enjoying the last of the nice weather last night. the leaves are turning, but it is still 70.
we ran into tim, bellie and beaufort out on the UAF trails.

working in the cold room

i've been working in the cold room down in the basement of the geophysical institute this past week. it is -30 in this picture, pretty hard to tell though. that is not that cold for Fairbanks, but man i am not ready for winter yet. luckily it was 75 and sunny again today, just perfect riding weather. we did a great ester loop with stac and even pella! other than that, it is that time in my grad school career to pass my oral defense of my thesis proposal. i think my weekend trips are over for awhile until i fully prepare and pass.

Gulkana Glacier

gulkana glacier is off the richardson at about mile marker 200. this is the start of our hike and you see gulkana in the background.

dan, ashley and ben looking for sky. she took off chasing two caribou out of the valley.
dan crossing the suspension bring over college river. pella, caz and sky had to swim across and they were caught in the current for a little ways as they made their way over to the other side.
ashley crossing the bridge and pella in the river making her way across.
Julie (more photos) and Ashely up the canyon to the right of where we started our glacier, they are crossing the runoff creek here. I like the perspective of the canyon walls, these glaciers are huge.
Farther up the glacier, we separated here because of the dogs and crevasse danger.Here is Ashley on the glacier hike over a small crevasse.
inside a small crevasse, ben took this...i already headed back with pella.
julie and caz crossing and julie getting ready to cross one of many small braids of the river on the way back.
lunch break near the end of our hike. pella was one tired dog.

picking raspberries last week.

transplant update

well this last set of bad news just flew by, it is becoming the regular deal around here. dialysis is becoming a way of life for me and this may be for along while. there is nothing to do but be positive and keep heading outdoors while i can. our last blood test still had a high crossmatch and we can not have a transplant. they(Mayo Clinic) are going to do one last test in two weeks. after that it is back to the drawing board. this is a link on positive crossmatch transplants and the trouble they cause. we are heading out tomorrow afternoon on another spectular weekend alaska trip to gulkana glacier.
i love my new car. the greatest feature is that is has a cassette player and a 6 CD changer. i can use the cassetter play with my ipod shuffle and it plays tunes! very simple and cheap adapter. i guess that is one benefit of an older car (2001 jetta wagon).

moose mountain moutain bike ride has everything. stac and i on wide fast downhill.
fun, ridable, water. a few not so fun bogs later, myself and the camera fell in. great single trac thru a really dense forest, but i have no pics of that after the water.

Pella was very sick this week and had to stay overnight at the vet. She is finally getting better. This picture is with her iv removed, just the tape. She is a little drama queen here and still didn't want to walk on that leg. They think it may have been poisonous mushrooms. She is on leash for awhile now. I have her at school in my new used car! It has been 2 years without a car and our schedules just aren't working out. In addition I bet Ben, Martin and Julie 20 bucks each that I won't go into Beaver Sports for 6 months(on August 8) ! There it is out on the internet, I have to live up to it and collect my money to help pay for the car.

ed had a barbacue last night and we celebrated brian jackson's MS defense. here he is dancing with the fake butt instead of giving a speech.

Indigo Girls in Fairbanks

i had to steal both of these pictures from Martin's blog. we had a blast at the show last night. as you can see we were in the front row and there were only a few hundred people. martin, julie, ben and i went early to eat at the blue loon. we don't get big names up here very often and I love the Indigo girls. I danced most of the night and we had a big group of friends there that danced even after the show. Of course I am wearing my t-shirt today.ben and martin's friend turtle.

biking denali national park road

ben and i road part of the denali national park road and it was amazing, one of a dozen favorite alaska trips. this national park does not allow cars on the 90 mile dirt road into the wilderness. only 2 bikes per camper bus which drops backpackers off at specific quadrants. the bus ride started out very entertaining with a crazy bus driver and monte the country singer on the drive in. we took the bus to polychrome pass, 46 miles and started our ride out at 8pm. ed and julie took the bus to fish creek 64 miles in, but we did not see them until the campground at 1:30 am!

this is the start, a screaming down hill past caribou, moose and a grizzly bear with a cub.

i stayed behind to get this great perspective, it is still hard to tell the drop off was very steep and about 1,000 feet. it seemed safer on the bike then on those buses.sable pass area. even though all big mountains(denali 20,500ft, foraker ect.) were covered in the clouds it was still beautiful.
another sable pass area.
ben fixing his seat up our last climb to descend to savage river. next time maybe we will ride all 90 miles. i was so excited to do this ride on a friday after dialysis and ride thru the night. i am already dreaming up our next adventure to Gaulkona glacier next weekend!