A temporary end to free food

Oh man, tomorrow I train my baker replacement, and in a week I'm out(!).  It seems I'm always wistful at departures and transitions; it's better to leave wishing you were staying longer than wanting to get the hell out, right?  -Although, I don't want to jinx my already-iffy car battery, so, southward ho!

The skiing has been great here, the trails ever more sparkly as the sun climbs higher over the ridges, and hints of spring quietly manifest.  It's still regularly -25F but the sun dogs and mountain valley fogs are evidence of change afoot.  You need to wear sunglasses again.

I'll be journeying down for a week in Denali, featuring a night or two of winter camping and skipacking.  Krista and I will see if drinking the pasta water is even more fortifying after gliding around on snow than hiking along glacial outwash, and we'll determine how many miles of dog sled trails equals three Snickers bars.

And then I go rather farther south, to Patagonia, to see the western penguins, and a tan bearded guy.

Valenfriends overnight at Koyuktivuk cabin

pretty mountains in the sun

Krista is standing downhill, though she is dainty

January Made Me Shiver

Whew, so many happenings!  I feel like Fairbanks Girls' Weekend 2022 deserves its own entire post, but then I'd never catch up.  So picture this: six women in a van with Arctic-level cabin fever descending upon "town" to unwind at the hot springs, gorge on sushi and exotic mixed drinks, gossip in a vacation rental, furiously compete at bowling and leg wrestling, win over the working girls at the strip club with our enthusiasm and tips, and relish it all the next morning over crepes and lattes.  One of my favorite parts was while searching for more beer after the strip club at 1am on a Wednesday, we got pulled over for having a headlight out.  The cop kindly sent us on our way when we pretended to have just got in after driving the rural highway from Coldfoot.

All this was a prelude to my actual vacation to see a certain cyclist in Portland.  It wasn't quite spring, but the sun shone for a while, the perennially green moss was joined by some green grass, and I welcomed the soft dampness in the air after three months spent in a frozen desert.  I was able to tend by hand a nascent bloom of indeterminate lifespan, water it, see a bit of development, and prepare to replant it in a warmer climate.  I'll meet up with said cyclist in Argentina in March.

In the meantime, there are a few more delightful weeks of skiing and reading and fun friends and free soup (and mopping and dishes) at our bizarrely magnetic truck stop.

In our DD's hatchback 

The sun is back!!! 

Jace and the Oregon mountains