26.2

This morning we woke up to an amazing Alaskan Day! The sun was out and the cool crisp morning made the fresh air sink deep into the lungs. Today was Mayor's Marathon and both Kari and I had less than perfect training over the past few weeks so we were prepared for the worst. Fighting colds, shin splints, muscle pulls and blisters we set out on the 26.2 journey. Kari ran with her running partner Kathy and they did Awesome! Kari had a goal to finish under six hours and she really wanted to be around 5:45. Well she crossed the finish line in 5:36 WAY TO GO KARI! What an accomplishment...and to think, only a few years ago the furthest she'd ran was 5 miles. I had a goal of running between 3:10 and 3:20, but I felt great so I pushed it and ran 2:57, placed 6th overall, and 2nd in my age group. It was great to have Mark, Marty, and Cora here to cheer us on! done.

Spencer Glacier

On Friday I pulled together an EPIC adventure! I'd wanted to go visit Spencer Glacier which is only accessible by train. I'd gotten a little frustrated with the railroad because they wanted to charge me a full round trip ticket even though I only wanted to go one way. So I went down to the railroad station and talked with the nice people...after an hour of talking with them a guy came from the back and told them to just give me the "Friends and Family" rate and get me out. Sweet! so we ended up getting a two for the price of one, which made it the same price as a one-way. After I got the tickets I called up a friend to borrow a raft for floating out the river. I spent a few hours trying to decide which raft...paddle raft or oar raft...after deliberating I went with the smallest paddle raft called the Hoser boat...AKA Patches. This raft was an old one that is held together with, well patches - it worked liked a dream. We loaded up all our stuff in dry bags and got ready for a Saturday departure. Saturday morning was a rush, I went for 10 mile run and Kari did 15...way to go Kari! we made it to the train depot and put the stuff on the train...Kenai was able to ride with us but she had to have a muzzle...she hated it! The hike in from the whistle stop to our campsite was about 2 miles, so we had to huff the bags in...and the raft. We went with Spencer and JT and we had a great time. We rafted on the lake near icebergs, the glacier, and did some rock climbing. The raft out was great...only class I and II water but the sweepers and stumps made the upper part of the river a real challenge with the paddle raft. We had one issue where we hit a stump and it flung Kari out into to water. She, being skilled kept herself mostly in the boat, and I was able to bring her the rest of the way in...but she did get went, and glacial water is super cold...just ask her. We all couldn't believe how well Kenai did in the boat...she is our adventure dog! After we made it down the river (about 4 hours) we took out and the bugs ate us alive. I must say this trip was amazing!

Denali

Happy B-day Jared! This year we went up to Denali for my birthday. We camped out at Bayers lake and tried our best to avoid mosquitoes! The drive was very nice and hardly anybody was on the road. At the campground we had to drive through and over a bunch of snow and the lake still had a bunch of ice on it, but the weather was nice and warm...well warm for AK. The next day we got up and drove into the park, looked through the visitors center...was kind of cool. On the way back to the lake we stopped on the pass...its basically Alaska's continental divide, all the rivers to the north of it drain into the Yukon or Arctic ocean, and all the ones to the south into Cook inlet. Lunch was great and we had a 360 degree view mountains. What a great birthday!!!

Matanuska glacier

So May has been busy! Three weeks ago (I think) on Friday I decided we needed a camping trip, so we loaded up the Jeep and drove north. We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier and set up camp. Only one other group was in the campground which was super nice. At camp Kari relaxed in her Hammock and I set up the Slack Line. We had a great time and just soaked up the views. In the morning we got up super early and drove back to Palmer to see if we could get any good deals at the annual NOLS sale...I got a super cool retro climbing helmet for 2 bucks.