I don't Want to Miss Anything

 
"Up with the sun at four to watch sunrise and the sight of the awakening land. It seems a shame for eyes to be shut when such things are going on, especially in this big country. I don't want to miss anything" 

Wednesday Thoughts

Alaska on my Mind

    We were staying at a friends dry cabin outside Denali. At this point we had been in Alaska for more than one week and I felt more in love with Alaska than ever. But I have already made a choice, and I am satisfied with it. We all have our heart at various places in the world, that is very common, and I just keep spreading mine across this world too. After dinner I found a book in the book case, "One Mans Wilderness". I started reading it, and the first few lines of the first chapter caught my attention. "Up with the sun at four to watch sunrise and the sight of the awakening land. It seems a shame for eyes to be shut when such things are going on, especially in this big country. I don't want to miss anything" . That is how I feel, that is what I do. I have been spellbound by this big country too, and now there is no turning back. Why can't we live here forever too? Later on, before we flew back, I bought the book, because now, this is how I will remember my love for the wilderness and the open space that Alaska offers. I will dream about it instead of being a part of it, at least for a while.  

 
Posted on April 5, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Wednesday Thoughts and tagged 2017 Alaska Denali Denali National Park Glowing Denali perspective Mountains Wilderness wilder Adventure Winter travels Winter Adventures.

Adventuring...again in Alaska

Sometimes you go to Alaska and adventure in your own little way. Here are a few snapshots from our time here....

This trip did not make me miss Alaska less....

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, The great wide open and tagged Alaska Boreal Forest Fairbanks 2017 Adventure Winter Snow Winter Adventures Mountains pink mountains Denali Denali National Park.

Driving on a Snowmachine trail?

 

Adventure Tuesday

Christmas

    We celebrated this past Christmas in Bozeman. It has become our tradition, well maybe my new tradition. I have spent several Christmases in Bozeman and each year we always do something new. This year W's dad had booked a forest service cabin outside Butte, Montana. We went skiing in the morning and later on drove towards the cabin. When we got closer to the cabin the wind had created some pretty hardcore snow drifts at places, to the point where the snow drifts were becoming a hazard if you didn't have a truck, and even then. W's mom and dad were in a truck and W, his brother and I were in a Subi. It quickly became pretty hard to maneuver the car on these snow drifted roads so we decided that maybe it would be best/safest? if we all got in to the truck instead.

 
 

Snow Adventure

    We all started to unpack the car and moved everything over to the truck. We continued on the road, that now looked very very much snow covered, as in it didn't even really look like a real road anymore. I didn't feel good about this snow covered road but had graciously been given a first row spot for this adventure, the passenger seat. Probably to be sure that I could see the ditches along the side of the road. And, when I say ditches, I mean more of a hill on the side of the road. We got to a point where we decided that we should probably just walk the rest of the way. I had already put the coordinates of the cabin on google maps, but the cabin was not really close to where we were, it seemed to be way off of this road, which was weird because you were suppose to be able to drive right up to the cabin. W's mom and I started walking through the deep snow while the guys were going to turn around the truck, on this narrow road. Something I did not want to watch.

 
 

Cabin Hunt

    No sign of a cabin, and at this point I started to get grumpy. W had started walking towards us too now, with a big cooler in tow. But where was the cabin? All of a sudden W starts calling for us and it appears that they found the cabin. Down the hill on the side of the road, was a cabin. We had walked right pass it, that is how far away from the road it was, and this road we were on was most likely a snowmachine trail...whoops. We trekked back to the truck, got all the stuff back into the truck and again I was left with the passenger seat. You could feel the truck slip and slide to the sides, closer to the edge of the road and I was wearing sunglasses, closing my eyes behind them and hoping that we would not fall down the hill with the truck. Luckily W's dad is an excellent driver and finally we got back to the wrong turn. 

 
 

The Arrival

    We took the correct turn and drove a bit further. But this road was also looking sketchy because of all the snow drifts. W's dad and mom took the truck up to the cabin with all the gear and food, while we hiked instead. The road was passable, and when we got closer to the cabin W's dad had already turned around and was going to drive back and forth to the cabin a few times to make sure he made a good imprint in the snow so that we could get out the next day. He picked up W and his brother for some extra weight and I continued on to the cabin. 

 
 

Fleecer Cabin

    We had a great afternoon and evening at the cabin. It was nice to finally relax from all that adventuring we had been doing (well to me it was because I was a little frightened by the snow driving). The cabin has all amenities you can think of, a kitchen, bedrooms, a wood stove and even a flushing toilet and shower, cold shower of course. We started a fire in the wood stove as soon as we arrived at the cabin and while the fire started going we got all the gear in. We cooked food, read through the guest log, which is always so much fun, and had a beer or glass of wine while we digested the food in front of the wood stove. Later in the evening we had a bonfire outside before we all went to bed.

 
 

Getting Out!   

    The next morning we had planned on going for some hiking/ski adventures. We had breakfast and a pretty slow start to the morning. The wind had picked up during the night and the road was once again snow covered. At this point W's dad got a bit nervous, because we needed to drive quite far on this sketchy road we came in on, that already then was pretty much snow covered. And in a few minutes, we had decided to leave, like immediately. We decided that we were going to pack the truck, and then W's dad drove it out. We skied out, and it was so windy, and cold, but we finally arrived at the car we left the day before and started to drive out. The road was even worse than the day before and we had some sketchy passages but we all got out perfectly fine! The overnight trip had been a success with plenty of adventures, which is what I wanted so I was satisfied.

 
 

    Did you guys go on any adventures this Christmas?

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Montana, The great wide open and tagged Winter Winter Adventures Montana 2017 Christmas Adventure Ski Skiing snowscapes Snow snowmachine snöskoter snö vinter äventyr Fleecer cabin Elsewhere Wintertime.