Ice Ice Baby

These pictures will show you how darn cold this spring has been! We’ve never seen this much ice up at the cabin this late in May….granted we’ve only been going up there since 2004, but we talked to other folks who have a much longer history and they agree with us.

When we went up on Friday night (May 13) it was pretty cloudy and chilly, we had to thread the boat through a couple narrow spots of ice but they were fine.

The biggest obstacle was when we made it to within sight of the property corner and a big sweeper was down in the river. It had trapped a bunch of ice behind it and there was no way we could get around (or through) it. We sat and thought about it for a while then figured our only option was to cut through the tree.

So Mike stood up in the bow with the chainsaw and I kept the boat steady against the tree while he cut.

CRACK! The tree snapped and as the crown sunk to the river bottom the ice jam started to shift and flow downstream, right around us. We got over to the side of the river and tried to keep from getting swept up in the ice.

As soon as it was clear we continued on up to the cabin, got everything offloaded and enjoyed moose chili & cornbread for dinner…..we were all tired after the excitement of the ride up so we fell asleep relatively early, thankful for the toasty wood stove & full stomachs.

Saturday was a much nicer day weather-wise, super sunny & breezy. We did some chores & spent a couple hours playing on a sunny gravel bar with Tekla and throwing rocks at all the ice chunks that were still flowing downriver.  

Mike and the kids did some shooting at the range and then we enjoyed a dutch oven dinner out by the fire ring. We even squeezed in a Dungeons and Dragons game before Piper fell asleep at the table. 

Yesterday (Sunday) was a gorgeous boat ride out, the ice had mostly melted and the river had came up….much easier driving conditions!

America's Pastime

Baseball season started on Monday with the first practice of the summer. Travis LOVES playing catcher.

Winter 2010-11

This winter went by in a blur! It is hard to believe the snow is melting and boating season is just around the bend!

Celebrating spring with a giant bonfire and Alaskan Summer Ale

Travis played Tier III hockey again for the FAHA Phantoms.

 


Presidents Day Tournament Champions

 

We spent New Years at the cabin.




  

Mike ripped his right quadricep tendon off his knee on that trip and was laid up from January through early March.

Post surgery staples

Once he got the go-ahead from the doc and physical therapist we were able to make the most of the last few weekends of decent trail conditions with a trip to George Lake.


At ADF&G public use cabin



sunset sky

 and our cabin.

The kids drove their machines out for the first time

Chef Piper

Spring sunshine

Kids driving around on the river

Sunday morning - overflow in front of cabin - time to head back to town

Piper and I learned how to play the sport of curling and we participated in our first Bon-spiel!

In February we said good-bye to our buddy Angus.

Angus (& Mike) in March, 2009

Day on the DCR - August 22

The kids and I paddled down from the launch while Mike took his Mom, Sis and BIL upriver. The non power team did a bit better....its all about the stealth.

McCarthy/ Kennicott - August 7-9

We headed down to Wrangell St Elias National Park on Saturday (7th), nice drive albeit a bit long.  We had to get there by 7pm since there is a damaged bridge that they aren't letting people across after 7:00. We made it with about an hour to spare. Stayed at Kennicott River Lodge for two nights, we rented a whole cabin for all six of us (my parents were visiting), nice spot.

Sunday we went up to the mine site and hiked around, beautiful location!  Next time we are bringing mountain bikes and we'll definitely plan on spending more than one day up there!!  We did a flight seeing trip at the end of the day, which worked out perfectly because the clouds were pretty low in the morning.

Monday we drove back to Fairbanks and celebrated Mike's birthday with Papa Murphy's pizza.