Farewell Alaska

What can I say? These last two years have been quite the ride. I've made a lot of great friends, learned who knows how much about mountain and marine meteorology and learned some tough lessons in life. I can't thank everyone enough for everything they have done and taught me....the list would be huge! But I do want to thank Andy and Lisa Brown for taking me in and being basically my second family up here. I'm going to really miss them and watching their kiddos grow up.  I wasn't really sure how to close out my time here ... but thought that making a movie with a handful of the 16,000 pictures I've taken ... fitting. The movie is a chronological pictography (I can make words up... it's my blog!)...and all of the pictures are in order from my first days here....watching the 2008 Iditarod to early last week when I was out on snowmobile with Andy Dixon and Dave Stricklan.

I made the video over a week ago.. but wasn't able to add more to it because the movers took the computer away...so the true last moments were not able to make it into the video. Like the Australia video from last year... it is best viewed on the Vimeo website - with full HD and at fullscreen. I hope you enjoy it.

Goodbye Alaska from Samuel Shea on Vimeo.


This last part really isn't intended for folks to read or enjoy - more of a 'remember this' when I look back at this years from now:

Long summer days
Beautiful sunrises and sunsets
Mountains
Mountains
Mountains!!
Fishing
Fighting Red Salmon
Combat Fishing
Halibut
Planes landing 300 feet away on the lake infront of my bedroom window
Catching up on the entire Lost series before season 6 started
Evenings with the Browns
COD??!!!
Watching Katy & Alyssa grow up
The whit and humor of jim
The vast amount of knowledge from all of the forecasters
Shaun randomly breaking out in song or heated wine discussion.
Snowmachining with Dave in some of the most beautiful country in the world
Chatting about the latest ASOT with Dixon and music in general
Moose Tooth Pizza
Bear Tooth Grill
Midtown Brown microbrew
Studded tires in the winter
Knowing that my forecasts would either make the day of the deadliest catch fishermen... Or make them curse the earth.
No sales or state tax (Won't miss the 'Alaska surcharge on everything')
'Alaska Traffic' (where a jam is going 20mph)
Being able to be in the middle of nowhere in 30 minutes
Clean air
Watching out for Bears
Moose not being the brightest lightbulb out there
Hearing about the fishing suicide runs

Movin' On

The moving day has finally come and gone. Two Samoan guys came to do all of the packing early Monday morning. First off... I am amazed at how fast they do their job (hopefully I will be equally amazed when everything gets to Illinois...unbroken!). Secondly... It is realllllllyyyyy nice having other people do your packing/crating/shipping. 7.5 hours later and filling 4 huge crates...my townhome was empty. I'll be losing my car on Friday...and then flying out on Monday. This week is going to fly! However, I am not looking forward to living out of a suitcase for a month or so... Ah well... such is life.

Blue skies and stunning sunsets

I really need to get things organized for the upcoming move...but the will to do that is small. So....today started out as one of those lazy days. I decided to head out for a drive south of the city for some snow fall and mountain pictures instead of cleaning.... and it ended up being one of the most stunning sunsets I have ever seen!!! Nothing exciting... just breathtaking Alaska. Enjoy....

Somewhere along the Seward Highway - before Girdwood

Along the Seward Highway - before the turn west towards Turnagain Pass

Turnagain Pass. The center divider is snow that has fallen...and easily stands higher than me!!

Turnagain Pass - Back country skiers making their way up a mountain

Turnagain Pass - wider angle shot of above

Heading back to Anchorage

Heading back to Anchorage

Sunset as seen along the Seward highway - and me just holding the camera for a shot (which didn't turn out too shabby!!)

Sundog

Sunset at 650 LST - seen from Beluga Point (Redoubt on the left along the horizon)

Redoubt

Iditarod 2010

This past weekend presented me with another one of those 'you may not see this again' moments. One of the first things that Cindy and I did up here was go see the start of the 2008 Iditarod....and now it is somewhat fitting that my time in Alaska basically closed with the 2010 Iditarod. I was able to switch my schedule around with work so I could go see the start of the ceremonial races. This year I went with Lisa Brown and the kiddos. They found a fantastic spot that is away from downtown... away from the crazy crowds... and where you can get right up to the sleds. It was awesome. Thank you Lisa for letting me tag along!! This ceremonial start is done in order to allow for better publicity and coverage for the mushers and the race, and it also allows each musher to give one lucky "Idita-Rider" a ride in his or her sled at the starting line.  Idita-Riders bid in silent auction to ride in the sleds, and the money goes toward funding the race.  The official start is on the following day.

Katy (left) and Alyssa (right) smiling for 'Mr Sam'

Alyssa and Lisa with the booties that had fallen off the dogs.

Locals and their fur. PETA would flip.

Dee Dee Jonrowe

A day on the sleds

I am trying to soak up as much of Alaska as I can before my departure...and of course got excited when Dave mentioned another snowmachine trip (CONUS folk - read - snowmobile). We headed out to Eureka before hitting the trails. The morning started off a bit rough. I managed to get stuck in waist deep snow within the first 20 minutes. We drove through some snow on the drive in but it got progressively worse. About 2 hours into our sledding run to the north... we decided to turn around. Visibilities were awful. We had maybe 100 feet separating each of us (Dave in the front - Andrew in the middle and me bringing up the rear).  It was bad enough that the snow pellets were working their way through a small sliver in the goggles and stinging my eyes. I rode part of the way back (at the higher elevations on the mountain) with my left eye closed! On the way back we found some areas to play around in and have some fun... the weather eased for a bit and we had a blast. We had lunch at the Eureka roadhouse and I could have easily gone for a nap after it. The next phase of the journey took us south and into more wooded section of the area.

There were too many awesome pictures taken that day. The pictures of me (yellow helmet - red coat) were taken by Dave (thankfully he wasn't intimidated by my camera). I would guess that he will be getting a Digital SLR soon after playing with mine....

Before the fun pictures... I have to share the not so fun ones. What is the common enemy to people riding snowmachines? Trees. Somehow... we all managed to find out way into at least one. 

I was in deep snow and couldn't make a sharp enough turn... so it was me or the tree. The tree won... thankfully I slowed down to almost a stop before I hit it. 

First of two for Andrew. The snow was deep (he sunk to his waist -  and he can't weigh more than a box of Kleenex) and he slowed down too much to make a sharp turn... and some of the tree got caught in his front skis...stopping him in his tracks.

The second tree he found was at one point upright. He decided that he was committed to the track he was on and couldn't turn out of it...so instead of stopping like I did... he thought he would just motor over it. Obviously...you can't ride over a tree that isn't dead.  

Dave managed to get stuck...roll his sled and then flood it...all in a tree that nearly claimed me in a little turnaround area...So we all had our issues...

----- Now for the fun pictures -----

Dave jumping a big boulder

Me enjoying the skis in the air

Dave plowing through some fresh snow

Another pass - this time a wider angle shot

Andrew motoring over a creek

Me doing the same

On the way back... I had to stop at this spot for a picture. It was beautiful when the wind stopped blowing and the snow stopped falling!!

Andrew getting some massive air back where the truck was parked. 

Some guys with ridiculously expensive snowmachines came to play on the jump before they loaded up too. 

Monster air....

Massive fail. He dumped his machine mid air (if you look close his left foot is already off of the seat and he is diving to the right). He bit it and the sled rolled right over him. I ran up after snapping this picture to see if he was alright. He got up and laughed saying this wasn't nearly as bad as what happened earlier in the day...