Caribou Bluff Cabin

We skied 30miles into Caribou Bluff cabin on Saturday for Ed's birthday. Then on Sunday we skied out 31 miles via Fossil Gap Trail and out the Colorado Creek trail head. Ben skied in to meet us and drive back to the Wickersham trailhead and get the cars. The crew of amazing skiers were Ed, Brian, John, Dan, Robin and Heather on a bike. They were so crazy fast that I had Sky to skijor with for most of the ski. It was still the longest two skiis I have ever done into the most beautiful part of the White Mountains and I am so glad I was able to go! We had northern lights to top off our great night at Caribou Bluff Cabin, this is Ed's picture of the night.

The view of the cabin during the day.

The small cabin was tight for 7 people and 2 dogs so Dan slept outside in his tent.

Robin descending down from the Cabin towards Beaver Creek. I left early in the morning to get a jump on the ski and Sky and crew joined us later.

Skiing on Fossil Creek towards Beaver Creek.

The beautiful scenery skiing on Fossil Creek.

Jackson, John and I skiing along Beaver Creek(photo Ed).



Ed, Sky and I on the windswept area on the climb up to Colorado Creek Trail.
Sky pulling and Robin's fresh tracks, the trail out(photo Robin).

Dan carried a fat man pie in for Ed's birthday and we all did a flaming pumpkin shot. Thanks everyone for a great ski weekend, this one is my favorite cabin trip in Alaska (so far).

Skiing the Tanana and Chena Rivers

Dan and I headed out to the Tanana River for a long ski and kite ski. It was around -2oF and Dan is setting up his homemade Alaska flag kite ski.

and he is off. The Tanana River has endless amounts of skiing, but just not enough wind today for his smaller kite.

a cool picture of the kite. i was trying to get a closeup of the flag.


The next day I skied the Chena River from my house. I started out on the slough and that joins the Chena River. The slough pops out at the new Cultural center downtown with plently of room to skate ski, skijor or whatever. We headed toward Ft. Wainwright, the Sonot course and back.

This part of the river is just past the boundary of Ft. Wainwright. The no trespassing signs allow you to stay on the river as long as you do not go on land. The best part about this section of the ski is the culverts are blocked off and Pella can concentrate on keeping up instead of crawling in the culverts!

Moose Mountain

Magan and Jack after our run on Moose Mountain. Ben and I were house sitting for friends on the top of Moose Mountain. Their house is above the inversion and warm at only -10F, while in town it was -30 to 40 below (with out a wind chill). There are limitless ski trails right from the house so we took the dogs out everyday for a ski or run.

Enjoying the low sun, no warmth...but still nice.

We took Wilson and Pella for a long ski at Creamer's, it was -26F and we all loved it!
Our only visitor to ski over to the house, Ed. He linked some trails together to get from town to the Moose Mountain...around 20miles.
Pella and Wilson after our ski.

Happy Birthday Ben!

We had a fun dinner at Silver Gulch tonight for Ben's birthday, thanks everyone for joining. He is going to be Cob's neighbor in Scotland with his 1x1 square foot of land. Apparently you get one when you buy certain scotch or something like that.

Happy New Year from Tolovana Hot Springs

Skiing up Tolovana Dome on the way out to the hot springs. We had a great New Year's with good friends, food, wine and fireworks.

Mike took his snowmachine in and the rest of us skied or walked. I was glad to have the opportunity to drive it with a sled on the back. He directed me how to snow machine with a large sled for my upcoming check point during the whites 100mile ski race.

Dinner after the hot springs in the cabin .

The temperature without a wind chill was only -20F and not too cold for Tolovana or fireworks, but the wind made them hard to light. Markie was all over it though.