after a week of rain, ice and snow i'm ready to get to some lower elevations. there's alot more of colorado i want to explore, hopefully in the near future but for now it's off to warmer places. be back in a week or two. [View Full Entry]

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it went from very hot to very cold very fast. woke up one night and couldn't feel my feet. it got down to 16 degrees and i wasn't as prepared as i should have been. no matter...all is well. got away from the 8500' elevations and into the high desert which still gets cold but not near as bad. had the misfortune of my laptop dying - monitor burnout which is not something they can fix. fortunately a very nice "geek girl" was able to save almost everthing to a new laptop, WHEW - i thought i might have lost my [View Full Entry]

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i've never been to one of these and it was very interesting and fun. they have to fly early or late in the day before it gets to windy. it takes about an hour to get the balloon in the air. once their in the air they can control their vertical rise or drop but are pretty much at the mercy of the wind so far as which way they go. after the balloon is airborne the ground crews become "chase crews" and follow the balloons until they decide to land or are forced down for some reason. it was a [View Full Entry]

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monkman provincial park near tumbler ridge, bc is a very scenic area and was well worth the beating me and my truck took. (muffler gone, windshield, headlight, kidneys) headed south thru jasper, down the icefield parkway and into montana. always feels good to get back to the states....mainly because the price of everything drops considerably. spent 2 weeks in western montana and i'm re-grouping in idaho falls. had the good fortune of seeing a black wolf and a great grey owl. the weather's been way to hot so i've been hanging out at the highest elevations i could find. i've learned [View Full Entry]

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although it was very muddy and wet i would highly recommend this run into the northwest territories. gas is ridiculously overpriced but still worth the trip. a gallon of milk is $11.50. all the waterfalls were kind of a bonus i didn't know about. the weather is not helping me decide where to go next, one day 86 followed by one night at 30. don't want to get caught in any deep mountain snow up here which i'm told can hit at any time. heading south thru alberta and will take the icefield parkway which is right at my all time [View Full Entry]

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and i sure will miss everything about the state. it's been a very memorable summer and a return trip won't happen soon enough. perhaps next time i'll stay for a year or three. back in chitina for one last bit of helping mike get a few more things done before winter. he burns no less then 10 cords of wood to stay warm and the temps get down to -50.....but i'm told it's a "dry" cold and not that bad. hmmmm - i don't think i want to find out. heading east thru the yukon enroute to inuvik up in the [View Full Entry]

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headed out of chitina toward fairbanks and the tanana valley fair. passing thru hatcher pass, talkeetna again, denali and the stampede road which is where the movie "into the wild" was partially filmed. i did not go the 27 miles one way to reach the "bus" for the road was very bad and smoke from numerous fires was literally choking. there's not many places you can go to escape the smoke....470 fires currently burning across the state. it finally cleared up for a day at the fair on saturday. i enjoyed it very much especially the dog pulling contest. there was [View Full Entry]

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i've been 2 weeks with no internet (4 wks no tv) so here's catching up on some pictures. i've been working the fishwheel which includes meeting some seasonal visitor friends of mikes, we built a smoker for the red salmon, half done with a new "4-holer" outhouse and a very memorable 2 days at an old, abandoned gold mine. everyone i've met up here have been real, no bull shit people. it will be hard to leave. heading toward fairbanks for the fair with stops at hatcher pass and the stampede trail. may have another blog ready before heading back to [View Full Entry]

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after finishing the bridge i needed some time on the river. had a great night in dawson city, picked up some supplies and headed out. the first day was very windy straight out of the north (40-50 mph i later found out) with rain and white caps. got to the 1st island i could find and had to dry out for half a day. it was all good after that. met a group of 3 canoes that set in at whitehorse y.t. which is 12 days south of dawson and were headind to circle, AK which is 6 days north of [View Full Entry]

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here are some follow up pictures from the week with my son. i still haven't slowed down since. a week working at apache mike's followed by 8 days in the yukon. the adventure's just keep coming. more in my next blog. [View Full Entry]

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