PCT update: Snowy Sierra

The team is now 3 twenty-something girls, and they call themselves "Djibouti Booty". Trailnames and hiking groups are changing frequently, but they've seemed to have settled into a nice little female core group, and currently they are known as Thump-thump, Microbust and Sweet 16.


Now the stretches of the PCT hike between points of civilization are getting longer & snowier: I just heard from my daughter while resupplying in Independence/ Lone Pine, CA. They had just climbed Mount Whitney, 14,500 ft. WOW!


From what I gather, they are getting incredibly strong, sun-burned, and are constantly thinking about food -- it's difficult to carry enough calories for the 7-10 days stretches of that kind of exertion...

It's my "Take the cubs to Work" SUMMER

You've heard of "Take your Child to Work Day", haven't you?

This summer I'm incredibly lucky -- Wolfman and Liesl have been coming to work with me once or twice every week, ever since school let out.

Sometimes they go on a hike first, but afterwards they help at the front desk: taking parking fees and making change, helping the other staff & me with whatever is needed, and of course, answering the 2 most ubiquitous nature-related questions:

Where are the bathrooms?
Are there any bears?
(Last year a resident volunteer wrote a whole song about this!)

The only scary part of this is (no, it's not them hiking the trails alone in bear country), but the fact that the 16-year old is doing the DRIVING!

Photocredit:
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/images/hunt/bear/cubs.jpg;//www.alaskaseaplanetours.com

PCT Update: High Sierras - watch out, here she comes!

My daughter and her friends (the 3 musketeers), a.k.a. " Djibouti or Bust" have crossed the last section of the Mojave Desert after their rest in Agua Dulce. They've resupplied in Tehachapi, and are currently ascending Walker Pass... soon to arrive at Kennedy Meadows (Mile 703).

This is where they start getting into more serious High Sierra hiking! There's concern over how much snow they'll encounter. Plus, my daughter is always on the lookout for handsome and rugged men with beards -- like this one!

What an adventure, and less than 2000 miles to go...

Photo credit: http://www.ventureforth.co.za

What constitutes a HOT day in Alaska?

First of all, let me assure those of you from outside Alaska that we don't live in Igloos -- in fact, we live in the proverbial Banana Belt of our fair state. It does actually get hot here -- well, sort of!
How hot?

1.) We do occasionally wear shorts (some do as soon as the snow starts melting).
2.) Our kids do occasionally run through the sprinkler -- a rarity, admitted, but it did happen today!
3.) When it gets really hot, we even drag out a fan to cool down the bedroom at night -- as you may guess, nobody has air conditioning here.

Today was HOT -- I started gardening as soon as I got up (to avoid the hot part of the day, but mostly, because I did have to go to work later). As I was working in my sadly neglected flower bed, I kept finding the remains of some old candles that had fallen down from the deck at Christmas and had been covered in snow until early May. I piled them up on the stairs, and this afternoon when I got home, there was a wax puddle. Now that's HOT for Alaska!

Our high today was a whopping 77 degrees, which might be as hot as it gets for the whole summer. And that's just fine by me!

Photocredit: http://blog.kidsurplus.com

PCT Update: pictures & baking up a storm

The PCT crew (they're now hiking in a group of 4) are spending some "Zero Days" over the Memorial Day weekend, resting in Agua Dulce, at the edge of the Mojave Desert, not far from Edwards Airforce Base. Sounds like people who live along the PCT are incredibly friendly and helpful -- it's just amazing!

My daughter, Eldest (for lack of a better name -- as her trailname keeps changing) has just updated Mile 454 on her blog, Kitchensister, and if you want to see some great pictures and video clips from the trail, click directly on the upper row of her pictures, or on "View my Gallery" -- this takes you to her Picasa album.
Phone reception is not great, but we did talk recently (there was some confusion and hurt feelings over a request for replacement of gear, resulting in me spending last Friday afternoon on an expensive shopping trip to REI that was not needed after all, but all is forgiven now!)

So now Liesl (Youngest) and I have turned our kitchen into a production center for Backpacking Breakfast bars: see my other blog, Borealkitchen, for details and recipes. The two of us are having soooo much fun developing recipes, catchy names, and packaging for these bars -- our menfolk are rolling their eyes, but seem to be plenty willing to give opinions and taste-test...

Move over, commercial bars, we got our own brand-names:

A-Bar: Awesome Alaska Bar
baked bar containing oats, cranberries, pecans, pumpkin seeds, flax & sesame seeds.

T-Bar: Truly Tropical Bar
contains Oats, Mango, Apricots, cashews, almonds, almond butter, honey, crystallized ginger.

O-Bar: Ominous* Oat-Carob Bar
contains Oats, carob, sunflower seeds, walnuts, almond butter, honey
*this name is due partially to the ominous brown color, and the fact that carob is NOT popular in this household

That's as far as we've gotten so far, but we've got lots more ideas:

B-Bar: Bravo Blueberry Bar

P-Bar: Perfect Pumpkin Bar

M-Bar: Mom's Apple Pie Bar

any suggestions?

When I'm old...

Youngest (a young woman now!) is very aware of time and passages right now -- today is her last day of childhood, or at least, of elementary school. She graduates from 6th grade today and is then officially in Junior High!
She told me the other day: "When I'm old, like 50, I want to be like you. And also like my teacher, Mrs.A -- she's training for a 50 K now. For both of you, exercise and health are important, and you don't feel old. That's how I want to be!'"

What a compliment!
I turn 50 this year (disclaimer: I am not training for a 50K), but I do keep active, and I certainly don't feel OLD.

Digression: My grandmother, when she turned 50, stopped wearing a bathing suit in public! She would have considered it "indecent exposure"!


Photo credit: http://wolfeyebrows.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/lady-in-her-swim-suit.jpg

Semantics: Naturist vs. Naturalist

My job title is Naturalist, which is defined as an expert in Natural History.
Not to be confused with Naturist, which is somebody who likes to go nude, i.e. wear no clothes.

Today's Anchorage Daily News has an article about Nude hiking in Alaska -- not exactly a trend I see catching on big-time, given our state's abundant crop in mosquitoes...!

But I better be extra clear, pronunciation-wise, when I describe myself as a naturalist. And specify that I do wear clothes, which naturists refer to as "textiled".

Picture Credit: http://www.dw-world.de
accompanying article that reports nude hiking has been banned in the Swiss Canton of Appenzell.