Posts filed under Flashback Friday

Wilder pt. 2

"Wilder than a brushfire burns deep inside the bramble
Baby, I think God made your soul born to ramble
Maybe you'll take to the far away places
Where life is gonna deal you a hand full of aces
But it doesn't really matter how great the spaces
We're chained, and when everything else changes our love will stay the same
We're chained, and when everything else goes away our love will still remain"

Flashback Friday

Getting Married, Again

This past summer we got married, again. Well, this was more of a wedding celebration, a celebration where we were able to invite our friends and family on this side of the ocean, to the state that holds our hearts, Montana. Last Christmas we went skiing at a place called Homestake Lodge, outside Butte, MT. It was one of those places where you felt like you were in heaven, snow on the trees, newly groomed cross-country ski tracks and rolling hills and mountains. I happened to notice that the lodge also hosts wedding parties, and after some debating over where to have our wedding celebration, we decided to pick Homestake Lodge.

Homestake Lodge

There are many wedding venues around Bozeman, Montana. I really wanted a place surrounded by mountains. We talked about renting a forest service cabin, but with all the additional logistics that a place like that would bring, and our limited budget we figured that we probably were better of with a place that had the amenities a social gathering like this would require. Paradise Valley is as it sounds like a very beautiful place, located between Bozeman and Gardiner. I have seen many different lodges around there, all beautiful and all very expensive to rent. Instead, we dialed down on Homestake Lodge in the mountain pass between Bozeman and Butte and right on the Continental Divide. Homestake Lodge itself is this beautiful rustic cabin that sits on top of a small hill overlooking the deep forest and the mountains surrounding it. We rented the whole place, which included a couple of cabins and one yurt. It was a great way to host a wedding celebration, having the option for a lot of people to stay at the lodge and surrounding cabins. Butte is only about 20 minutes away, so we had a few guests who went back there as the afternoon slowly transitioned into the late evening. It was my dream wedding, being surrounded by these mountains and the deep forest.

We are a Fiery Couple

The morning of the wedding we found ourselves driving from Bozeman to Homestake Lodge through Homestake Pass. Smoke from wildfires across the state covered the pass and the mountains surrounding Bozeman. The smell of fire was in the air. In some sense, this is kind of ironic, because we both study fires, so of course our bond to each other would be tied during a fiery day like this. Every time we drive anywhere in this state I have this feeling of excitement and love in my heart, love for all this nature surrounding us that is also tying us together.

We met once upon a time when I moved into the cabin across the driveway from W's cabin. Since then we have helped each other with fieldwork in our different systems. W has helped me in the deep forests of interior Alaska, and I have helped him in the deep forests of Yellowstone National Park. We have lived apart for several years to be able to pursue our PhDs, me in Alaska and him in Wisconsin until I was done with all my fieldwork and was able to join him in Wisconsin.

Walking down the aisle

In my dreams leading up to this wedding, everything was already planned, my mom and dad would be there. I would finally be able to show my parents one of the many places that now holds my heart. Life doesn't always turn out the way you expect them to, and mom passed away about 10 months before the wedding. She had been so excited and had already planned everything she wanted to do and see. My dad came alone, but instead of thinking about all the sadness surrounding the fact that my mom was not able to be there, we made this trip all about us. We drove together all the way from Madison WI, through Badlands National Park, through the Beartooth Pass, and through Yellowstone until we finally arrived in Bozeman a few days later. We camped along the way, and dad had not been sleeping in a tent since the 70's or 80's. And then at the wedding, my dad finally got to walk me down the aisle.

Not your average kind of wedding

We are not the average type of people, so our wedding was not the average kind. We chose for instance very untraditional music for the wedding. We walked down to Brandy Carlile's "We're Chained", had two of our poet friends marry us, and walked out to John Prine and Iris Dement "In Spite of Ourselves". Because we are not your average type of human. We have been shaped by our surroundings, W in the backcountry of Montana, and then the forests of Alaska, and me as a full-on city girl from central Stockholm with my heart in northern Sweden, and then the sharp turn to dry cabin life in Alaska. We don't blink or hesitate about camping along a frozen river at 20 below and get up and do a 20K ski race the next day. We see possibilities where others see problems.

A Dream Wedding

As the afternoon turned to evening the hazy air, created by the smoke from all the wildfires, developed a beautiful veil over our wedding venue. You could smell the fire in the air, but those fires were far away from where we were. The kids were playing and family and friends helped out to bring the dessert out to the pavilion where the homemade smoked pulled pork dinner had been served. W had spent days with his aunts' husband, smoking the pork on low heat. We moved between tables and talked to all of our friends we hadn't seen in a long time.

A Couple of Post-Wedding Photos

Before the darkness arrived and within the magic hour of sunset and light we went out and took some pictures of us with my dad. So that we could keep some memories from this wonderful day. We didn't hire any photographer but instead we took turns taking pictures of each other, and I think we did a good job!

The Yurt

There were a couple of cabins at Homestake Lodge and many beds at the actual lodge, and then additionally we had the yurt. W and I decided to stay at the yurt because we would not mind using an outhouse, or the fact that the place had no running water, it would be just as in Alaska. Past midnight, in the dark summer night we found ourselves trekking back to our yurt. We managed to get one of the lanterns from the party because of course our headlamps were already in the yurt. We kind of knew how to get to the yurt, but since the lantern was not that bright, and we did have a bit to walk it was a bit of challenge. I instantly started thinking about this Swedish comedy where they are waiting for Santa to come. A Santa that they dropped off, a couple of km from the cabin, with a car. The guy was supposed to bring all the gifts on a sled back to the cabin, equipped with a sled, the bag of gifts and the lantern and a bottle of whiskey he slowly approached the cabin, and about two hours later (much later than what they had anticipated) he finally arrived. We finally arrived at our yurt and slept until sunrise, which was a few hours later...

The Morning After

The morning after the wedding we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise. I don't know if you have ever experienced a sunrise in a fire-prone environment with wildfires surrounding you, but the sunrises with the smoky veil are always out of this world. We woke up filled with beautiful memories that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. Later that day we went on a short hike with some of our friends and later on camped by a lake, in the deep forests of Montana.

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Wilder pt. 2

Wilder

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Matanuska Valley and Matanuska Glacier

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Flashback Friday

Palmer, Alaska

If you drive south from Fairbanks, past Talkeetna, and past Wasilla you get to a place called Palmer. We went there the first time my mom and dad came to visit us in Alaska. It was late August, or maybe even September when we went for this long roadtrip. W and I had bought tickets to see Avett Brothers at the annual Alaska State Fair that late summer. My parents stayed at a motel across from the fairground, and they could hear the music play in the late summer evening. Those summer nights were colorful and warm, mosquitos were out but not a real problem. No smoke in the air for once, and everyone were in such a happy mood. Afterwards W and I drove towards a camping spot outside of Palmer and camped for the evening.

Views from the drive south:

Palmer, Alaska:

Culture

You could think that there really isn't that much to do in Palmer, but there are quite a few things to do around there. Since we are all interested in culture, and my mom used to work at a large open air museum in Sweden (Skansen), we went to the Colony House Museum. The house is showing its appearance during the 30's and 40's. It is always interesting to see how people lived, especially in a landscape as Alaska, with the long dark and cold winter months, and short summers. The Colony House came to life during the depression and the big investment in New Deal by Roosevelt in the 30's. I have mentioned "Civilian Conservation Corps" (CCC) earlier, which also was a part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The "Resettlement Administration" (RA) was part of Roosevelt's New Deal, and about 200 families were relocated from the Midwest to the Matanuska Valley. The reason they chose families from the Midwest to be relocated to Alaska, was because that area experience a similar climate to the Matanuska Valley. Not too surprisingly, many of the families that were relocated had Scandinavian ancestry.

Musk Ox Farm

While you are around Palmer you can also visit the Musk Ox Farm. There they use sustainable agricultural practices to produce qiviut. They focus on public education and also provide some income opportunities for Alaska Natives. Muskox can be seen roaming free along some coastal areas in Alaska. There is also a small herd of Muskox that roam along the border of Sweden and Norway (if that wild herd still exist, I can't find any updated information about them), but then there is also the Muskox centre in Härjedalen where they breed Muskox, with one of the main purposes to increase the genetic variation in the wild herd. That wild herd on the border between Sweden and Norway started of with a population of about 5 individuals 1971, At most the herd had about 30 individuals, in the 80's, but since then that number has decreased to about 11, so they have suffered some inbreeding problem unfortunately, something that is common in small populations of animals.

Mat-Su Valley

Palmer and the Musk Ox farm are situated in the Matanuska Valley, just south of the Talkeetna Mountains. To the east and south of Palmer you have the Chugach Mountains. As you can imagine this area is extremely beautiful with these large mountains surrounding the area. To the left of the Matanuska Valley is the Susitna valley, and the whole area is often called the Mat-Su Valley. The whole area in southern Alaska is covered by glaciers, it is quite spectacular to think about, since these glaciers most likely will disappear in the near future, and many of them have retreated significantly or just disappeared. If you are interested in seeing how many glaciers there are in Alaska you can see a map from Alaska State Library, which list 667 individual glaciers in Alaska. The Mat-Su Valley, although dark winter nights, is the most productive area in Alaska, and the area experiences less cold weather compared to for instance Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley. This area is part of the Southern Cordillera region and was glaciated during the Pleistocene (compared to the area around Fairbanks and Interior Alaska, which mostly was unglaciated), and is the reason why there are so many glaciers in southern part of Alaska.

Matanuska Glacier

Out of all of these 667 glaciers in Alaska, Matanuska glacier is one of the few glaciers you can actually drive all the way to the foot of the glacier. The access point is privately owned and charges a small amount of money to be able to drive all the way to the glacier. Well it seems like this small amount that used to be 25-30$ per person has gotten a pretty steep increase in the last few years. Apparently you now have to pay 100$ fee, for a guided tour. Which is in some way understandable. This is a glacier and while many of the visitors are following the guidelines and are sticking to the detailed path to walk on, others are running around the glacier like small kids, jumping crevasses and climbing ice towers with sandals.

Glenn Highway

Of course you can see the views of the glacier by driving the scenic Glenn Highway, and visit the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation site. I have visited the Matanuska glacier twice, but we never went on any extreme outings out there on the ice. But the views, and the feeling of being on the ice like that is out of this world.

Views

from

the

Glenn

Highway

Have you visited any glaciers?

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Denali Adventures - Spring edition

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Flashback Friday

Into the Mountains

Last year around this time we ventured out into the wild, into Denali National Park. We have been there so many times together before, but this time was the first time we were there together again. It was also the first time none of us still lived in Alaska. As we drove south towards the Alaska Range, my heart skipped a beat, as it always tend to do when I see those large mountains. We were listening to some bluegrass music, which is something we tend to do a lot. While driving in more remote areas we usually hook up the phone to the car radio, so we get access to offline playlists, because in Alaska you tend to loose both cellservice and radioservice. It's a common theme for anyone driving these roads. Sun was shining and spring was in the air, even though snow usually stay put on the ground until the end of April, sometimes even into May.

Silence and solitude

We were so lucky with the weather, blue sky, well semi blue sky, but what else do you need with views like these? Our friend lives right outside the park and let us use her cabin, while she was up in Fairbanks. How lucky is she, with these mountains in her backyard. It is a different life in Alaska, it's slower, but more intense. You focus on completely different things compared to people who live in larger cities. It's a different lifestyle. It's silent, around this time you could hear the water, drip, drop, drip, drop, slowly falling down the side of the cabin. Every now and then you can hear and see the moose walking by the cabin. I have had friends who have spent hours in the outhouse, because they have been trapped by a moose blocking the way back to their cabin. I know our friend outside Denali have had Lynx at her doorstep. But I love that lifestyle, and I miss it. Imagine opening up your door to this landscape.

Mountains

The first day we spent a few hours in the park. Mostly driving around and some short hiking. The snow was soft and we quickly sank in, knee deep in our boots. Spring was definitely here. The winds felt warm in my face, or maybe that was just the combination with the sun, or maybe just me being in my euphoria stage, the way I get when I see these mountains. It's incredible how small we are, how small we are against these large mountains. You can see so far but yet so short. There is a wide open space out there, that is still wild. When we got hungry we drove out of the park, to this fancy restaurant that is open during the off season, and serve great local food, for the few people that live around here. I know many people who drive all the way from Fairbanks down there, just to go to this restaurant, that's about a 2 hr drive. We were lucky, we didn't have to wait too long, and we enjoyed a nice dinner before we drove back to that little cabin in the foothills of the mountains again. As the darkness fell over the cabin we played Bananagram, until we both were too tired to continue.

Skiing

The next morning I woke up early, as I always tend to do. I went out and got some pictures of the mountains, and the sunrise. Those mountains, how can you not be mesmerized by them? After breakfast we packed our skis and drove back into the park. As we started skiing we saw some stretches with open water, now that is a clear sign of spring up north. We had to rethink our ski trip due to the open water, but found a safer way to cross down stream, and before we knew it we were on our way into the mountains. We continued skiing towards the mountains. It was only us, not a single other person could be seen out there. This is a common theme in Alaska, even in the summertime you can find places with no other person. Alaska is so large, so open and so wild. As in many other National Parks in the US, few people actually leave their car and venture out into the wild like we do. As we continued through the shrubs we even spotted a ptarmigan, or two. Those sneaky little birds are so beautiful, but hard to get a good picture off, so I'll leave you with one below and you can play the game "spot the bird" for a while.

The Beauty of Denali

Time passes so fast when you are having fun. But we can't stay forever in the park, and I managed to snap some photos of Denali, who finally decided to peak out of her clouds. She's tricky like that, she's large enough to create her own weather pattern, and seem to show herself on her own terms. Often times in the summertime people wait and wait to be able to see her, and finally miss their opportunity due to all those clouds she produces. Imagine flying all the way to Alaska and not seeing Denali. It happens more often than what you might think.