Posts tagged #2016

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.

Why you should look for Adventures in your "Backyard"

 

Adventure Tuesday

Mountains?

    Living in Alaska definitely changes your perspective about mountains (coming from Stockholm, Sweden) and distances to places. It's amazing to have the Alaska Range as your own view every day you come to work. It's not weird to drive 544 miles (875km), through the Alaska Range, to attend a festival during 2 days and then drive back that same distance after the weekend is over.

 
 

Nothing is Impossible

    People do this all the time. Another thing that I really liked about the community in Fairbanks was that no one would ever question you and your adventure plans. If you said you were going to run or ski a marathon people got excited, no one would ever question your decision to do that. As far as I know, in Alaska nothing is impossible, and anyone can do anything if you put your mind to it. The world is yours to have if you want it so go and take it!

Madison Adventures Anyone?    

    When I moved to Madison, WI from spectacular Fairbanks, Alaska my expectations were to find absolutely nothing that could fill my longing for the outdoors. Most of Wisconsin is flat as a pancake, ok maybe not that flat but there aren't any mountains and the highest point in Wisconsin is a hill called Timms Hill at a whopping 1951 feet (595m).  The highest point in Fairbanks that I easily could get to within 10 minutes would be Ester Dome, at 2171 feet (661m), a great "hill" to run up and down.  Now of course in Alaska the highest peak you could possibly climb would be Denali at 20310 feet (6190m). 

 
 

Deep Forests and Dry Cabins

    I do miss the mountains, the deep forest, the log cabin I used to live in...even though it came without running water and the propane stove stopped running if the temperature was around 35-40 below for too long. It's something really real about living in a cabin in the woods. Ok, my cabin was maybe not that far away from the "city" of fairbanks, but still, you could have thought it was. So coming to Madison, WI, and now living in an apartment/house, really changes your perspective of things.

 
 

    Instead of the forest I now have neighbors and houses surrounding ours. I guess it's ok, but it's definitely not the same. I had to explore Madison and get to know a new perspective of adventures in my new neighborhood.

 
 

Citylife?

    Moving to Madison has definitely tested my ability to satisfy my need for adventures. What is even an adventure? I don't think the adventure should be about the highest peak you climb or the longest ski you do, I think it should be about your feeling about what you are doing. If it makes you happy and you do something you might not do on a regular basis it can also be an awesome adventure. There aren't any peaks to climb here but there are a lot more urban wildlife for instance, or different plants, tons of small parks tucked into the city. The first weeks I lived here I would go for long walks around the neighborhood, and I would find all these small parks I talked about. I found a park with a lot of old trees and at least five wood peckers in that small park, that consisted of like 10 trees tucked together. We have a lot of insects I have never seen before, many many beautiful butterflies of course and a few months ago i discovered a Possum in the yard.

 
 

Adventuring

    If you can't go on a big adventure, go on a small adventure, at least that is how I am surviving, at the same time as I am looking forward to future adventures of course. But it's not the end of the world to live in a city after living surrounded by the mountains, there are many many more things to discover in this world. Every weekend we have tried to go on a day hike, most of the places are pretty close (1-2 hrs from Madison) and although they do fill some satisfaction to me, I still want more. But I think the best thing is to learn to be satisfied with less sometimes, otherwise we will never be happy in this world, day and age.

 
 

    Where do you go for small adventures? Do you like visiting cities or would you rather sit in a tent in the middle of nowhere? 

 
Posted on November 8, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Alaska, Madison Life, Wisconsin, Cabin Life and tagged Alaska 2016_2 Madison Deep Forest City city life Cabin Life_ Mountains Wisconsin2 2016.

Winter travels and the White Mountains part. 2

 

Flashback Friday

Winter Travels and Cabins

    Last year in late November W came to visit in Alaska and we went on a 3 day skitrip through the White Mountains. The White Mountains is about 1-2 hr drive from Fairbanks, and of course there was a snowstorm the morning of day one, of our adventure, but we still drove towards the White Mountains. I wrote a little text about part one here. We only did a small part of all the trails that are available. There is at least 100 miles of fairly untouched wilderness out there with cabins along the way. 

 
 

  Into the Wild ? 

    When you go into the backcountry in Alaska, well I would argue anywhere I suppose, you have to be prepared for anything. A big difference though between Alaska and most other places is that there is no cell reception (most of the time) when you go out into the backcountry, or very spotty. Even driving on the highway you can loose reception for big chunks of the time. There are a few trail shelters in the White Mountains that are first come first serve, but as the name implies it is only a trail shelter. The cabins have to be reserved online ahead of time, and they are all dry cabins of course. So getting water mean that you have to melt snow.

 
 

Cold Car    

    Our biggest concern during this trip was that my Subi wouldn't start when we got back to the car after two nights out, after all we had pretty cold weather during the night (around -5 F, -20C, or so could have been lower) and there was of course no plug in at the trailhead.  

 
 

Cabinlife

    We managed to get the cabin closest to the trailhead rented for the first night. It's a short ski (7 miles, about 11 km), and when we arrived the cabin was still warm from the previous visitors. These cabins are more like a shell, not too much insulation but a working wood stove and a place to sleep. You have to make sure that there is enough dry firewood when you leave so the next person can quickly start a fire when they arrive. Most of the time there are a lot of wood in the wood shed, but other times you have to get out and find some dead trees, saw some wood up and bring back to the cabin where you can split the wood. Most trees are black spruce so they are very thin and don't really supply that much mass, but they burn well. And you can't just go and chop down any tree, you have to find a tree that has fallen over and is dead. 

 
 

Firewood    

    A lot of times when snowmachiners are out they will have a chainsaw and prepare lots of wood, or even leave wood that they bring in from outside. It's incredible how much wood you sometimes go through if the night is cold and the cabin isn't that well insulated. 

 
 

Togetherness    

    Actually, you can fit quite a lot of people in these cabins too so a lot of people tend to do large trips with a bunch of friends. A lot of people also celebrate thanksgiving out at these cabins, but mostly they have at least one person who has a snowmachine, or they have dogs so they can skijour or pull sleds. 

 
 

Guest Log  

    Once at the cabin there are guest logs, which is awesome. It's great to read about other peoples adventures and what they saw and how the conditions were. We, of course, also left a little blurb there. 

 
 

Snowstorm    

    During the evening a snowstorm came in and it was very very windy. The next day we woke up to cloudy conditions and about 17 inches (45 cm) of fresh snow in some places...made for an interesting ski to the next cabin since not that many people are out there on a Sunday...more about that next time I write about the winter travels in the White Mountains. 

 
 

    Do you have any winter adventures to cabins like this one to share? What do you do for fun during the wintertime?

 
Posted on November 4, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Alaska, The great wide open, Cabin Life and tagged Alaska 2016_2 White Mountains Winter Adventures cross country Skiing skitrail Dry Cabin Winter travels snowy cabin snowstorm snowmobile snowday Cabin Life_ Snow Mountains Winter travels and the white mountains Wintertime Wintertravels Life in Alaska 2016.