Skiin' and Movin'

It's about time for a blog update, wouldn't you say?

My winter/spring season has been filled mostly with ski trips and moving to a new cabin.

On feb. 26th, Corrie (who has been helping me out at work this winter) and I left for an 8 day, 65 mile ski and snowshoe trip to maintain a sound monitoring station that has been out since last summer. The dog teams were along as well for a few days and helped us out by hauling some of the heavy stuff and even pulling us behind the sleds for part of one of the long distance days. It was the longest ski I've done so far, and was too much fun. Since some of the work we do is in federally protected Wilderness, we have to evaluate and choose the least impactful method of access, even if it's not the cheapest or quickest. Can't always take the helicopter...

After a week of recuperation from the big ski, my old college housemate Jeremy showed up for a week of skiing, snowshoeing, and hanging out. We practiced our tele turns at Hatcher Pass, did some afternoon ski trips in the park, and one overnight ski trip out to one of the old park patrol cabins that was build in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Jeremy got a distinctly Alaskan experience when he found that, to catch the train back the Anchorage, he had to stand out where the railroad tracks cross the road and stick out his thumb. I think he had a good time.

For the last week or so I have been in the process of moving to a new cabin in the metropolis of Healy, population 800. It's the closest town north of the park, and will be about a 13 mile commute. It's going to be hard to give up the cross the street walk to work every morning, but since I'm a real full time employee now, I have to move out of the seasonal housing area. The new place seems nice though.

The next month will bring a wave of seasonal employees and new people to meet, along with the busier summertime schedule. The snow is melting, the road is being cleared, and I'm looking forward to another season of warm-weather fun.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Carmen and her team at upper Igloo Creek.

The best frosty face to date! There's a smile in there somewhere.
Those tele-turns are tricky, says Toad.

Jess, Corrie, Jeremy, and Sandy (the dog) ski to Windy Creek cabin.

My new home sweet home.