island, closer to Russia than the US. These students grew up hunting walrus and eating seal oil and whale and the closest they've been to a mall is seeing them on TV. They spend there summers at camp, fish camp, where they go upriver to catch and dry fish with their extended families, gathering gallons and gallons of low bush berries and telling stories. They tell stories of little people and of big people laughing until tears come.

In terms of my job itself, it is perfect for me and my ESFJ personality type. I am one of 4 staff that are paid to hang out with kids, the most sweet respectful kids I've ever met. Together we plan activities for the students who live in the dorms. This year I've had the pleasure of running the rockwall, being the Athabaskan Dance group adviser, organized a school wide Biathlon (run-bike-run), created themes for monthly art competitions, baked lots of new tasty treats, planned triple mountain challenges, taken many kids out kayaking and gone on tons of camping trips. Kayaking and camping are two of the students favorite activities because it reminds them of home. Basically, I do whatever creative thing I can muster up.

But with the ups of the job comes the downs, my schedule is CRAZY. I work swing shift during the week 2-10pm and weekends. Thank goodness this community is filled with others with schedules even more crazy than my own (including my husbands) so its worked just fine. Plus during the dark winter months, I have the daylight hours off work to climb up a hill or go on a kayak of my own.

domestic adventures

2011-03-29T14:50:00.010-08:00

While our friends are out climbing mountains this week Aaron and I have been involved in another sort of adventure, which Aaron calls "domestic adventures."

*Yesterday our focus was the bathroom, notice the new dark hue
*today Aaron ripped out a wall, I painted the spare bedroom cornmeal, prepped for painting the office and painted the medicine cabinet
*tomorrow... oh the list goes on!

Our new brown bathroom:

This is our before photo:

More photos to come...

wedding photos

2011-03-22T19:54:00.008-08:00

A year ago today Aaron proposed. He was coming back from a 9 day stint on Biorka, where he goes to teach English every 6 weeks for 9 days at a time for a drug and alcohol treatment center called Raven's Way. Silly me, I thought we were just going for a hike! I guess looking back on it I should have known, the 3 long stem roses and spouts of poetry was a bit more than usual, even for romantic Aaron. And after beautiful afternoon on the mountain I found Aaron on one knee with a beautiful ring in hand. Directly after the proposal, still atop Verstovia, I received a phone call with word Bird, Tom, Emmett, Delia and Cecil (my aunt, uncle and cousins) were in Ketchikan and would be in Sitka in an hour, surprise! We thought they were arriving the next day!

Because the idea of marriage was still new and scary I didn't think I was quite ready to agree to a lifetime of marital bless, so I didn't say yes immediately. In the typical Emily fashion I had to have some time to "freak out". This "freak out" unlike many previous "freak outs" consisted of prayers galore, sermons, and a few conversations with friends and mentors.

Thankfully I did come to my senses. The day before Easter I picked him up from the airport and told him that if he would still have me, I'd love to be his wife.

Since the proposal my blogging may have diminished but my livelihood has skyrocketed. Marriage, thank goodness, is the life for me!

Here are a small fraction of the millions of beautiful photos that appeared from the event. The big step that I went for, thank goodness! Enjoy the photos!

running in heaven

2011-01-25T14:54:00.011-09:00

I am pretty sure that I write a "blob" (my grandfathers word for blog) on the topic of running regularly, though this is not entirely a blob about running, you will know this if you read the title.

I am also pretty sure that I have included these photos (above) on previous blobs, hopefully my audience, whoever you are out there in cyberland will either a) forgive b) not notice or remember or c) never have read those blobs.

So to explain a little about the photos:

The first of these photos is of me and Geoff Roes, the number one hundred miler in the nation, the day a group of us ran the Chilkoot trail. The second is of me and my closet friend here Emily Buck one beautiful spring day when she asked me if I wanted to run to Medivijie lake and go for a swim. Because the lake was frozen the so called "swim" ended up just being a quick dip in a small hole in the ice!

Needless to say running is by far on the top of the list of things I love to do. I enjoy most all things, especially involving the outdoors, but running is still number one. Truely I think it always has been. I have been doing it constantly since age 7, nearly 21 years to the day. In elementary school I did it because my parents signed me up for it after I quit gymnastics on the notion that I could sign up for YMCA track. In junior high and high school I did it because I was good at it. In college I did it because it was what I knew. Post college I ran to debrief work, plus I typically had something on the race calendar. Now I do it for all of those reasons, well that and the numerous beautiful trails which engulf my home.

Just this past week I bumped into my neighbor who asked me how long I wnet out each day. I didn't have an answer. I just go. Somedays that means putting along feeling as if I am barely moving, other days I run an out and back checking my watch trying to outrun the day before. On pretty days I take trails that take me up, so I can overlook the ocean and the colors on the water. When it is raining I go deep into the woods to hide under the trees, but always I run.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about Emily who has been unable to run for the past 9 months due to a obscure injury, with only one surgeon in the country who even attempts the surgery. I miss heading out on the trails with her as we share life and laughter as we twist along the trail. However I know she misses it much more, like an old friend. I wish I had the right words to share to ease the hurt from that missing piece in her life, sometimes I feel as if I am the only person that truly understands the size of her loss and because of it I am reminded of the fragileness of a life which comes no guarantees.

Knowing and trying to understand her suffering brings me closer to my humainity and makes me long for heaven, a place where we will never have to suffer anymore. A place we will feast with our King, and a place where if we want we will always have beautiful trails to go running on with our friends.

ice skating on swan lake

2011-01-12T17:40:00.002-09:00

According to my husbands fancy new weather station that his dad got him for Christmas it is 21 degrees outside. Despite what you might think about southeast Alaskan living this is NOT NORMAL. Normally it is 43 degrees and raining. So today when we saw the lake frozen for the second time of the winter off to the lake we went. In hand our fancy White E $5 dollar ice skates not easily confused with the comfort skates from L.L. Bean.

The learning curve for ice skating is a lot like skiing, easy to learn but difficult to master. I've got a lot of learning to do!

the moon

2011-01-04T16:04:00.005-09:00

Here is a photo Aaron took of the lunar eclipse that took place on Dec. 21st

How often do you think of the moon? For me, recently, quite often. It all began a few weeks ago during the much discussed winter solstice lunar eclipse which according my many sources was the first in hundreds of years. This lunar eclipse also happened to take place one of the 3 nights of the year that Swan lake was frozen. And since I was in Alaska, unlike the rest of the country, I didn't have to stay up too late to watch it. Needless to say I was one of 100s of people out skating on the lake when it happened. Some people set up bonfires, video cameras, and even laid out bed mattresses to watch. It was okay, the moon turned orange, then red and finally it disappeared... I went to bed and when I woke up again at 1am it was back to normal.

Then this weekend at church my pastor brought up the moon. He showed us photos and quoted various astronauts. It was the illustration he chose to use to put humankind into perspective and then to put Jesus, the creator of the moon and the Earth into perspective. It was a lovely sermon.

Last night was my most recent moon episode. It was in my dream. My husband and one of his friends (I can't remember who) decided they were going to take a space shuttle into outer space. They wanted me to come with them. I told them over and over that I didn't want to go to the moon, that I wasn't courageous like them, I was too afraid. I am not going to try to interpret that dream, but if it happens again where my husband hops on a space shuttle headed toward the moon, I am going with him!

An Alaskan Freezer

2010-11-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

In the above photo you see my freezer. I wish I would have done a better job with the photo. All you can see is the berries, bananas and ice cream (Tillamook Chocolate Peanut Butter rules around here). On the top shelf you find King salmon all sealed and vacuum packed and the door is loaded down with vension.)

This summer something happened that hasn't happened in my 3+ years here in Sitka, I now have a true Alaskan freezer! This means the contents of my freezer is overflowing with foods locally caught, shot or picked. Currently I have 3 king salmon, (each about 15ish pounds of meat) caught by yours truly (okay my husband caught two of them) venison (not as much of this because we don't have a riffle yet) so we rely on others good will and finally lots of lots of berries.

Late summer early fall every year berries come. A few years ago there were tons of salmonberries, last year there were lots of huckleberries, this year the berry of choice has been blueberries. We had blueberries everywhere!!! Sitka had more blueberries than we knew what to do with, many of the berries were never picked many of this seasons berries ended up unpicked and rotted on the vine.

After picking pounds upon pounds of berries came the question what was I going to do with them all??

I made my share of muffins and crisps, but I discovered my love: blueberry banana smoothies!!!

Here my 2 most delicious of recipes (they don't have to be handpicked berries) but if they are look out for the worms... blueberries are notorious!

Recipe #1 (my first discovery)
1/4 c. of blueberries
1 frozen banana (this must be frozen it brings out the sweetness!)
soy milk or almond milk - regular milk is just okay
a few sprinkles of ground ginger

Recipe #2 (I think this is a really good one for cold season, plus just stinking delicious)
1/4 c. of blueberries
1 frozen banana
orange juice
vanilla yogurt

Recipes for salmon and venison upon request, though I still don't feel like an expert in this field.

a blog about a wedding

2010-10-21T11:22:00.004-08:00

This summer, as most of you know, I was married. I guess I always knew that I would get married, but never did I EVER imagine getting married in Alaska. But nor did I ever envision myself living here!? However, now I find that both have taken place.

At first the location of the wedding seemed impossible to decide. If married here I would compromise who could come, loved ones near and dear to me would not be able to attend. But South Carolina still didn't make sense. I hadn't lived there in 10 years, Aaron knew no one, minus my parents, grandparents and brother, and the remainder of my friends and family were spread out all over the country. But did Sitka make sense? It was so far away for both of our families, not to mention expensive. Plus Sitka doesn't even have a venue for the occasion?

However, in everyway Sitka was the perfect marriage spot for us. It was perfect in everyway but one which is impossible: that EVERYONE we know and love couldn't be there with us. Though that imperfection makes me excited about Heaven, where we will all be together!

Thanks to all those who helped make it happen! Thanks to those who sent cards and came to parties. Thanks to those who gave gifts and bought plane tickets. Thanks to those who thought about us on our special day. It was special and the memories live on... Now onto the adventures of marriage!

Photos to come...

Bear Lake

2010-10-14T13:26:00.007-08:00

October is not typically the perfect month for hiking. Just this Tuesday we were getting 100 mile and hour wind gusts and roofs were being blown off houses, yes, I saw this! At work I was radioed to come and look at the kayaks that had been blown off the rack and had big dents knocked in them. However fortunately this week I found some wonderful windows of hiking opportunities. These are the photos from yesterday's hike, Bear Lake which I had not climbed since April 28th, 2009! My previous hike on this mountain snow covered the alpine and ice covered the lake. This time, fall colors were out in all their Alaskan glory!

Birthday hike

2010-10-11T09:34:00.003-08:00

the snow is back

2010-10-05T11:08:00.003-08:00

While on a hike with Em on a beautiful fall day in September (we had 2 weeks of glorious sunshine and 70 degree temperatures... not normal) we decided we should have our friends all try to guess the first day snow would hit Verstovia peak. Verstovia Mnt. is in a sense the momma mountain here in Sitka. It is the backdrop of the town and frequents all photos.

When I returned from the hike I immediately put out an email to our friends. The responses then began to trickle in. Yesterday I woke up and on my run it was confirmed, the snow had arrived. Snow had hit the Sisters, covered Bear and Clarance Kramer and yes it had also dusted the top of Verstovia.

Oct. 3rd was the winning date, the snow is now back! The mountains will probably not be clear from snow again until sometime in June or July. Winter has arrived on the mountain top.

Welcome Home

2010-08-25T15:27:00.003-08:00

Well it has been a summer and now it is becoming a fall.

This all became official last week when Aaron and I returned from our HONEYMOON in Victoria, BC and jumped right into work. Currently I am employed at Mount Edgecumbe High school, a boarding school for students all over the state. 90% + of those students are Alaska native and they come from small villages all over the state. My job at the school is to be a recreation coordinator. This consists of planning activities for these students to participate in and then leading them in the activity. It actually doesn't seem like work at all. I hang out with some of the kindest high schoolers in the country and take them out into the wilderness.

This summer was a whirlwind. I was in a huge push to finish my grad program! Which I did!!! And if that wasn't enough I planned a wedding. I also moved, twice, and hosted 36 friends and family here in Sitka for a week. All of these things were wonderful, well minus the grad school, but now I am glad things are settling down. Today I spent the morning picking huckleberries and catching up on errands. It is good to be home.

water, whales and dreams

2010-05-23T08:59:00.004-08:00

Before moving to Sitka I was a mountain girl all the way. I loved snowboarding, hiking, trails, the way the blue glow shined as the sun came up and went down across the the Blue Ridge Mountains. I loved having something painted the foreground while I biked along the blue ridge parkway, I loved the leaves changing in the fall and I loved the music that came from the mountains.

Since moving to Sitka I have realized that I am just as much a water girl. I love swimming and paddling and I love hearing the whales sing their songs. This past winter I made the best purchase since my arrival in Sitka, a kayak. I bought a 20 foot expedition boat. Since the purchase of Whale Song (it's name) it has taken me to remote forest service cabins and on quick day trips to remote sunny beaches where I sit and watch the seals and otters come alive. This week it will take it first multi night adventure to our resident volcano on an adjacent island.

On my kayak's maiden voyage I took my new kayak out with dozens of humpbacks spraying swimming alongside my boat. Now in this summer season I feel a since of loss without the whales here. Spring and fall and even winter the humpbacks are very active and I watch them feed along the coast and hear them sing from atop mountains but in the summer the whale activity is low.

Since their departure I have kept the whales with me in my dreams. I dream about kill whales and humpbacks. I dream about giant Orca pods arriving in town and men and Orcas falling in love. The water has become a part of my blood just as much as the mountains have stolen my heart.

what's the weather like?

2010-04-29T19:41:00.003-08:00

In Sitka we are obsessed with the weather. It is funny because most of the time the weather is the same: cloudy and cool with a light rain. If it weren't the whole world would live here, it is truly indescribable beauty. I had a friend who finally escaped Europe after the volcano eruption who said it was impossible to give the beauty here any justice. Just yesterday the mountains were all glowing in a way I had never seen them glow, this beautiful red color was radiating off the mountains to the southeast and to the northwest the sunset was rippling across the ocean in a million and one colors with a snow peeked volcanoe as the back drop. So the purpose of this posts isn't to brag about Sitka's beauty but to decribe how different I have climatized here.

So when the sun comes to Sitka, the town refuses to be indoors. Never would you ever sit inside on a sunny day, it just doesn't happen, only for those unfortunate workers trying to make a living, and a handful of those call in sick, sun days as opposed to snow days have been brought to school board meetings several times. So this week in Sitka, the weather took a turn for summer, it was in the upper fifties, sunny and beautiful. With this heat wave on Tuesday I hit the trail, excited to be wearing a cotton t-shirt. However right after I headed out the door I noticed that my run was almost unbearably warm. I felt much like a puffy marshmallow and swollen all over. My south carolina childhood almost seemed like a dream than a reality. How did I ever believe that I used to live a life where 5_ was a cool day? And Wednesday, after my run I also found myself putting on sandals to bike to work when the temperature gage still read 47 degrees. So weather is relative. What once was winter is now a warm summer day.

Today again unfortunately our weather turned cold and windy. Not that that kept me from my run, in fact I felt much stronger. I carved off 3 1/2 minutes from my balmy Tuesday run.

Spotted Pony

2010-03-24T10:29:00.003-08:00

To all my fellow banjo playing friends out there. Here is a tune you have got to learn, it is called Spotted Pony:

The Year of the Baby

2010-03-23T18:09:00.007-08:00

So I know in China this year is the year of the tiger, however in my life it is the year of the baby. It all happened again this morning when I awoke to my cell phone beeping. I checked my voicemail and one of my dear friends and former college roommates left this message (make sure you tag a south accent onto it because she sure has it):

"Emily I'm calling you at 8:15 am my time which I know is 4:15 your time, but I don't really care at this point because I've been calling you multiple times this past month and you just never call me back. But I am going to have to go ahead and say this over the phone. I wanted to tell you in person but I'm going to have to tell you now cause who knows when you're going to call me back. Dale and I are going to have a baby. I am four months pregnant. Again sorry I had to tell you over the phone, by now you might already know if you talked to Amy or Brian or anybody...."

Well I hadn't talked to Amy or Brian, but I was not surprised. Not at all. So far this year my two best friends from high school: Jeannie and Rachel, my two roommates from college: Amy and Katie, my dear friend Brooke who I was the maid of honor in her wedding, as well as both of my cousins Anne and Rachel, have been pregnant or had a child.

So after a run with my roommate Emily I went ahead and finished Brooke's baby gift, because now Katie had stepped in line. Little Blueberry's gift (Blueberry is what Brooke and Derrick temporary name for their baby) can be seen above. This is what you call a Mei Tai Baby Carrier. If you google just that you should be able to find a pattern. And if you have any questions feel free to send them my way because I haven't stopped making them all year!

Sitka Folk

2010-03-22T10:03:00.007-08:00

Yeah for Sitka Folk and all the people that are involved to keep it up and going, cough, Lon Garrison and Ted Howard. I clam to be involve, but typically just sit at meetings and listen to the groups they've booked and get excited about bringing fantastic groups to Sitka. This year they have gone ABOVE and BEYOND their line of duty. April Verch and Crooked Still being two major reasons. We had nearly a packed house at each show, which is HUGE for Sitka and our 8,000 person town. April Verch was here this past week and knocked my socks off and everybody elses. She is a fiddle playing, step-foot dancing, singing phenomenon. I recommend her and her bands latest album Seal the Blue if you don't already own. it. My favorite is track 11, He's holding onto Me, it's hauntingly beautiful.

Sitka folk is such a BLESSING to me here and inspiring to all who attend the shows. THANK you SITKA FOLK!!

And for all you non island dwellering alaska living friends, I don't get introduced to a lot of new music up here so please always feel free to pass on groups, people I need to know about! And then maybe even with some luck Sitka Folk could help get them up here!

retiring fabulous

2010-03-22T09:32:00.006-08:00

So for the last hmmm... 2 years or so fabulous has been my favorite word. This may be longer actually?

Well for years it has frequented my vocabulary. I haven't done a daily count, but I would say it flowed freely out of my mouth out as I expressed myself and feelings. I would have called it my favorite word. Recently, however, this is not the case. I have adopted a new word.

Like fabulous it:
*is fantastic to say,
*it is a positive describing word (adjective),
*it begins with an f and finally
*it is three syllables

If you haven't guess it already the word is... fantastic.

This word has been used recently because:

1) The weather outside has been so sunny and glorious,
2) It is SPRING BREAK
3) April Verch came to town
4) My aunt, uncle, and three cousins will be here in 4 days
5) Herring season is here which means so are the whales

Things that are less fantastic:

1) I still haven't finished my taxes,
2) It is NOT spring break for grad school
3) I have to write a grant, scary!
4) And I have to work on job applications.

2 Love Stories

2010-02-15T12:32:00.008-09:00

So this post has nothing to do with my wild and crazy Alaskan adventures though I do hope to publish some of those soon because they have been happening, despite the LACK OF SNOW! All you lower 48ers have taken our snow this year! Instead this post tells of 2 people in my family and a little bit of the life they walked.

Story #1:

Last year on January 17, 2009 someone very near and dear to our family pasted away, she died on her 110th birthday and lived a wild and courageous life growing up on the plains, moving to Oregon and then Wyoming to live and teach 50 years on Indian reservations. Her name was Aunt Monnie, and she had 4 sisters. She was my great aunt. She never married. She loved horses, had beautiful penmanship, loved fashion, and a fabulous story teller, up until even the day that she died. She stood at 4'9'' tall and weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 pounds and her shoe size was that of a child.

This winter I made earrings for each of her nieces and gave them as Christmas presents in remembrance of her life. Here is a photo of the earrings. The earrings were made out of a necklace that was willed to my mother when she died. I wish I had taken a photo of the necklace before I disassembled, ah retrospect. It was a multi-chained necklace made mainly out of coral and had these birds, frogs, and turtles as the accents. It was much more elaborate than anything I have ever worn and it was just one of many of her pieces of jewelry. She was always dressed to the nines, up until the day that she died.

Story #2:

Aunt Monnie only had one sister who was married, Dorthy. Yesterday this love letter for Dorthy, written by my great-grandfather, the man that she would eventually marry, arrived in my inbox from my Aunt Bird. It was written in 1925 to my great grandmother who apparently was living in Oklahoma at the time. The letter was written from Flat Rock, Tennessee. Obviously Dorthy returned my great grandfathers sentiments, at least eventually. Someday I hope to hear the rest of the story. You can click on the photos for a larger image. Enjoy.

Born to be a rockstar!

2010-01-27T16:59:00.007-09:00

When I was home for Christmas Aaron looked through all 20 of my childhood photo albums, he then preceded to pull out his favorites and try to find just the right lighting and angle to take descent pictures of them. This particular photo was my favorite of his favorites. It is a picture of me, my little brother Joseph, and my dad. It make me happy to see this glimpse of one of my favorite childhood memories, listening to my dad sing his songs. Often times I hear myself still singing along to those same old tunes he used to sing, and now I find myself sharing them with my friends. Maybe I wasn't born to be a rockstar, but I know I was born to sing and make music with friends.

Bear Mountain

2010-01-26T16:23:00.005-09:00

Above the trees
reaching for the apogee
staring at the sea
vividly
joie de vie

Roommate Trip

2009-12-18T16:13:00.006-09:00

Our paddle out

Emily Buck with our whale friends

Whale Tail

The roommates with the whales

The river before the trailhead

Sunset on Salmon Lake

Old Growth

The crew

Sunset on our return

Last weekend we took a roommate boomsham in our new kayaks, 3 out of the 4 of us purchased kayaks this past fall. The kayaks have opened up MANY adventure doors and our accessibility is now 10 fold what it once was. This past weekend it was to the salmon lake forest service cabin. To reach Salmon lake we took a 6 mile paddle out to trail head and then a 2 mile hike to the cabin through an old growth forest. Before we hiked the trail to the cabin 2 humpbacks decided to put on a show for us, one word... AMAZING!

And a thanks to ... Emily Buck for her fabulous photography. She makes nearly all my blogs possible.

What did you do for Thanksgiving?

2009-12-03T15:30:00.004-09:00

While the Bradford extended family gathered on the SC coast I also found myself on a beach this Thanksgiving season.

However instead of driving in a car and a staying in a fancy house (not that either of those things are bad) I took a troller, then a seven mile hike across Kruzof Island to a remote cabin with no running water and a wood stove as its source of heat. Instead of sharing the beach with hundreds of other travelers, it was a private beach with the only other people inhabiting it being the nine other people in our party.

While there other than eating the events were many: writing a Alaskan Ballad, endlessness songs, long romantic walks on the beach, giant swings, and having my friends wade through freezing cold 5 foot water at high tide trying to get across an estuary. The culminating event was a fiesta pizza from our local American, Mexican, Italian restaurant.

kayaking with whales

2009-11-22T17:27:00.002-09:00

You know you're in Alaska when...

2009-11-21T08:44:00.005-09:00

You walk up to a group of boys on the playground, one who is lying on a snow mound with his tongue hanging out and ask curiously, "boys what are you up too?" and one urgently responds "We are playing search and rescue, Brain got caught in an avalanche and is buried in the snow so we are digging him out!"

Things I am thankful for:

2009-11-16T14:55:00.006-09:00

#1: SNOW! Which is currently falling softly from the sky. Yesterday we roommates had our first snowball fight of the season. It feels as if hot chocolate and mint tea are here to stay. Here is the view from my bedroom window:

This year I have finally invested in a few things that I should have done years ago, which brings me to the second thing I am thankful for... #2: insulated curtains. This weekend Ben Franklin, yes those are still around, had a large fabric sale, so I made my move. After looking at every fabric in the store I settled on a green, which matches my cobalt blue, fuchsia, and green duvet cover. Now I don't have to move to the far side of the bed away from the window to fall asleep at night.

Which brings me to the 3rd fabulous invention I am thankful for: A space heater! Saturday, the same day I bought my curtain fabric, my sweet boyfriend bought me a space heater. He told me it was insanely cold in my room and how was I ever going to get healthy living like that, so now my room is completely winterized. And I am sometimes getting what they call hot in my room. I didn't even turn on my space heater last night because I had gotten so warm the night before.

#4: Knit scarfs are also a lifesaver around here. In this picture above is the scarf I wear daily. It is one my cousins gave me for Christmas a few years ago, and I have been ever so thankful for it since my move to Sitka. My goal this winter is to become a more fluent knitter. Mittens and socks are my humble goal.

weather

2009-11-14T09:37:00.003-09:00

Saturday November 14, 2009:
Here is the weather for my homes:

Sitka, AK 9:55AM:

44 degrees, feels like 33 degrees, cold and windy

sunrise: 7:42
sunset: 3:49

Total daylight hours: 8 hours and 7 minutes

Asheville, NC 1:56PM:

72 degrees, feels like 72 degrees, sunny

sunrise: 7:05
sunset: 5:24

Total daylight hours: 10 hours and 19 minutes

York, SC 1:57PM:

71 degrees, feels like 71 degrees, sunny

sunrise: 6:59
sunset: 5:20

Total daylight hours: 10 hours and 22 minutes

Reasons I haven't Blogged Lately...

2009-11-14T09:33:00.001-09:00

Excuse #1: It has been too cold in my house and when I type for extended periods my figures get really cold and turn into what feels something close to an ice box. Even just now I just had to blow on my hands to warm them up. It is definitely getting colder here, we even had our first snowfall of the year yesterday!

Excuse #2: I have been terribly sick for the last 2 1/2 weeks, and I am doing good to get myself feed much less able to write in my blog, this too sadly is true! I haven't even been cooking! Which reminds me for all you chiefs out there you'll be impressed with this site.

Excuse #3: It gets dark now at 4:30 in the afternoon and therefore my blogging opportunities has decreases substantially. I don't know why AK insists upon conforming to day lights saving time. I know that Arizona has rebelled, and I think we should follow their lead.

Excuse #4: I think that I might have tried one or two times, but I haven't had much to say, not that my life has been dull and boring, but it might resemble that if one really were to study my recent activity level: I haven't run in months, climbed mountains, or really ventured out much these days. This of coarse being an involuntary choice of action due to an unfortunate series of events.

Middle School Cross Country

2009-10-03T15:57:00.014-08:00

Middle School Hmmm.... Would you go back?

When I was a middle schooler my dream was to be either a camp counselor or a CC coach when I grew up. Well I've done the camp counselor thing for many a summer, but never had I ever been an official CC coach before...

until now,

When I was asked I couldn't turn it down.

Middle School Cross Country isn't too different from High School Cross Country, just they have even more energy, if you can imagine, and the boys are quite a bit shorter.

We had 40 kids come out for the 2009 Blatchley Middle School season, it was the cool thing to do this year. And considering the school only has 300 kids, I now know 1/6th of the students. It was my first official coaching position and a LOT of fun. I couldn't believe that I actually liked middle schoolers, it was something I had avoided for the last 13 years of my life.

On Thursday we traveled to Juneau for our first and last meet of the season. Out of the 100 kids racing 9 students were from Sitka. We walked away with 1 first place overall and 2 first places for the 7th grade category. We also had another 3rd place overall, not bad for the underdogs. Unfortunately for us they did not keep team scores because it was a definite that the Sitka boys beat both Juneau schools, pretty embarrassing considering both schools are twice as large.

Overall coaching and middle school was better than I had envisioned. I am already looking forward to the 2010 season!

Fall Colors

2009-09-30T16:24:00.008-08:00

One of my most appreciated gifts since my move here to Sitka was a big bundle of leaves that had fallen from a wide variety of different types of trees in the NC mountains. Thank you Laura Martin. After 7 falls in the NC mountains, I thought fall colors here in Sitka were a joke. These aren't fall colors they are just some phony rendition.

In Sitka our primary trees are conifers: Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, and the Cedar. And they are majestic in their own way. My personal favorite is the Sitka Spruce. I think the Sitka Spruce deserves its own featured blog soon, and its beauty sings to me each time I lay eyes on them. I think it is the rich deep color of the wood and and incredible girth that allures me to this particular tree.

One of the trails here, Beaver Lake, meanders along a sub-alpine lake and takes you deep into an old growth forest. The old growth forest is covered in Spruce. The quantity and stature of this tree creates a feeling that I can't imagine being duplicated anywhere on earth. I think, if I were able to pick a favorite tree, it stands tall on the Beaver Lake trail. I call the tree the candy cane tree, and it really sings to me each time I pass it on the trail.

With that said I still miss the reds, oranges, pinks, yellows and all the colors in between that are created from the magical forest of the blue ridge mountains in the fall. I find myself missing those mountains so much this time of year, the brisk wind on my back, and the leaves that land on my head as I biked along the Parkway or throw the apple orchards. Fall here is nice, but it isn't like back home.

Welcome fall at all that comes with it. October is no longer my favorite month here, instead I love the white of winter and the bright spring days but I am glad it has finally come. What is your favorite season?

Back on my Feet

2009-09-11T19:07:00.004-08:00

Today Paul and I went for a run in Totem Park. He is still nursing his sprained ankle from our Chilkoot endeavors, and I am definitely still not 100%, however we couldn't wait any longer to see what would happen. It wasn't especially long (a 5K) or strenuous (about 75%), but it felt great to be back on our feet FINALLY, 3 weeks and 6 days later. Through this experience I know we both have grown a much stronger appreciation of the physical health of our bodies and the enjoyment that comes from maintaining that health. My grandpa suggests yoga....

Why did I run the Chilkoot Trail?

2009-09-02T16:14:00.009-08:00

No questions asked running is my favorite thing to do. I have been doing it FOREVER, well since 2nd grade to be exact. If I am getting the story correct I think my track career began after a bad day at gymnastics practice. The instructors had tried to forced me to do a SPLIT! I said enough was enough and made it clear to my mom that gymnastics was NOT the place for me and informed her I would instead prefer to run track. I don't know where I got the idea, but I know soon after that conversation I found myself in an OTIS tracker uniform, and my life from that day forward would never be the same.

Although I never made it to the Olympics, I did have some glory days...

One of those moments was in 6th grade. I walked home with the South Carolina 11-12 year old division 1600m race walking state title! Yep, shear talent. I think I walked a sub 9-minute mile. Pretty impressive. Then, In Junior High, back in the day when they had Junior High, I said goodbye my Rock Hill YMCA track teammates and joined the High School CC team. No state titles here, but my love of running continued. In college I got into marathons, then triathlons. While in Asheville, due to the lack of trials I ran less and biked more, however I kept running.

Here in Sitka I have been on the trials since day one. They are AMAZING, beautiful and right out my back door. I think Sitka's trial system is the BEST in the world. I run nearly everyday, that is until the Chilkoot trial.

I have been injured since the 33 mile trial run 2 1/2 weeks ago. To quote my mother "running the 33 mile trial was dumb," and I don't believe it was necessarily the smartest idea, but it was definitely not dumb. However, I should have been a little more physically ready for sure and because the trial, for me, ended in a stress fracture.

But this 2 1/2 week break has confirmed my love of running. Everyday I stare and mountains and yearn to hit the trials climbing them. It is painful to hear of my friends running adventures. This is the time of year that the trials are free of snow and the sun is still high in the sky until late in the night. It is one of the best times to be on the trials, however I sit, nursing a stress fracture. My doctor says give it 4 weeks, which means I have 1 1/2 to go, and that is the most optimistic time table. So until then I wait. I cancel my spot in the Klondike 110 mile road relay I participated in last year. I play my banjo, dream about future adventures and think about why I run.

I run because it feels good. I run because it gets me outside in the fresh air. I run because that is where I process my day. I run because it is a release and stress reliever. I run because there are awesome trials beside my house and because it keeps me in shape. It keeps me mentally and physically acute. I run because I love it. I hope to be doing it forever.

Lets run the Chilkoot Trail

2009-08-18T10:37:00.009-08:00

t

So I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to run the Chilkoot Trail with my 70 year old friend Glenn.

The trail is 33 miles, most people hike this historical trail over the coarse of 4-5 days with a backpack. Glenn wanted me to run it. Crazy.

A little about Glenn, he is my favorite new friend of the summer. He moved to Sitka in 1959 and watched AK become a state. He met his first wife (and only wife, this is how he always refers to her) in Sitka and then they moved to Juneau where he has lived every since. He started trail running because he got a lot of heck running on the roads. He wore jeans and flannel shirts. Every time he saw someone one the trail he would start walking because otherwise they would think he was crazy. 50 years later he is still running, just as fast as ever. He runs with a group of runners in Juneau called the "Smokin Old Geezers." He founded the group and they run every Sunday morning at 7:30 am.

I was lucky enough to meet this man my first week in Juneau this summer. After I meet Glenn the running never stopped. We were running 3 or 4 times a week up summits and across ridge lines. Our first run was up Mnt. Roberts. When we got to the summit he looked at me and said "Well Emlaa (He calls me Emlaa not Emily) if you are going to run with the geezers you've got to be part mnt. goat" and he then jumped off the peek and rode down 1800 ft., in approximately 3 minutes, on his butt. I followed. His day job consists of building a kitchen for his first wife (he is a retired carpenter), and the rest of his time is spent running.

Everyone in town knows him. He has records all over the country and he recruited me to run the Chilkoot Trail, 33 miles with another one of his running buddies Geoff (one of the 5 Gs) and the best 100 miler in the nation, who had just finished running Crow Pass an intense 24 mile AK trail race and blew 7 minutes off the trail record the month prior. Great. What was I thinking?

So I begin recruiting other runners. Aaron and Paul were roped in on the insanity. We left on the ferry Thursday and made it to Skagway Friday, just in time for our 8 hour Saturday trail run. Returning home Sunday. Monday consisted of a lot of sitting and today finally I pulled myself up for a nice bike ride.

It was hard, long, insane, but I wouldn't have done it any other way. It was my last hurrah before school begins tomorrow.

Highlights:
* More ferry time, I can never get enough of the Alaska Marine Highway
* The Glennisms, he makes every trip more fun
* The trail itself, BEAUTIFUL
* mile 33
* that I am still alive

The good omens:
* Nancy, a sweet Juneaunite angel whom didn't know us and invited us stay at her house, made us a fresh Salmon dinner and was our chauffeur
* Sprinkles on Paul's hot chocolate
* The Canadian railroad workers who gave us a free train ride out of the trail so we didn't have to run an additional 8 miles
* That we all finished with minimal injuries, Geoff could have done it 3 more times no sweat, but that wasn't the case for the rest of us

Glenn wants me in Juneau again this weekend for a 50K relay. Hmmmm...

Bike Trip: 5 days 600K later...

2009-08-18T10:11:00.008-08:00

i
Before this trip the furthest I had ever gone on a bike all at once was 80miles. Yep, it is true, I was a little nervous about this trip. Especially the 3300 ft climb for the first 12 miles.

However it was all in vain, everything was perfect: the company, the scenery, the food... a gift. This summer I was lucky enough to spend 5 days on a bike trip of a lifetime with my buddy Heang. This trip had been talked about an anticipated for months. I found our later that Heang thought I was going to bail the whole time. Silly.

Heang road tripped up from NC and spent a week here in Sitka training. I had him climbing mountains the first 3 days he was here. We also found trailers for our bikes and eliminated many things that we wanted to pack for fear of caring too much weight. The grand total weight of our trailer content wasn't much more than 30 pounds but the trailers themselves weighed 17 pounds putting us at about 45 pounds of additional weight.

We left from Skagway and ended up in Haines 600K later. Each day came with new adventures many involving delicious food and as much sleep as possible. Eat, bike, eat, bike, eat, bike, sleep, was what each day looked like. We also laughed quite a bit. Everything is 10 times more funny when you are exhausted.

Overall the trip was perfect. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I love summers, adventures, and friendships. Perhaps this same time next year I will be writing a blog about my 2010 summer bike tour.

2009-08-02T17:11:00.003-08:00

south kakalakee

2009-08-02T14:12:00.002-08:00

Home and back... blur but fantastic and always delicious!

virginia - the 10th state

2009-07-26T16:35:00.007-08:00

Okay Emily, you are coming home for 6 days, skip seeing your friends and your childhood home and lets take a 3 day road trip to Virginia.

Hmmmm... "okay"

So this past weekend I was on the road (WEIRD, we have only 14 miles of roads in Sitka) up to western Virginia, almost as remote as Alaska. No chains, cell phone reception, more trees than people, lots of rain (WE GOT A THUNDERSTORM), rivers, wild animals jumping out right and left, and genuine people.

Main differences: dialect and people in VR know how to jam

Highlights on the trip:

1. Joseph's mustache, he can now be a true Bradford

2. Quality family time. I was able to see Julia, my cousin, for the first time since my move to AK, depressing thought I know, and Joseph who was working at a summer camp, bizarre. Joseph doesn't work at camp, the economy must be bad or something! I spent each year he was in college recruiting for him to do just that and I was always ignored. Plus manya hour in the ol' Prius with the folks

2. OLD TIME MUSIC! Musicians galore... what a treat, they were everywhere, young/old/talented/ and terrible...

3. the drive, BEAUTIFUL, the east coast has got some treasures... old churches, tin roofs, farmland further than the eye can see, cows, horses, more old churches

OREGON

2009-07-21T21:10:00.004-08:00

Unalakleet... bible camp...

2009-07-21T20:57:00.004-08:00

Fabulous experience! 2 weeks, 2 am bedtimes, lots of caribou and herring eggs to eat, no darkness, sea ice, camp songs, hikes in the rolling tundra, races up to the old muskox farm, mosquitoes... I do not think that it could get any better, okay minus the mosquitoes

Yesterday

2009-06-18T17:52:00.011-08:00

Two terrible things happened to me yesterday, and I haven't decided which is worse. I had just arrived in Juneau after 2 weeks 10 miles upriver from Unalakleet, AK. I jumped on the bus to meet up with Em, my roommate, who happened to be passing through and had a yummy breakfast with her and her family. Afterward I jumped on the bus to return to the apartment where I will be staying for the next few weeks. Once inside I grabbed my toothbrush and begin to brush. My mom always gives me this fabulous toothbrush, the colgate 360, if you haven't tried it you need to, life changing this toothbrush...

Well I am brushing, with the 360, of coarse, and realize that the color isn't the shade that I remember it, it is an unusual shade of orange, hmm, my toothbrush isn't orange, it is green. I run to my room and look in my suitcase. Pick up my toothbrush holder, inside a green toothbrush. Gross. Yes, for an undetermined amount of time I had been using someone elses toothbrush... great,

Right about the same time in walks Jodi, a classmate, asking me if I wanted to go pick up my student id, I run to get my wallet, no wallet. I turn the apartment upside down, no wallet, refold all my clothes and move all the furniture around, no wallet. I am glad yesterday is over.

up up up and away...

2009-05-31T14:15:00.010-08:00

Yesterday I was is in my favorite place in the world kayaking, watching Orca pods pass, okay so no Orca pods, but I saw a bunch of sea stars, mussels, anemones, and beds of coral which is almost as exciting. Today I am in Anchorage inhaling car exhaust, again lies, no car exhaust but it is WEIRD being in Anywhere City, USA. Although I went to a fabulous glacier and drove on one of the most beautiful roads I have ever experienced. Tomorrow I head for remote rural Alaska, Unalakleet, my first bush community for 2 weeks of summer camp.

Goodbye cell phones and high speed internet access,
hello rivers, bushes, bugs, and camp fires...
Good bye Sitka and the warm weather warning (it may hit 70 and the news is issuing a heat warning for all Sitka area residents)
Hello native kids,
hello being a minority for the first time since my junior high basketball days.

Ahh... leisure

2009-05-26T14:55:00.002-08:00

Not all of my leisure is spent climbing mountains. Sometimes (actually more often than not) I can be found in my home, just dinking around with my roommates. They are fabulous and fun. Here is one picture I feels captures the essence of us. Here is to summer, friendship, and all that is ahead...

Cross Mnt. 5-23-09

2009-05-24T15:08:00.004-08:00

Emily Buck and I had a brilliant plan about 2 weeks ago. Lets climb 5 mountains in 5 days. We would leave for the summit of Cross Mnt. Friday afternoon, summit Saturday, head to 5390 (the highest Mnt. on the island 5390 is it's elevation) and summit it on Sunday, head down make it out of the woods Monday morning and then summit Verstovia on Monday afternoon on our way home. Tuesday afterwork, since is doesn't get dark until 10pm now, we would summit something smaller, Gavan, which isn't small. Then Wednesday Starrigavan, completing our goal.

Instead all we accomplished was Cross Mnt., we had a bear incident and decided it best to abort our orginal plan. Here are the pictures minus the bear. We are all glad to be here to share.

Totem Pole

2009-05-06T12:57:00.009-08:00

A Legend of Long Ago
(but Not Far Away)

Once there stood a totem atop Verstovia, but just for a short while (the totem can be found on the bottom pic). It told a story of Orca who was feeding in the Sitka sound when Squirrel saw the fin and thought the Orca might want to give her a ride, so she dropped her nuts, salty almonds, that she happened to be nibbling on and jumped in after Orca. Crazy Llama, not the brightest and never wanting to miss an opportunity for adventurizing, thought that he too might enjoy a nice dip and jumped in after Squirrel and Orca. Thankfully strong muscular, will be able to do 8 pull ups eventually, Eagle seized Llama and Squirrel just before Orca, who is always ravenous, noticed them and made them his dinner. She swooped down with her great strength, picked them up in her beak, and dropped them atop Verstovia, out of harms way. Llama and Squirrel have sense become good friends and can often be found there frolicking with their new friend, Eagle protector. Sometimes too, when feed enough food and when uninjured, it is a dangerous life being an Orca, Orca will find his way up the mountain for sled rides with his now buddy Squirrel (top pic).

Medveji Lake Run

2009-05-05T12:50:00.006-08:00

There is so much to say. First off 2009 has been fabulous. I know we are only 4 months and 1 week into it, but Jan., Feb., March, April, have all been sunny months, and May well on its way. A sunny month here is one where there is more sunny days than rainy ones. And out of those 5 months 4 of them have been super sunny. I haven't defined super sunny month until today, it is new term. It means that you really don't remember it raining much at all the entire month.

Let me put this into perspective for you, last year we only had 1 month out of the year that was a sunny month, it was actually a super sunny month, but only 1. So 5:5 so far this year isn't bad by rain forest standards. Yesterday was another day where I took advantage of one of those sunny days. E. Buck and I ran out to Medeviji Lake! Then we jumped in, twice. Medveji Lake is a glacier feed sub alpine lake. It is favorite spot. It was still frozen, everywhere minus the little break in the ice we found to jump in. Why we did it? It was on the E. Buck summer 2009 adventure list. Why did we do it twice, because our first video of the event failed so we had to repeat it to attain video coverage. I am still trying to thaw.

Above are some pictures that Ben took of us post swim. Conventently for him he didn't catch up with us until after we had already gone for our swim.

It is official...

2009-05-03T09:19:00.003-08:00

I love MAY! Here is the view from Megan and my campsite last night. This picture was taken around 8:30 pm.

Juneau Folk Festival

2009-04-28T13:01:00.007-08:00

Arlo clawhammering it up on our chartered Allan Marine Boat which took us to and from the festival.

One of the best weekends of the year here in AK is the Juneau Folk Festival. It is fabulous seeing all the many talented folk artists around the state. Des Temps Antan was the featured band for 2009. They were an incredibly gifted old time French Canadian band. They were a three piece band, and tapped while they played! How do people do that!? It was amazing and greatly enhancing their sound. They gave a workshop on this talent, but I was busy attending a sweet clawhammer banjo workshop instead. However, I had a friend who attended and taught me the secret. Which means I have a new goal for myself. I need to learn how to play clawhammer banjo while flatfooting, which is going to take some serious coordination. Currently I can do neither of them well, but they are both so fun so I can't imagine the combination!

Another of my favorite bands from the 2009 festival was a tight all girls string band out of Whitehorse, Yukon Annie Lou is the leader and main song writer for the group. They have a CD coming out in a few days which I am planning buying, they are FABULOUS. Another goal, since I am in the Sitka Folk Society, is to bring them to Sitka!! We will see. Other goals include more adventures, E. Buck, referenced in both previous blogs, has created a summer adventure wishlist which includes more adventures than there are days in the summer. . . since I will not be here in my Sitka happiness home much this summer I will not get to partake in all of them, but I sure am going squeeze in as many as I can!

BEAR LAKE

2009-04-27T17:22:00.007-08:00

Well yesterday I went with my fellow Appalaskan, Thomas, as well as E. Buck, Ben, and Arlo to Bear Lake. It was a sweet boomsham which ended in a ohwap sha walla walla!

Appalaskan - n. person from the Appalachian region residing in Alaska
boomsham - v. an awesome alpine adventure with friends
ohwap sha walla walla - n. delicious post boomsham dinner

Now I need to go and finish up my Cedar Grove version of Shady Grove, ah, life in Alaska in the springtime!

VERSTOVIA

2009-04-27T17:03:00.006-08:00

Well I have been gone for a while, grad school, but life turned adventure again last Tuesday when genius roommate of the world E. Buck invited me to a Verstovia summit. Here is the best shot on earth, yes, we are dressed identically, ridiculous, the hike, fabulous.

wedding

2009-04-01T15:48:00.005-08:00

Seldom in life do things happen without a purpose. The night I left Stephanie and Dan's wedding was one night that I was reminded of this. I had just driven away from the first wedding that I had attended since my move to Alaska, nearly 2 years before, you miss things living in Alaska. It was 12:30 am, late, I was not at all looking forward to my 2 hour drive ahead. It was dark and it was wet two reasons I missed my turn to exit the Biltmore Estate. Instead I found myself on a road that sort of dead ended into a field. I slowed my car, actually my mom's car, thanks mom, and came to a stop. Right in front of me was a huge beautiful owl. It looked at me, and I her. She stared at me and didn't move, I did the same. Since owl's don't blink she won, but right when I thought she was going to let me look at her forever she opened her wings and headed off into the darkness. Why do I write this story of an owl. True it was beautiful and a magical moment, but more than that. To me the owl symbolized the wedding that I had just attended, and the power and the beauty of Stephanie and Dan and their life journey together. It was the perfect end to a lovely evening.

Back in York

2009-03-22T11:27:00.012-08:00

So I went a little nuts with the pictures... I think it is the sunshine. sunshine = picture taking apparently!

Since my return to my place of birth I have been totally coveting the sunshine and the warmth that comes with it... Sitka sun doesn't necessarily mean warmth. Here in York the two go hand in hand.

Somethings have happened to mean which haven't happened to me in a long time...
Sweat, what is that? Being overheated? Who knew... and this was my whole life up until 2 years ago! In Sitka right now, whales and snow. Here, heat and flowers.

I also realized why I don't take more pictures in AK, my hands. I never want to take off my gloves. Here I don't ever need to put them on. In AK I have many different types of gloves: biking gloves, winter biking gloves, fingerless gloves, everyday gloves, thicker fleece gloves, on-the-mountain mittens, electronic battery operated gloves that my boss gave me (yes they have a battery pack). Before Alaska, I think I had a fancy pair of leather gloves that my mom gave me for all my formal events, some running gloves that my friend Sarah gave me, a pair of snowboarding gloves, a nice pair of bike gloves for both summer and winter, oh and 2 pairs of knitted hippie gloves I don't know where those came from. So maybe I have always had gloves, I do have cold hands, but it is nice have a break from the gloves and run barefoot out in the green grass and eat dripping ice cream cones!

HAPPINESS

2009-03-22T11:21:00.006-08:00

Leaving the freshly fallen snow and fluffy mountains and the sunny weather snowboarding and the awesome adventure partners over my precious spring break wasn't easy, but it didn't take long to realize that ALASKA, although I hate to tell myself, doesn't have it all. Here is the position that I found myself for quite sometime today. At one point I hear laughter from the back porch and find my mom snapping photos of her daughter on a chilly day in SC, 70 degrees, laying out in her bikini! I would have shared the first picture she took but I blended in with the white building behind me. I had to come in after about 1 1/2 hours because I found myself overheated. My grandpa Rudd found it hysterical at one point to come and pour some cold water on me. Although I acted angry and gave him some grief it actually felt delightful. And I would have laid out in the soft green grass but my dad booted me to the patio because he said he would be mowing the yard. Not the case however, he became a little side tracked, typical, instead he positioned in front of our TV watching the NCAA tournament, very distractable that one.

At this rate I might be returning to not so sunny Sitka with something rarely seen... a sun tan!

It hasn't happened yet, I have a long way to go, but I am hopeful and the sun is still shining!

Delightfulness

2009-03-15T13:31:00.006-08:00

My girls, (from the right) Brandy, Heather, Me, Stacy, Nicole, Maria, and Elise (also a leader).

Us again!

The leaders...

The leaders again!

As a child I had this false assumption that once you reached a certain age (post high school or college) life would just get lamer with each passing year, lies! It just gets better...

For the past 3 months I have become a part of an active member of an organization called Young Life. I was hesitant to join my first year in Sitka for numerous reasons, but now that I have begun there is no going back, I am obsessed. Basically you join to love kids and then in return they love you back. This weekend Young Life took a group of high school students from Mnt. Edgecombe and Sitka High to Juneau to enjoy a weekend of snowboarding, climbing, singing, dancing, bowling, playing, and most importantly, laughing! Juneau was no Sitka, my treasure town, but it was delightful to be in the company of amazing high school kids and sitting on a chair lift, I had almost forgot about this luxury!

An Overnight

2009-03-08T07:38:00.005-08:00

Thomas and Aaron on the top of Bear Mnt. about to switch out their snowshoes for their snowboard (much quicker) and head back to the trees. Gorgeous day, sunny and beautiful, not a cloud in the sky as far as the eye could see.

Chloe emerging from the tent after a 10 hours, not so restful nights sleep.

The beginning, here is the gang about to hit the trail.

You can only handle so much salty almonds and dried mangoes. Here is some trail food I whipped up before heading up the mountain, it is always important to have something yummy to look forward to.

I have always said I would live outside if I could. I love fresh air, wind, rain, sun, the elements and being out in them. Everyday I spend as much time outside as I can, but it is never enough. My friend Hannah says the Swedish poeple call themselves "free air human beings" which in Swedish looks like this friluftsmanniskor. I definietly resinate with the term.

So this weekend I was able to spend a little more time than usual in the free air. Thomas, Aaron, Chloe and Chloe's sweet pup took an overnight snowboarding trip up Bear mountain.

Here is a list of things that I packed: snowboard, snowshoes, cramp-ons, icebreakers, ice-ax, base layer, fleece, wool sweater, down booties, tent poles, cook stove, fuel, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, gatters, and other necessary enmities such as water and food, no I could not put my pack on without help. Total elevation gained: nearly 4000 ft. We were slow going but going. We even took a video of us snowboarding off the top. Here are some pictures that tell the tale better than I could with words. And if you notice I am not in any of the pictures. I, for once, took the pictures. And for you bird lovers out there I am trying to become more knowledgeable of birds, but on this trip I did not see or hear even one! So bizarre...

Deliciousness

2009-02-21T08:45:00.009-09:00

A basic veggi-licious stir fry being enjoyed with friends... no none of these veggis were local, but maybe this summer if Emily and I have more success with our garden... we are going to be a little more basic this year.

Sourdough bread, this is something that I have just dipped my fingers into... delicious, and easy. I used to bake cookies, now I still bake cookies, but I bread is climbing the charts.

This yummy recipe my mother gave because she knows my love of sweet potatoes, sweet potato chili... mmmm I can taste it now (on a homemade chopping block table made by my buddy TJ for my birthday last year, isn't it beautiful?)

Food, something designed for pleasure in a world of hurry up and go. Here in Sitka eating isn't rushed. I love that about this town, people cook and enjoy meals together all the time. One of my my roommate Em and I when we aren't busy climbing mountains can often times be found doing our other favorite thing: cooking together, and then of coarse, eating. We make beautiful, when I say beautiful I mean delicious meals all the time. I have been trying to capture some of my creations on camera so perhaps they will inspire others to to take time to stop, relax and enjoy good food with good friends...

Bear Mnt. Snowboarding

2009-02-17T19:48:00.012-09:00

" Look at those big boulders, they appear to be coming towards us. " - Aaron Routon

Well those big boulders were coming towards us but they weren't boulders...

This past weekend Aaron, Thomas, and I decided to take a trip up Bear Mnt. to do some boarding. I've been up Bear Mnt. several times but this is a first for boarding. Bear Mnt. is a 4,200 ft. mnt. and is much more difficult to reach than my typical snowboarding mountain, Verstovia which sits at about 2,700 ft. However due to the ideal conditions we decided to make the trek. Four hours into our hike we had an interesting turn of events. Our ultimate goal was the summit, which if reached would of allowed us a sweet 2,000 ft. drop in fluffy alpine powder, however the dreams of the summit was thwarted after Thomas realized that those boulders that happened to be moving towards us looked an awful lot like bears! We changed our coarse of action. The summit wouldn't be attained today anyway. Instead we were forced to board only the lower half of the mountain, allowing for a 1,000 ft. drop, still pretty sweet. I have a video that Aaron took of one of the runs and I will try to post it soon. We will be going back. I love winter, even if bears are out of there den, Weird!

Also, if you are at all interested in looking at the video Aaron took of the snowboarding experience it is well worth checking out, my computer is much too slow to upload it but here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jddJOY50k&feature=channel_page

Across Baranof Island

2009-02-03T15:20:00.009-09:00

Here I am with a map and compass shooting a line across the glacier.
Crossing one of the ridge lines in the fog and mist.
Here we are hurrying to take a picture during a 5 minute, period where the clouds have broken.
The journey has ended we are about to hop on The Beaver, leave Baranof Warm Springs and return to Sitka.
Here is just a shot of an assent. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip, it captures the journey well.

So I am an island dweller. Now you probably wouldn't compare this island to Maui or Jamaica, but it is an island none the less and in my humble opinion it much more delightful than the tropics. And this summer I was lucky enough actually to hike across the island. It was a coveted trip, more delightful than I could have ever imagined, even with the weather worse than typical. This means even though I was hiking across long gorgeous ridge lines and beside glacier lakes all I saw was a gray fog. I had to make those mental images of nature and its beauty in my mind.

However thanks to a friend of mine, Marty Manes who recorded his trip, made a video and posted it on teacher tube I can forever remember the experience and share it with others. He also had better luck with the weather. Marty no longer lives here in Sitka unfortunately because he was a great part of the community here. But he is still off doing wonderful things, this fall he and his wife moved to Arctic Village:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Village,_AK

So if you have 5 minutes and would like to see the island I call home I would recommend you watch this video:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=bd4ab51e9b50ff0a1a88

Rewind

2009-01-20T21:31:00.005-09:00

Weeks after my trip home to the Carolinas for Christmas I am finally ready to share the events. Out of the 400 hundred, that is right 400 pictures, taken these were the chosen. I didn't take any of them. Typically I don't take pictures for numerous reasons, the main one being they are bad. This is one art form I have given up on completely. Instead of learning to be a photographer I just I like to position myself around others who are documenters. Typically on my blogs I put the 3 pictures up that I took, or better yet have my incredibly gifted photographer roommate upload her pictures on my computer and chose from them. But in this case in a house with 8 other individuals, many of them being trigger happy, I had endless options. All of these pictures have been looked through infinite times by myself reminiscing.

Christmas even after the hopla of not getting home until midafternoon after endless hours of travel all said and done was delightful. It was sunny and warm, and I was able to be surrounded with the best company any girl could ever ask for. Goofiness and laughter were as abundant as the delicious food. I even have the pictures to prove it!

Welcome to Town

2009-01-19T15:43:00.004-09:00

So last Thursday a person from my past became again a person of my present. This time however in the form of a peer and friend. Sitka has just recently welcomed to town Thomas Gibson and he is fitting right in to the Sitka summer camp life: hiking mountains, post church whiffle ball, music jams, the list goes on.

Thomas was one of my youth kids at Trinity Presbyterian Church where I was a youth leader for three years. Currently he is a junior at Appalachian State getting a degree in Sustainable Agriculture. This semester he decided to take off for Alaska to be a kayaking guide at an outfitter where he will be taking multiday trips (why didn't I find that job when I moved to AK?). That job doesn't begin until April however so he called me up asking if he thought I could find him a place to live and/or job until that point. Done. He is living with some friends of mine and working as a sub in the school district here.

When we went hiking on Saturday I don't think I have heard the word unbelievable more times in my life. When we reached the top of Gaven he spoke the words I think everytime I go hiking here in Southeast " I have never seen a more beautiful place in my whole entire life. " Welcome to Southeast I said. I don't know if he is going to making it back to App for that Agriculture degree. I warned him.

I'm back....

2009-01-04T13:12:00.002-09:00

Well after what I would call a disastrous trip home, no offense all people that I saw and hung out with, that part was amazing, for the holidays, I made the return flight last night. What was to greet me was a foot of fresh snow, friends, and a sushi party.

After the party late last night Emily looks and me and asks the anticipated question of what adventure I was wanting for my first day back. The answer was simple, what else do you do with a foot of fresh powder, snowboarding. So that is just what we did. Here are some shots. We were sidetracked for awhile and made self portrait snowmen. My snowman needed a little trim, but at least I don't have horns like Em's.

It is good to be home.

AK meets SC

2008-12-23T14:15:00.007-09:00

This morning I woke up to 2 inches of fluffy powder, had a nice run in the fresh falling snow. Yesterday after 11 days of sunshine I hiked up to the top of Gaven with my friend Shari and played in the snow all day. When I returned from the hike after a nice dose of caroling with some friends I headed to Swan lake to ice skate for my 5th day out on the ice. In an hour I am about to get on a plane and fly south to South Carolina, and even though according to my dad it has been "the coldest fall on record in 123 years, getting down to 30 at night" I think the transition is going to be a bit of a culture shock. Goodbye beautiful snow capped mountains and fresh falling snow, hello flatness... Next year I am going to have to rope them all here!

Monsters

2008-12-23T14:01:00.007-09:00

"Ms. Bradford, Ms. Bradford can we play monsters at recess?" - Lenny and Nelly

Meet Nelly and Lenny (above) polar opposites, best friends, name inverses, and always found together cracking each other up. This year my work world involves hanging out with these two all day everyday. I swim with Lenny (boy) each morning and then we head to Keet to hang out and work together, unless he fires me, which he does regularly when he thinks he can do the work alone. Nelly runs circles around Lenny but somehow their friendship endures. Lenny loves Star Wars, Sponge Bob, and kittys, Nelly loves horses and puppies. They both love laughing and tag. Last Friday Lenny wrote a story...

"If I could give anyone any gift the Christmas I would give Nelly a stuffed animal rabbit. I like rabbits. I think that Nelly likes rabbits. I think that Nelly would like a stuffed animal rabbit. I would give Nelly a stuffed animal rabbit."

WIND

2008-12-21T21:35:00.006-09:00

above are pictures from a trip up Starrigaven on a windy but beautiful day that it was just too nice to stay inside...

Below is the 12 days of Christmas Sitka Style...

1 headlamp shining
2 snow tires biking
3 sightings of northern lights
4 falls on the ice
5 days of ice skating
6 surfers catching waves
7 sledders sliding
8 snowmen smiling
9 snowboarders on Verstovia
10 shooting stars
11 cups of coco
12 sunny days

Life at Work

2008-12-16T18:24:00.007-09:00

Here are two funny interactions I had with some kids today:

"Ms. Bradford? Have you ever tried to close your nose and mouth and blow air out of your eyeballs?" Reilly just tried and his eyes turned bright red"

a few moments later another girl looks up at me and says this:

"My eyes are blue. Me and my grandpa are the only people in my entire family with blue eyes, well and my cat. Me, my grandpa, and my cat are the only poeple in my entire family that have blue eyes."

Wonder what would happen if the cat tried to blow air out of his eyeballs? Would his eyes still be blue?

Cousins

2008-12-04T21:54:00.005-09:00

So my mom is the oldest of 5, she was the first of the 5 to start having babies, and I am the oldest in my immediate family, positioning myself as the oldest cousin on my mother's side. It is quite the responsibility checking up on the little ones, sending birthday greetings, doing the periodic phone call to hear the latest and greatest. However, just now I realized how recently I have failed in my oldest cousin responsibilities. I just went to send a quick e-mail to one of my professors and noticed that I had been tagged in a photo on Facebook, got distracted reading birthday messages from October that had been written on my wall and saw my cousin Delia (above 11) had written ME a birthday message! She had sent me a birthday message via Facebook. Wow, talk about role reversal. I was the one that was supposed to send the birthday greetings. What? And who was that girl in the photo? She was old, a FRESHMAN in HIGH SCHOOL. I have to say that I am in total and complete shock of this news. I guess the last time I saw Delia was Christmas 2005, and I have talked to her multiple times and get photos all the time in my e-mail but somehow these pictures on her Facebook page made me realize just how much a breach of communicate had taken place.

Thank goodness they are driving down from the cheese state to visit us again this Christmas. It has been way too long. Here are some picture from the last time they made the trip to SC. Other cousins featured are Emmett, here he was 13, and Cecil was 9. I can't wait to see them all grown up. (16, 14, 12). Wow that e-mail check ended up being a real distraction. 21 days until Christmas!

Mallory's Visit

2008-12-02T16:45:00.005-09:00

Mallory, my BEST friend, from Boise, left YESTERDAY which was a TERRIBLE idea, however her coming was by far the best decision of all time. The adventures were infinite. It is always so fun to show this place off to people, all I have to do is kick up my feet and let this place work its magic. Except that I don't think I am really a kick my foot upper. Here are some pictures of some adventures that we chanced upon during the week she was here. The rainbow group above were just a few of the people to show up for the first annual Barnoff Blizzard Bonaza. A majority of this day was spent building giant snowballs and watching them roll off mountains, also known as avalanche making. We also built ramps out of the leftover snowball pieces to create the snowboard park. The pic on top is after a nice bike ride out to Beaver Lake! This place might have been created for her, and since it was created for me and we are practically the same person, I guess Sitka is about to have a new resident! The Sitka Vortex, taking one visitor at a time.

lumberjack for a day

2008-11-21T19:51:00.003-09:00

Last night when I walked into the house after dance practice I hit play on the answering machine (yes, I have an answering machine) I know this sounds funny because most places in our country these days do not have landlines or answering machines, but here in Sitka landlines still are the norm. So I walk in, hit the answering machine, and heard one of the most Alaskan messages ever from my roommate Rachel's boyfriend Pete:

"Hey Bradford I was told that you were going to chop some wood tomorrow, I would love to come help, give me a call whenever you get in, Matt and I will be up late because we are going to be butchering a dead mammal."

So today when Buck and I woke up we ate some flapjacks for our big day as a lumberjacks. TJ brought the chain saw and Ben, Buck, and I helped out with the hauling and splitting. Splitting wood is absolutely addictive! It was amazingly fun, plus we have enough wood to keep all of Sitka warm all winter. I also worked muscles that I don't think I have used since the last time I chopped wood about 8 years ago... we will see if I am still as enthusiastic in the morning!

Visitor!

2008-11-20T18:22:00.003-09:00

Want to test a friendship, move somewhere 4 time zones away only accessible by plane or boat! You realize quickly how strong friendship bonds are!

In a few days (woooo hoooooo!!) my friend Mallory will be HERE in SITKA. She will be bringing all of her Mallory fun, and I can't wait to introduce her to the Alaskan life. Now if I can only coerce her into moving here! That is my goal, and if it doesn't work I am thinking of stealing her identification cards so she can't leave!

I have been trying to get things ready for having her here, so far all I have accomplished is let everyone in town know that she is coming. I was hoping at some point to get all my school work accomplished, clean my room and bathroom, but who knows if any of that will happen, I guess this is another way to test a friendship!

Meet the Parents

2008-11-13T21:45:00.006-09:00

So there was a scare for awhile, I might have to stay in Alaska for the holidays, heaven forbid. However, that just recently changed. Mom, dad, joseph, harry, and fuzzy, break out the champagne (okay red wine, not really into champagne) and rest easy, I'll be home soon.

This same time last year

2008-11-08T15:42:00.006-09:00

One of my favorite things to do in all of the world is to think back to exactly what I was doing at the same time the year before. It is always fun to think about what it was you were up to and then compare it to what you are up to now. Last year when I did this activity my life was drasticly different. I would compare my AK existence to my NC life. This year the main difference is what mountain I am on and who I am with. This video that is on this blog ranks up there in the list of all time most beautiful hikes. My buddy Matt Hunter and I hiked up to the top of Bear Mnt. in fresh gorgeous fluffy snow. When we got to the top (it took us 5 hours) we basically stayed up just long enough to shoot this video, we were pretty sketched out up top, thinking that potentially we were sitting on a cornus! Needless to say this hike was one of my favorite last year moments.

i'll attempt...

2008-11-07T17:01:00.009-09:00

to post a blob. Recently my blobing life has been put on hold. This past week I was just holding my breath for the elections (my third presidential election!) and now that they have finally come and gone the grad school world has taken back over. On the subject of grad school today I completed one of the most daunting tasks of my life: entertaining and teaching 40 staff at my school on various reading strategies, and now in an hour, without even debriefing I am suppose to go to the Whalefest grind. In reality all I want to do is sit and drink hot tea, cook a nice veggie dinner, read my book, and be as low profile as possible, but since there is only 1 grind a month and I LOVE them I know this is not an option. I'll rest tomorrow, oh woops maybe not. Tomorrow I have another race (the Whalefest 10-K) and then a contra dance tomorrow night, not to mention endless numbers of craft projects, yes for Christmas which in the craft world is already nearly here. Then if I can find a spare minute I need to do some homework. I often wonder if weekends are for resting or for squeezing in as much fun as possible in a window of time about the size of my thumb nail? So I better go back and jump into my crazy world...

Speaking of crazy world here is Brea and I dressed as Truffula trees!

The Lorax

2008-10-27T18:56:00.004-08:00

For nearly 40 years a pulp mill was located in Sitka. It wasn't until 1993 that it closed. Now I can't image that this community was ever involved in the logging industry. The environmental grassroots organizations seem to pop up everyday. Right now in our town we have The Sitka Conservation Society, Sustainable Sitka, The Sitka Global Warming Group, and several others that meet regularly and do remarkable things for our community. Sitka was just recently named the first bike friendly community in the state and this past fall we started a community market where Sitka grown and harvests items are sold.

This past week SCS, Sitka Conservation Society brought a the largest national environmental film festival in the country to our town. It was held at the new auditorium at the high school and well received, I was not surprised to appear and see a packed house, including the balcony. One film that hit home was entitled The Price of a Cup of Coffee. It talked about the paper industry and what a huge polluter it is and how recycling should be the last step we take in our conservation efforts. It made me one really want contact the people that send me my various junk mail and have them quit. It also served as another gentle reminder to really think about my consumption, second hand or not at all is how it should be.

This halloween my friends are all dressing up as various characters from The Lorax, I plan on being one of the Truffula trees. " Plant a Truffula tree, treat it with care, give it clean water, feed it fresh air. " - Dr. Seuss

The Sky is Blue

2008-10-24T22:00:00.011-08:00

When I guide during the summers with bike and hike one of the lines that we always shared with the tourist was this: In Flordia they have a name for their windstorms, hurricanes, here we just call them fall.

Well this past week we have been experiencing fall at it's finest, recess duty has been a delight, the kids have been blown around all over, splashing in puddles not even bothering trying to stay dry. The wind and the rain have waged war on one another and both have been winning, until today.

Things seemed to be at a lull when I headed out the door for my run, I even decided to wear cotton, 100%, and white, risky, but with blue patches of sky overhead I thought I would at least have an hour or so before the rain returned. As I hopped onto the trail beside my house I bumped into a friend who was off to climb Harber mountain, so I had a change of plans and decided to join in the fun.

The trail in many places was unrecognizable due to fallen trees and awash from all of the rain. As I headed up admiring the trail, lost in thought about this amazing place that I call my backyard I suddenly saw this brillant color ahead, it was this bright blue color. What was going on? Did someone have a giant tarp and they were setting up camp? Had a new water tower been built since last week when I was on the trail? Suddenly it hit me, it was the sky, the sky was blue! Wow, I'd been so stuck in fall that I didn't even recognize the sky. So no it isn't winter yet around here, I do live in a rain forest, and no I didn't make it back to my house dry. By the time I got to the ridge the trail was covered in frozen hail balls, and I was being hit in the face with big fluffy snow flakes. Ah, Sitka Love!

alaska day

2008-10-18T22:30:00.007-08:00

Today was Alaska Day. If you don't know what that means then it is obvious you don't live in Sitka. To Sitkans it is the most anticipated day of the year, (this is not a joke). Alaska Day means early release from the schools and NO ONE works. It is the town's holiday and if Alaska Day happens to fall on Saturday or Sunday, which was the case this year, then you just don't work the Friday before, sorry to all you out there that were working yesterday.

All week long various events take place. A parade is held at 1:00 and it is a requirement that a. you attend the parade or b. you participate in the parade. Needless to say the parade lasts A LONG TIME since half the town, nearly 4,000 people, participate. After the parade the town climbs to the top of castle hill to watch a reenactment of the sale of Alaska to the United States. People dress up in period clothing and a speaker walks you through the events of the transfer. Last year Sarah Palin attended the event and gave a speech, this year she decided she would rather be on Saturday night live. After the reenactment the town goes in various directions, a large majority go to the bars to follow the bagpipers, (BIG DEAL THESE BAGPIPERS, from how I understand it an anonymous donor flies them in each year he/she loves them so much) to eat black code tips, to eat pie at the Lutheran Church, or to the various fundraisers and special events. October 18th, just an ordinary day, unless you're a Sitkan. What'd you do on AK Day?

boo

2008-10-13T12:41:00.009-08:00

Yay for FALL welcoming WINTER with a beautiful day for a pumpkin carving!
The Sitka 1st Annual Gourd Gala was a raving success despite the lack of its ASHEVILLE FOUNDING FATHERS!

The Jack-0-Lantern superlatives:

Prettiest Smile: AMBER
Biggest Mouth: LEAH
Best Eyes: MEGAN
Best Butt: TJ
Class Clown: BEN
Most Likely to Succeed: BREA
Teacher's Pet: EMILY
Most Athletic: LISA
Best All- Around: ANDREW

birthday

2008-10-09T20:33:00.006-08:00

So what a day...

SUNSHINE, SUNSHINE, SUNSHINE... an amazing hike on Sitka's mother mountain, and if that wasn't enough... an AXE! Thank you to everyone's phone calls, letters, e-mails, my delicious homemade dinner, singing, gifts... one word: overwhelming! Getting older isn't so bad, I hope to be around to do it again next year!

welcome winter

2008-10-07T18:33:00.007-08:00

Well it is official, yesterday was fall, and today winter came. Yesterday the mountains looked like they had been sprinkled with power sugar and today they were wearing their full length winter jackets. Today Edgecombe, our resident volcano, went back to the way I first laid eyes on it, white, very snowboardable, fully visible, and sparkling in the sun. I was hoping to squeeze in one more fall hike on Thursday, but I don't think that will be the case. Back to gaters, snowshoes, and soon snowboards I go!

newest post

2008-10-06T18:18:00.007-08:00

So with Cross Country Season over, awesome job 3rd in the state girls, I find myself at a loss with what to do next. I mean there are a lot of things I could be doing, but why would I do that? Instead these are my current favorite things:

1. making lists
2. watching people chop onions
3. seeing cool dogs, envying the people who own them, and then discussing ad nauseam the perfect dog combinations
4. walking outside and never knowing what I am going to get
5. fall color everywhere and daily seeing new mountains with fresh powder
6. daydreaming about my future adventures
7. listening to other people play music
8. getting mauled by crazy children on the playground

I'd write more but I am beginning to feel insecure this blob doesn't come attached with a photo, it is scary just writing and not having a picture to hide behind, we will see if it happens again.

Sitka High Cross Country

2008-09-24T18:14:00.003-08:00

"One, two, three SUN" we all shouted today as our cheer after practice! The Sitka world was a happy world today. Working in the schools the smiles were a virus. That virus however has been on the Sitka Cross Country team all season despite the rain and extremely tough workouts. For the past 9 weeks we have been running and training together. This weekend hopefully all their hard work will pay off when the team heads to Ketchikan for the region championship! One thing is for sure... they are ready! If they place in the top 2 they will be on there way to Anchorage for the state meet, and I don't doubt them for a second!

Who knew when I started running pre-season with them earlier this summer the team was going to become my virus! It has taken me right back to my high school CC years, the adrenaline, competitiveness, blood, sweat, and tears! It is addictive! They are an awesome team and I've been honored to be a part of their season! Yay Sitka High School Cross Country!

The Klondike - Sitkan Twisted Style

2008-09-09T20:29:00.012-08:00

Team Sitkan Twisted doing the wave! Shari quit picking your nose!

There is not much more in the world that I like more than running and summer camp! And well the Klondike run combined them both. It was like summer camp because you are with your friends for an extended period of time in close proximity staying up way too late eating food that makes your stomach hurt...

And it was like running on crack! We ran 112 miles for crying out loud!

Here is the story:

The adventure started early Thursday afternoon. We arrived at the ferry terminal a little after noon to head to Skagway, a city also located in Southeast AK with a population of about 1,000. After arriving in Skagway around noon the following day (yes the ferry system isn't very fast and we actually had to overnight on Emily's college buddies boat in Juneau Thursday night) we checked out the town. Well that was over about a minute later and we needed lunch, a campers favorite was served PB and J with a little bit of smoked salmon just because we are in Alaska and salmon is what we do here. After lunch we decided dinner might be nice so we carb loaded and came up for our plan of attack. We were about to begin a 112 mile race into White Horse the largest city and capital of the Canadian Yukon Territory. Well the race actually didn't start until 10 pm at night so we still had about 5 hours to kill since we ate dinner at 5 pm, so we laughed, decorated our vehicles, sang, played some music, shadow danced in the street because THE SUN WAS SHINING until the start.

Here is where the excitement began. Shari, not Sherry, our CAPTAIN oh CAPTAIN who I miss organizing my life, (can I hire you? - will pay in cookies) started us off. Then I ran the second leg, and Katie the third. We finished our legs around 1:30 in the morning. We were finished but there still were 7 legs to go. It was time for Polly, Emily, and Ben to get their run on while we headed to bed.

Polly is a story in herself. Who was Polly was the running joke of the weekend up to that point. She lives here in Sitka but no one on our team hand met her until the race. She was going to fly in and meet us in Skagway the day of the race. However there were some complications. Due to bad weather she was rerouted to Anchorage to get to Juneau, making what would have been a 27 minute flight an all day ordeal. The plan was she hopefully would make it to Juneau in time to catch the slow ferry to Skagway at 4 pm which would get her to Skagway, hopefully if nothing went wrong, (and everything goes wrong here in Southeast) at 11 pm 1 1/2 hours before she was suppose to run. Somehow we were suppose to find her at the start of leg 4, her leg, not knowing what she looked like. Would she make it was the question. The answer: Barely. When we radioed in to Emily and Ben a mile and half from the start of leg 4 she wasn't there. When we arrived 2 minutes later she was. She had 5 minutes to go to the bathroom, put on her number and begin her 13.1 mile leg. Way to keep us on our toes!

Finally Shari, Katie, Lucas, (our alternate and Katie's boyfriend) and I set up camp and went to sleep. 6 hours later, after Emily, Ben, and Polly finished their legs they came back to our camp and woke us up so we could go and cheer for the rest of the team. Emily, Ben, and Polly ran 43 miles between the three of them. Emily experienced Aurora Borealis on her run, Ben the sunrise. They also experienced no sleep! Thanks for taking one for the team guys!

So now Shari, myself, Katie, Lucas, Polly, Emily, and Ben were all in the Sitkan Twisted mobile off to cheer on our friends. By the time we caught up it was about 10 am and Brea had already run her leg. We caught our Sitkan Twisted teammates at the tail end of Allison's leg, who "is the sexiest woman in the world." Right Shari? Then Gregory was off and the cheerfest began. Gregory was definitely the most supported teammate. We drove and jumped out of our vehicles on the mile every mile while he ran! Pictured above is Sitka Twisted Cheering for Gregory (minus Gregory and Katherine, Allison's mom and the team mom, and Katie). And finally Arlo brought us home into White Horse 112 miles later. He was rocking his knife and had the hot sun beating down on his back. We finished in about 16 hours! Go team!

The drive was beautiful, the sun was high, and the fall colors were everywhere! As Emily put it "She just wanted roll around in the colors." A bike trip along the same trail might be necessary. Emily? Ben? Heang? Mal? Are there any biking friends out there?

Summer camp is good but this trip took the Carrot Cake (Ben that was for you)! See you there again Klondike 2009, Team Sitkan Twisted hopefully will remain intact!

An Ode to My Grandparents

2008-08-31T15:19:00.011-08:00

So while checking my e-mail I was told by my not so genteel, but pretty dang cute grandparents, "your blob needs refreshing," so I thought that that is exactly what I would do, refresh my blob. Thank you Rudd for introducing me to another useless yet endearing term. Above is an old picture of me and my gradparents (Nancy and Rudd) from the archives, ahhh hum... yes that is a hint! Below is a poem. Just a head's up, I am NOT a poet, and what you are about to read will be fairly telling of just that. What you do for those you love!

An Ode to My Grandparents:

To my Grandparents

whom I wish everyone could meet

they are a delight

truly a treat

They know how to live

enjoy the outdoors

play with the bees

sit in the sun all day long

eating fresh veggies

from their backyard

sharing their laughter

with all that they meet

Goofer and siller they older they get

they count the smokers

and talk about planes

sharing their stories

and their quick wit

they know so much

they'll make you combust

And they never forget

to shout their angst

reading the newspaper

they throw their arms

cursing about Bush

And other alarms

Though I do have one complaint!

Are they scared of the north

can they not read a map

do they have no umbrella

afraid of the rain

I've been here a year ...

how can the fun in my life continue

without a visit from them?

What I'd give

to be like them

at even twice their age

But they are two

whom I could never repeat

Epic Paddle

2008-08-16T12:37:00.013-08:00

Gumdrop Island

Full Moon and Emily and I before we were leaving the night after our camp!

The seals after they had slide off the rocks (not quick enough to get them on the rocks)

The otters before they saw us!

So when I wokeup yesterday morning I knew it was going to be an adventure day. The sun was up, the full moon was on its way and nether Emily or I had to work the following day (rarity). So when Emily got back from her bike and hike up Mnt. Edgecombe we were off! I called John and Barb my boss to arranged for kayaks and we set sail as the sun was began to set. We paddled somewhere between 10-13 miles past Battery Island, the Parker Group (my typical trip), past the Chai Chis to Gumdrop Island following the sunset and hoping to find a place to pitch our tent.

In vain we hoped from island to island only finding rocky cliffs. We tried to find a camping site as we watched the sun sink on the horizon, the only option was to do an about face and head south back towards town. We continued on in the moonlight landing on our first and original island camping option. Though although small and covered with the "scarest bugs ever" according to Emily, it ended up being exactly what we needed, and the tent was bug free, with small exceptions, and extremely soft place to camp (better than any bed). And it the perfect night to sleep out under the stars. After strange dreams we awoke the next morning to rain. I thought we were doomed for a dull creatureless paddle back to town.

Ha... that ended up being understatement of the century! The creatureless paddle ended up being the most epic paddle of our lives (up to this point anyway). No whales were sighted in the the paddle so this leaves us a glint hope that future paddles can be as impressive because what we saw on our return home will never be forgotten.

A rookery of about 15 seals were on rocks sliding down on their bellies, and a raft of at least 150 male otters were playing and wrestling. At one point Emily and I were 10 feet away from the raft undetected. When they did see us finally about half of the little otter heads just turned and stared and the other otters took off to safer waters. They sent the alpha male otters to stare us down and give us mean looks while all the other otters hung back. The otter congregate in una sex groups called rafts.

According to Wikipedia (I did some reading post trip) typically the males hang out in rafts anywhere between 10-100 otters, but rafts have been spotted of up to 2,000 otters! The females outnumber the males 5 to 1. They are polygynous creatures (sad) and the mating takes place in the water. Often times while mating the males will bite the females on the nose leaving scares and many times keeping their heads submerged. Yikes!

After that otter raft nothing seemed as impressive. A pair of porpoises swam with us back and a seal lion lay asleep unaware of our presence, other momma otters appeared with there young, but we were fairly unphased, our minds were still with the hundreds of little otters that let us paddle with them and that rookery of seals sitting on the rocks soaking up the fresh air.

These pictures are compliments of Emily, I hope they help you feel like you were among the adventure.

08'- 09' Sitka JVC

2008-08-15T08:39:00.010-08:00

Josef, Eileen, Andrew paddling

group shot, after Andrew's handstands
sunset we saw from island
cool moon picture, Zim Emily's friend took, this happened post paddle

Each year here in Sitka a new team of Jesuit Volunteers http://www.jesuitvolunteers.org/default.cfm/PID=1.25 come to Sitka. I have the pleasure of living with two former JVs, Emily and Megan. The JVs come to live and serve in different communities across the US. This is an organization I had never heard of until my move here to Sitka, but it is a wonderful blessing to our community here. This year we have just recently welcomed the 2008/2009 JVs to town. I had the privilege of getting to take 3 of them out after work this past week on a quick 3 hour paddle. We went to the Parker group and hung out with the otters and laughed quite a bit. 2 of the JVs were unable to attend after I had to cancel the night we were suppose to go out, due to 3 foot scary swells.

Located above from left to right are Eileen, Andrew, and Josef. Eileen has traveled the world over and might have liked seeing the otters even more than me! She was telling me on the paddle how much Sitka reminded her of when she lived in Norway! She has also lived in Cairo, Egypt, actually she was born there. Andrew, has an unusual habit of doing handstands on beautiful places. We had the pleasure of observing this strange behavior on a rock quarry on the island where we beached. It was very impressive! I thought he was going to take off and start walking around. Josef with an F is apparently is a talented woodworker and has actually built two kayaks himself. Teach me teach me! I think we are going to have do a talent swap! I have a lot to learn from these guys! I felt like I was out with super talents. I didn't know what sort of treat I would be in for when I volunteered to take these guys out but I am so glad we went and were chocolate coffee milkshake powered! Thanks to former JV Caitlin for that hot milkshake flavor tip! These JVs they know it all!

Do I live here?

2008-08-12T21:37:00.005-08:00

So I just got back from my weekly Tuesday night dinner. Actually I use the term weekly here pretty lightly because I am not known for my regularity in attendance, but I know it is there, and it is always a wonderful evening when I do appear.

And while I was talking this evening one of the conversations that I chanced upon was one with a becoming more and more dear friend Brea. Brea is an Americacore volunteer and so much more. She is a great thinker and aware citizen, and I am glad to share this planet with her. Everytime I converse with her I walk away with something that a. makes me laugh b. makes me think or c. both!

Tonight she shared with me she was checking out my blog links so Heang, Melanie, Betty beware, actually Betty she commented on yours, so keep up the good work! And I told her the hardest part was keeping up with mine was the photos (surprise surprise). Well low and behold when I walked in this evening in my e-mail inbox was a picture from Brea that I think I will share. Brea actually sent the picture before the conversation had even taken place. It is a picture of a Sitka sunset.

This sunset took place on Friday night at Arlo's house. Arlo is a fellow Sitka musician and is my banjo twin. We have the exact same banjo except that his banjo has a name. Its name is Mercy. I will share the story when I learn it. It is such a great name, thinking on all the mercies we are given in this life. I think that I will have to work hard to come up with a name as good for mine.

Speaking of names, Aurora Rebecca was brought into this world as a gift to Candice and Sam Carter last night. A hairy healthy baby, 8p 10 oz. A picture of her will have to follow in subsequent posts.