judith's now blogging at http://www.jbalaska.wordpress.com

please have a look and leave me feedback

Christmas Day ice skating Dec 2010

happy christmas day from anchorage alaska We're skating and it's around 10 degrees. Enjoy the Chugach views in the background!

Winter Wonderland, Dec 2010

The Dancing Bears had its annual Winter Ball for some fun social dancing.
It was as elegant as things get around here. Ties, nice shoes, fancy desserts, wonderful live band and vocalist. Very fun evening to chase the winter blues away!


Sunday afternoon after a goodly dumping of snow was magnificent. Colin is a fellow meet-up member. We skied on single-track trails on the infamous "rover's run" which is inhabited by grizzlies in the summer as it runs alongside the Campbell Creek. But in mid winter it was silent and beautiful. on Dec 12th it was 13 degrees. We skied that trail and explored Brown Bear trail to BLM Ridge Trail to Richter and then followed our noses back to the parking lot. Two hours out was perfect and followed by hot chocolate!

Milton Mass.

Tucker Elementary looked like the same old brick building, but with a new sign!

George & Marilyn Zaslaw doing great in their beautiful apartment.
We hadn't seen each other for at least 35 years.

New England visit in fall 2010

i had a great trip to Boston and took pictures of the beautiful red maples and pine trees.


































This is Marblehead harbor.
It was very fun to visit the old town with David.




















Me and Dave in Salem, Massachusetts. We had a fast walk-thru the Peabody Essex Museum.

Crow Creek Pass to Raven Glacier

This was my favorite NEW hike for summer 2010

Ware Street House Church Reunion Nov 2010

Nancy roused a bunch of us together for the annual Ware Street House Church. It was awesome to see Mary, the Ludwigs, Wayne and Carole Parrish, Jim Spellman, John Rowe and so many others. Thanks all!
next year in Anchorage, huh?

 
 
 
 

Dipnetting in the Kenai

perfectly educated and accomplished people (and some not) lug enormous nets with long handles to the mouth of the famous-for-salmon mouth of the Kenai River. We don long underwear, wool hats and anything else available to stay warm underneath neoprene or other chest waders. We stand cheek by jowl up to our armpits in the frigid water, braving the tide and whatever else can threaten us. We wait until the tide brings in a wave of red salmon and one hits the net. Then one quickly spins the net over to entrap the fish and carefully backs up to shore, trying not to fall over and drown OR worse, lose the fish! This is what Alaskans (including me) call fun dipnetting in the Kenai. Keith and Sally Brownsbergers have mastered this art and science and graciously take me along. They haul in one fish an hour, while I haul in one per day!

summer 2010

summer 2010 was my 20th summer in alaska and a glorious one. mostly i sent photos of travel and alaska adventures via facebook and picasa web albums, but feedback is that folks want the blog back! so i'll be updating shortly.

Montana Visit to Ruth - May 2010

I had the chance to see Ruth's new digs in Bozeman so we spent the long Memorial Day weekend there and exploring Great Falls MT. What a beautiful state!

We hiked up high to Lewis and Clark Caverns and wended our way down and around on an excellent walking tour of stalagmites and stalactites. It was very fun.

Tranquil, beautiful scenery everywhere you can look in Montana.

Cheryl and Tom Zimmerman and Cheryl's mom met us at the point where LEwis and Clark had to portage a huge distance around five separate water falls. This is now the site of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center which made the expedition seem very real.

It was a good visit. see ya next time Ruth!

bike ride from indian to girdwood May 15, 2010

we had a meetup to ride indian to gird which was very scenic, windy and chilly. We had lunch at Chair 5 and then rode back to the cars. we left around 10 and got back to cars around 4 pm, so it was fun, full day.















We had the opportunity to portage our bikes over an avalanche that covered the bike trail. you never know what your adventures will bring in Alaska!

shorebird festival in homer

we went to visit Anne Marie in Homer over the same weekend as the shorebird festival. We had a fun beach walk, rode bikes, ate good food, had a good visit with anne marie, met john and barrett and enjoy anne marie's hospitality greatly. What a magical place!

























These sandhill crates were apparently scoping out a suitable nesting spot.




















this is the volcanic mountain Augustine from across cook inlet.















kayaking in kachemak bay
















a moose in anne marie's yard














There's an otter in the water doing what he otter.
























jim and jude in picturesque homer

May fun in Alaska -- bear on Potter May 6, 2010

We had a close encounter with a big black bear on the Potter trail (aka turnagain and johnson). This is the four of us including Jake, the dog.























We got a big surprize when the bear charged Jake, the dog.

















But not too shocked to catch a photo. Thankfully, everything worked out okay.

April 8, 2010 snow hike evening

The Thursday evening hike with our fearless leader Toshi (left)
took us from Prospect Heights trailhead to gasline, Alder trail and
others on the hillside of Anchorage. We all enjoyed the spring
snow-hiking conditions and the occasional post-holing, but helped
each other through it.



















This is a good view of flattop named for obvious reasons!
We had a perfectly clear spring evening for hiking.



















This is O'Malley peak and False O'Malley just behind the spruce tree.
the broad expanse is known as the ballfield which has a great
moon-scape kind of terrain
that's fun to hike through after the steep gully up to it.