Trevor's Photos & Stories

Triangle Peak: 40 days post-sugery

2009-04-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

TRIANGLE PEAK!

Our nearly successful climb of Triangle Peak (acutally there is a hidden peak behind this one that is slightly higher). We got right up near the top, but were turned around by some huge hanging cornices above us that looked unsafe.

My friend Christie and I attempted to climb Triangle Peak just 40 days after I donated my kidney. I didn't think I'd get to play in the mountains this spring after the surgery, but my recovery was much faster and easier than I expected. That orthoscopic surgery is a piece of cake. I hear they used to go through the back/side and had to break ribs to get the kidney out - ouch!!!! I was super excited to get to play in the mountains.

Christie on day one during our ski approach to our base camp up the Castner Glacier.

Here I am on day one during the ski approach to camp.

At camp on day one, Christie scouts a route up the first steep section for the following morning.

We found a previously used camp that we just had to dig out a little in order to set up our tent.

We dug a few snow pits to check slope stability to assess the avalanche risk. We found the snow pack to be very stable which made us excited for the following day's climb.

We woke up early on day 2 and began the steep climb that Christie had scouted a route on the night before.

The sun came out and we had blue bird skies most of the day. It was sooo beautiful.

Up...

and up...

Tah Dah... we made it up the steepest sections of the climb!

A look back down at what we had climbed so far. Our camp was down near that glacier in the distance.

Now we are getting closer. You can barely see the peak sticking up off to the left side of the photo over the hill ahead of us.

Now we can see the peak better. The "sphynx-head" at the bottom of the knife ridge is where we dropped our skiis and put on crampons for the rest of the climb.

Christie dropping her skiis and putting on crampons for the climb up. You can't yet see the cornices that prevented our summiting.

Ahead is the world's largest cornice, though it looks small in this photo.

We got as far as the exposed rocks to the left of the giant cornice before we turned around. We were only a couple hundred feet below the summit at that point.

We tried skirting around to the left and then climbing up from there, but there was another ridge above with a huge cornice above that we didn't feel good about. Some weather was just starting to show up at that point too. Turned windy and some clouds came in. Visibility was getting worse. Even though we didn't reach the summit, we both had a great day of climbing.

We skiied out. Linking falls all the way down the mountian. Neither Christie or I are very good skiiers. Especially in mountaineering boots with a pack on. Many good wipeouts.

We skiied all the way down the mountain, packed up camp, skiied back to the car, and drove back to Fairbanks. A great 2 day trip!

The mountaineering boots i was wearing didn't fit quite right, so by the time we reached the car around 10 PM my feet were KILLING me. The ski out was horrible for me. With the heavy pack and two long days already in those boots, the last couple hours of skiing to the car were really painful. My feet were sooo happy to get those boots off when we reached the car. Other than the pain from the boots, it was an amazing trip and I was so happy to get into the mountains this spring. A big thanks to Christie for planning the trip and getting me out there.

FAT Tuesday Kidney Party

2009-02-24T14:17:00.000-08:00

Donating A Kidney

Dea and I immediately before going into surgery. We were calm and carefree because neither of us actually thought the surgery was going to really happen that day (previous day the cross match numbers weren't good enough). Then they came to get us... just before surgery the B-Cell reading was 293, just below the limit of 300! Doc said "Let's Go!"

For Mardi Gras this year I donated a kidney to my good friend Dea. She and her husband Ben are both amazing people. I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to help Dea. A transplant is a funny thing to ask someone to do for you, and Dea is definitely the type of person who would rather fix problems on her own and not have to ask for help. So, being in a position where she needed to ask for help was a difficult position for her to be in. All that said, I'm glad that I was able to help, and it's just been a positive thing in all ways. Really no negatives (except the post surgery constipation and bloating). I think we both had some discomfort immediately after the surgery, but it really only lasted for a few days to a week.

Dea has some good transplant blog posts on her blog too. She does a lot of cool stuff and is working towards her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences. My roomate Ed has a couple really nice (and famous) posts about Dea on his blog: Mad Props to Dea and Dialysis Doesn't Stop Dea. She is very inspirational to everyone who knows her.

Dea and Ben (and Pella) at the Castner Glacier a year ago.

Ben is a super great guy who would have given his kidney in a second if he were a match with Dea. It's really nice to see Dea and Ben together. They have a great relationship and really support eachother in everything. Ben has done a great job caring for Dea around the transplant and is always there for her. Ben is also a good photographer, check out his work at his website.

We had great family support during the transplant.

Overall the experience has been oddly festive. With so many friends and family members sort of "cheering" us on and wishing us the best. I have really enjoyed all the attention and the festive atmostphere this has created. It really has been a "Kidney Party" and it is fitting that the transplant took place on Fat Tuesday! Instead of music, beads, boobs, and booze, we had hospital gowns, IV drips, incisions, and pee.

A day after surgery, Dea and I go for a walk together

Yep. Dea is peeing for the first time in a few years. And peeing a LOT. The "Big hairy man kidney", as Ben calls it, is working very well. I guess it is a BIG kidney according to the docs... I have to say I'm not surprised.

I did shave an arrow in my chest to help the docs find the kidney - this was good for some laughs. Hee hee. Lots of friends were supporting Dea and I throughout this endeavour (thanks everyone!).

I have to say that probably the coolest part of the transplant is to see Dea's improvements. She underwent a tough surgery and is on strong dosages of drugs, so the recovery from the transplant is more difficult and will take a lot longer for her than for me. But, I have enjoyed hearing all of the small improvements that she experiences a little at a time. It's a really good feeling to have donated a kidney.

Dea, Ben, and I a week after the transplant hanging out

Visiting My Nephew!

2008-12-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

My nephew is only about 1 year and 3 months old now. In the last year, I've had a chance to go visit my bro and his family in Neenah (near Appleton)three times. It's so great to be able to see them so often. My little nephew is super fun and a bit neurotic (if that's the right term?). By neurotic, I mean that when he's awake he is crazy awake and when he's asleep, he's asleep. He's so interested in everything and has so much energy. Anyway, here's a few photos of my family and Jacob (my nephew) from over the past year.

Here's my folks (John and Jean) with Jacob when he was only a few weeks old.

Jean with Jacob

Dinner time!

Bath time! Don't be fooled by the innocent sweet look. He's about to destroy something!!!!!

Jean and Jacob

Heather, Jacob, and Jean

My folks, my brother, Jacob, and I

Josh, Heather, and Jacob

Me and Jacob

What???

Richard Simmons Zombie Aerobics Team - Halloween

2008-11-09T10:41:00.001-08:00

I love my ultimate frizbee friends. Everyone is so positive and fun and up for anything. We've had some great tournament teams with tons of costumes. So, we all thought we'd do Halloween together too. At a party, a few of us hatched this idea: Richard Simmons leading a bunch of zombies in aerobics! Such a beautiful idea in so many ways, but most importantly, that we could take over the dance floor at the bar and get everyone to do some zombie aerobics with us. It was fantastic! Here is the group right after we got all decked out and were just about to leave for the first bar. Such a fun, creative group of people.

Chris Visits from Zambia - part 2 (part 1 still to come): Packrafting in the Brooks Range

2008-07-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

My friend Chris has been living in Southern Africa for the last 8 years or so. He's currently living in Lusaka, Zambia working for a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) doing aide work. I've been over to visit him in Africa a few times, but he just made his first visit up to Alaska (about time you bastard). Chris and I, along with my roomate Ed, did a packrafting trip up in the Brooks Range in Northern Alaska. This was my first time to visit this part of the state and I was really impressed. The mountains are amazing and had a timeless sense about them. You could almost imagine dinosaurs wandering around, and Fred, Barney, and Dino too.

We couldn't hold back our enthusiasm to reach the arctic circle.

Or this big outcrop of rocks.

Or to be excited that my car made it up the road.

Or, to be excited about Chris's superpowers.

Or Ed's for that matter.

After our excitement qwelled for a moment, we began our hike away from the road. This is looking back towards where we parked our car.

The mountains are amazing of course, this photo shows a little scale.

We found a waterfall and were very excited once again.

The water poured out through a hole. Pretty amazing. Ed and I ducked under the water for a cold shower.

Ed brought his "bush buddy" stove with for boiling water. It's pretty cool. You just need a small pile of twigs and you can quickly boil water. It's very lightweight and convenient as long as you can find dry twigs.

Ed and Chris were very excited about the good weather.

We had to climb up high to get through the valley and were excited to get to the top.

Then we had to climb down.

And back up again.

Here is the rare... the elusive... the ferocious... Chrisabou!

We did have some river crossings to do.

Chris and I got very tired after 12 mile days, but Ed just kept on going. He makes the energizer bunny look like a fat kid with a mullet.

More hiking up and down and up and down.

Here some ice protruded up from just under the surface. It was a huge chunk of ice. I'm not sure what caused this to happen, but it shows what lies underneath the surface.

Here's Ed's new online profile pic. Ooooh.

We were excited to find a fantastic campsite up high with great views.

Then we were excited to swim in Elusive Lake the last morning of the trip.

We finally got to where we planned to inflate the rafts we had carried with us up and down and up and down through the mountains.

Giddyup!

We were excited to get started with the rafting.

The river was pretty tame overall, but was pretty fast. It's the Ribdon River which flows down on the North side of the Brooks Range towards the Arctic Ocean. There were some fun little bumps along the way, but overall was a relaxing and beautiful float.

Our friend's Dea and Ben moved my car along the highway to near where our trip finished. It was only a short hike along the road to get back to the car to drive back to Fairbanks. Overall, a great trip, and of course it was great to have Chris visit and to see an area of the state that very few people see.

My virgin packrafting trip

2008-05-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

Ed, Ann, and I went out to Beaver Creek in the White Mountains last weekend. This was my first packrafting trip with my new boat. It is awesome! I'm excited about future possibilities for the pack raft.

Ed already made a really good blog post for this trip, so I'm not gonna duplicate the effort. See Ed's Blog for photos and details.

Here's what you've all been waiting for... Mating Lions - yea baby!

2008-05-12T22:02:00.001-07:00

My friend and I came across these lions one morning. A male and two females. We pulled the truck up close and then climbed up through the sunroof and sat on the roofrack watching them. All of a sudden, one lioness walks across in front of the male and it's ALL ON!

We learned that lions will mate for a few days straight without eating or really doing anything else. They mate every 10 to 20 minutes!!!! So, of course, we just hung out on top of the truck drinking beers and watching the lions. Then we'd go away and look for other stuff and then come back to this same spot and they'd still be at it. It was awesome!

Here's the approach.

Here's the foreplay.

There's a lot of biting and growling, just to keep things interesting. You can kind of understand, after a few times per day, things might start to get a little on the dull side.

Oh yeah!

And the dismount. Well done!

First Few Days of the Kalahari Trip (more to come)

2008-03-15T16:36:00.001-07:00

My friend Chris and I completed a drive of about 2500 miles through the Kalahari in South Western Africa. The Kalakari is a huge desert that spans through all of western Botswana, much of Namibia, and into Northwestern South Africa. The green line on the map below shows our route through the Botswana Kalahari.

We went from Lusaka, Zambia south to Victoria Falls. Crossed into Zimbabwe breifly to see Vic Falls with some Dutch friends from Lusaka. Then we continued on down into Botswana to the Central Kalakari Game Reserve. We camped for four nights in the CKGR, then headed south to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park on the boarder of South Africa for another four nights of camping. Then drove on to Johanesburg for the last couple days before I flew back to Alaska.

Here is one view of Vic Falls from the bridge across from Zambia to Zimbabwe. Vic Falls is one of the largest falls in the world. It is 1 mile long and 360 ft high, which forms the largest sheet of falling water anywhere in the world. It is called "The Smoke That Thunders" in the local language since you can hear the falls and see the "smoke" from a long distance away. Another unique aspect to Vic Falls is that it falls into a gorge. I think this adds to the "smoke" appearance of the falls from a distance and certainly gets you very wet when you walk up to the edge of the gorge.

Here we are on the bridge with Vic Falls in the background. This is Chris and I with some Dutch volunteers that we traveled with briefly.

These pics are from the Zimbabwe side of the Zambesi River.

More jumping pics. These are very fun if you've never tried. Actually, the ones that don't work out right are even funnier. I'll have to make a blog of those sometime too.

We all went out for a nice lunch. Actually, this lunch was on the Zambia side. The Zimbabwe side is kinda messed up at the moment. They have the highest inflation of any country. There are bread lines and no one has any money. They just started printing million dollar bills there. Many stores aren't even open and the ones that are only accept foreign currency. It's a pretty sad situation there.

I got an artist to do a jumping pic with me. This guy was really cool. He and his friends were very good artists.

From Vic Falls, Chris and I left our Dutch traveling companions and drove off into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. There was some fun 4 wheeling to do, and check out some of the animals we saw:

This is a Gemsbok, aka Orynx, not sure why the two names, maybe it has something to go with the mugger coloration on the face. Only a mugger needs two names, right? Actually, these guys are pretty amazing animals. We saw herds of them.

This is a lilac breasted roller, which is one of the most colorful birds we saw. It's really beautiful.

This Leopard Tortoise was super cool.

You're not technically supposed to be out of your car, but we couldn't resist this tortoise, he was so cool.

Here's another jumping pic we did while having our lunch when we were driving around looking for game. Soon after this pic, we came across 4 lions chilling out in the shade.

That's a nice yawn!

Here's our campsite. This was a pretty sweet spot. Good views from here and good sunsets too. We camped here the first few nights. It's kinda crazy cause you see lions and then drive about 10 minutes to here. no fences. no nothing. which is a little creepy, especially after the sun goes down and you know the lions are out hunting (cause they mostly hunt in the evening/night/morning when it's not so damn hot out).

This concludes the end of round one. More photos to be posted soon from this trip, including those of the mating lions. Ooooooo... mating lions. That's right.

A Niuu Zealanda Berthday Potti

2007-11-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

Lisa (from New Zealand so it's Liser) and I have the same birthday which is great cause she is awesome!!! She and Dan threw a party for the super birthday twins which was really fun. We all got really drunk on martini's (and by we, I mean me of course). Then we played a bunch of games. Lisa and Dan had a very silly game from New Zealand (go figure) where you roll a dice and if you get a 6, you have to quickly dress up as a mugger with a facemask, scarf, and thick mittens, pick up a knife and fork, then try to cut yourself a chunk of chocolate off of a chocolate bar and eat it before someone else rolls a 6. FUN!

(photo courtesy of Dea and Ben's Blog)

Here are the super birthday twins before they (I) were too drunk!

Here is the sceene for game playing. After the chocolate game, we moved on to pictionary, which was of course a violent game since we (I) were all so drunk.
Here is Lena getting serious about pictionary. Lena and Lisa were on my team and we rocked the house.

Ben, Andy, and Dea were another team, and Dea was gettin serious.

Dea gettin really serious now... Did I mention that it was Dea that got me drunk by making me martinis all night long so that she would be able to win at pictionary? Another team in high Fairbanks fasion.

The fourth and final team drawing like Picasso!
The martini's Dea made for me were very sophisticated at the beginning, but towards the end of the night, the martinis that Dea was making for me became more and more strange. Here is the final martini of the night called a "Toiletini" which had a blob of fondue chocolate in it :) (Photo courtesy of Dea and Ben's blog)

Backblogging

2007-10-23T23:03:00.001-07:00

It is terrible, but I have begun backblogging. I am such a slacker with blogging that I have all of the summer activities to still add. I began adding things which are mixed in with other blogs now. If you scroll through, you will hopefully start to see some new ones popping up here and there.

I hope to be better at keeping up in the future. This summer was AWESOME! One of the best I've ever had. But, it was really busy and I didn't get much blogging done. So, I'm trying to fill in the holes.

Ice Festival - Matanuska Glacier

2007-10-01T01:37:00.001-07:00

The 2007 Ice Climbing Festival on the Matanuska Glacier, organized by the Mountaineering Club of Alaska, was awesome!!!!!!

Climbing without tools is supposed to make you learn to use your feet better. It is pretty hard though. You are only balancing on the ice with a few small spikes on your toes. You cannot grab anything with your hands. If you move wrong, your toe spikes can slip out of the ice.
This is the only picture I have from the bonfire. Carlene and Vlodka looking good. This photo was taken just before I went and started people off doing keg stands. Yay! There was also one of the group leaders who had their 73rd birthday party at the bonfire. Very cool. I hope I'm as active as he is when I'm his age. He looked much younger than 73 and very healthy. Very cool. Carlene had a bunch of cakes for everyone to celebrate. There must have been over 100 people.

This was me trying to do an overhang. I got up the first tricky spot here.
But, I didn't get further than here. Too difficult for me. I didn't know what to do. I'm glad I tried it though, otherwise I'd always wonder if I could have done it and what it is like to try. So, even though I didn't get it done, it was a fun attempt. I think I know better what to do next time.

Dawson City Music Festival

2007-07-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of July is a great time of year because it is when the fireweed is out and it is time to drive to Dawson City for the music festival. Traveling with a bunch of friends on a road trip through beautiful Alaska and Canada. The hills that burned a few years ago werefull of fireweed.

Dawson City is a great little town on the Yukon River. In order to get across the river, you have to ride on a ferry boat. There's a great little campground to stay at. There is a casino there with Roulette. And of course, there is great music.
After we all arrived, we went out for a good burger and a beer and got ready for a great night of music.
Getting ready for a great night of music of course included drinking gin and tonic in the parking lot.

Be careful when taking photos in the beer garden. Canadians are very slick at sneaking into your photos and looking hot.

Here's our whole crew of Fairbanksans early on in the night. We were just gettin started.

Somehow the next morning we all got up and either ran or biked up to the top of the big hill behind Dawson City. There is an organized race every music festival weekend up to the top. It's a pretty grueling run up, especially after a late night of partying.

Followed up by another great night of music and partying.
Ashley was the most adventurous and got into the crowd surfing. Pretty awesome! She was up there longer than most people - quite impressive.

A Most Excellent (Kayaking) Adventure

2007-07-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

A group of 6 of us drove down from Fairbanks through an old mining tunnel underneath a mountain (10 minutes of driving to get through the tunnel) and into Whittier. We got all our stuff and kayaks loaded onto a sea taxi which took us a couple hours into the Prince William Sound to the mouth of the Harriman Fjord. We spent 3 full days kayaking around to glaciers in the Fjord. A fantastic voyage full of laughter, conversation, camp fires, relaxation and reflection. Weather was perfect and the scenery was inspiring. Check it out below.

Ed brought his clipper, which is a collapsable wooden frame kayak. It is actually somewhat complicated to assemble, but Ted and Ed got it put together in no time.

After everything was loaded up, we all took off. The first day, Ted and I shared a double kayak, while Ed and his nephew Mark shared Ed's Clipper, and Tina and Ali used their single kayaks.

The second day and third day I got to kayak with Mark.

Here we all enjoy our fabulous campsite. It is difficult to imagine a more perfect spot.
Mark and I spent a lot of time on our hair during the trip.

We even took time to do some yoga.

A lunch break...

We were all sad when the boat arrived to pick us up, signifying the end of the trip.
But, luck was on our side when the boat captain took a detour to check his shrimp pots and then shared more than half of the haul with us. We had an amazing feast the next day back in Fairbanks. Fresh shrimp is one of the best things I've ever tasted. mmmmmm...

Delta River Float - Fourth of July

2007-07-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

A wonderful Wedding

2007-06-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Lars and Sharon got married!!!! Yay! It was a wonderful wedding. They both did so much work to prepare and it really turned out very nice. Everyone had a great time. Especially the kids cause they had a big moonwalk and some other big carnival type games. There was good music and dancing too. A big dance party took off even through a heavy downpoor. We all got really muddy and wet, but kept on dancing. It was soooo much fun! Thanks Lars and Sharon for a great night!

Kesugi Ridge - Memorial Weekend 2007

2007-05-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

It was 80 degrees Farenheit when we left Fairbanks... the perfect introduction to this trip. Neither Brian or I packed many warm clothes. We went for the lightweight packs. Didn't even really have a change of clothes. Just a couple MRE's (military Meals Ready to Eat) that don't require cooking and sleeping bags. Oh, Brian brough Josie as well (his chocolate lab).

Friday night we left Fairbanks for a 3 day weekend. We just hiked in a short distance on Friday night when we arrived and camped. This was our campsite. Pretty nice. Then on Saturday we headed up higher.

We were having a good time and decided to go off on a side hike even higher up into the mountains. We went up and up and up. Up into the snow where we got our boots really really wet.

We went way up into the snow. We had a bit of trouble punching through the snow and in some places it was quite deep - waist deep.

On the way back down, we got tired of punching through the deep snow and decided to roll down the mountain. We got really dizzy doing this, but it was sooooo fun!

The mountains were nice and on Saturday during the morning it was a beautiful day. Then the weather started to change.

We camped Saturday night and woke up with the tent covered in a thin layer of really wet snow. Our boots were frozen. We could barely get our boots on and when we did, our feet felt like ice blocks!

We decided on Sunday morning that we would just finish the last 18 miles that day so we could get out of the cold, bad weather. So, we hiked and hiked. It was such a beautiful trail. I want to go back and do it again sometime when the weather is nicer. It took us a long time, and the weather never improved much. We got rained on most of the day on Sunday. We just tried to follow the Kairns to keep on the trail.

My feet didn't like the 18 miles of hiking in wet boots on really steep trails. Especially the trail down from Kesugi Ridge to Byer's Lake. It is really steep and your toes get jammed in your boots! This is how my toes look almost 4 months later - still nasty!!!

Mustache Party

2007-04-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

Some hockey friends threw a bonfire/mustache party. It was also a going away party for the hosts, Brent and Emily. There were a number of great costumes, but, unfortunately I didn't get photos of everyone. Guys had to come with mustaches and women could either come with a mustache of their own, or dressed as someone who would hang out with a guy with a mustache. I went with the 80's pornstar look...

Lars was a Professional Wrestler, with Gary as his manager. Sharon was Uncle Sam.

A raging bonfire went all night...
Brian was looking good with the gasket, while Lena brought out the tiger print. Reeeeeaaaaaarrrrrrrr....

Lena and Brian looking their best for the camera.

Brent and Stephen just back from hunting, or do they always look this classy?
Lisa sporting the Mustache Rodeo shirt from an Ultimate Frizbee Tournament from a few years ago. Nice...

Clearwater Float

2007-04-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

Denali Highway Snowmachine Trip

2007-04-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

Ed, Kristin, and Tina decided to ski across the Denali Highway. I dropped them off in Paxon on Thursday night, then drove back up to Fairbanks. Worked on Friday, then took of early Saturday morning with Mike and Kat to snowmachine in from Cantwell to meet the skiers on their last night along the highway. We had beautiful weather and the snowmachining was great.

This is one of Ed's photos of their skiing. He said that it was some of the best skiing of his life. And Ed has done a lot of skiing. You can see from the photo that it is an amazing place and the weather was perfect all weekend.

Here's Mike just getting all ready to take off from Cantwell on Saturday. All loaded up. We had a little difficulty getting all the gear and the sleds to work, but it didn't slow us down too badly.

How do we set this thing up again?

Kat shoveling out the snow. The tent worked great, was the perfect size for 6 people, and had a little wood stove to keep us warm.

I brought my travel guitar and played a few songs. Though, it sounded pretty rough. I hadn't practiced in a really long time and I'm not such a good player anyway.

But, I did get some musical accompanyment with Kat on the bongo and then Kristin took over.

We all slept pretty cozy. Just enough space for all of us to fit in the tent. Though, Kat had to sleep alone over near the door :(

We said goodbye to the skiers after Kat made a nice breakfast. Then Mike, Kat, and I took down the camp and loaded up the snowmachines.

Then we had a nice leisurely ride back out through the beautiful countryside.

Chatanika Days Outhouse Races

2007-03-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Ed, Brian, George, Melissa, and I pushed Old Faithful two days in a row on a 0.8 mile course in Chatanika. The course starts with a steep downhill. On the Sunday race, the teams were only started 30 seconds apart. There were a few wipeouts, missed turns, and near crashes on the hill. Fortunately no one was injured. After the steep downhill, there is a long straight stretch to the Chatanika Lodge and the finish line. This was the hardest 0.8 miles any of us had run before.

A number of outhouses lined up infront of Chatanika Lodge. We were waiting for George's friend to show up with our outhouse. They guy never turned up, so we volunteered to push "Old Faithful", the resident sled belonging to the owner of the Lodge. 28 years and running!!!!

Here we are catching a ride up to the starting line. Brian's looking sharp in the passenger seat.

We're at the bottom of the big hill, already tired and still had a long way to push.

Here we go along the straight, flat part. We were all worn out from sprinting down the hill.

Ed - showin what he's made of...

Workin hard for the money... so hard for the money...

Here we are at the finishline with the prowd owner of Old Faithful and the owner of Chatanika Lodge, Roy. He was very generous and gave us drink tokens for pushing Old Faithful around for the weekend!

My Folks Visiting Alaska

2007-03-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

My folks came up to visit me in March. We got to see the North American Sled Dog Races, which are sprint races that start in downtown Fairbanks. They race for three days. First day they go 20 miles, second day 20 miles, and the third day they go 27 miles. The times for all three days are added together to determine the winner.

We also got to go to the International Ice Art Festival in Fairbanks. They have some amazing artwork there, though, it is really difficult to capture it with a photo. Here's my folks with a sculpture that is for the Chinese New Year!
We took a little hike out onto a ridge outside of town. We wanted to do a practice hike before we head out to Tolovana Hot Springs next week. My folks did fine on the practice hike, so we should do fine to get out to Tolovana (cross my fingers).
Then we went to Tolovana Hot Springs. My parents loved the hiking. They hadn't been on an overnight hiking trip for many years. This is something we used to do a lot when I was a kid. But, since my bro and I left home, my folks haven't been out on long hiking trips much. So, they really loved the hike. They also thought the hot springs were great. We stayed two nights, and afterwards, they said they would have liked to have stayed another night out there. The temperature was between negative 10 and positive 10 during the whole trip. It was a little windy ontop of the summit area, but otherwise was pretty comfortable.

Here's the three of us outside our cabin.

My mom wanted to be sure there wasn't anyone in the outhouse b4 going in.

Here's my folks outside the cabin.

Here's my folks going over the summit.

We got back into Fairbanks at around 5:15 PM, just in time to go to Silver Gulch Brewery for beer tasting. Good timing.

Ski Train & Alyeska

2007-03-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

In early March, my friend Raymond and I went out on the ski train on Saturday (3/10) and then to Alyeska Mt. on Sunday (3/11). Alyeska Mt. is the big ski resort just south of Anchorage. It is beautiful there. We did some great snowboarding there.

Here's my friend Raymond as we just got off of the lift. We rode to the highest lift, then started hiking up higher to get into some powder.
We hiked up...
And up...
And up...
And up...

Til we were near the top and ready to ride some powder. We had a great long run back down.

This is looking back up at what we just snowboarded down. Pretty amazing. I had never done anything like this before and was a bit nervous on the way up, but in the end it was really nice and easy coming down.

A day in the Life of Flash

2007-03-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

This blog is so that Ed can see what his cat Flash is up to while Ed is in Finland skiing across the northern part of that country.
Flash loves her new/old little bed that sits right in front of the woodstove.

Mor Te Ta Hydroelectric Project

2007-02-25T23:35:00.000-08:00

I'm now back in Alaska, but will put in one more entry on Thailand to wrap up the trip. One of the coolest parts of the trip was getting to hang out with some "Engineering Studies Program" (ESP) students from the Mae La Refugee Camp (in the photo below). Most of them have lived in the camp for over 10 years, after fleeing from Burma (Myanmar). The Burmese Military Junta is pretty brutal. You can read about it online if you are interested. I've also put a link to these student's new blog on my blog. This trip to the village was by special pass for only 10 days and was, for most of them, the only time they have left the camp. I was also not allowed into the camp, since I had no pass to enter the camp. They cannot have gardens and are very limited in their activities. These students spoke english pretty well and have studied hard. They are very interesting to talk to, since their lives are soooo different from mine.Here is the waterfall where we built the hydro-electric project. We ultimately built a dam at the top, with a 3 in PVC pipe down to a turbine at the bottom of the waterfall. The electricity was transmitted 1 KM to the school in the village of Mor Te Ta via a pretty thick aluminim wire. Probably equivalent to a ASG 6 guage wire. Plenty for the small amp draw that the school required. There was only a small transmission loss of voltage, from about 250 V at the powerhouse down to 230 V or so at the school.
All of the materials had to be carried up and down the waterfall. Luckily there weren't any injuries, eventhough most people were climbing up and down in flip flops. The local guys zoomed up and down, while the rest of us took a little longer.
This is Chris setting the "penstock" (pipe) into place before the dam was built up.
Here is Arie putting the final touches on the dam. You cannot work with cement underwater and we could not divert the water, so we had to build the dam as a bridge over the water, then use sand bags and rocks to fill in underneath the dam when we were ready to bring the waterlevel up.

I smashed my finger with one of the big boulders that was used to make the dam. It swelled up to about twice the normal size and became really gross, puss and all.

This is what the finger looks like now, three weeks after smashing it. After about two weeks, the puss and blood that was built up underneath the nail started to stink, so I had to cut the nail out. The very end of the nail didn't get smashed and is still hanging on. Kinda gross.

This is me with the turbine. Ultimately, a small building was constructed over the turbine.
Here is Andrew (Patch) with a crew of mostly local villagers at the top of the waterfall. The project is nearly complete.

This is the area at the top of the waterfall after the dam was completed. The sections of culvert were placed to protect the dam from logs that may float down the river after a heavy rain. The dam is a weak point in the system, so the idea was to protect the dam.

The villagers are very good at Ta Kraw (spelling?), which is a game like volleyball, but it is played with a wicker ball and you can not use your hands or arms. This guy lands on his feet - believe it or not!

At the end of my trip, I got to join in an ultimate frizbee hat tournament in Bangkok. It was a good couple days. Fun to hang out with everyone and some good frizbee, overall a great time.

Back from the village

2007-02-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

just returned to Mae Sot from a village up north. It was a Thai/Karen village in a national forest up in the mountains. It was very beautiful and the people who live there are wonderful. What an amazing place to visit.

All in all, it took 8 days to install the micro-hydro electric project. There were four main areas of work to be completed:
1. Powerhouse holding the turbine at the bottom of the waterfall
2. Dam at the top of the waterfall to collect water for the pipe to the turbine
3. Powerline from the powerhouse to the school
4. Wiring the school

The local folks are amazingly efficient at construction and did most of the work. On the last day, it was very cool to see the lights come on at the school. This was a small project and the turbine only produces around 2 kW of electricity. This is just enough for lights in all of the school buildings and not much more than that. But, it does generate electricity 24 hours per day.

I was very happy to return to all of the great cuisine here in Mae Sot. The villagers were very generous with cooking food and sharing with all of us out there. But, I was very excited to get some different food after 8 days of eating rice, ramen noodles, pumpkin, and fish paste 3 meals per day. So, I am eating everything i can, and it is sooooooo good.

Wandering Mae Sod

2007-01-27T20:28:00.000-08:00

I've been riding around Mae Sot on my friend Patch's motorcycle. It looks like a scooter, but it actually shifts gears and goes pretty fast. I had it up to 70 or 80 kph at times. It's really fun to ride. All the motorcycles squeeze past the cars and line up at the stop lights. When the light turns green there might be 15 - 20 motorcycles all taking off at once. It feels like a race!

Just been wandering around Mae Sot today. Went to breakfast at the muslim breakfast place again. Mmmmmm... Then walked around the market looking for some flip flops that would fit me. Got lots of smiles when I pointed to my feet and said "Yai", Thai for big. Eventually, I found a shop that had a pair of flip flops that were nearly big enough for me and bought them. That was my feat for the day (bad pun intended).

Visited a few of the Wats (Buddish Temples) in Mae Sot. Here's a couple photos. They are quite magnificent.

Here are a couple pictures taken by a Taiwanese friend who was living in Mae Sot and shared some photos of town with me.

My friend Patch and I will be heading up north to install a micro-hydro electric project. Though, it sounds like there may not be much work for me to do there. There are going to be many many people there to work, but, even if I don't get to work, it will be an interesting trip and I will learn a lot about renewable energy.

I'll be returning to Bangkok on Feb. 10th and hope to be able to post some photos then. Will be playing in an ultimate frizbee tournament there, which will be really fun.

Guest House and Muslim Breakfast

2007-01-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

This is the nice guesthouse in Mae Sot where I'm staying for a few days before heading out to the village.

There is this place called Muslim Breakfast in Mae Sot. They have awesome food. It is more Indian food than Thai. The staple is naan. A really tasty and elasticy thin bread that is cooked in a wood fired oven. You can tear off a small piece of naan and use it to "grab" some curry or chick peas. Samosas are a good side dish, as well as, some sweet milk tea. Mmmmmmm...

The naan dough is flattened and then stuck to the roof of the oven to cook.

Fairbanks to Seattle to Bangkok

2007-01-24T01:22:00.000-08:00

Just arrived in Bangkok last night. I was here in 2000. It is fun because I still remember my way around a bit. I'm on my way up north to Mae Sod tonight on an overnight bus. I catch the bus at 10:30 PM and arrive at around 6 AM. Hope I can catch some zzzzz's along the way.

I haven't taken any photos yet, but when I do, I'll try to post them. I hope to capture some of the work that will be done while i'm here to install a micro-hydro electric project in a refugee camp along the burma border with Thailand. Should be a pretty neat project and will take approximately 2 weeks to complete. I'm excited to learn more about renewable energy.

Also, I just got to spend the weekend in Seattle with some of my favorite people around. It was a great weekend. Wish I could see those folks more often!

I had forgotten how there is so much crap in the air in Bangkok. You can walk around and see the air pollution. So many interesting, nice, gross, smokey, and food smells all at once. Overwhelming to the nose at times. The only thing to do is to try to isolate one of the smells and focus on it, cause otherwise, it's just too much all at once.

Also, just soooo many people. Maybe I noticed this is because I live in Fairbanks where there aren't that many people. But, really, I think there are just a whole lot of people here. I've enjoyed people watching and just wandering around. I'm getting excited for my next meal too. I've already eaten a number of my favorite things and am looking forward still to eating some pineapple, some curry, and some pad thai. I also remember a fried thing with bananas, condensed milk, and chocolate syrup that was pretty yummy, but I haven't been able to find that yet.

I hope to add photos soon.

Hawaii

2006-09-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

My roomate and I found cheap tickets to Hawaii (the Big Island) in September. It's a low season for tourists, which ended up making the trip really easy.

The highlight was night scuba diving with mantarays. All of the lights from the scuba divers attract Krill (or whatever it is that the Mantaray eat). Then come in the giants. They are 12 feet across and supposedly weight over 1000 lbs. It is amazing to see how graceful they are in the water. They swim around with their enormous mouths' open trying to catch as many of the little krill as possible. And, if you hold the light out in front of you, they swim right at your head and then detour up just in time so that they don't take your head off. Occasionally, they will do a loop-d-loo right over you and come back down for another pass. Oh, I forgot to mention that you can't touch them cause they are protected, so you have to kneel on the bottom of the ocean. We were close to 40 ft. down.

Unfortunately, I have no underwater photos of the mantarays. Other than scuba diving and snorkeling, Ed and I did some hiking and checked out Volcanoes at Volcano National Park. All and all, Hawaii is a great place.

Volcano National is huge and very interesting. This is me with a big crater.

Me with a Lava Flow

The next two photos are of lava flowing into the ocean.
This is Ed at the Captain Cook monument. Cap. Cook was the first European to visit Hawaii and was ultimately killed in the bay where this monument stands. There also happens to be very good snorkeling at this spot and a long hike to get there.

My bro visit's ak

2006-08-05T02:10:00.000-07:00

Here's some photos from when my brother came to visit this summer. We traveled around to the Matanuska Glacier, McCarthy, Kennikott, Root Glacier, and Valdez. We only had a week, so we mostly just car camped, hiked, fished, smoked cigars, drank whiskey, and hung out.

On the Matanuska Glacier.

On to the Root Glacier near Kennikott.

Caught some Coho (Silver) Salmon in Valdez.

Josh and Heather Married

2006-03-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

My brother got married! It was a really fun wedding. It was good to see our family and old friends from the neighborhood where we grew up. Lots of people came for the wedding. The party and dancing were really fun. But, I got drunk and fell down the stairs at the hotel and got some good bruises on my knee. hee hee.

The happy couple.

Happy Parents

Le Kiss
Le Dance

Le proud mom
Toast - Congratulations Josh & Heather

Dancing...

A mother and her sons