Snowmaching (snowmobiling)

I just wanted to give people an idea of how wickedly fun going out on a snowmachine can be. This is not a video that Dave or I rode on last week... but it gives an idea of the freedom and the sense of adventure you can have while riding in some deep snow out in places that you could never hike to. 




This guy also makes it look incredibly effortless...and I wish I could say that it is!!

Revisit to Australia - V.1

This has been a pretty routine and boring week after the excitement from last Monday. That said...I think it would be fun to revisit and talk a little bit about my trip down under. I would  like to start with a little snippet from December 21st. Nikki, Jim and I were in Melbourne (Pronounced MEL-BIN by Aussies) and visited the National Gallery of Victoria. There were a lot of different styles and periods of art shown...and  a lot of it was beautiful. One thing that has puzzled me in the past and is still puzzling to me today is abstract art:

My brain just does not understand the beauty of modern/abstract art. I guess it is good that I'm not an artist! Many pictures were as simple as paint splatter... to a single (large) brush stroke on a white canvas. Sure...I could come up with and read all of these fancy descriptions...but it does nothing for me. What am I missing??

The evening prior - we wandered around downtown and 'snuck' in to a rooftop viewing of Breakfast Club.  They show a lot of films (I don't remember if it is only classics or not) on the roof of a building downtown. It was a good hike up the stairs - but would have been worth it! In reality we just asked the people at the ticket counter if we could check out the venue. We assumed that this was very popular with the locals...as it was sold out. I can see why people enjoy going to something like this. It is such a beautiful area!

If you look at the dates on these images...they are all liars! My phone and camera were still set to Alaska time and all of my images are stamped 20 hours earlier than when they were taken!

Playin' in the snow

Yesterday was a first for me. Dave Stricklan was awesome and asked if I wanted to join him snowmachining (or snowmobiling to the lower 48 folk). I immediately said yes and really looked forward to heading out. The chance came up yesterday. I drove to Dave's place in the morning... about 2 hours before the sun came up (around 8am) and then we headed out for a 2 hour drive near Petersville, Alaska:

View Larger Map

We unloaded and got ready to head out. He suggested we come to Petersville because it is relatively flat and good for a first-timer to learn the ropes on. I'll tell you... it was a blast. We actually had to start three times...the first time we realized that we left the GPS back in the truck and headed back for it. The second time was because I managed to sink in the snow and dunk my right foot in a creek. Thankfully Dave had an extra set of wool socks and a really nice pair of boots (otherwise our day would have been done). We headed out for the third time (charmed!) around noon and rode in 15 miles or so to Kenny Creek Lodge for a burger and beer.

 

That is a phenomenal lunch when you are starving...and the neat thing is that you can only get in on snow machine. After that we headed out and played around in deep snow (many times we could sink in to our waists...and it was much deeper beyond that) and other fun areas. It was a real treat learning from Dave and just experimenting around with the snowmachine. I managed to get stuck about 6 times ... which I don't think is too terrible for a 6 hour ride. Well, I take that back. I managed to get stuck twice ... within 10 yards of each other on the way back... but that is beside the point! We came to a great clearing and that is where the majority of the pictures are from. Dave grabbed my camera as I was out messing around in the snow - and his pictures turned out awesome.

Dave getting ready out again after I managed to get stuck the first time....

The sled I was riding

It was an awesome time... and I simply cannot wait until I head back out again.

A blast from the past

I really wanted to post about this prior to my flight to Sydney...but at that time I didn't want to post on the old blog (for obvious reason) and hadn't created a new one.

Around this point last month (December of 2009) fog had consumed the city for a good week or so. Visibilities stayed below 1/4 of a mile for almost an entire day here. Sure, freezing fog is beautiful as hoar frost covers everything:

 

But the lack of sunlight is not fun. Occasionally mother nature would tease us as blue skies would peek thought the clouds... but then as a ocean  waves destroy sand castles... so to did the atmosphere ...as it smeared the clouds back over the city. On one of the days I decided to take one of our new interns up to my favorite spot to overlook Anchorage. Most of the drive up the hillside was covered in dense fog...and about a mile from the top we finally broke out of it.

 

This is an idea of how much of the city was covered in fog. I want to say that the fog was easily 2100' deep. Below is a similar vantage from the summer of 2008. 

 

I will say that it was beautiful up there. We were able to catch the sunset and watch the shadow of the earth slowly creep over the sky. We still had a fair amount of light...and sunset was around 4:30 or so that evening.

 

This last picture is my favorite from that day. The distinct look to the mountains is called 'Fata Morgana.' For reference... the mountains are about 100 miles away from my vantage point. A fata morgana is caused by abrupt variances in air temperature; when air above the line of sight is warmer than the air below. Light traveling from the horizon is refracted towards the earth, away from the warmer air above. These are the conditions which cause a superior mirage - a Fata Morgana occurs only when light travels through multiple distinct temperature gradients. This results in an image which may be compressed in some sections and expanded in others. As air temperature changes over time so do the various angles of refraction, causing the image to expand or contract as the atmosphere returns to its standard temperature gradient.

A Fresh Start & A Journey Downunder!

The latter half of 2009 was one of the darkest periods in my life. I am thankful for having a great family and friends who helped me though the hard times. I can't thank all of you enough and I am really touched at the support that I was shown.

So 2010 will come with a new attitude on life and I am really looking forward to it. I was lucky enough to head down to Australia to visit with Nikki, Jim, Emmalee and Andrew for Christmas. Mom and Dad were unable to come because of my grandmother's health and she sadly passed away on December 18th, 2009. It was good to visit with Nikki and the family. I hadn't seen them in over two years and it blew me away how much the kids have grown up. While my visit lasted a wonderful 10 days... it seemed to fly by. We managed to make it down to Melbourne for a few days...return to Sydney...head north to Terrigal and then return to Sydney. The days were filled with so much awesomeness... you could easily say this trip was full of WIN! With my nice Nikon and with the iPhone...I think I managed to take close to 1300 pictures. Yes ... I am aware that is a lot. I decided to make a video of the trip instead of a few HUGE blog posts. I would suggest clicking the HD button and going to the Vimeo site so you can view the full HD resolution. It should be 1280x720 (HD quality) and it has a great musical track that goes with it. Click the arrows next to the volume and make it go full screen....and be sure to sit back and relax!! These are about 150 of the best pictures - all in about 2 and a half minutes. Enjoy it!!

10 Days in Australia from Samuel Shea on Vimeo.