Spring Retreat

Only in Alaska do we bring snow mobiles to the "spring" retreat... We have had a super temperate winter- there isn't any real snow in Anchorage right now, but Big Lake (where we have our state-wide college student retreat) had a good amount!  And there was plenty of ice on the lake!  

 I picked up a group of students from Mountain Village (western Alaska) who flew in for the retreat!   We had groups from Anchorage (the college students I work with), Fairbanks, Soldotna, Bethel (an interior village), Mt Village (another village off the road system).  In the end, we had 115 students- our biggest retreat by quite a bit!

The theme of this retreat was "Stronger with God" and I taught the first session.  We have a lot of time for worship, a lot of time for prayer, quite a bit of teaching and a whole lot of fun.  Most of these pictures were taken during free time on Saturday- when we broke out the ice fishing poles, boxes of ammo and skeet, snow machines and everyone had a blast playing outside.

Another important/hilarious component of the retreat is "Talent Night".  There were plenty of hilarious acts this time, but my favorite was when the college group from Fairbanks got up and performed a traditional-style Inupiaq song and dance about the life of Jesus.  I love when people can worship the Lord in the style of their culture!  

 My first ride on a snow machine!  The student who drove kept turning around and showing me she was driving with her eyes closed!!!  :S  But we made it safely around the course anyhow.

Nome

I just got back from 10 days of work in Nome!  It was fantastic!   I was filling in for a co-worker who is on paternity leave, so I was able to run his ministry in Nome for a bit.  Our organization has a youth center on the main drag in Nome- its open 4 nights a week and is desperately needed.  Its a safe place for kids to hang out and play, get a healthy meal, get some help with homework, and be invested into by caring adults.   I got to hang out with some really fun kids, cooked a few interesting dishes (never made musk ox tater tot casserole before- or musk ox spaghetti!)  

 Front Street- the main street in Nome.  This is where the Iditerod finishes each year.  The dogsleds come up from the sea ice (last leg of the race is over the frozen Bering Sea) and down front street.  The finish line is right in front of the Youth Center.  Front Street is infamous for its bars.  For a town of 3000 residents, there is a disproportionate number of bars.  I don't know all the stats, but there are at least 5 bars on the two blocks around the youth center, and one liquor store directly across the street.  Drugs and alcohol are a huge problem in this community.

 But there are fabulous things happening here too!  I met so many volunteers who help out at the youth center who sincerely care about the youth in their community.  They work regular 9-5 jobs in the schools or at the radio station, or at the hospital, but they volunteer a few nights a week to make sure the kids who need it have a safe place.

Bering Sea- frozen- at sunset

 This is the Chugach Mountain Range on my return flight to Anchorage.

Nome-ward Bound

So exciting news, I'm heading to Nome in a few days!!   My co-worker who lives and works there is on paternity leave and needs someone to help fill in while he is gone.  I'd love to stay for a few weeks, but all I can spare is 10 days.  So I'll get to spend 10 days working with the teens of Nome and helping to staff their drop-in center.  I'm looking forward to getting up there again. Last year, when I came to visit CYAK and see more of their ministries, I visited Nome for a few days, so I already have friends there!  

I'm excited to experience more of Alaska- particularly more of rural/bush Alaska.  Anchorage is great but it is a big city.  There is a Target and everything.   I'm looking forward to learning more about rural Alaska and experiencing more of the culture my students are used to.  

So please pray for my travel and my stay in Nome!  And for the ministry I'm leaving in Anchorage!   

This isn't Nome, but it sure is pretty!! 

Choose Your Own Christmas Adventure part 3

So I got up the next morning with renewed energy.  My truck was still parked the wrong way on the 2 track, I still didn't know how/where I was going to turn around.  But I had successfully made it this far!  The rest would be a piece of cake!!!

Yeah no.  I ended up having to dig my truck out 2 more times before I got it going the right way.  After that, I parked the truck where the plow ended and hiked in to the cabin.

I had several more adventures in driving in Alaska, but I really did have a great trip.  There was a super clear night, where I sat out in a clearing in the woods and took star pictures for hours.  I had a close encounter with a moose (not in my car).  I enjoyed the quiet and the beauty of off-the-beaten-path Alaska.

But on my last morning I had time for one more grand adventure.  I packed my stuff, got it all to my truck and started on my way home.   In the night, the snow had turned to rain and now the back road down the mountain to the main road out of the mountains used to be snow-covered. Now that back road was covered in 3/4 inch of ice.  Glare, pure Alaska ice.

I started down the road slowly, keeping one side of the truck buried in the snow on the side of the road.   Things were going well!

Until I reached the down-hill/blind curve portion of the road.  I started down the hill slowly, but in a second my tires lost traction, the truck spun completely around, so now I'm partway down a hill on a blind curve on glare ice with no way to move up or down.  I got out (thankful for ice cleats!) and threw some gravel and was able to straighten out the truck but I was still facing the wrong way (truck was facing up but I needed to go downhill).

my beloved ice cleats!!

After throwing more gravel and trying to move the truck uphill, I realized I really only had 2 choices.  1) keep throwing gravel and hoping I could gain a little bit of traction to get uphill and try this entire fiasco again.   Or 2) drive/slide backwards downhill through the blind curve.

I was worried about just sitting on this hill- if someone else came downhill, I was toast.  And I couldn't move any further up hill.  So that really just left trying to control a slide down the mountain, through the blind curve.  Fun fun times!!

I started to go in reverse, I kept trying to bury my back tire in the snow drift on the drivers side to control my speed.  I would slide down until the tires buried and stopped the car, got out, dug out the tire, and started the slide again until I could bury my tire in the drift again.  This worked pretty well until I got to the actual blind curve portion of the ride.  There there was no snow drift to control my speed or give traction, so I just went for it.

Our God is a very great God.  Because there is no reason why or how I made it around the curve and avoided the river except that He loves me and still has a plan for me and my truck!

I got out to the main road and for a split second considered trying to get to the Matenuska Glacier (it was one of the things I had wanted to do on this trip but hadn't had a chance to see yet).  But then I decided I'd had enough adventure this time around.  And I drove home to Anchorage.  But I still got some sweet pictures on the drive home!!

So who wants to come and have some Alaskan adventures with me!! My life is never dull!! 

Choose Your Own Christmas Adventure Part 2

So after Christmas and my sort of crazy Christmas Eve, my boss suggested I go north and use the cabin our organization was given (long story- but we were given a cabin the woods when some elderly family died).  That sounded perfect!! Its not too far- only a few hours away, its in the middle of the woods on a lake in the mountains.  Its beautiful.  A perfect place to spend part of my Christmas break!

So I went.  My coworker who manages the cabin told me how to start the propane heater and said the roads should be clear- it was going to be great!

I left early and took pictures along the drive north.  I found a place I had seen a lot of pictures of but had never been able to find- Eklutna Trailrace.  The river is glacier-fed so it runs a deep blue/teal.  Its ridiculous.

But as I was driving, I realized the sun was setting faster then I had been anticipating.  And I still had a ways to go to get to Chickaloon.  And I really wanted to get there and the heater started BEFORE it got dark.

But it was harder to find then I thought.  And the sunset was ridiculously pretty so I had to stop to take a few pics.  I ended up getting to the cabin just after the sun set.  I drove back on the winding trail to the cabin and all was good.  Until I got to the place the plow stopped.  I had been to the cabin once before, but I couldn't remember how much farther the cabin was.  I had 2 choices- my Christmas really was my own little Choose Your Own Adventure.   I could 1)park the truck where the plow had stopped, gather my gear and trek in hoping it wouldn't be too far.  Or I could 2) follow the tracks of someone who had driven in on the trail and hope I wouldn't get stuck.  That's what 4-wheel drive is for right??

I did not choose wisely.

As soon as I started driving in on the now 2-track, I realized that this was a poor choice but what to do?? Keep going!!There was no other choice!!  I managed to get my truck to the cabin, but I couldn't figure out where the previous person had turned around.  It was dark and I should have just stopped and waiting until daylight.  But I didn't.  I drove past the cabin looking for a place to turn the truck around but didn't see anything.  So I tried to back the truck up to the way I had come so I would be back in front of the cabin.  Why did I think that would be a good plan???

I backed up, but didn't stay exactly in my tracks.  In the end, I backed up and the truck started to slip out of the tracks and down and incline I hadn't noticed,  and ended up buried DEEP in the snow.   Like snow up to mid-thigh deep.  Ugh.  So its dark.  My truck is STUCK.  I need to start the heater in the cabin.  But my truck is stuck.

I decided to get the heater going so it would start to warm up the cabin (starting the heater took over an hour.  It was as persnickety as my coworker said it would be!!!).  Then I started in on digging out my truck.  Another hour and a half later, I finally got the truck out.


The truck was still facing the wrong way. But it was at least up on the 2 track and no longer stuck in the ditch.  I was frozen solid, but the heater was starting to heat up the cabin.  It was still a fun night.

Choose Your Own Christmas Adventures Pt 1

So this is incredibly late, but I'm posting it anyways!

I had a fantastic Christmas- it was a bit more adventurous then I had anticipated, but it was still a blast!  I stayed in Alaska for Christmas but I planned short trips around Central Alaska during my vacation.  Did you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure Book as a kid?   That's how my Christmas Break went.

On Christmas Eve, I drove down the Kenai Peninsula to Seward, because I wanted to explore the port town!  I had made a reservation at a hotel in the tiny village of Moose Pass for Christmas Eve, and I drove down the Peninsula without a problem. I had a great day taking pictures in Seward, but as it got dark, I decided I should head towards my hotel for the night.  I pulled into the parking lot to find a very closed, locked up hotel.  Not a soul in site.  Not so great.

It was cold and dark on Christmas Eve, and like Mary and Joseph, I found there was no room in the inn.

I found a few phone numbers for the owners but couldn't get through to anyone.  After about 30 minutes of sitting in the dark parking lot, I decided I had several choices.  I could 1) stay where I was and hope someone came back and let me in (not a fantastic choice) 2) drive 30 minutes back to Seward and hope there was a room open late on Christmas Eve (but if there wasn't I would have driven 60 miles in the wrong direction)  or 3) drive back up the Peninsula, through the mountains in the dark and go back to Anchorage where my nice warm apartment was waiting for me.  Since I hardly had any cell reception and no data reception to check hotels in Seward, I opted to drive back to Anchorage.   Through the dark and snow and mountains and moose.

I made it safely back to Anchorage, only to find out that they had revised the weather report after I had left earlier that day.   Moose Pass was now expected to get 31" of snow overnight on Christmas Eve.  I would have been stuck there for DAYS!!  So it really was a blessing I had to leave.

 cute harbor seals made the whole thing worth it!

I made it back to Anchorage around 10pm on Christmas eve, found a Lutheran Church with a late Christmas eve service (where, like true Lutherans, they sing their carols in the original German and Swedish).  And I had a wonderful Christmas day skyping with my family.  

Hiking to a Glacier

I have some time off coming up!  Woohoo!!! I was talking to a few friends about ideas of places I can explore during my time off around Christmas.  One person suggested hiking out to Portage Glacier- a glacier that is usually only visible from a boat- but during the winter you can hike/ski across the frozen lake and get right up next to the slow moving glacier.  That just sounds awesome!!  So I grabbed one of my more adventurous students and we set off on an adventure!

We left Anchorage pretty early because I wasn't sure how long it would take us to hike across the lake to the glacier, but I did't want to get stuck out on the ice in the dark (and it gets dark so early now! we only have about 4-5 hours of sunlight on a clear day),  

We finally got out to the lake- expecting it to be frozen (the girl who told us about it made it sound like she'd just been out there a week ago or so)- it wasn't.  The lake was completely thawed.  So no hiking to a glacier.

But I got to see some awesome eagles- this one was just perched on a piece of glacial ice!

I love the northern lights!!

Eklutna Lake

I had the most amazing hike last week.  It had been a long week- my students were gearing up for finals and heading home on holiday, my co-worker has been on sabbatical for a month so I've been running the show here in Anchorage, and the dark days are getting old.  Its difficult to explain but it covertly effects your mood.

So on my day off, I decided I wanted a nice quiet hike in a beautiful place!   There are so many to choose from!  I decided to go back to a place I'd been already- Eklutna Lake.  Eklutna is a glacier-fed lake so it looks teal when the sun hits it. Its an easy hike around the lake, beautiful and only about 45 minutes from my house.

When I got to the trail head- there was only one other car in the parking lot.  AWESOME!!!   I had the entire lake to my self!  It was fantastic.  Some really good alone time for me (always important) and just some wonderful time to think and pray and enjoy creation.  The day was so calm, there was hardly any wind, all I could hear was the blood pumping in my head (until a ptarmigan jumped out of a tree- just about gave me a heart attack because I was listening so hard for moose that the ptarmigan (like a grouse) moved I was sure it was something HUGE!  it wasn't.)

Dark Skies

I knew when I moved here that the days would be short in winter.  Let me tell you, its one thing to know it cognitively, and an entirely different thing to experience it!  Right now, its 2:30 and I'm watching the sun set.  Its already below the treeline.  It will be below the horizon by 3:30.  The sun rises late and doesn't ever get high in the sky- it just sort of arcs across the Southeast to the Southwest.  But we still get some spectacular sunsets!

 But at least we have some sun- in Barrow, AK the sun set last week and won't rise above the horizon until late January!! I honestly don't know what I'd do. The days will keep getting shorter until Dec 21.

This whole lack of sunlight thing can get to you.  A lot of people struggle with seasonal depression and since the snow melted and the days continue to get shorter, its getting worse and worse.  (the snow bounces the light back at you, so even at night, if there is a lot of snow- it doesn't feel so dark).
I notice it.  I notice when the sun shines- it draws me like a magnate even if the sun shining through a window in a different room.  But I don't think I'm depressed.  I just notice and take advantage of the sun!

When you talk to people here, most aren't fond of the long nights.  And I get it.  Its inconvenient.  And you just sort of feel tired all the time because you can see stars by 4:30.  But on the flip side, you can see stars by 4:30!!!   I LOVE the night sky.  Stars, meteors, moon, northern lights- I love it all.  And when its clear, I get to see it for HOURS!! No more staying up to 2am waiting for the northern lights!  I saw them at 9:30 a few days ago!  I can't get to my usual place to take northern light pictures right now (the roads are pure ice and its straight up a mountain- not a wise plan) so I'm finding new places to go.

These are star trails over Mt Susitna.  So fun!

Dall Sheep

On Saturday, I was being lazy.  I had slept in, and was watching a movie in bed when I realized I could see sunrays coming in my window.  I was excited!  Its been cloudy and we haven't see the sun much lately. But then I was horrified.  My window faces southwest.  The sun was SETTING!!! It was 11am and the sun was already so low in the sky!  I jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera and jumped in my truck because I was NOT going to waste the couple hours of sunlight I had left!

I ended up driving down the Seward Highway looking for some good pictures (the Seward Highway is always good for pictures- no matter what time of day or what time of year, there is always something to photograph- whales, or mountains, or stars, or waterfalls- it all pretty).  Its a super windy  road that follows the Cook Inlet.  I came around a curve and saw a huge group of people stopped and looking up at the cliffs.  It stands to reason that if there are 15 people all looking up, there is a good chance that I'll want to see what they all think it so interesting.  So I pulled off the highway as soon as I could, walked back to the group looking up.  WAY up on the cliffs there was a heard of Dall Sheep (long horned sheep that live in the mountains).  I haven't see Dall Sheep in the wild yet- but apparently they winter in the Chugach mountains south of Anchorage!   So I got out my camera and started taking pictures.  But these sheep were WAY up on the cliffs.  My camera is pretty snazzy but it wasn't doing the job.  Quite a few of the people who were stopped to photograph the sheep were professional photographers (or at least had professional grade gear).  One of the women started chatting with me and she said she had a spare zoom in her car I could borrow- so I did.  WOW!  High end lenses are NICE!! But seriously, who lends a lens that costs three times my rent to a total stranger? A VERY nice person, that's who!

An Arigaa Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!   I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with some good friends!

Quite a few of my students stayed in Anchorage for Thanksgiving, so we had a big Thanksgiving together. It was a blast!  Tons of food, and lots of fun.  We had more than 30 people come in the end! There were games, fellowship and we all enjoyed a great holiday together.  If I've learned one thing in all my travels, its that you need to find a way to celebrate wherever you are- find a few friends and find a way to celebrate- even if it isn't like the celebrations you are used to.   

Frost

Today was my day off, so I got up late and went out to take pictures in a park near my house.  At around 12:00, the sun was still low in the sky- just over the mountains, so I got some amazing frost/sunrise pictures without having to be up crazy early.  

Its been super cold at night (definitely below zero every night), and the frost that forms is just crazy! I've never seen such huge frost crystals on everything! 

This isn't snow on this tree- its all frost crystals!

Adventures in Photography

This weekend, a friend and I drove north on a photography adventure.  We didn't have any particular plans of places to go, we just stopped whenever we wanted to take pictures.  It was so fun to have someone who wants to stop for pictures as often as I do!  Most people don't want to stop on the side of the highway to take pictures of frost- or hike under the overpass to get a better picture of the river from the other side of the highway.  

With the shorter days (we are getting around 7 hours of sunlight right now and its getting shorter every day) we were able to catch both the sunrise and the sunset over different mountain ranges.  

We ended up heading to Hatcher's Pass in the Talkeetna Mountains.  It was GORGEOUS!! and FREEZING!! The temp in Anchorage was around 4 degrees, but it was easily -14 in Hatcher's.  But that didn't stop all the skiers and snowboarders from getting out and enjoying the sun! 

This is a glacier-fed river that runs through Hatchers.  The minerals picked up by the glacier turn the water blueish green.  

 Sunset over the Talkeetna Mountains.

 SUCH a fun day!  And I found some fantastic places to go back and explore (and to try to catch the Northern Lights).