mellow labor day weekend

caz and pella waiting for a treat from ben after swimming in the tanana river.


martin is back town and we all took the dogs for a run on gilmore trail. the leaves are changing and it is fall in fairbanks.


ben and i facing the cleary summit area. martin comments how nice it is to be back and run on the quiet trail with no people (except some random hunter shooting, we think not in our direction).

girls night

we had a girls dinner party at stacia's cabin the other night. here is julie and kumi making the pie from handpicked blueberries, rasberries and rubarb eariler in the day. stac made a great citrus salmon and laura picked some kale from her garden.


smiley face pie design by kumi.

we are also super excited to get the october issue of Alaska Magazine because ben's photo will be in the raven article by Ned. it is an exciting step for ben, thanks to stacia and her ravens!

granite tors

the early morning rain turned into a beautiful sunny day on our trail run. it was 15 miles and took longer than we thought, but it was awesome. we never saw pella, she ran up with ted and he had to drag her along...we allowed him a "pella handicap".


tors on the ridge.

great mocha that ben made me this morning!

i finally have a camera again, an unpassable deal on a nikon coolpix at fred meyers. we are headed out for a run/hike today at granite tors trail, but it is 46 and RAIN again...

julie and stac on their backpacking trip

check out julie's blog. great pics of her and stac's trip backpacking/hunting in the brooks range, what great photos! I'm glad they are back to help with my coffee addiction and hanging out at ak roasters.

it has been raining for 17 days in fairbanks, my ride this morning it was 46F. still ben and i had a fun weekend running matias's tour de murphy dome. school starts next week already! i am missing my blog camera! dea

Back home

My trip North on the Dalton was a success. It rained for two days striaght, but I came away with solid images. I did nothing but drive, shoot, and eat (while driving). Good trip all in all.

Dea and Pella had rain here all weekend too. The weather today was perfect though- mid 70s. We were both able to get out for a run (Dea) and a bike (Me).


Dea and I hiking with the dogs in the rain on Sunday.


Getting some quality tripod time at the pipeline. This access road runs along almost the entire 800 miles of the line. I hiked this stretch for six miles or so where the line zig zags up a hill where I could shoot a good section. I'm not sure the what would have happened if I ran onto a worker out there. I was struck by how vulnerable the line is.


This was my view for much of the time.

I'll post more images after my final edit for Matter.

ben hanging out with pella before he leaves on his weekend adventure in the brooks range. i hope to smoke the rest of our salmon this weekend, rent some girlie movies and hike in the white mountains....

BP pipeline shut down

stock photo (ben)
lots of alaska pipeline news lately.(click to read)

sunday

well we're back to our regular bloggin' ways.

went blueberry picking today on murphy dome. it's a bit early, and the berries are a tad tart, but we came home with a good haul. we got a flat on the way back down the hill though- this is the second one in the last couple months. new tires tomorrow.



when we got back into town we saw these crazy tourists. the back of their bike said "DONG'S Guns, Amo, & Reloading. Tulsa, OK". wow.

we're back

it has been awhile since our last post. i wasn't feeling the greatest and it turns out my camera is not waterproof, the combo put a stop to the blogging for awhile.

all is great now though and we spent the morning riding to the farmers market.

julie and i eating some good pastries


onions, yum.


ben's funky argile socks and bike shoes.


ben has been shooting alot and next weekend he leaves for a solo trip to the arctic to shoot his "fuel" project for matter literary art journal, he is pretty excited to get out of town for a job. besides the blog pics he's been doing some pretty creative stuff, and adding to his "can't see denali from here" project.

all the dogs are ocming over for a run at birch hill, should be interesting.
dea

sea kayaking to shoup glacier

we had a great trip sea kayaking with cousin steve. here are a few pics.

camp spot on avalanche beach, it was a rainy night.


campsite was complete with a glacier fed waterfall.


heading toward the glacier. ben liked the new challenge of shooting pics from the kayak.


shoup glacier outside valdez in the prince william sound area.


steve taking in the views.

more pinnell mountain photos

i just posted more photos of our backpacking trip at photoshelter.

pinnell mountain

steve arrived safely in fairbanks at around 2:oo am saturday morning- steve, dan, dea, and i set out to hike the pinnell mountain trail six hours later.

the pinnell mountain trail is, typically, a 3 day backpacking trip- broken up by two storm shelters. we only had two days however, so we did it in two. 10 miles the first day, and 17 miles the second.

it rained for every damn mile. the kind of biting horizontal rain that tests your balance and your resolve. it was a true initiation to the alaska backcountry for steve (and us too for that matter). an epic weekend for sure. we are dried out now, and beer is proving to be the best medicine.

the weather was pretty fierce the second day, and i barely took my Camera out, so the worst will live in our stories only. it's rare that we get visitors up here (wonder why, after a trip like this?) so the images are all steve...


preparing for the rain at mile 1.


the fog and rain limited our views to limitless miles of alaskan tundra.


day one shelter.

and finally...


steve- day one.


steve- day 2.

this trip won't make the tourism brochure.

Extreme Home Makeover

well, the alaska episode of extreme home makeover is a wrap. dea was sick today, but i was still able to get out to see the 'move that bus' finale. working for the station certainly has it's perks. i arrived late, but was able to walk past a least a hundred people that couldn't get past security because the 'set' was already a madhouse.

not only was i whisked past the line, but ushered to the vip tent..well actually past the vip tent as the women assumed i was a staff photographer for abc. i got a front row seat in front of the fence. this didn't get me any closer, but it was an unobstructed seat for the most part.

the whole scene is absolutely crazy for this show. it's hard to fathom just home big of an operation it is until you see it up close. i'll post more on monday- more photos, behind the scenes tid bits, and more about the family.

for now- dea's cousin steve is coming into town in about an hour. we are heading to pinnell mountain for a backpacking trip in the morning. gotta pack.


dea's second husband


the design team.

julie is racing her first half ironman triathalon this weekend in fairbanks, so she tested out some final wetsuit stuff at a lake last night and all dogs went swimming. caz had her first big swim. (i know it's a super duper fuzzy photo)


beaufort and pella loved trying to drown each other in pursuit of the stick.


pella the big black cat.

ben has launched his new portfolio website (has links to the new alaska stock page too), my favorite pic is this one above from the ester dome trail. he also has images showing at the annex gallery in fairbanks from the "can't see denali from here" series under projects also on the huffphoto website. exciting stuff! he is still working on the lifestyles page, but i thought i'd put up a picture from the site.

cousin steve is visiting this week. we have another big backpack trip planned and a few other fairbanks outings. stacia is in town too, she is almost done with her field season and will soon be returning to fairbanks for good. a fun week ahead! dea

this is Ty Pennington from ABC's extreme home makeover show, they are in fairbanks this week rebuilding a home. Ben is meeting with Ty and crew today as part of ABC covering the story. lucky guy!

kesugi ridge backpacking trip

wow, what a trip. we had a great group of friends, incredible scenery and luckily the weather was awesome. the parking lot at the drop off of the one way 27.4 mile hike was rainy and ominous, but as we ascended the ridge that all the changed. i thought this adventure might be a bit tough for me i am still doing some treatments, injections ect...althought it was hard, we all had such a blast and i can't wait to go again. this maybe our longest post yet, this backpacking trip is definitely one of the the best so far, hope you enjoy the pics and come up to visit!!!


the hike begins with a steep asecent up little coal creek thru alder bush and willow. this is julie, ted, dan and i. ben was the photographer the entire trip he never put his camera down, we have some great shots, but you have to see Julie's blog too for more great pics and ben!


you are above tree line in 3 miles and the apline lakes are just calling out to you so we all went in for swim.


the amazing veiws start immediately and get better as the clouds move out.


5 people and 6 dogs, it was a wild group. here is pella with the mosquitoes wich were quite out of control for most of the trip (par for the course in alaska).


julie and dan changing the dog packs from dog to another to share the load. they were pretty funny running as far as the eye could see after marmots and ptarmigans, at least the first two days until they were exhausted.


the campsite the first night with denali in the background.


the cooking spot with our BRC's (bear resistant food containers).


ben doesn't usually shoot the mountains like this, but this trip calls for the "postcard" pic of denali.


hiking the ridge day two.


dan taking in the view.


julie leading way to the descent into the dense boggy forest in the middle of day two.


super green thick brush. this hike had a little of everything.


pella and i on the final descent into byers lake for a swim and car shuttle back to the start and then burgers and beer. the end of day three.