Summer

Solstice is now past and our days will be getting steadily shorter. How do these changes happen so quickly??

We've been busy this summer with the Interior Baseball League (Travis is playing & Mike is coaching):
 
 






Visits to the Delta Clearwater River:

Biologists-In-Training

The Shack with new deck & steps

Teklanika River:

Wall tent camp

 

The Cabin with solar panel kit installed

 and a Fathers Day trip to the Copper River to catch salmon to fill our freezer.

Copper River Camp 2012

Happy Fathers Day!

Guesstimated 50 pound king salmon

2 families, 40 sockeye & 8 king salmon

Audra took a work trip out to Lake Minchumina in early June.....beautiful!

Calm Morning

Windy Afternoon

Mt McKinley & Mt Foraker at 5am

Boating season is here!

We made our first trip to the DCR on April 28, it was just a quick overnight trip; but it felt great to be out on the water again.

This last weekend (May 5-6) we were able to stay two nights, so we got the porch added on and some other tasks done. It was still cold though, we had to break ice out of the dog bowl in the mornings and we ran the heater both nights!

start of porch

 

adding the decking



bunks

reading and cribbage



porch with stairs

Late Season Riding

Got some late season snowmachining in this weekend. Beautiful drive down on Friday night, the sun was out and we saw several caribou and moose. Unfortunately the light on Satuday morning was very flat, so we did more driving with the truck than the snowmachines. We drove down to Paxson Lake, Fielding Lake and the Denali Highway....several more caribou and LOTS of ptarmigan!

spring caribou - note the missing antlers

flat light

waiting for the light to improve

micro-sno-man

The sun finally came out in the afternoon so we did some playing in the lowlands, unfortunately sunshine also equated to punchy snow. So after getting good and stuck (and unstuck) we headed back to the cabin for the evening. Denali Highway Cabins....great folks and a nice spot to call "home" for a couple nights.

I stepped off the trail and went up to my hip

Today (Sunday) the light was loads better so we made it up into the hills early in the morning. Great fun!

ArcticMan Parking Lot

Easter Fishing Trip 2012

What a great day!

We decided to have an adventure this Easter; we headed down to the Chatanika River to do a little ice fishing. It was a gorgeous day, great fishing and the kids were total troopers on the 60 mile round trip snowmachine ride.

Trail to River

Chatanika River

Biggest catch of the day!

Pike Anatomy Lesson

Fish Cutter-In-Training

Birch woods

2012 State Tournament in Homer

The Squirt C State Tournament was held in Homer this last weekend. The Fairbanks Phantoms worked their way through the Anchorage Comets (1-1), Palmer Pioneers (8-3) and South Anchorage Moose (8-0) in the preliminaries to face the Eagle River Mustangs in the semi finals. With a 4-3 win the Phantoms moved ahead to face the Comets again in the finals. This time the Comets were victorious and took the State Trophy back to Anchorage. A tough loss for our players, but they should be proud to be the 2nd place champions in the state.

Pix from the Tournament....Travis is #10 

 

Happy Dance when they advanced to semifinals

Congratulating the Champions - Anchorage Comets

We stayed out at Lands End

Hockey Players playing football

Chasing down a Sea Otter

End of Tournament Bonfire