Posts tagged #2016_2

Hesitating Beauty

 

New Years Thoughts

    New Years Eve has approached, as it always does once a year. I don't really celebrate birthdays any longer, because I feel like it is yet another day in life, we are only one day older than the day before. Age is just a number, right? In some way I feel the same way about New Years Eve. I am a morning person so I am usually sound asleep once the new year hits. I do love celebrating New Years Eve though, because we eat good food, have nice drinks and so on, oh and dress up. Fireworks was something I was excited about when I was young, or actually I am not sure if I was that excited about them, or if it was mostly my parents who were, either way I don't really care about them either. Last year I celebrated new years alone in Fairbanks, and I was once again sound asleep when the new year hit. I did wake up around midnight though to go to the outhouse, and there was a beautiful aurora show going on.

 
 

Nature and rawness    

    What do I want out of 2017? I want more nature adventures. As you all probably know by now, nature has a special place in my heart. How could we ever live without it? I can't imagine living in a city like New York, nor do I usually have any interest in visiting places like that. Don't get me wrong, I love culture and exploring cities, but crowded places and me just doesn't work. I want more raw experiences, I want to feel that I am alive. I want to be cold, so I can appreciate the warmth. I want to get lost so I can appreciate being on the right path. I want to get wet in a rainstorm so I can appreciate staying dry. I want to bushwhack through the untouched forest so I can appreciate walking on a road from time to time.  They say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or that hardships build character. 

 
 

    What do you want out of 2017? 

 
Other posts about adventures and nature
A hike on the East Coast - Franconia Ridge
When we Hiked through Lamar Valley - Summertime in Yellowstone National Park
Dispersed Camping in the Catskills - New York
The Ultimate Roadtrip pt.5
The Ultimate Roadtrip pt.4
Fires and Storms altered the City and what is found there now, is far from what once was there
Conquering Algonquin Peak
Denali Adventures - Spring edition
Death Canyon
Holly Lake - Grand Teton National Park
Posted on December 31, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Photography, Nature, The great wide open, Alaska and tagged Beauty Adventure Winter Adventures Alaska Wisconsin Yellowstone Wilderness Nature Outdoors New Year Aurora Aurora Borealis Norrsken Northern Lights Winter travels Alaska range Mountains pink mountains Summer Adventures 2016_2.

Yellowstone National Park - Winter Edition

 
 

Wintersports

Kayaking in the wintertime?

    Every year when we are celebrating Christmas in Bozeman we also go to Yellowstone National Park, it has become a tradition. Well, this tradition is not something new in W's family, they originally went kayaking around Christmas in Yellowstone River, just outside the park (since you are not allowed to kayak inside the park). W's dad doesn't do this any longer, and neither W or his brother does it either. Instead we have transition into skiing and or snowshoeing combined with driving around looking for wildlife.

 
 

Can you get tired of skiing?

    I love skiing, well....last year I wasn't that enthusiastic about skiing and while we were in Yellowstone I didn't because I was sick. But now I am getting that excitement back again. It's weird how that works. Maybe I just skied too much previous years? The other year I signed up for a ski race (25 miles) just outside Fairbanks, and practiced almost every day, on top of skiing back and forth to work every day...so that might have made me tired of skiing? Now, that practice was less about being fast, just about actually managing to be on my skis for 25 miles, since (like all other races in Alaska) there isn't a lot of support on the trail. 

 
 

Winter in Yellowstone National Park

    The past few years we have ventured out into Yellowstone National Park during Christmas break. One year we actually celebrated New Years Eve in the park, well technically right outside. We always stay at a B&B in Gardiner which is one of the entrances to Yellowstone National Park. Most of the other people staying there seem to be snowmobilers, or at least that is what it seems like during breakfast at the small cafe that is included in our stay. As with any other National Park receiving a lot of snow and cold temperatures during the wintertime, many roads are closed. In Denali National Park the whole road is of course closed, but you can still bike, snowshoe, hike, and ski, just like in Yellowstone. We aren't that interested in snowmobiling and also don't want to spend the extra money to get on a snowcoach. So we ski. 

 
 

Skiing in Yellowstone National Park

    The animals don't take winter break, well aside from the bears I suppose. Which mean that the bison or the "huff buffs" as I like to call them, will still be there. It is quite frightening to ski around a corner and realize you just scared the whole bison herd, and less exciting to see the little baby bisons try to bluff charge towards you, even if it is from a distance. The buffalos are huge, heavy and a little bit stupid I would say, someone else might argue differently. Maybe they are just supersmart but very stubborn? Don't get me wrong, I am actually terrified of bison, because they are so big and heavy!

 
 

National Parks in the Wintertime   

    Have you ever been to any of the National Parks in the wintertime? Which one is your favorite and where would you want to go? Check back in a few weeks to see more pictures from Yellowstone National Park in the wintertime.

 
Posted on December 20, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Photography, Nature, The great wide open, Yellowstone, Adventure Tuesday and tagged Skiing Alaska Ski Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park cold Winter travels Winter wintersport finding winter Wilderness Christmas 2016_2 Mountains Winter Adventures National Park Wintertime Winter Edition Rocky Mountains 2016.

A Very Dark Fall?

 

Fall   

    This fall has been very very different for me. This year I moved from the woods in Alaska to Madison, Wisconsin. It took a while for me to find a job, but I did, I found a job after a few months which was probably the best thing that happened to me this year, well except receiving the green card this spring. Then fall happened, I got hit by a car while biking, I survived obviously, but my bike got a pretty bad hit and I am still waiting to get the bike back form the bike shop. Then Trump won, which was such a sad evening, W got so upset and sad that he cried and wondered what we were going to do. And then, mom died. 

 
 

Sadness  

    When I am sad I always listen to this Swedish singer songwriter, Lars Winnerbäck. He puts words on your feelings, when you can't. I have been listening to music a lot these past days, wanting to find some music for moms funeral. It still feels so unreal, I think the problem here is that I am here in the US, and I haven't had mom living right next to me, right here, the past 7 years, so I feel a bit detached to the whole situation. I haven't seen my mom in real life since September 2014, which is very very sad under these circumstances. I am just so happy I got a chance to show her my Alaska not only once, but twice!

 
 

Sweden and Alaska   

    If I had all the money and time in the world I would have gone home to Sweden several times a year, but back when I lived in Alaska it was so hard to find cheap tickets to go that far, and with W's family being in MT it was easy to get there instead. It was impossible to go home in the summertime, because of my fieldwork and research. This summer I was alone for more than a month while W was doing research in Yellowstone, I talked to mom almost every day, and now I wish I had gone home to Sweden, but I didn't have the money to do that. And now, we thought about going to Sweden for Christmas, not that it would have helped anyway, but still. 

 
 

Winter

    The winter has not arrived in Madison, WI yet, we had about 70 degrees F (21C) the other day, today however it's right around freezing. Maybe we will get some snow soon. Fairbanks already has cold temperatures and snow of course, so does Sweden to a certain extent, well, at least they had snow, because my mom was so excited about the snow that she sent me pics. I guess we will see how much snow Sweden has in less than 2 weeks. 

 
 

Real Winter

    I really miss snow, aurora, and skiing right now, but I am very very happy I was not alone in my dry cabin when I got the news about my mom. I do hope we will receive some snow here pretty soon though, I love wearing warm sweaters, dresses and tights during cold weather. There is a reason why most of my clothes consist of synthetic down and fleece material or merino or SmartWool. 

 
 

    Do you like wintertime? Or do you just like every single season the same?

 
Posted on November 21, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Madison Life, Montana, The great wide open, Wisconsin and tagged 2016_2 Madison Alaska Winter Fall Snow Wisconsin2.