United Steaks

This is making me hungry.

More steaks here.

Eklutna Lake cabin

This weekend, a few friends and I paid our post-Thanksgiving exercise dues on a great overnight trip to a public use cabin on the shores of Eklutna Lake, about an hour from Anchorage.  Before trekking out to the cabin, Rebecca, Katy and I did a side-hike up the Twin Peaks trail—and I do mean UP.  It was about 2.5 miles straight uphill with beautiful views near the top of Eklutna Lake.

Eklutna Lake

The trail was very snowy and picturesque and in great packed condition most of the way up—snowshoes not necessary.

Twin Peaks hike scenery

No animal encounters this time (unlike a quick hike we took just a few days after I arrived, wherein we had to jump behind some trees when this moose started running down the trail towards us) but we did see some big wolf-like prints and lots of bunny tracks.  I’m sure the bunny and the wolf were just out for a nice jog together.

After hiking back down the mountain, we picked up our stuff at the car and hiked 3 miles out to the Yuditna public use cabin where our friends were waiting for us with the fire roaring and the whiskey pouring.  It was just about dark when we arrived—around 4:30 pm—so we had many hours to eat, drink, and play cards.  We thought it would be a good idea to put one extra log on the fire before bed to keep us warm—which turned out to cause the temperature in there to increase to an estimated 95 degrees.  At least.  Seriously.  It was that hot.  Here’s the cabin by the light of day, with a little dusting of falling snow:

Yuditna cabin

And the view from our front porch:

Turquoise lake

Thanksgiving in Girdwood

Just before Thanksgiving, Anchorage finally got the snow we so desperately needed to cover up all the treacherous ice that covered the town after a few unseasonably (and unreasonably) warm days.  This made for a lovely turkey day, which I spent in a cozy cabin in Girdwood with 35+ people including probably 10-ish kiddos.  It was beautiful, delicious chaos.

The spread

I made my pumpkin cheesecake and transported it very carefully the the ~35 miles on the snowy roads from Anchorage to Girdwood.  Dinner was followed by a snowball fight with all the fresh snowfall and a soak in the hot tub.  Idyllic, riiiiiight?

The journey north

The journey was both the same and different as my first move north… like before, I drove to Seattle with my mom, then boarded the ferry in Bellingham with my jam-packed car, and accompanied by Katy and her similarly jam-packed car. Only this time, it was the M/V Malaspina instead of the Columbia, and it was November instead of August. This meant no sleeping out on the deck (at least not for us), and no amazing 1970s bar, but there was an enthusiastic cadre of UNO-loving young folks, and some amazing winter scenery.

We spent much of our days avoiding seasickness on the rolling vessel by huddling in our sleeping bags, coats, hats, and gloves in the fresh but cold air on the deck, and most of our nights playing cards and drinking Alaskan Amber. All in all not a bad way to travel a couple thousand miles.

After 2.5 days on board, we disembarked in Haines, joined by a surprise guest—our friend Vik who secretly boarded the ferry early on our final morning in Juneau, and made a cryptic announcement over the PA system which led me to find a cryptic Buster Posey-related note at the Purser’s desk.

Friends on a ferry

Vik was a great companion and driving coach as Katy and I caravanned across 750 wintery miles of the Yukon Territory and Alaska to reach Anchorage. The weather was cold and snowy, at times disorienting (snow swirling across the road, fog closing in above) and treacherous (ice!), but overall the drive was less harrowing than I imagined it might be. (With the possible exception of arriving at the hotel in the Yukon where we’d made a reservation, late at night, only to find it and everything else in the little town dark and apparently deserted, with not enough gas to make it to the next town we were sure would be open and only a few minutes before the Canada/U.S. Border was to close…)

Swirly wintery road

Twenty hours of driving after leaving Haines, we slowed to a halt at the first stoplight we’d seen since Bellingham, and soon after, rolled into Anchorage. I’m reminded all over again about all the little things I found quirky about Alaska the first time around, like empty cars idling in parking lots and restaurants that serve pizza, mexican, and chinese from the same menu. But I’ve also been quick to reacquaint myself with everything I loved about living here—in my first few days in town, I’ve seen almost everyone I know, met many new friends, and gone for a winter hike and ice skating on a lagoon right next to my (temporary) abode.  Here’s a photo of me and Katy taken by our friend Rebecca:

Tara and Katy, Westchester Lagoon

The weather so far has already proven erratic and inconvenient (several days of cold in the teens, then rain and ice covering every single surface, and today a wonderful white Thanksgiving with tons of snow). I’ll try to continue to offer observations and share photos and adventures, but it has a little bit different feel to me this time around, now that I’m up here for longer than just a clerkship year.  Hope nobody finds this whole operation too obnoxious!  Make sure to leave me some snarky anonymous comments if you do.

I’m back

Back in Alaska, and back on Taralaska! Given my recent return and the constant demands for photos and stories from my friends in warmer climes, I thought I’d sweep the cobwebs off this ol thang and put on my blogger hat again. In case you’re wondering, this is my blogger hat:


New hat
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.

I’ll try to be better about keeping up with all my crazy Alaska stories than I was at the end of my clerkship year–I found this list of “Things I Failed To Write About” that I always meant to go back and catch up on… I’ve linked to Flickr photos for the sake of completeness.

Kayakers Cove with Anne & Matt
Denali with Anne, Matt & Dave
Homer Concert in the Park
Crow Pass hike
Ninjustice softball
Ill Fated Ship Lake Hike
Halibut Cove
Alaska State Fair
Klondike Road Relay
Roadtrip home to California

Moving right along… first real post of my second go round in Alaska coming real soon!