The first weekend in January had an insanely high
aurora forecast so Jodie and I decided on Friday to venture up to Hatchers Pass to get a prime view of them outside of the city
lights. Luckily there was one cabin still available so we headed up after work. This would also be an opportunity to get some use out of our snow
shoes and cross country skis with all the snow up there! The only other
time I’d seen the Northern Lights was at Hatcher’s Pass the year before and it
was around 1am, but I think the timing is unpredictable. We figured we would
venture out on snow shoes around 11pm and keep an eye out. We hiked up one
of the hills and made a little snow chair to sit in and waited… and
waited… and at about 12:30 we decided we'd failed in our
aurora hunt. There were still quite a few people out in the parking lot with
their tripods and cameras ready to go but their guess was as good as ours if
there would be a show that night. We got ready for bed super slowly and
continued to glance out the windows every couple minutes, but no luck.
The next day was beautiful and clear, so we enjoyed the late sunrise with some coffee and got ready for our cross country skiing
adventure. We saw a ton of telemark skiiers going up a trail across the cabins and decided to follow them. I think we were a bit crazy since we only had our
classic xc skis with no edges versus their intense skis that will allow them to hike up and then freestyle ski down! It was so fun watching the skiers go down from the top cause they would scream and holler in enjoyment and
then hike all the way back up. Their tracks left such interesting patterns in the mountain! Luckily the way up wasn’t too scary for us since we could ski or duck walk, but when we finally turned around I had no idea how I was going to
get down without picking up too much speed. It turned out if I ventured slightly off the
packed trail, I glided a bit slower
since I was cutting through at least a foot of powder.
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| Hatcher's Pass sunrise |
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| The trail we skied up (see the tiny people) |
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| Jodie going way faster than me |
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| Pausing for a cool silhouette shot |
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| So many ski tracks in the powder |
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| Back county skiers going up |
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| Me heading up the hill |
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| View down to the cabins |
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| Cool ski tracks on the opposite mountain |
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| So much powder! |
As we were headed back to Anchorage, we saw that
our friends Allison and Travis got some incredible aurora pictures the night
before and we were so jealous we didn’t stay up late enough to see them! The
forecast was just as good Saturday night so I was determined to try again
because I read a little bit about capturing them in photos and wanted to get
some shots! Since it’s really hard for me to stay up till 2am these days, I
went to bed around 10:30 and set an alarm to wake up a couple hours later. I
was not thrilled when it went off around 1:30, but I threw on lots of layers,
grabbed my camera, and drove about 15 minutes to Flattop. The Flattop parking
lot is supposed to have some of the best views of the auroras in Anchorage since
it is above the city away from the light pollution.
After my sleep-deprived weekend of aurora hunting,
I went back down to Texas to celebrate with my dear friend Laura on her
bachlorette party cruise to Mexico. I was excited to see some sunshine and
mainly get a tan because let's face it, living in Alaska has turned me into a
ghost. Unfortunately, there was a crazy cold front in Texas so we departed
Galveston at 40 degrees and I kept on my Alaskan clothes I traveled in to stay
warm! The tan I was dreaming of didn’t quite happen on the cruise cause it was
so chilly, but I had a lot of fun celebrating with Laura! The best day was
when we docked in Cozumel and it was so warm and sunny. We went to this
beautiful secluded all inclusive beach area that was perfect. I was sad to
leave the non-rocking boat beach haha. On the way back to the boat, Ann, Hayley, and
I stopped at a tanzanite store where Ann had free earring tickets. We picked up
our earrings and then had tanzanite tequila shots (as if we needed more alcohol
at this point). The cruise ended with a Packers victory over the Cowboys… I was
a minority in my Packers jersey for sure. It was great to catch up with my
girlfriends on the cruise and celebrate the fabulous Laura since I wouldn’t be
able to make it to her wedding the following month.
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| Ready to cruise with my GB fan gear |
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| Setting sail in the frigid weather |
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| Chilly pool time |
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| Cute towel animal |
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| The lovely bachlorette |
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| Docking in Cozumel |
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| Amazing beach |
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| I could lay here for days |
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| Tanzanite earrings and tanzanite tequila shots |
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| Last party night |
In anticipation of wintertime, I bought some
classic cross country skis. Since I was a bit shaky the last time I
skied at Eklutna Lake with Jodie and Emily, I decided that I should probably take some
lessons. I took two lessons at Kincaid Park to get the basics down and then
tried to practice everytime it snowed (which was maybe a total of 3 times). One
of the most fun days was when I went to Goose Lake because it is nice and
flat and had quite a build up of snow! The only downside of that day was the 7
degree temp.
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| Beautiful trails at sunset |
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| Goose Lake trails |
I had a goal this year (the same as last year) to
become comfortable on the blues downhill skiing. I’ve never been a strong
skier, but I knew the only way I would feel more comfortable was to practice. I
had high hopes of going once a week to Alyeska since it is so close to
Anchorage and I bought my first pair of ski boots so they could be molded to my
feet for comfort. I only got to use the boots twice this year! I took a lesson
my first time out on the slope and actually made it to the top of the mountain.
It was a crazy day and super foggy down by the road, but on the mountain above
the fog it was a beautiful sunny day. The second time I skied was mainly about
the food. I brunched with Jodie and Erin at Jack Sprats pre-ski and then nommed
at the Double Musky afterwords to celebrate Allison’s birthday. The skiing
conditions were not that great this time and I had a bit of anxiety at the top
when it was really steep with the blues / blacks. So I think its safe to say I did not successful
conquer the blues this year :( I guess
I will have to take a trip to Colorado next year for some snow!
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| New ski boots - straight from Italy |
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| Skiing above the fog |
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| Just stretching out my hips aka recovering from a fall while standing haha |
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| Time for drinks, please note KK's flesh colored face mask haha |
Although it wasn’t snowing much in Anchorage, we did have a couple
days with freezing fog. Surprisingly it made the city look so
pretty! The trees were all crystalized in white and the view from above in the
office was pretty magical.
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| Frozen fog trees |
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| Beautiful trees |
In February, a group of friends decided to seek out
some snow up at Nancy Lake, about 2 hours north of Anchorage. We rented a cabin
for the night, which had a heated stove! So not quite winter camping, which is
ok by me :) It took a couple hours for the stove to
warm the cabin, but once it did it was actually really hot! We made smores in
the stove and I brought the delicious Reece’s hearts since it was Valentines Day
weekend. I love the Reece’s hearts and Easter eggs cause the peanut butter to chocolate
ratio is perfection! Jodie and I were on the top bunks and it was really
toasty up top with the fire going. Once we were in bed, our friend Ryan started
playing ghost stories and then nature sounds on his phone (bear growling, etc),
mainly to scare KK haha. Anyway all the sudden it sounded like he switched to a
rainwater noise, but then after some mass confusion and laughing we realized it
was actually raining in the cabin! Jodie had forgotten to screw her water
bottle lid on completely and “made it rain” down into Ryan’s sleeping bag! It was
the joke of the trip for the rest of the weekend. Good thing Ryan had a super
warm sleeping bag and didn’t freeze!
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| True love with Reeces valentines |
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| The group hanging out in our cabin |
The next day was a picture perfect clear day! We
started off with some delicious salmon and cream cheese bagels that Ryan
brought and then geared up for our morning. Jodie and I used our cross-country
skis and Ryan, KK, and Alex brought their snow shoes. There was a lot of powder
built up in the lake so we trekked across and around it. There was a small plane
that was practicing its landings on the snowy frozen lake which was fun to
watch. Overall it was a really fun valentines day weekend spent with great
company.
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| Me cross country skiing |
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| KK and Ryan snow shoeing on Nancy Lake |
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| KK and Jodie |
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| Beautiful day to show shoe and ski |
One thing that seems to pick up in the winter time
here is everyone’s drinking habits. Since it’s often cold and harder to get
motivated to go outside, people tend to socialize more inside over drinks.
Anchorage hosts an annual beer and barley wine festival in the winter which
has so many beers to try from Alaskan beers, to Pacific NW beers, to even some
international Belgian brews. It is a fun event and luckily this year I wasn’t a
newbie and actually had a pretzel necklace – thanks Erin for making them! I’ve
also started participating in Wine Wednesday with a couple of friends here. We
will pick a theme of wine (region or type) and everyone will bring a different
bottle of the theme so we can all try!
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| Pretzel necklaces at the beer festival |
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| Ice sculptures outside the beer fest |
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| Salmon ice sculpture |
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| Cab Wine Wednesday |
Another winter activity I’m particularly fond of is
making puzzles, yes I’m a nerd. This year for Christmas my brothers got me a
5000 piece puzzle, which I thought was incredible and challenging until I
realized the dimensions were 5 x 6ft long. I definitely don’t have a table large
enough for that puzzle so I exchanged it for a more manageable 2000 piece one,
which was still massive. The new one was a scenic shot of Cinque Terre in
Italy! I loved it because I’ve actually been there to see the amazing image in
real life. It took me a couple weeks to complete on my kitchen table and
literally took up the entire table!
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| Getting started on this massive puzzle |
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| Finished the easy parts |
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| Finished the massive 4ft long Cinque Terre puzzle |
I improved my ice skating skills for sure this
spring. I even bought a hockey stick and legit used jersey (for $4) haha at
Play It Again sports. I continued to skate at lunch with some coworkers and
even skated on Westchester Lagoon, a legitimate frozen outdoor lake! That was an item on my life bucket list!
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| Practicing my hockey shot |
This year for lent I decided to be totally
ambitious and give up sweets. If you understand my sweet tooth, you’d know this
was an impossible sacrifice for me. I made a delicious cherry pie on Fat
Tuesday and celebrated with lots of treats. I think I made it 2 weeks before my
first slip up… Someone brought in donuts to work and I couldn’t resist the
chocolate icing and sprinkles staring at me in the break room. I justified this
one because it was a legit breakfast food, not an after meal treat like other
sweets. But it was only downhill from there… Girl Scout cookies started making
their appearance in the office and I can’t resist Samoas, I just can’t. And
every camping / cabining adventure consisted of s’mores, which are essential to
an enjoyable campfire experience. Anyway, I made it 2 weeks, which was all the will
power I had. I’ll try to focus on something more achievable next year.
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| Homemade cherry pie |
Jodie organized round 2 of winter camping in March
and found a campsite in Portage so only about an hour south of Anchorage. We
found out from the park ranger on the phone that this was a potential avalanche
area and they don’t advise people camping in the winter there. We also heard
the bears were starting to wake up from hibernation since the temperatures were
warming up. This of course terrified me and I almost backed out, but our
avalanche expert Travis assured us that there would be no avalanches since
there was hardly any snow. When we got there, it was obvious we weren’t in an
avalanche zone, but about 500 ft away there was evidence of prior avalanches and
trees gone from years past. So if it had been a heavy snowfall year it would
have been a much different story. Betsy and I set up our own tent for this
camping adventure! We are both novice campers so it was pretty impressive :) We got a nice fire going and had a great night,
with smores of course.
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| My outdoor skills are improving - setting up my own tent |
The next day we ventured over to Whittier to hike
up Portage Pass and get a view of the Portage Glacier. It was a pretty short
hike only about a mile one way, and gave a great view of the glacier from
across the lake. It’s pretty wild cause only a year and a half earlier I took a
boat tour of the glacier with my friend Aubrey who came up to visit and it has
already receded noticeably since then. After a few photos of the glacier, we
headed back into town and stopped at Jack Sprat for their delicious brunch. I
had their sparkling rose drink special, which was amazing! I love dry rose’s
and this one was not only dry but bubbly, perfect! I’ve now been having it out
at restaurants / bars around Anchorage.
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| Hiking up Portage Pass |
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| Portage Glacier |
I did a couple more hikes on the weekends this spring. One was
up Rabbit Creek valley. It was about 6 miles and so incredibly windy! I felt
like I was walking at a diagonal to stand up at some points. The first part was
really icy with some frozen waterfalls and we had to wear ice cleats so we
could actually stand. The second part was snowy and I definitely could have used my shoe shows
a few times when I was sinking in up to my knees. It was very pretty, but I was
not enjoying the wind at all, I almost bailed a couple times cause I’m the weak
link hiker.
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| Brrrr Rabbit Creek Valley |
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| Claire's great panoramic of Rabbit Creek Valley |
The other hike was up to Independence Mine in
Hatcher’s Pass. Surprise surprise I will have any excuse to go back up to
Hatcher’s Pass since it’s so beautiful. There was so much powder, probably 5ft!
We couldn’t even snow shoe off the trail because we were sinking so deep. The
boys ventured off trail so they could snow board down, but the girls took it
easy on the packed trail and jammed to some country music since it was rodeo
time in Texas. It was a nice clear day and as usual did not disappoint with all
the beautiful snow. My car actually got stuck both when parking and trying to leave
though. Luckily, Travis had a shovel and could help rock the car out because I
was a bit panicked.
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| Allison, Rebecca, and I snow shoeing |
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| Independence Mine snowed in |
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| Another beautiful day in Hatcher's Pass |
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| Can't get enough of this place |
On my last full weekend in Anchorage, Alex
organized a snow machine trip to Petersville, Alaska. I had never been on a
snow machine and was promised spectacular views of Mt. McKinley so I decided it
would be a fun last adventure here! It was such a freezing cold weekend, with below zero temperatures. We had to get so bundled up and ensure we had no skin exposed so that we wouldn’t get frostbite. I was wearing two facemasks,
one that covered my whole head except for a tiny eye hole, bank robber style!
The handlebars of the snow machines were heated which was really nice, but I
was also wearing two pairs of gloves so it was a bit difficult to hit the brakes
since I had my hand wedged in between the handlebar and the brake. We had some
excellent views of Denali because it was a super clear day! I liked to stop my
machine every once and awhile and take in the scenery.
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| Me on the snow machine |
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| Amazing view of Denali |
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| Jodie and Denali |
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| The group taking a photo break |
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| Clouds starting to cover the peak at the end of the day |
Per usual I was a little nervous and did not go
very fast. I jolted backward whenever I hit the throttle, therefore I was death
gripping so I wouldn’t get flung off, terrifying! My muscles were pretty
fatigued from turning such a heavy machine for several hours and unfortunately
I had one nasty crash. I saw a small tree stump approaching and tried to turn the
handlebars but was really struggling. When I realized it was a lost cause and I
was going to hit, I gripped tightly to brace myself. Doing so meant I gripped
the throttle tightly so I hit the stump at full speed, flew into the air and
fell sideways off the machine. I slammed my head into the ground and I’m pretty
sure got whiplash because it was in pain for the rest of the day. But we all made it back alive, although I
damaged my snow machine in the fall so that was an unfortunate expense.
The next week, a solar storm was supposed to occur
and create some amazing auroras that would be visible even from the Lower 48.
Since I knew this could be my last chance to see the auroras, I set my alarm
and headed up to Flattop on a Tuesday evening a little after midnight. My phone app where I track the aurora forecast was giving incredibly high potentials! However, it was
really slow and dim and there was actually only one other photographer out
there. We chatted a little bit and he told me about the solar storm and if the
winds were right we were in for a treat in a couple hours. This was exciting
and disappointing because I wanted to see a great show but was not thrilled to
wait a couple hours in the middle of the night when I had to work the next day.
But of course I waited and there were glimpses of lights in the sky after about
an hour. It was much different from the last time I had seen them since they
were really fleeting and scattered all across the sky instead of a steady
section. I got a few pictures and then it seemed to be stopped again, by this
time it was around 2am and I was going to call it a night. I packed up my
things and started to head back home.
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| Amazing high forecast on phone app |
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| Small lights fluttering the sky |
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| Fast and fleeting auroras |
By chance I looked up through my sunroof as I was
driving down the mountain and saw an incredible burst of light! I couldn’t believe
how much brighter it was than what I was seeing the hour before. I pulled over
into a driveway off the road and set up my camera to capture the amazing lights
above and around me. It was pretty incredible seeing them all over the sky!
Some of my favorite views I got laying in the snow looking straight up into the
stars. You can even see the Big Dipper in some of the pictures! I’m so glad I
saw them and didn’t head to bed because I got to enjoy the show for another
hour! I don’t think the Northern Lights can ever get old.
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| Amazing lights I saw out of my sunroof |
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| So pretty amongst the pine trees |
After that exciting night it was back to my last week of work in
Anchorage. I was about to head to Hawaii for vacation and then start my new job,
which required a move back to Houston. Life has been a whirlwind since then so
stay tuned for more details!
