Saturday Market

This woman's shirt cracked me up. "Got Seal Oil?" Only those who have spent time in an Alaskan village would get this. I quickly snapped a picture while Eric stood there.

Flying to Kotzebue

Eric fueling the caravan in Palmer, Alaska

Mountains near Palmer, Alaska

Smile

The Alaska Range
I thought this was cool

Hurricane gulch - along the Parks Highway

Glacier among the mountains

This may be Moose's Tooth mountain

I can't believe I ate those - gross!

Look at me, I'm flying!

Selawik Lake

Kotzebue is on the spit along the Bering Sea

Kotzebue, Alaska

Caribou antlers

Hageland hanger in Kotzebue

Eric's pre-flight check

I got the amazing opportunity to fly with Eric from Palmer to Kotzebue and back. He had to fly a caravan to Kotzebue and pick up another caravan. This was a 1,000 mile round trip, that took us through some unbelievable Alaskan terrain.

The weather was sunny - a rarity here, so we flew through a canyon near Palmer. I took video of that, and will try to upload it on this blog. I felt like I could touch the mountains. So cool. After we passed the mountain range, it becomes arctic tundra. Fairly flat with some rolling hills. We looked for caribou and moose. We did see 4 black bears running together.

Kotzebue is a bush village north of the Arctic Circle on the Bering Sea. I can't imagine how cold it must get here. I had never been north of the Arctic Circle before, so this was very exciting. Even though there is not a line in the tundra, just the thought was enough for me.

We arrived in Kotzebue around 10:00 pm. The sun had not set yet, but it would soon. What a sunset. As we flew back in the darkness, we watched the Northern Lights dance overhead. You've never seen such bright stars. This state is so incredibly large and breathtaking. It was a late return trip, but I was glad I was able to travel with Eric. This is something I will never get to do again.

Hiking South Fork Canyon

South Fork overlook into Anchorage

Eric with the dogs

Hiland Road Eagle River, AK

It was a nice evening, so we took the dogs to South Fork Canyon, about 7 miles up Hiland Rd. in Eagle River. We saw a black bear when we were here on Thursday night. It was about 50 feet from us! We decided to bring along the bear spray, and I put bear bells on the dog leash. We did see some bear skat along the trail. I still get pretty nervous up in the mountains.

The trail overlooks the Anchorage bowl - which is pretty neat. If we hiked down the other side of the mountain, we would be at Arctic Valley Ski resort.

No bears tonight -just some moose, and that's fine with me!

Fun at the Alaska State Fair

Enjoying a nice evening at the fair
Karen and Janna - waiting for the concert to start

Tracy Lawerance- notice his Alaska shirt :)

Karen and Janna trying to hoola hoop

SMILE!

Janna, Doug, Eric and I went to the Alaska State Fair tonight. It was a bit rainy when we arrived, but ended up being a nice evening. We ate TONS of fair food, then went to see Tracy Lawerence. I love going to concerts at the fair. It's a outdoor theater, and the views of the mountains are just amazing.

After the concert, we watched a fireworks display. It's hard to see fireworks in Alaska - since we have so much sun, we can't have them on the 4th like in the lower 48. Now, the days are getting shorter, so by 1o:30 the sky is pretty dark.

Humpy's Half Marathon

Me, Brandi and some random dude.

Runners waiting to start

Here we go!

Here we come!
Look at that stride

Our time 2:12

Humpy's alehouse, Skinny Raven Sports, and Snow city cafe sponsored various races today. My friend and I ran the Skinny Raven 1/2 marathon (formerly Humpy's 1/2 - just to confuse everyone). It was a typical overcast Alaska day - which is perfect for running. The course was flat and fast. This was my 3rd 1/2 marathon this summer, and I must admit, my least favorite. It's an out and back loop course. The race followed the Coastal Trail, which is a great trail, but very narrow. It was hard trying to get your spot along the course with hundreds of other runners trying to do the same. Then it got tricky - as we were going out, half marathoners had turned around, and were coming back. You gotta pay attention, or someone could crash into you.

We had a really fast pace for the first 8 miles, and then we got extremely light headed and dizzy. That slowed us down big time. Even with Gu and water, we had trouble. I must admit, we had not trained as well for this race, but we still finished in a fairly decent time at 2 hours and 12 minutes. We did not beat our Mayor's time, but that's okay.

I really enjoy Alaska races because so many of my friends and co-workers are runners, and I love seeing everybody on the course.

Keep on runnin'!

http://www.anchoragerunningclub.org/bwlr/