Yukon Quest

This last Saturday morning was the start of the Yukon Quest. It is a 1000 mile sled dog race between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.

The start of the race switches between the two cities each year.  It is cool to watch these canine athletes.

I overheard some conversation among the spectators. It was noted that sled dog racing is probably the only sport where the start has more fanfare then the finish.  

Let me give you a little overview of the start of the race. The dog teams are rigged up (I am not sure if I am using the correct mushing lingo) on the shore of the Chena river. And lead down onto the frozen river to the starting line.

The excitement builds and the sled dogs are so excited to get on the trail!  Each team leaves at about 3 minutes apart.

This team is on deck, waiting to start. I think the wait for these guys ( the dogs)  must be so hard!  They are true athletes. This is their purpose in life!

At the starting line!

Here they go!

Sled dogs, what can I say.  They are truly one of the many things I love about this place.  My Dad has a "Bucket list".  I may be brave and start one myself.

If you want to know more about the race, click here: http://www.yukonquest.com/

Happy Trails!

True Serenity!

I took this photo on my way home from work tonight. What an awesome sight! We have some pretty beautiful sunsets up her in the North Country. I took this photo over looking our fair town. It is a wonderful silhouette of Mt. McKinley to the south of us. She is approx. about 200 miles to the south I might add. It is amazing how the low sun provides a beautiful silhouette of Denali!

A Beautiful Arctic Winter Day

It’s a relatively warm day here in the interior, It is -15 in town but we live up in the hills above Fairbanks and it stays warmer. As I write this it is a warm 1 above here at the house!

I thought what the heck even though it has warmed up I will get the house cozy this afternoon and light a fire in the wood stove.

It has been very beautiful clear sunny day. This is unusual, normally when it is clear and sunny we get very frigid temperatures.

This time of year the sun sits low in the horizon and with the reflection on the snow it produces very beautiful colors.

I love the way it has a pinkish hue.

Happy Saturday and I hope you had a good week.  Hopefully it will stay warm and beautiful here for a few more days!

Winter Darkness

In this post I am going to write about the dark winters up here in the interior of Alaska. The shortest day is December 21st, Winter Solstice. Fairbanks actually holds a Winter Solstice Festival. On winter solstice we experience 3 hours and 43 minutes of daylight. The good news is that after Winter Solstice we gain daylight.

I took the following photo of the sunset on December 30th at 3:43 PM.




From the exact same spot I took this photo looking to the North. Wasn't the Blue Moon Awesome?! The pinkish hue on the trees is just beautiful. This picture is OK but it doesn't depict exactly how beautiful it was.



This Next photo is of Bob buying fireworks on New years Eve. By looking at how dark it is it appears we waited until the last minute. This one was taken at 5:30pm!




We are gaining light fast now. This believe it or not tends to be uplifting for us, at least until we get a cold snap of temperatures of -40! I will talk about that in another post.

Until next time, take care.