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The weather is finally starting to turn a bit and the snow is slowly starting to melt. The past couple weeks, I have been out measuring the snow ablation (melt) at our research sites. Being outside alone, away from my computer, soaking up the sun has been amazingly good for me and great for my soul.

More pictures and updates can be found at out Northern Ecohydrology blog.

Off and on over these past couple of years, I have had a hard time sleeping. Part of it was just my mind refusing to shut off. Part of it was just not being comfortable in my bed. A few weeks ago, I had my friend Chad build me a new custom birch bed. Chad just started a new custom woodworking business, Infinity Woodworks. He gave up a “good” teaching job to pursue his passion. Pretty cool. I also bought a new mattress and that is also helping. The next step is getting some blinds in my bedroom to keep out the sun. The sun typically doesn’t bother me, but it would be nice to have consistent good sleep. Since I live in a subdivision of one, having blinds/curtains in my house has never been a problem.

El Toro Guapo had his 3rd birthday this week. Hard to believe that I’ve had him 2.5 years already.

Last weekend, Shannon and I went to the World Ice Art Championships. Like last year, it was chilly and we did not stay long. As always, amazing art. The ice art is a nice reward for surviving winter!

The rest of the images are in my image gallery. Shannon posted her pictures here.

This is old news now… A while ago, Senator Al Franken, while still on SNL (or there abouts) wrote a book titled “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot“.   He was correct then and is amazingly correct now. The only thing I would change would be title, substituting “douchebag” for idiot, or perhaps changing to “idiotic douchebag”. Either works.  Luckily Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are around and in fine form to help keep my sanity.
 

After renting a couple fat bikes, we (Miriam, her house mate Joanna, and El Toro Guapo) headed out last Sunday to the Stampede Trail, located just outside of Healey. The Stampede Trail has recently gained fame as the ‘magic bus’ (Into the Wild refernce) is located off this trail. We headed out early and were treated to an amazing day in the Interior.

The plan was to ride in 30 km (~20 miles) to the bus, hang out a bit, then ride back out. We estimated that we would be able to at least average 7.5 km/hr, making it a 4 hour journey (1-way) maximum. After a bit of time, we ran into a bunch of open water that was flowing fairly fast – fast enough to not want to attempt to cross and chance getting really wet and cold.

After pondering a little while, we decided to try a 2nd trail just to see where it would go. Luckily, this trail was solid across the water, but split soon afterward. We picked the (wrong) trail that headed off down a trapping line and took us well out of our way. It was a pretty trail, but it was really rough and slow going. We finally ran back into the Stampede Trail, but I starting to bonk. Soon after joining the Stampede Trail ~4-5 hours into the journey, we hit another large river, which we thought was the river adjacent to the magic bus. We thought it was the river just based upon the amount of time we had estimated for the one-way journey. I was completely bonked and we stopped to eat (not knowing how close or far away we were from our destination). While eating, a number of snow machiners came by and they informed us that we had only made it about half way! We knew we were not going to make it, so we headed back to the trail head.

It was a beautiful day. Out 9.5 hours. El Toro Guapo had a great day and fell asleep in the truck immediately. I will post the rest of the pictures in my gallery in the next day or two.

UPDATE 16 March 2012: I have posted more photos in the  image gallery. Miriam and Joanna’s pictures are also included.

I really hate the idea of promoting this, but it really is too awesome not to share. I actually don’t have to worry too much about promoting it, as not many people visit the blog any more.

At times, Fairbanks is truly awesome!

Some things never get old, no matter how many times experienced. This is what I came home to last night.