Alaskan Living

Kichatna Spires From The Air

I'm pretty sure the Kichatnas are one of the most beautiful places in Alaska. About 50 minutes from Anchorage in the 182. I spent over an hour tonight circling the spires at around 8000 feet. Burned 40 gallons of fuel and ended up landing back at Lake Hood in the dark.

An Envelope Called Freedom

I'd always wanted to learn to fly--but could never make the time. I wasn't sure it would ever happen. It took a combination of blowing my ACL in the middle of ski season (sudden free time) and being inspired by a film called One Six Right to finally make the commitment. You put in all those hours in ground school and flight training, and one day something arrives in the mail...

Our New House!

We closed today on our new house! I think we lucked out with this one.

Yael thinks she looked at 80 houses; I looked at at least 20. What we were looking for was hard to find: a home that was a part of a neighborhood but also had open space. I was so frustrated with the process (most developers up here build generic houses and put them too close together), I almost didn't look at this one. Yael had already seen it. We were told someone else was about to make an offer on it, so I agreed to stop by one day on the way back from skate skiing.

I knew when I first drove up that this was a place I could live in! To make a short story even shorter, 4 hours after first laying eyes on it, our offer had been accepted. It's set against one of Anchorage's larger parks, has a creek running through the front lawn, is in a good neighborhood, and yet has the feel of "country living" (and comes with its own moose, as you can see in the photo.) 

Glacier Bay Lodge in Gustavus

In 20 years of travel around Alaska, I had never visited Glacier Bay National Park until yesterday. I flew down for an overnight at Aramark's Glacier Bay Lodge. After hearing about Glacier Bay all these years, it was nice to finally see it.

I began by flying an Alaska Airlines jet from Anchorage to Juneau. The jet doesn't continue to Gustavus this time of year, so I took a small plane. That was good fortune; the scenery was as captivating as a flightseeing trip. 

We arrived in Gustavus--which has to be one of the most charming towns in Alaska. It's about a 20-minute drive to the lodge, a series of wood buildings in the forest connected by boardwalks and set right on the bay. As soon as I arrived, I found myself wishing I had more than one night to spend there. It would be a great place to read a book, write in your journal, and relax with friends.

The Talkeetna Flood

Dan, Cara, Eli, and Adella came up to visit this weekend. After months of deliberation, we decided to take them to Talkeetna since there's such a wide choice of things to do. In fact, prior to their arrival, we had a hard time deciding what to do with them every day. There are so many options: rafting, flightseeing, dog mushing, jetboating, etc...

As it turned out, the most major flood in decades hit Talkeetna while we were there--and it became a question of what could we do. The answer was basically nothing besides check out the flood, run around inside the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge, and play with rocks. We had fun with family, but Dan and Cara's two adventure trips to Alaska (this and the Copper River years ago) have to rank as two of the worst Alaska vacations ever mounted by two human beings.

Weekend at Camp Denali

Twenty years ago today was the day I summited Mt. McKinley. On the tenth anniversary, I coincidentally found myself in Kantishna on a filming trip. It was a glorious clear evening I'll never forget.

This year, I helped my friends Howard and Diane Zack and their family plan an Alaska trip. It so happens, they were going to be at Camp Denali on June 24. It also so happens that Howard and I share the same birthday. We're "birthday buddies"as Howard likes to say. And this year, he is celebrating his 50th while I am celebrating my 45th!

Black Sand Beach (Prince William Sound)

One of the most amazing places in the world--just 60 miles from Anchorage--is Prince William Sound. I've been to Glacier Bay and glacial regions of South America and Europe, and I've never seen such a concentration of tidewater glaciers, wildlife, waterfalls, and green hillsides.

In years past, the 26 Glacier Cruise has dropped me off deep in the Sound to film and photograph. The idea of waking in my bed in Anchorage, camping that night deep in the Sound, and being back in town for dinner the next day is something I cherish.

So when they kindly agreed to drop me off at Black Sand Beach in Barry Arm, I vowed to be on my best behavior.

Spring Skate Skiing

There are few things I enjoy more in life than skate skiing on the hard crust in Spring in Alaska. You can cover as much ground in a few hours of skate skiing this time of year as you can in a week of hiking later in the summer. This weekend, I took full advantage, going to Spencer Glacier on Saturday and Portage Glacier today (where a friend took the picture of me skiing in front of the glacier). 

Greetings From Aspen

My Mom and I hiked up Smuggler Mountain in Aspen today and took this self-portrait at the lookout point. My parents ski 50-70 days a season and work out at the health club the other days. They're really an inspiration!That's the kind of lifestyle I need.

Colonel Norman Vaughan Dies At 100

Alaska lost one of its beloved heroes today: Colonel Norman Vaughan.

Norman symbolized what I love most about Alaska: the spirit of adventure, of unending youth, of being just plain down to earth. (I won’t repeat his story here, but you can get it from my earlier Norman Vaughan post.)

When I first moved to Alaska, Norman (despite his international celebrity) wasn't above investing a couple days