Posts filed under Adventure Tuesday

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?

Chena River to Ridge

 

Adventure Tuesday

It takes a community to raise a child?

    As I have mentioned many times before, the community in Fairbanks is very supportive and everyone believes in you. There are many races in and around Fairbanks, by foot, bike, and ski, come summer come winter. Every summer there is this marathon called the Equinox. It's very famous in Fairbanks and everyone participates in one way or another. If you are not in the race, you are very likely to stand by the side of the trail watching it, handing drinks, baked goods or alike to the runners. There is another race in the winter time called "White mountains 100". Basically a 100 mile ski race in the white mountains. That is pretty hardcore. We went to see the start one year and it was so much fun to see everyone prepare before they departed. We have several friends who participate in this race almost every year. Such great spirit.

 
 

Ski Commute

    When W moved away from Alaska we had spent one winter in the new cabin. I actually can't remember how we transported us to work that winter. I do know for sure that the rest of the winters my main transportation was by ski. Biking works too, but the bike path by our cabin doesn't get plowed regularly and if you have ever biked through deep snow with a mountain bike you definitely know that it takes up all of your energy. Also, if you don't winterize the bike with this "winter fluid" and the temperatures drop to 40 below, the pedals wont catch and they just go around and around and you are standing still.

 
 

Ski training

    Sometime during the start of one winter I decided to sign up for a ski race. I thought it would be a cool thing to do, especially this one. It's basically up a ridge, along the ridge and then switchback turns to get back down in the end...on cross-country skis. They recommend that you have some type of expertise in cross-country skiing before you sign up. To increase my milage before the race I mostly skied during lunch break and also to and from work. In the evenings, instead of skiing straight home, I skied on all the various trails we have to add up the mileage. The actual ski race was in mid March, and after Christmas happened you could definitely tell that the afternoons and evenings got lighter and lighter, to my advantage because as you might know, I am terrified of the moose. I also skied with a backpack, after all, I am a newbie and I want to bring an extra down jacket, base layers socks...and my camera. This race is completely unsupported, well aside from one aid station at mile 14 (22km).

 
 

Racing?

    My goal for this race was not to win, obviously, but to make it. I can ski fast, well not that fast but a pretty decent pace. But I rather ski less fast, so I don't sweat, and I love to take pictures. So not surprisingly, I was the last person to finish the 25 mile race, but that is ok, because at least I made it, and that was my goal. After the fact I also realized that hey, I just did my first marathon, ever, but on skis. I haven't even run a marathon. 

 
 

Race day

    When I woke up the  morning of the race the first thing I did was to check the temperatures. And it was not looking good, well i had already checked the weather forecast and waxed my skis accordingly. Come race day the temperature read -26F, that is -32C. Great. But I am used to skiing in cold weather so in reality it wasn't really a big deal. 

 
 

The ridge

    As the sun rose it casted its warm rays on my face and I forgot about how cold it was. These trails are snowmachine trails, so not really the type of ski trails that you might encounter in a more "normal" ski race. I think i smiled the whole way, well, until the end. I accidentally took a wrong turn and wasted some extra time trying to figure out where to go next, the downside of skiing solo in a small race, you are on your own. Overall the skiing was pretty good. Once you got up on the ridge the views were amazing, and you definitely understood why they want you to have done some technical skiing before hand. And yes, the switch back turns they talked about, yeah they were definitely 90 degree turns going down. It was fast and if you didn't turn, well, hopefully a tree would catch you before falling down the side of the ridge.

 
 

    Have you ever done something that felt out of your league?

On the Road

 

Adventure Tuesday

On the Road

    This Christmas we have been on the road quite a bit. Not traveling super far, but far enough to be on the road for several hours. We went to a forest service cabin just outside Butte, we also went to Yellowstone National Park, and just recently to a ski place called Maverick Mountain. The best things about traveling by car is that you get to see so many different areas, and beautiful nature scenes, Oh and mountains, endless supply of mountains. 

 
 

Big Sky Country  

    I feel like I can never get enough of sunsets and mountains. Montana is just so beautiful! Definitely Big Sky Country! If you have never been to Montana before, I definitely recommend you to go. Not only do you have great access to Yellowstone National Park, but also Glacier National Park, along with many National Forests along the way.

 
 

    Do you have a favorite country, state or alike that you just can't get enough of?