Thanksgiving at Kenai Fjords

I lucked out this weekend and was able to catch a ride down to Seward with the Denali Park Engineer. A friend of mine named Cassie, who also went to OU, got a winter job at Kenai Fjords National Park living in a cabin at the base of Exit Glacier to support visitors that come in by ski, dogsled, and snowmobile. This sounded like an interesting gig, so I jumped at the invite to come down and have thanksgiving dinner with the Seward crew and stay a few days out in the cabin.

Seward is one of only two Alaskan ports that doesn't freeze in the winter, I'm told, so there were lots of boats there. It was really windy at the waterfront, and there were bald eagles flying around all over the place.

Friday we played around on the frozen river at the face of the glacier. Every once in a while, the glacier would make big cracking noises. Pretty neat. Then Saturday I climbed the trail that goes up beside the glacier while Cassie was at work in town. It was fun, and afterward there was a bit of accumulation on my face...

Today was a TROPICAL HEAT WAVE. It got up to almost 20 degrees (above zero!).

Two weeks left and counting. I'll see you all soon.

-Jared

Cold Pics

Not much new here. Just trying to finish up all the data reduction at work before the end of next week. That way I'll have a week or so to crank out a report before I head for the warmer and sunnier lower 48. Time is going fast...

I put my old broken camera on ebay last week and some crazy person bought it for $400!!! No, I didn't lie about it being broken.

I just wanted to share some photos I took last weekend. Sorry if the subject matter is nothing new. I've been having fun playing with nighttime shots, and with hour-long exposure times, it doesn't take very many before I lose the desire to find new subjects and have to go inside and get warm.

Hope everyone is doing well.

My thermometer says -13.3 right now. Time to go home and make some dinner. :)

Sad Dogs and Moonlit Cabins

It got cold. Right now my desk thermometer reads an outside temp of -4.5 F. I really like my down coat...

This weekend I watched the sled dogs getting trained. They get hooked up to the front of a 4 wheeler and drive around the trails while the musher shouts commands. There isn't enough snow for a sled yet. The dogs in the truck look pretty sad when it's not their turn to run.

The second picture is C-camp under moonlight. Taken last night at 10:30pm. Exposure time is 4 minutes. The moon really lights things up, which is nice because it is unbelievably dark on overcast nights. You wait for your eyes to adjust, but they never do. A flashlight is a must. Unfortunately, the bright moon also kills the aurora that would otherwise be visible on a clear night.

I got to ski last weekend by driving 35 minutes south to Cantwell. They have about 10 inches of snow down there, but we only have a few inches. It was a good time, and harder than I thought. You can't put it in a lower gear when you get tired like riding a bike. I kept having to stop and rest. Hopefully it will snow hear soon so I can get out more and get whipped into shape.

That's about it for now. Getting lots of headphone time at the office. Hope everyone is doing well.

-Jared