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I survived the first snow of the season but it did make my walk to and from work colder and wetter than usual. The official report from the closest measuring station was 3.9 inches which corresponds with the unofficial measuring report from my backyard which was approximately 4 inches. It's already melting and I'm sure will just be a wet mess by tomorrow. Drive just a couple of hours north and they got like 20 inches. It's unusually wet, heavy snow for Alaska. Typically, we get super dry stuff. …

My husband dragged me to a film showing thing at UAA this past Friday. I was under the impression it would be like one long film of the Nat Geo variety. It was actually a series of short films sponsored by Nat Geo and some other outdoorsy type companies (Mountain Hardware, MSR, North Face, etc). It was a pre-screening of sorts for the Banff Mountain Film Festival in association with Radical Reelz World Tour. Anyway, they are hosting a contest that does not require attendance to their festival (t…

I have a healthy fear/respect for the moose who share my general living area. The black bears are bigger and a little more "people" friendly" than those I'm used to. The brown bears mostly just mind their own business and ignore people. The wolves (despite the signs in the training areas on the back side of the base that state there is an aggressive pack) so far, I haven't seen or heard. There are supposedly wolverines and lynx that live here with the humans but I haven't seen them either. I've …

I have no words of wisdom about hammocks. I just felt it was my duty to comment on this thread because of the title of it.

It's 37 degrees and pouring a mix of rain and snow. I suspect it will all turn to snow overnight and we might, maybe, possibly get a dusting of accumulation since I think the ground is still too warm for much else. The areas north of here have gotten several inches so far and will probably get a foot or two before it's all over. It was nice of Fall to stop by for a couple of weeks between Summer and Winter.

Quote from TrafficJam: “Not much riding for me either in the past few weeks...just my commute. ” I split my days between walking to work and riding my bike to work. Absolutely nothing exciting about walking or riding roughly half a mile but at least the bike is getting used. Alaska is still a bit too big and intimidating for me to comfortably handle the mountain bike trails.

Has anyone tried the alcoholic root beers? I know they aren't really "beer". They seem to be the current drink of choice for 90% of the people I see walking out of stores with adult beverages here. My husband and I got a six pack of the Coney Island brand and they were ok. I mean, it basically, mostly tasted like root beer.

Winter is quickly approaching here in south central Alaska. In the past week the snow has gone from being dust on the highest peaks to racing down the sides of all of them. After a solid week and a half (at least) of nothing but rain down here in the bowl, I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was by the snow line but it really did seem to race down as have the temps. Lows are in the low 30's at night and highs make it up to high 40's/low 50's during the day. The entire "feel" of outside chang…

I am the sole brunette in a family full of gingers and blondes. I'm sure I've lost count of the number of times I've kicked a ginger throughout my life.

Quote from Foresight: “I took my dad (82) earlier today for a colonoscopy (all was well, he's incredibly healthy). I get there to find out that I'm not allowed to leave the waiting area in case they need me for anything. Well, let me tell you......At 50 I was by far the youngest person there and I learned a lot: ” I, unfortunately had to have a colonoscopy earlier this year (nothing wrong with me after all) but this made me laugh because I never thought to ask my husband (who is 33) if he was su…

I generally have nothing of value or even good humor to add, so I just read a lot and post a little.

Once upon a time, when I was a child, my school took a field trip for something (I honestly don't remember where we were going) to Atlanta. It was very educational as no one was aware or counted on there being a bus full of kids, stuck in the middle of Freaknik on I-85. I do not miss living down there. It's the only place I've been so far, where leaving your house five minutes late, translates to an hour late for your destination. The president pissed off a lot of hunters and bush pilots during …

Ah Fayetteville, my previous home away from home. #FayettevillePeopleProblems (Isn't that how the kids do things these days?)

Well hey! Since this is practically my backyard at the moment, I can finally comment on something and feel important. Having lived in Alaska for almost a year now, I will say that the conversation/debate about the name of that big rock comes up with alarming frequency. I have thus far only met one, yes ONE person who is a life long Alaskan who said the mountain was called McKinley. Everyone else, literally 99.99999% of people who are from here, have lived here for any amount of time or who want …

I took a walk today up to Rendezvouz Peak. It was 55 and sunny in the valley and probably no warmer than 30 at the top with a nice breeze of about 15 mph with gusts every 30 second or so of 30 mph or more. Supposedly it's still August but Alaska begs to differ. The trailhead starts at 2600 feet and the peak sits at 4101 feet. We opted to take the shorter, but much steeper side trail up and the actual peak trail back down. It was the opposite direction of travel most people were going but I think…

Fall fell overnight a few days ago. I think the warmest it's been in the past four days is 60 degrees. Today, it's 55, sunny and breezy. Termination dust hit the highest peaks Thursday night/Friday morning and nicely coated even some of the lower ones, Saturday night.

Welcome to Alaska! Multiple rainbows in the sky and a 6.3 earthquake rolling through all at the same time. It's the first one that has sufficiently freaked out my dog. I'm pretty sure he thought someone was trying to break in the house (as that is the "bark" he was doing and the look he had) but he couldn't quite figure out where they were coming from or how they were making all the noise.

FINALLY took a walk. It wasn't the longest but man 2.2 miles up the side of a mountain sure wasn't the easiest either. My first Alaskan summer hike/walk. No pack, just a camelbak, bear spray, my cell and some poles to keep me from sliding back down the scree. I figured there was no point in continuing to just sit at the bottom while my husband rides the lift up and then rides his bike back down, so I hiked up and rode the tram back down, then had to walk another roughly 1.5 miles back to the car…

It's been an unusually dry, unusually warm summer in Alaska thus far. I haven't actually managed to do any significant hiking so far but we did take the bikes out over the weekend with some friends. It's always funny to me when I tell people that I suck at mountain biking (not self deprecation, just an honest assessment of my abilities) and they say "Oh, don't worry, me too" and then look horrified at my creeping pace. My husband is probably a shade short of expert and has been spending the majo…

I don't know if this is the same momma or not but she's in the same area as the one some people reported as living in their neighborhood and aggressively defending her baby. She's already kicked one dog and chased several people. I'm happy to just have Bruce over here in my hood. At least until rut anyway.appalachiantrailcafe.net/index…3b85fa435d91ab5820c98b89e