Hi Everyone,
I am super busy between petsits all over town and the Valley, an assitant editing job and starting to prepare for my summer gig. I will be working as a Wildlife Technician II conducting research on genetics and sustainability for Western Alaskan salmon for the Kodiak division of the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. I will living in a tiny place called Port Moller and traveling all around the Alaska Peninsula. I am excited as this is a part of AK I have never been. I will be getting to Kodiak just in time for their annual crab festival, which should be a good way to get some local flavor before heading out to the job! No camping this year, I will either be staying at a Fish and Game bunkhouse in Port Moller or I'll be on two day stints on fishing tenders which should make for interesting accomodations. When the job is over I will head out for a short time to Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. It is super cheap to camp and has one of the highest concentrations of grizzlies in the state. I think it's fairly safe with lots of viewing platforms and the like. I can't not go seeing as I'll already been "in the neighborhood," and I really want to take the opportunity to check it out. I thought about the Brooks Lodge but A. It's expensive and B. It's booked an entire year in advance! Anyway, the camping should be an adventure. Nothing new happening in terms of pics but I will try to post some old ones before I take off at the end of May. Here I am 12 miles up the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau on a sled dog handling job. It's a great adventure, if you ever make it out there, www.akdogtour.com.

I saw this sign in a parking lot last week, I thought it was pretty cool.

Incredible sunset this evening, at 9:30PM!

Dancers from the Alaska Federation of Natives convention this year. It's cool that the elders are included in the performance, even though they're not actually dancing. That woman looks so happy.

Working in Alaska with animals is not always pretty. When I was working with reindeer herders in the village of White Mountain, the herder we lived with was a substinence hunter, as is typical in villages throughout the state. We ate lots of Caribou stew, Reindeer burritos, and even Musk Ox. It was all delicious, but it was slightly unnerving to be eating a meal and have the animal it came from staring into the window at you while you eat. Well, that's the reality of a substinence lifestyle!

Another breathtaking Alaskan scene. I like the fog rising from the water.

Here's more pics for the race fans out there--Zoya preparing a delicious warm meal for her team and lots of resting pups at the Chistochina checkpoint at the Copper Basin 300 race this February. It's kind of dark but you can see all the reflective harnesses.
Also, John checking in at the Wolverine Lodge checkpoint. They are making sure he still has all of his mandatory gear, like the axe you can see poking out of his sled bag.<

This forest in Eagle River is directly behind the place I was staying recently and I loved it, especially the shadows the trees made in the late afternoon. But at night it was a little spooky in a Blair Witch sort of way--pitch black and silent. One night I saw these tracks that lead directly from the forest to the back porch, but I never saw what made them.

Igloo Info.

I was asked about the orgins about the Igloo, and here's the info. I found. It's a good story!

Had it ever opened, the Igloo City Resort at Mile 188.5 Parks Highway surely would have attracted travelers interested in an offbeat place to stay between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Imagine the appeal: Tourists could have returned home and bragged to friends that they had slept in a real Alaska igloo. After all, isn't traveling largely about seeking adventure and collecting interesting stories to tell?

Sadly, though, the non-ice igloo's owners ran out of money before the hotel was complete. Today the half-built white hulk sits abandoned next to the rest of the "resort" -- two small cabins, a wash house, a gas station and a convenience store. "It's just a landmark, aging not very gracefully," said Machel Hill, the resort's manager.

I took this on the drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage. It's not really an igloo but it's the closest thing to an igloo I've seen since I've lived in Alaska! I love the tiny windows. Too bad it's closed up, it would be cool to check out the inside.

model-turned-musher

Major congrats to Zoya DeNure for coming in second in the Taiga 300 last week! Look for her in the Iditarod next year! And check out the mouth on that dog behind the leaders!

Only in Alaska part 231: Getting an article and picture in a major newspaper for being a vagabond blogging petsitter! I have no idea how they found me, but they called several weeks ago. When they asked me where I wanted to shoot a photo, I knew I had to include dogs. Luckily one of my petsit clients was happy to have her dogs featured. I petsit for them a lot, they're actually my favorites, so it works out well that they can share the spotlight. Here's some outtakes from the shoot. The article is at www.adn.com, then scroll down on the left hand side to the Mat-Su section--the article on online journaling.

On our road trip the other week, we stopped to check out the Matanuska Glacier from the lodge directly above it. We found this in the women's restroom. The guy running the place told us he hears a few shrieks every year from unsuspecting tourists. I thought the fact that the bear was holding a piece of toilet paper was a nice detail.

These are some interesting (to me) snow pile formations I've come across recently. They won't be around for much longer!

This guy was about the climb this huge fall. He brought his dog along for moral support.

Here are a few more waterfalls from my recent drive to Valdez. As cool as they are frozen, I can imagine they are pretty incredible thawed, as well!

Fixer Upper

Something intrigues me about this little ramshackle cabin. I've been driving by it for two years. There is no contact phone number and no house nearby, it's just sort of on its own. I wonder how much it costs. I would like to say that I own a cabin in Alaska and this one just might be the right price.