AK Trip--Days 15-16, March 17-18, 2007

The last day of our trip has come and gone. It feels kind of sad, then again, I do miss the wife and kids (Shadow and Tigger). It has been another great year in Alaska, and another great vacation. I have put on a bit of weight (read as, I've had some great beer and wine) that I will surely have to deal with when I get back home. No biggie, though.

Yesterday we batted around town, did some shopping, and I went to the Carrie McLean Museum for a short while. Not much else happened, except some reading and some catching up on the news. Perfect! Oh yeah, I did watch "Akeelah and the Bee" with Dad and Megan, and we played a marathon match of Quiddler before bed.

Today I woke up and went to church with Aunt Bonnie, then we had a late breakfast at about 2 PM. I watched "The Protector," a great martial-arts movie, and read more in Jon Krakauer's book "Under the Banner of Heaven." A scary book about the Mormon religion (equally scary). Then, at 4:15, we headed to the Iditarod banquet. I have a couple pictures from the banquet this year to share:

The Busers (Martin and Rohn, the 2007 Jr. Iditarod Champ):



My delicious meal (note the Alaskan ESB and two Stouts in the background..yum):



Alas, it's time to close up the Iditablog for this year. Hope you have enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed living it. Yeah, right! Until next year!!! Thanks for tuning in.

SLD, signing off:

AK Trip--Days 13-14, March 15-16, 2007

Dad and I had a great snowmachine trip yesterday, out to Army Peak, on to Newton Peak, and back into Nome. Since we've pretty much exhausted the geocaches in the immediate vicinity that are available in winter, we figured we'd try to bag a few benchmarks on some of the local peaks.

Army Peak is about 5 or so miles NNE of Nome, at an elevation of 1045 ft above MSL. We found the benchmark there pretty easily...



...then we motored back west to Newton Peak, where we arrived at "ground zero" for the benchmark, and couldn't find it. Even after hammering a few chunks of schist out of the ice with a rock, and digging around. Ah well. We were satisfied with one find for the day. There are several benchmarks on Anvil Mountain that we may or may not bag before the weekend is out.

On the way back into town, Dad stopped and got a couple of photos of the old Dredges which are now abandoned out in the tundra. Here are the Osborne Dredge and Dredge 5:





We are winding down our trip, as the final weekend has just about arrived.

We started Friday with our yearly breakfast at friend Chuck Fagerstrom's house. Chuck is Dad's high school buddy, and a great sourdough pancake breakfast cook. Chuck was hosting the Seaveys (Mitch and his family, his father Dan, and mother), and the father of musher Cindy Gallea (not into Nome yet), who we met and chatted with. Mitch Seavey, as you may or not recall (based on your grasp of Iditarod trivia), won the 2004 Iditarod. We listened as he told us about the 2007 race (he finished 9th), the trail conditions, some of the prep for the race, and raising his dogs. We also talked a bit about global warming once they found out I was a geologist (although I must admit I took the high road and didn't say a WHOLE lot ;) All of the mushers and family members were really great breakfast company, and the rest of today I've spent shopping at the Arctic Trading Post and Maruskiya's for stuff for the wife. (Hi honey).

Tomorrow will bring (hopefully) a final snowmachine ride somewhere, and then Sunday is the Iditarod banquet. Did I mention that I ran into 2007 Iditarod champion last nite? Indeed I did, while walking out of the liquor store with a copy of the Nome Nugget in hand. I had just enough time to make eye contact and give him a little nudge on the shoulder, with a "congrats man!" He looked back at me and said "Thank you sir!" and then I went along my way....more soon....

AK Trip--Day 12, Pt. II, March 14, 2007

Great day. Here are the pics:

Martin at Finish (1):



Martin at Finish (2):



Finding the Tuesday Night Riders Geocache:



Megan and I were so excited about finding our first Nome geocache (and Megan's FIRST geocache!), that we decided to summon the Northern Lights to celebrate:



On our way back to Pat and Sue's for dinner, we checked out one of the abandoned dredges to the west of Nome....



That's all for today. We have 4 more days in Nome. Rookie musher of the year should be Sigrid Ekran of Norway. She'll probably show up at 5 AM or so, Nome time. We'll see if she ends up in 18th or 19th place. It depends on what kind of race Ryan Redington is willing to run between White Mountain in Nome, as they left only one minute apart.

Until next time....

AK Trip--Day 12--March 14, 2007

Martin's in, at 4:07:04 AM, with 10 frisky looking dogs! Hey, 4th place ain't bad. He had a good crowd of race fans there to greet him, along with some rather vocal barflies. Zack Steer finished about 20 minutes ahead of him. Dad and I drove out as far as the bypass road to watch Martin come in on the sea ice. His dogs were scooting along pretty well as they got closer to the Nome lights. We parked Bonnie's truck back at her place just in time to see Martin go by on Front Street, then I jogged down to the finish line to watch him get interviewed and checked in. MB said he's got a laundry list of things to improve upon for next year, and said he thought he needed to go somewhere and start writing them down. Dad was on the side of the finishing area snapping some photos, so maybe I'll be able to post some in the morning. For now (4:28 AM), I'm off to get some much-needed sleep!

AK Trip--Days 10-11, March 12-13, 2007

Another lazy couple of days, with a little more activity. After updating the blog yesterday, I went up to the art show at the St. Joe's Catholic Church, and then we had an early dinner and a few games of Quiddler.

Today we (Dad, Cousin Megan and I) headed out to geocache and snowmachine towards the cabin at Dexter. After making our way through the gravel plant over a series of turns and twists (there's less snow on the ground there than I can ever remember), we found our way to the top of Anvil Mountain, where we sought out the Anvil Mtn. geocache...here's me checking the GPS with Dredge #5 in the far distance.



From the top of Anvil Mountain, we determined that the cache had to be downhill about 1/4 of a mile. We saw a pretty good group of muskox on the way down. These guys were the closest...




After digging around in the snow a while within 20 feet of the cache location, we decided to give up the fight (Megan will have to return in summer and report her findings!). Dad snapped a photo of me and Megan at the top of Anvil after our hike back up...



On our way back over the top of Anvil towards Dexter, I got Dad to snap a photo of mye "hanging out" on one of the old communication towers (that look like big shark fins..if you look really close below the whitish door, you'll see me dangling there)



And now, today's race report...Lance Mackey won the 2007 Iditarod while we were out on our snowmachine adventure. He came in under the burled arch at about 8PM. We heard a bit of it on the radio before our trip back into town. He sounded pretty happy, and made history by being the first one to finish first in the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year.

Paul Gebhardt finished approximately two hours later, while we were in cuz Pat's house eating a delicious dinner of lasagna and some sort of beef stroganoff.

So, now we have a race (it is currently 2:40 AM) for third place between Zack Steer and Martin Buser, our main man, between Safety and Nome. They are less than 20 miles from Nome, and apparently only minutes apart. It will be interesting to see if Martin makes it a race and tries to pass Zack on the way into town, after leaving Safety only 4 minutes behind. Although tired, I think we'll probably be up for a while more here and go downtown and check out the scene at the finish line. Stay tuned!

AK Trip--Days 8-9, March 10-11, 2007

The last two days have been fairly uneventful, activity-wise, here in Nome. But that's what vacation's about sometimes, right? Inactivity. I've been sleeping in late, since we've been up until the wee hours these past few nights. Two nights ago I was at my cousin Pat's house with Sue, Megan and Anna. We visited for a while, had dinner and wine, and watched "Man of the Year." It was much better than I thought it would be.

Yesterday we tracked the race on line, and then went to the Rotary "Mini-Mukluk Marathon." My cousin Megan and I were the first walkers (non-joggers) to finish, and we were interviewed by Dogsled.com. So far, though, they haven't posted our interview.
We are hoping today to go out on the snowmachines, maybe snag a couple of geocaches, and check out the "Nome Forest" (not really trees, as there really are none this far north).

As for the race, the latest update is that Martin is in to Koyuk in 3rd place. The front two runners, Lance Mackey and Paul Gebhardt, have strong teams, and at this point, faster teams too. However, we are holding on to hope that Martin has an ace up his sleeve, and will make time on them prior to hitting the mandatory 8 hour layover at White Mountain. We'll see! Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow or the next day. Hope all is well in California...not missing the heat!!!

Here are the Red Lantern and 1st Place walking teams....
(L to R: Aunt Bonnie, Megan Hahn, Moi, Cowboy Bob)

AK Trip--Days 5-7, March 7-9.2007

We're in Nome...arrived yesterday at 11 AM with a rather harrowing (in my opinion) touchdown at the Nome Airport. The wind was bad enough that the pilot had to speed up to land, which caused the wings to dip a bit while landing. The touchdown was loud (and I had earplugs on!?), and hard, and then the pilot slammed on the brakes hard to slow up the plane. That got the adrenalin flowing!

Anyway, yesterday was the typical "settling in" day. We went to lunch at the new Airport Cafe, which is quite nice by Nome standards. We had a veggie pizza, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had Glacier Brewing's IPA (as mentioned in previous blogs). Even though it cost $6.00 a pint, I wasn't buying, so I figured I would have one. When in Nome, right? (insert high hat sound here).

Yesterday evening we went to a concert given by "The Last Frontier," a bluegrass band made up of 30-something Alaskan natives. They'll be here in Nome as long as we will for the festivities, and I hope I get a chance to see them again. They rocked, in a swampy, cold, icy, Alaskan kind of way. They started off with three of the members, as one of them had yet to arrive on the evening flight. They started with stand up bass, guitar, and mandolin, and mixed in some banjo along the way. Really technically proficient instrumentalists, and only a few weak vocal moments along the way.

We watched the start of the Nome-Golovin snowmachine race this AM, and now we're back at Auntie Bonnie's for some lunch.

On to the race...we have a close one! Jeff King left Eagle Island five minutes ahead of Martin, who had about an hour and a half lead going into Eagle. Jeff left with less rest, but we'll see if that makes any difference in the upcoming stretch. They're still on the Yukon, which has its challenges, so we'll be keeping a close eye on the progress.

Oh yes, moving backwards a bit, the last day in Homer was spent buying some more furnishings and such for Dad's cabin. We finished up the day by watching Lost, putting in some towel bars in the bathroom, putting handles on the cabinets, and buying two more pieces of furniture (a comfy padded video rocker and a dresser).

More soon....

AK Trip, Day 4--March 6, 2007--Beer and Geocaching

Ah yes, the two most important things on the planet. Beer and geocaching. Today we did some more shopping at Ulmer's hardware for Dad's cabin, too. We got candles, matches, one of those little thingys that allow you to attach your rabbit ears to the coaxial cable input on the back of your TV, a coffee maker, eating utensils, coffee mugs, etc. etc. It's kind of cool furnishing a cabin and wandering around the store coming up with stuff to get. And not worrying about work (that's the best part).

Today we also visited Homer Brewing, to pick up some swag and a couple of growlers. I tasted a couple of excellent stouts (an oatmeal stout and an Imperial Stout, the latter at 8.7%), but settled on the Old Inlet Pale Ale. Dad's growler was filled with Harvest Rye. Go Bob!

We also ate a late lunch at Land's End on the Homer Spit. Here's a photo out the window looking towards Halibut Cove and Poot Peak (also called Chocolate Drop) across Kachemak Bay.

Poot Peak is the pointy mountain above the first picnic table on the left.

Dad and I spent a short bit on the beach, and Dad got this photo.

Although I look comfortable enough to stand there forever, I can assure you that without my jacket it was quite cold.

We finally bagged our first Alaska geocaches! Two of them, the first called "Nobel's Explosive Geocache" and the second called "Stuck on the View." Both were fairly easy. We may brave the snow today and find one that we struck out on last year, called "Raven's View." Oh yes, did I mention it's snowing today?

Nothing really cutting edge to report on the Iditarod front. Martin is currently in 4th place, but has more rest than most everybody in front of him. Watch for Sorlie to make his move up to the front of the pack soon. He is probably getting his 24 hour rest in right now. Martin will undoubtedly take his 24 soon also, as will King.
Off to lunch with our friend Sandy. More tomorrow....

AK Trip Days 2-3, Lounging in Homer

Well, it feels like we couldn't have been much more lazy in the last couple of days...lounging around Aunt Bonnie's cabin and Dad's new cabin, and taking the short jaunt into town several times for supplies and a meal or two.

Two evenings ago, Dad and I got a call from my cousin Kenny, who invited us over for dinner on Sunday night. Ken's girlfriend, Linda, fixed us a nice meal of grilled/BBQ chicken, broccoli, wild rice, and appetizers of crackers and smoked salmon. Good stuff. After dinner we were treated to some of Linda's homemade blueberry and raspberry wine. Excellent. After a nice post-dinner visit, Ken was off to work to (apparently) deliver a baby, and we were off back to Dad's cabin for some cleanup and arranging (until approximately midnite).

Yesterday we spent going to Ulmer's and Spenard's Building Supply (Homer's hardware stores), and of course to Captain's Coffee for some joe.

It's been nice catching up on sleep and pleasure reading these last few days (I'm reading a pretty good true-life Search and Rescue book called "Lost In The Woods."), and of course, checking in on the Iditarod, where plenty has happened in the last several days.

The lead mushers are in an area between the Rohn and Nikolai checkpoints, part of which is contains the 35 mile stretch known as the Farewell Burn (site of Alaska’s largest forest fire, which burned up a million and a half acres in the summer of 1978) . According to trail reports, the section between Rohn and Nikolai this year is, for the most part, barren. There's a good story from Anchorage Daily News about this section here.

Martin is still in the top five on the Rohn to Nikolai stretch, and his speeds between earlier checkpoints so far indicate that he's got a fast team. We hope that he's taking it easy on this section, as it is often tough on the dogs (and mushers) to navigate without snow on the trail. Up to this point the trails have been slick and fast.

Two of the upper echelon Iditarod mushers have scratched this year, due to crashes and injuries. Four time champ Doug Swingley, and one of our favorite mushers, DeeDee Jonrowe, both broke bones and scratched after hitting the same patch of ice. Read DeeDee's story here, and Doug's story here.

Currently in the lead is Lance Mackey, who comes from a family of famous Iditarod mushers. He is wearing bib number 13, which has significance because his Dad (Dick) and half brother (Rick) were both wearing the number when they won the Iditarod in 1978 and 1983, respectively. Lance won the Yukon Quest again this year, so we know he has a dangerous team.

That's all to report now. Hope all is well for all of you reading on the "outside," as Cowboy Bob:

and other Alaskans call the lower 48.

Oh, I almost forgot...we ate pizza and had some of Homer Brewing's finest ales at Fat Olive's restaurant last nite. Oh YES. I can't decide which brew is the best, that is, between the Red Knot Scottish ale, the China Poot Porter, and the Broken Birch Bitter. Methinks I must take another taste test to find out..maybe a growler full o' the Old Inlet Ale will be the winner?! More to come!

AK Trip--Day 1, Anchorage to Homer Road Trip

Hello all, and welcome back for Iditarod 2007. Here's some photos from our first day in AK . Dad and I flew into Anchorage Friday evening, and stayed at the Lakeshore Inn near Lake Spenard. I started my day with a brisk walk in the sun to "Rent-A-Wreck" to pick up our rental vehicle. A nice tall coffee kept me warm for the hike in the 12 degree weather. After about a 40-minute walk, I drove the Ford Explorer (hardly a "wreck," not a bad way to go if you need a cheap car rental) back to the hotel room, Dad and I loaded up, and hit the road (Highway 1 South) towards Homer.

Along the way, we stopped at several places on the Turnagain Arm (a part of the Cook Inlet) to watch the ice flows move.

As you can see, we had some great weather. For lunch, we stopped in Girdwood, home of the Alyeska ski resort, for lunch at the "Chair 5" restaurant. I had one of the better IPAs I've ever had from Glacier Brewing (Anchorage), and a great spinach salad, nicely balancing out my "good" and "bad" vacation calories. Here is a pic of the slope:

Following lunch, we continued on our road trip south through Cooper Landing, Ninilchik, Soldotna and Anchor Point along our way to Homer. Around sundown, I was able to snap a nice closeup of the volcano, Mt. Iliamna, off the coast to the west:

After reaching Aunt Bonnie's cabin in Homer, Dad and I checked out the new look for his cabin in Homer...he's had a local carpenter and his crew do quite a few internal improvements since last year's visit. Here's what the new kitchen area looks like...quite cozy!

Today's activities are forthcoming...we shall do some shopping for cabin stuff, some hiking/geocaching, and of course, we'll be keeping track of the Iditarod (and hopefully drinking some more great beer). The race restart in Willow took place this morning, so the teams are finally on the move. Our man Martin started with Bib#19, and had a team of happy looking dogs out of the chute. More soon!