Arctic Man

Okay for those of you who don't know what Arctic Man is, it is like Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, just with snow machines. All of the weeks festivities lead up to race on Friday (weather permitting). This race is where a skier or snowboarder takes off at about 5800 feet and drops to 1700 feet in less than 2 miles and then meets up with a snowmachine and a tow rope. The snowmachione pulls the skier up a hill about 2 more miles at speeds of around 90 mph. The skier then lets go of the rope and drops another 1200 feet to the finish. It is a must see.

 There is an old saying that it takes all kinds to make the world go round, well we definitely found the "all kinds". I think next year we will get a bit better spot than where we were located this year, down 6 spots from the bar and right next to the main road leading from the camps to the bar, lets just say we didn't get much sleep LOL.

Neither one of us knew just quite what to expect, until we saw motor home and tent city come into view, then visions of Woodstock rolled into our head...... As you can see by the first picture people didn't have much faith in the bathroom facilities and brought their own ;o)

Necessities.. snowmachine and porta potty.














The sunsets where gorgeous, and the nights were cold














Our trailer, is the black one in the picture, the bar was right across from the the blue tent and the sign you see in the distance.













One of my favorite pictures.













Us by the Alaska pipeline.

Maybe this should be a new races at arctic man (falls under the all kinds category), this was on top of the mountain and apparently the guy in the chair rode like that all the way up there, insane!

Too many snow machiners, in one place you know there is trouble, quick call out the national guard!!

There were fireworks battles almost every night we were there

Apparently anyone can do this event even a 6'4" Ewalk

They are traveling at roughly 80 miles an hour, can you believe it?

Pick up spot, the skier comes from one valley and the snow machiner comes from the other, the snow machier, throws the skier a tow rope and off they go, 80 plus miles and hour, until they hit the drop off point.

Our camp is down in the middle.

I did take my vintage 1977 Kawasaki Sno-jet to compete in the vintage hill climb. Unfortunately the jet was too rich and I had a hard time keeping it running. I did make the race but just a bit too boggy to finish well.

The inside of our trailer worked out pretty nice with the help of a Mr buddy heater.

Chena Hot Springs

Jen bought me a new camera for my birthday, and because I work midshifts on my birthday she gave it to me early. I think the real reason though was the fact she wanted pictures on our trip to Chena Hot Springs.

Saturday morning we got up early and drove up the parks highway to Fairbanks and then north to the Hot Springs. We took several pictures on the way and we stopped at the Ice carvings for a few pictures. We spent several hours in the pool and finally got out just after 10pm. The temperature outside was about 5 degrees. The pool is an outside pool so you can imagine how cold the walk was from the pool to the inside dressing room. We had a blast.

On Sunday we got up and decided to take an alternate route back home. We drove down the Richardson highway to Glennallen and then cut back over to Palmer. Trip was just over 800 miles and we took just under 300 photos. I am still learning how to work the camera, but some of the photos turned out pretty good. I am throwing out a few and will put some more up later.

Take care.



Richardson Highway.














Parks Highway













Ice slide













Ice Carving

Ice carving.

Ice bar at Chena Hot Springs

Ice Alter at Chena Hot Springs

Sunrise on the big one.

Homer and Eureka

Homer Alaska,

We camped on the beach and it reminded us of how much we miss living next to the ocean. Palmer is inland a bit so the ocean is about a hour away. It was nice to listen to the waves, walk the beach and just hang out. It was just Dave, Krista and I as Ashley had to work. So we left her and dog at home to spend some quality time together.

Eureka Alaska,

Time for four wheeling and playing in the mud!!! We bought a new trailer that we can fit all four snow machines and all four of the four wheelers in, and sleep in when needed. Ashley was working again, poor kid has worked every weekend since she got the job and has been missing out on a bit of the fun. This time we took one of Krista's friends Rachel with us and the girls slept in the truck tent and Dave and I slept in the trailer, not the same as sleeping in our own bed but still beats a tent! We took the dog with us and had a blast! Below are some of the pictures from the trip.

Trip to Cordova Alaska

I had the opportunity to take a 2 day trip to Cordova Alaska for work. Once the work was done I had several hours to explore and take a few pictures.

Cordova is a small town located on the east side of Prince William Sound with a population around 2200. Cordova is mainly a commercial fishing town, with the famous copper river red salmon coming from the mouth of the copper river located just a few miles east of Cordova. Most of the fishing occurs in Prince William Sound and the Copper River Delta areas. The fishing has improved since the Exon Valdez oil spill, which severely affected the Salmon and herring. There are no roads in or out of town, you must fly or take the ferry. The trip is well worth it.

Climate in Cordova can be a bit wet at times. I arrived to rain and left in the rain. I did have a few breaks that enabled me to acquire a few pictures.

The boat Harbor was full of boats.

The view from my hotel room.

I knew I wanted to take a drive out to Child's Glacier and the Million Dollar bridge. It is roughly 45 miles from town to the Glacier. The road is mostly gravel but in good shape. The road crosses several bridges as it weaves it's way across the Copper River. This is a really awesome drive as it crosses several different braids of the river.

The road out of town.

Some of the local scenery.

Taking this trip in the evening after a full day of work didn't do it justice. I could have spent a few days taking pictures and exploring. I will be back.

I drove for over an hour stopping and taking pictures. It was after 7 pm and I hadn't saw any other vehicles for some time. I knew I was getting closer to the glacier, but the water was flooding right next to the road sometimes within inches of coming over the road. A few wet spots in the road and I was about to turn back. I really was starting to get worried when I finally came to the campground area. As you get closer to the glacier it disappears due to the trees. When you turn down into the campground and it appears, it will take your breath away. Such an awesome place. Only one family camping in the campground so I had the place almost to myself.

I sat there for over 2 hours enjoying the view and trying to catch the glacier calving with my camera. I saw lots of ice fall, but catching it on camera was really tough. The ice would crack at times that was as loud as someone firing a gun. If you look at the picture below you can see the water splash up from a large chunk of ice that had fell off the glacier. This made waves in the water that at times would reach the bank on my side of the river.

 Wave heading toward the shore from ice that had fell into the water. There is no camping on the beach due to the risk of a large wave hitting the area. There was one wave that came 5-6 feet up the beach. I saw a video of a surfer who tried to surf one of the larger waves. Crazy!

A view of the Million Dollar bridge (Miles Glacier bridge) from the Child's Glacier campground. The million dollar bridge was built in the early 1900's for the railroad to bring copper from the Kennicott mine. The bridge got it's nick name due to the fact it cost over a million dollars to build it. This expensive bridge made it possible to bring over 200 million dollars worth of copper out of the Kennicott area. Sounds like a reasonable investment.

About to walk out on a 100 year old bridge.

A picture of Miles Glacier from the bridge.

I will return here to explore the area when I have more time.