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The Daily Doings of Steph

We celebrated Mother’s Day yesterday - a day early. Mom had this vision (hallucination?) of hiking the Winner Creek Trail in Girdwood and then doing dinner at our favorite Girdwoodian eatery, “Jack Sprat”. As we turned off the Seward Highway onto the Alyeska Highway, we noticed there was still snow on the ground. As we approached Alyeska, there was more and more snow. Lots of snow. By the time we arrived at the Alyeska Prince Hotel, it was clear that we would not be hiking the Winner Creek trail since we had neglected to bring snow shoes.

Instead we went for a nice long walk along the bike trail which was clear of snow. It was raining with the occasional snow spit intermixed. Definitely not the weather one expects in mid-May. But we had a delightful time. And da phoochinis loved it.

After our cold wet walk, we had a warm wonderful dinner at Jack Sprat. And yes, Carol, we had the Yam Fries, the best Yam Fries in the whole wide world!!!!

Trying to get everyone arranged for the picture. Check out the wall of snow with the emerging sculpture.

Peter and Tyge motoring down the trail.

Crocuses (Croci?) pushing up through the snow.

Mom and Tyge looking very happy on the way home.

Read: Mother’s Day with Mom, Peter, and Da Poochies »

…Da Ski Boy. Peter is so excited! This is the first time he’s ever won!!!!

I admit, I’m very surprised that the ice went out this early. There was a part of me that was sure that it wouldn’t go out until sometime in June. But it went out today, May 6th. Which is right around the average date.

Even as late as Friday, I was thinking we still had another week to go. But yesterday, I was stunned to discover that 75% of the ice was gone. It just disappeared - there was just a bit remaining at the west end. Must have been the wind on Friday.

Below are the final standings. All the late guesses. I suppose that will teach us - even after a winter like this one, the ice generally goes out between May 2nd and May 6th.

Read: The Ice is Out! And The Winner is… »

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I set the entry deadline at midnight on April 29th. It should end on April 30th - the end of the month! So, by fiat I’ve extended the deadline by one day. Click here to enter now!

The final sure sign that winter is gone and we’re fully in the midst of breakup on our way to summer is that I put a double coat of “summer storage” wax on my skis and closed up my waxing table.

In the past week, the ice has really started to rot out. There is a large amount of open water on the southeast end. And there are spots and pools of water along the shoreline.

In terms of overall melting, we still have two to three feet of snow in our front yard. But, we’re an aberration (you already knew that). Throughout town the snow is mostly gone and tufts of green grass are sprouting up here and there.

I think we’re wrapping up one of our sunniest Aprils of all time. But the last two days have been cloudy and cooler. That may slow the melting process.

Here’s a picture of Mom, Tyge, Echo and I yesterday morning. We’re on the west end of the lagoon facing south. Definitely much less ice than last week.

Read: Ice Classic Entry Deadline Extended One Day to Midnight April 30th »

From the National Weather Service, “The tripod on the Tanana River at Nenana fell at 7:39 pm on Monday April 23rd as the ice shifted. This is the fourth earliest time the ice has gone out at Nenana since the event began 96 years ago.”

The earliest the Lagoon Ice has gone out is April 26th. I think I can safely say that the Lagoon will not be following the Tanana’s early ice-out example.

Here’s Echo out on the Lagoon this morning. As you can see, the ice is still pretty solid. With this in mind, Click here to enter your guess.

Read: Lagoon Ice Update - April 24th »

When an event becomes as venerable as the Westchester Lagoon Ice Classic, roman numerals are de riguer.

Mom and I and Tyge and Echo at the Lagoon on Saturday April 21st

The epic winter of 2011-2012 was one for the record books! We broke the annual snowfall record: 134 inches and counting. In December we had five hurricane force windstorms in four weeks. January was the 4th coldest January ever recorded.

As I type, we’re in the last week of April. Amazingly, given our ginormous amounts of snow, breakup has not been a disaster. The snow has been melting at a steady rate for the past two weeks. Lots of warm sun. The huge breakup street puddles have disappeared leaving behind bottomless potholes. There is still some snow on the coastal trail. But the streets are clear.

However, all that being said, we still have two feet of snow in our front yard.

What does this all signify in terms of the the Westchester Lagoon Ice Classic?

Well, it means it’s time to break out the weather almanac, consult weather service predictions, check your horiscope, try to figure out if this is an El Nino or a La Nina year, read the tea leaves, ponder the state of the pussy willows, count the number of returning geese and assess the impact of global warming - all in an attempt to be the winner of this year’s Ice Classic!!!!!

The rules (such as they are) are listed below. You’ve got a little bit of time to get your guess in, but don’t wait too long. That ice could go out and leave you behind!

Rules:

1. The participant must guess the date the ice goes out of the Lagoon.
2. Each participant gets only one guess.
3. Date for entries closes at 11:59 PM ADT on April 29, 2012.
4. A guess consists of just a date - no time. I refuse to install a timing tripod on the Lagoon.
5. I will check the ice several times each day.
6. ALL the ice must go out. It sometimes goes out in chunks - but chunks don’t count.
7. Participants must supply their e-mail address. This is so I can contact you if you win.
8. If more than one person guesses the winning date, each winner will get a full prize - up to 4 winners. If there are more than 4 winners, the winning 4 will be selected based upon earliest entry into the contest.
9. All judge’s decisions are final and I (Steph) am the judge.
10. Ah - the prize. It’s a good one - a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.

Voting:

1. Voting will be done through the comments feature.
2. The voting comments button is at the bottom of this post.
3. Click on the comments button and submit your vote.
4. The cool thing is that everyone will be able to see everyone else’s vote - hopefully there will be a lot of them.

Notes and Hints:

1. In 2011, the went out on May 7th. The co-winners were: Nicole and Diana.
2. In 2010, the went out on May 5th. The co-winners were: Rick, Jim, Jeri Ann, and Chris.
3. In 2009, the went out on May 2nd and 3rd. There was a large herd of co-winners: Kim, Leland, Rick, Gordon, and Sean.
4. In 2008, the went out on May 10th. The winning psychic was Brad!
5. In 2007, the went out on May 2nd. We had two co-winners: Rick and Elliott.
6. In 2006, the ice went out on over a two day period: May 3rd and May 4th. Our winners were Gordon, Da Ski Boy, BJ, and Sean!
7. In 2005, the ice went out on April 29th and the winning prognosticator was Cory.
8. In 2004, the ice went out on May 4th a day on which we set a record high temperature of 66 degrees. The 2004 winners were Dr. L., and Phil.
9. In 2003, the ice went out very very early, April 26th The 2003 winners were Brad and Phil.
10. In 2002, the ice went out quite late: May 10th and the winners were Erin and Brad.

After this winter, I would have bet the ice wouldn’t go out until mid-May. But I have to say, the Lagoon ice looks pretty normal for this time of year. Just beginning the rot process.

Read: Westchester Lagoon Ice Classic XI »

Rounding up final miscellaneous odds and ends on Carol’s 4 day whirlwind Alaska experience. The Iditarod, moose, mushing, Running with the Reindeer, sledding, eating (LOTS of eating), Tyge and Echo, Tour of Anchorage Support team, and snow, snow and more snow.

First up, Carol’s last evening in Alaska. We went dog mushing with Chugach Express Dogsled Tours in Girdwood. I think it’s safe to say that Carol had a fantastic time.

Here’s a short video with an “in the sled” perspective as we get ready to head out. Speaking of heads, Carol’s hatted head is in the foreground:

A slideshow of still pictures from our mushing excursion:

Carol’s Alaska weekend was jam packed: On Saturday, Mom joined us for breakfast at Snow City and then we all took advantage of our inside the chute passes courtesy of GCI to get up and close and personal with the dog teams at the Iditarod start. We also saw moose, and we Ran with the Reindeer and on Sunday, Carol and Peter did Tour of Anchorage support team duties for me.

Whew!

Read: Mushing, Moose, and Carol »

My college friend Carol is up visiting. And wow, have we treated her to a full on Alaska four days. This weekend was the Iditarod, Tour of Anchorage, Run with the Reindeer, Sledding, etc… Today, we’re going dog mushing! A fitting finale to Carol’s trip.

Here are a few videos from the weekend. A big thank you to our team videographer, Peter!!!!

Carol and I doing the 5th Annual Running of the Reindeer. It’s pretty hilarious.
Downtown Anchorage was absolutely mobbed. The Fur Rondy-Iditarod festivities are basically Anchorage’s version of Mardi Gras.

Here’s the intrepid Carol on one her first sledding runs down the hill:

Here’s Carol starting much higher on the hill - above the jump! And Tyge and Echo are zooming down after her.

Here I am on one of my runs. Got some big air off the jump.

Read: Sledding with Carol and Poochies »

I have to hurry to get this post in before this weekend. Carol arrives tonight and the next four days will be a whirlwind of the Iditarod, the Tour of Anchorage, and other Alaska activities.

Anyhoo, last weekend was one big Wild Life fest - critters everywhere!

Saturday Morning, Tyge, Echo, Peter, and I did our traditional walk into Snow City for breakfast. Here’s the team:

Who should we meet and greet on L street next to Snow City but this ungulate cow and calf:

This picture is fun - you can see that the moose are right next to a very busy city intersection:

After breakfast, we drove through the railroad yard up to check on the remodel.

You can see our house from the railroad yard!

A very large and noisy Alaska beast:

Saturday afternoon, I did my last long preparation ski for the Tour of Anchorage. I skied the 9 miles from Westchester Lagoon up to Kincaid Park. The emphasis on the up. That last hill up to the Chalet is a “Bad Bob”. But it’s a gorgeous ski and I had the very good fortune to spot the little guy below. A new addition to my life list!

A Boreal Owl. He’s so small he can fit into the palm of your hand.

Can you find the owl in this picture? He really blends in well.

Sunday morning, Echo and I went running with the Sunday morning run group. And we bumped into a neighborhood regular.
We had to wait a bit before the calf moved off the trail so we could pass by.

Read: Weekend Critters! »

As most of you know, on Saturday mornings Peter and I always have breakfast at Snow City Cafe. And weather permitting, one or both of us walk the dogs in on the Coastal Trail. If we both walk in with the poochies, it’s a bit of a keystone cops on the car front. We both drive into town in separate cars, we drop off Bertie (Peter’s vehicle) and then drive back home in Henry II. When we get home, we leash up the dogs and walk back into town on the Coastal Trail. It’s actually a delightful Saturday Morning ritual. And today was the first Saturday in six weeks that the weather cooperated or that we weren’t sick. The first four weeks of Janaury it was 10-15 below zero every single day. Then Peter and I got some sort of pestilence that slayed us for two weeks.

But today was awesome. We’re both finally healthy and the temperature was a downright tropical thirty degrees. Break out the beachwear and walk into town!

The Coastal Trail walk in was awesome on the wildlife front. Out neighborhood bald eagle, whom Peter and I have named, “Ernie” was hanging out in a large cottonwood by Fish Creek. As we headed towards town, I noticed (hard to miss, actually) very large moose track divots on the trail headed in our same direction. And sure enough, as we popped out onto the flats, we spotted a very large brown blob in the snow next to trail in the distance.

The moose was fairly close to trail and he was a big guy. But fortunately, he was a steady eddy city moose - mellow just chewing his cud. We ambled right on by with no problems and the poochies were great. They’re both now quite well behaved on the ungulate front.

Just a few minutes past the moose, Peter exclaimed, “Ptarmigan!”. Peter is not a birder. But last night, we watched, The Big Year. Not great cinema, but great fun if you’re a birder (or a dilettante birder like me). Anyhoo, after watching the movie, Peter’s bird mojo was strong. And lo and behold he spotted those two Willow Ptarmigan who were very well camouflaged in the snow. What’s extraordinary about the sighting is that the Coastal Trail Flats are not normal ptarmigan habitat - at all. Big points for Peter!

What a great morning.

Here are a few pics:

Peter, the poochies, and the moose in the distance:

Echo and the Moose:

Willow Ptarmigan closeup.
Photo quality is not great because these are iphone shots as opposed to uber camera shots.
The red arrows point to the birds because they can be a bit difficult to spot.

Ptarmigan:

Read: A Morning Walk on the Coastal Trail into Snow City Cafe »

It’s been a great weekend. As I type, we’re in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, Patriots are up by two. It feels like the Pats will win which will make for a very happy Ski Boy. Tyge is very pleased by this year’s commercials, lots of dogs!

UPDATE: As I type, two minutes to go and the Giants are on the march. Peter has become very unhappy.

UPDATE #2: Giants score. Pats have the ball with 50 seconds to go. Two dropped passes. And then Brady is sacked. F-Bomb uttered by the Ski Boy.

UPDATE #3: And we’re down to a Hail Mary. Incomplete! Giants Win. The Ski Boy is not happy.
—————
Back to the original post!

Even though Peter and I are both recovering from nasty long lasting colds and respiratory crud, we’ve been active: lots of sledding and today was the Ski for Women.

Friday, we got another big snow dump: 10 inches here in town and 20 inches up on the Hillside. Currently we’ve received 101 inches of snow and are on track to break the all time record of 132.8 inches set in 1954-1955. Needless to say, the skiing and sledding have been stunning.

The dogs and I couldn’t resist going out Friday during the blizzard for a round of powder sledding. We went again yesterday. It was just amazing. The sled floats on top of the powder which makes for a fabulous wild ride.

Here’s a video from yesterday that gives a bit of an idea of the powdery wild fun:

Here are a few shots from Friday’s blizzard sledding:

Tyge coming up the hill:

Thundering Echo:

Horsing around in a flurry of powder:

Echo closeup:

Sled full of snow apres run:

And finally, here I am this morning prepping my [new!!!] skis for today’s race:

Headed out the door wearing my salmon hat with Pete (one of our Sunday morning running buddies) looming behind me.

Read: Sledding, Skiing, and the Super Bowl »