3.25.2010

White Mountains 100mile Race!

The view from Windy Gap cabin check point 3 (cp3). Jason, Ben and I arrived just in time to get out the food, complete our duties and call in the checkpoint open on the sat phone. Shortly after, race leaders Jeff and Pete, arrived at cp3( 62 miles into the 100mile race). The racers just descended the continental divide and miles of ice lakes and overflow. Later in the night the racers bindings were stuck to their skis and Ben was running out with hot water to unfreeze them. It was such a fun crazy adventure. I loved seeing all my good friends do the race and the new friends I met on the trail.

Ben and I making our first Sat phone call into headquarters. Later on we had to stand in the middle of the overflow river to make the call without being dropped, but it all worked out.

Jeff and Pete the first two bikers into the checkpoint. Jeff ended up winning the race and Pete was second.
Pete rides off toward Borealis cabin.

Mike Kramer the first skier coming into the checkpoint.

Another biker, Mike Kramer, Brad and then Heather came through! She past them all to get third overall in the race and had one heck of a ride. After Heather the checkpoint was a madhouse for the rest of the night and I have no more pics of racers coming in.


Shook and Robin having some meatball soup. They had no idea they had on matching leg warmer and shirt combo's. Robin is from Anchorage, what are the odds?


Our awesome race directors Ed and Ann who both had countless sleepless nights of work before the race and still skied 100miles starting long after the racers left. It was great to hang with them at Windy Gap.

By 3am every spot in the cabin was full and Ben tried to snooze under the table, Amy was on the other side. We had 11 people sleep for an hour or two and 2 people outside in a tent. The slushy overflow and ice lakes was making for a cold ski with below zero temps and high wind. The course was still in super fast shape and everyone finished by the next day, 24 hours earlier than expected!

The sketchiest walk to an outhouse in all of the white mountains. The overflow surrounds the cabin and some of the snow is misleading, we had two people fall into the slushy overflow up to their knees in this area.



Even with the overflow ice, I love this cabin. It is my favorite in the White Mountains. It is the farthest out cabin and with amazing views and challenging terrain. The racers we so impressive that they had no major problems with the trail.

Our snow machines were so overloaded with gear on the way out, we had couple of spills. These are just the gas cans on the back.
This is one short section of angled overflow and Ben's machine slid off the trail towards the tree. IWe had no major mishaps on the way out. This is on the trail from Wolf Run Cabin to Windy Gap Cabin.

A packed house last night at the award ceremony at the community center next to Ivory Jack's. Ann and Ed gave out fun awards to volunteers and racers. I received a check point award for monitoring those meatballs to the very last one! I did not have much time to take pictures and there are many more and great pics at www.whitemountains100.org. Thanks to Ed and Ann for putting on a great event.This is Dan Young's photo that I just love of Robin crossing the ice lakes, what a ski when this is the trail! My pics do not do justice to the scenery check out more @ to the race picasa album.

Skiing to Wolf Run Cabin

Kristen and I on the overflow at Beaver Creek(Dan's pic). We all skied out to Wolf Run Cabin the night before the Whites 100 race, which was awesome and will be my next post. We had such a late start skiing the 23 miles in to Wolf Run, we hit Beaver Creek at sunset. Anna did great in the chariot. There were tons of wolf pack tracks in this area and around the cabin from a moose kill.

The beautiful view from Wolf Run cabin. Ben and Jason came in late on snow machines with all of our gear for the race and to go the last 9 miles to the Windy Gap Check point.

Sky found the hoof of the moose so her and Molly had a great time chewing this all night and the next morning.

Sky the wonder dog pulling Kristen and the chariot so we could make the ski in a reasonable time with the extra 60 lbs she was skiing with. That chariot is hard to ski with and very impressive to ski with it 23miles and for Anna to ride, she did great!
Anna the cabin girl.

...and the first racer into to Windy Gap is Dan?? The morning after Wolf Run, Ben, Jason and I were headed to Windy Gap Cabin for three days for the race and Kristen and Dan were headed back towards the car and Colorado Creek cabin. I left with the car keys they needed! Dan was happy to ski the extra 40miles to get the car keys. We were very surprised to see him at Windy Gap cabin!

3.15.2010

Windy Gap Cabin Whites 100 Pre Race Gear Haul

The beautiful arch and scenery in the White Mountains.

We headed to Windy Gap Cabin for some White Mountain 100 pre race gear stash and to cut firewood. I have only skied to this junction from Caribou bluff, here we are on snow machines with our sleds full of gear. Thanks to Jamie and Jason for snow machining with us to help out at Windy Gap and letting us borrow snow machines.



Jason, Jamie and Ben cutting the downed and dead trees for firewood.

Ben on the overflow past Windy Gap.

This was the first time on a snow machine for a long ride. Both Ben and I had fun on the trail and learning the ropes from Jason and Jamie.



Ed was out flying and did a close fly by of the cabin. It was so cool to see him in the plane. I shot some video on the second fly by. He was out doing some hydrology stuff, but we think he was checking to make sure we were wearing our Whites 100 volunteer sweatshirts :-)

3.08.2010

Cache Mtn Cabin

Lisa skating up McKay Creek trail head on our way out to Cache Mtn Cabin. The sun was shining and it warm skate ski in towards the cabin.

The view out towards the Cache Mountain. We descended down into this valley about 10 miles into our 20mile ski and Lisa ran into some friends. It turns out they had the cabin Saturday night and she mistook her permit. We ended up turning around and skiing back to the car! We still had a nice long ski...and a funny story.

On the way back to the car we saw another friend Lisa out mushing.

3.02.2010

Sailing in Rosario Strait, north of Seattle

Audrey took us out for another great sail yesterday on our layover back to Fairbanks. We sailed from Anacortes on Fidalgo Island down Rosario Strait, around bird rocks and back to the harbor. There was so much wildlife this time; birds, sea otters and even a porpoise swimming next to the sail boat.

(Julie's pic)

Captain Audrey and 1st mate Kody.


Steve and Leila also came sailing and itwas fun to catchup with cousin Steve. Steve was put to work by Auds raising the mail sail. We were also able to Mike for a beer Sunday night.

Audrey directing Ben on how to sail Windbird. He did great for his first time sailing and was at the helm the majority of the day.

Audrey and Julie treated us to a great dinner at Adrift. We cannot wait to come visit again and are already making plans for the next sail.

2.24.2010

1 year kidney transplant anniversary at Mayo!

Ben and I are at Mayo this week for my 1 year kidney transplant anniversary! It has been an amazing year and hard to sum up in one blog post. The biopsy is over, and all of the other major testing this week, Ben, our families and friends have been super supportive throughout.

Everything looks great so far. I have one more of my biweekly infusion tomorrow, and hopefully that will be my last. The eculizmab study has been very successful and traveling from Alaska to Mayo every other week this year has been worth it!

Ben also did a charity photo auction and sold out all of his prints so we could present Gift of Life Transplant house with a check for $800.00 today and they were so grateful. The check in is Trevor (my donor) and my honor. Of course the transplant would not be a success with out Trevor. So I have posted a few pics from this past year.

Trevor and I about 2 months after the kidney transplant - dubbed "the big hairy man kidney".

Trevor and I the day after surgery trying to get up and walk around.

In this past year I have accomplished so much with my transplant. I have been on too many incredible Alaskan trips to name them all. My Fairbanks friends have been my home away from home. In addition to backpacking, packrafting and cabin ski trips, I have just completed my first 50 K skate ski race. Thanks to Trevor, whose generosity is amazing. Since the transplant he has moved to Washington DC to do foreign disaster aid and has been to Sri Lanka, Darfur and Haiti (he is still there).

Part of Mayo Clinic from the largest building, 19th floor of the Gonda.

The doctors and care have been unmatched here, especially Dr. Gloor, Dr. Stegall, Cindy and the rest of the kidney transplant staff we worked with.


2.18.2010

Litte Su 50K and the 100 mile Susitna race

We drove 5 hours south down to the Susitna 100 mile ski, bike or run race on remote Alaska rivers and lakes. I did the sister race the Little Su 50k (32 miles) by skate skiing. We started 2 hours after the "big" race and went on a similar trail out near Flat Horn lake check point and turned around for the 50 K. We skied back on the same course as the 100 mile race's last leg. I had a great day and all of the long cabin trip skis getting by butt kicked my really fast friends paid off. I ended up 6th for in the women ski division in 6.5hrs. I then supported the 100mile race and waited for Robin, Kevin, Lisa and Chris to finish.
It was my first 50k ski race so I took along my camera and snaps a few shots when I was getting out a GU to eat. There was miles of brushy narrow trails and a few steep short climbs, but this part of the race was flat making for a beautiful day with temps in the 30'sF.

Robin and Lisa just minutes before the start of the 100mile race.

Robin, Lisa and Kevin at the start line. Kevin (2nd) was the first to finish of our crew and I totally missed it while in the general store.

Robin finished in just over 15 hours around 1:30am for a 100 mile ski. She was the 1st women in and 6th overall in the race.

Lisa(3rd) and Chris(6th) finished strong later that morning. This race is really impressive and I don't think I could do it. In addition they carry mandatory packs with a -20F sleeping bag and bivy. All three of them are doing the Whitemountains100.org race in a few weeks and I will be at the Windy Gap checkpoint for that race.

2.08.2010

Fairbanks weekend

After skiing the Whites on our cabin trip, we skijored with Ted at Creamer's field. Here is Julie with Ty and me with Sky. It was great to have Julie up for the weekend, she is always up for anything on skis! She skied again at Birch Hill later in the day. Nothing like packing it in on the weekend.
We had dinner and Kristen and Ned's. Anna is the newest photographer. Here is one of her best shots of the night. "Daddy".

She also liked the Mushers in the Yukon Quest, of course we are following the sled dog race online. www.yukonquest.com

Ben and Anna.

Lee's Cabin

We had girls trip to Lee's cabin this weekend and great visit with Julie.
Julie relaxing with Sky in the morning before she headed out on an additional 18mile ski.

Dinner at Lee's and Ann showed us how to do a Tim Tam(cookie) shot with what was supposed to be hot tea, but used Brandy. My only group shot, Kristen, me, Ann, Julie and Lisa.

Julie skiing towards Moose Creek cabin. We all skated the route because it was 15 degrees above zero! We love the heat wave's in February.

2.01.2010

Stiles Creek Cabin

Another great cabin trip this weekend into Stiles Creek Cabin. Ed and Kristen ready to ski back to the car. Kristen pulled Anna the Chariot on skis. It was a warm ski at -5F to 5F on the ridge.

The Rozell's eating breakfast. We had a great sunny day to ski out of Stiles.

The cabin is a 7 mile climb and then 1 mile descent down to the cabin. So in the morning we hooked sky up to Kristen to Anna in the chariot to pull on the uphill portion.

Anna, Sky and I enjoying some Sin Dawg Cinnamon bread. We had fun during story and nap time, but I think Pella was still her favorite. (Pella likes Anna too and on the way out we had two cars, so Pella curled up in the kiddie car seat in my car all the way home).

Anna is already a veteran cabin tripper. She was a tropper in the chariot while we were skiing down the the steep hills.