I dropped Dan and Ed off in Nenana today and they are skiing the river back to Fairbanks. The distance is 100K. It is ususally a race, but they did not have it this year. They are finishing at the Pump House later today. It is supposed to be ABOVE freezing today with a high of 33F. The last time it was above freezing was Dec. 9th for 1 hour.

one more pic of "old faithful"

Chatanika, AK

Here we are on a hike at McKay Creek before the big Outhouse races at Chatanika Days.


Caz and Turtle getting into the competitive spirit in this little race, Caz is still the fastest pup in the gang.

This is Ed, Trevor, George, Brian(in the pink hat) and Melissa in the "driver" seat as they push their outhouse 1 mile to the finish. The crowds were getting into the race all lined up on the steese.
The rear of this outhouse was just as nice as the front. That is Ed's huge fake butt. They came in second to some local fairbanks runners who pushed there outhouse 1 mile in 4 minutes and 40 seconds, come who runs that fast pushing an outhouse? ed and crew came in second.
Tawna and Martin in the human bowling part of Chatanika Days. all in all it was one fine day out at the outhouses races.

this is me frazzled after a long week and ben was goofing around with his camera. i read my last post and laugh, race? today, i woke up in the reality of dialysis and i can not race. not that i am complaining, i am just better for now with a skijor dog. BUT i am good at dominos, so we are having a game night tonight at ed's. it might be lame, but i love it.

20th Anniversary Sonot race this weekend. The course is below, we did most of the 20K sunday, but I had Caz as a skijor dog. Thinking about doing the race this weekend for fun, but not the 50K. The 50K route climbs Birch Hill and back to the river.
Julie riding, Ben and I out for a ski on beautiful Sunday on the Chena River.

GCI Open North American

GCI sled dog race is all this weekend. It is a fun community event because the start is right on second street downtown and then on the river, the curvy slough and creamer's field.

A team of sled dogs heads back from the 20 mile course, this picture coming from the slough on the chena river.Julie, Kumi and I cheering a sled dog team on about 1 mile into the race.Here is the start of the race downtown Fairbanks. The pace is crazy fast, it is a sprint dog race not like the 1000 mile Iditarod and Yukon Quest. I guess it would be the equivalent of a crit in cycling. Of course we also took in a few ice sculptures and the fur auction.

Julie had a get together last night after her last day of work. We had homemade caribou jerky that Julie made and chocolate zuccinni bread from Kumi. yum.
Our instruments are finally in the field at this shed off campus. We have been working outside hooking up all the inlets, pumps and exhaust lines. It is still 26 below this morning, colder than normal for march.

Skijor Race

Ted stopped by and I asked if I wanted to race sky tonight in the skijor race and I did. It was a blast, it is hard to tell from the pics, but the dogs were really flying. It was a 3.6 mile course and veteran racer Ted won with his dog Ty. I came in second by 22 seconds, it was hard, fast race. We all won lots of dog treats as prizes. Sky was so crazy at the start line in the above picture, luckily I had Stef as a handler(on the right).

Ted and Ty tearing it up in the lead.
Sky and I had a great run. Ted and I after the race. Ben came and cheered us on.

Iditarod Race

Lance Mackey is in the lead right now and they may finish as early as 8pm tomorrow. Check out the link for info. If Lance wins, he will make history as the only one to win Yukon Quest and Iditarod, the last great race. Jeff King who won last year keeps his dogs in an altitude tent at home, now that is a some serious dog mushing.

We went to the IPY (International Polar Year) lecture tonight by Tim Flannery. He wrote The Weather Makers. He is also Austrialia's 2007 man of the year.

Big Kidney News

Hi All. Last week we heard some very big news. Roger's (ben's dad, my father in-law) test results came back from Mayo and he has a negative cross match. This means he can potentially donate a kidney. He still has to go to Mayo Clinic for an evaluation and we are hoping it all goes well. I was beginning to think we would not find a donor at all and I even scheduled my permanent access surgery in anchorage(for dialysis). We will now hold off on that and hope we have a transplant instead. Of course it is not for sure yet, but I am very grateful that Roger is going through this for me.

In other news, It is finally warm here, around 11 below this morning and now 2 above. Ben and I headed out for a skate ski the University and the trails were great. Here is Ben getting his climb on.

We had a great sushi dinner last night too with Sarah, Greg and Julie. it was typical hysterical Fairbanks style dinner. It took over an hour to get the food, the wrong food arrived and then the right food arrived. No clean glasses or something so beer out of the bottle...the sushi was good and the waitress didn't quit while serving us. The new standard for a good night out.

It is spring break this week for school, so I have more free time without my labs and class. We hope to get out and go on some good ski trips with the warmer weather and daylight.

Pella and Turtle chasing a moose today at Creamer's Field. Beautiful sunny day!

This picture is from a couple of days ago when I kicked Martin and Ben's butt in dominos!! Last night we went to an epic bonfire party, it around 20 below. Venessa and Seth cleared part of their yard and we had two huge fire pits. Today the forcast is still 45 below for the next 7 days! Sometimes the slight warm up around 5pm is not enough to get a long ski in.

We are still waiting to hear news from Fairbanks friends that have been tested to donate a kidney...hopefully next week. -Dea

40 below funk

it has warmed up to 35 below today. in the paper they call this the "40 below funk", after two weeks people start getting crabby and not much warming coming our way. luckily i have been so busy at school i am hardly noticing the temps. we have big bonfire party this weekend, a first at 4o below.