on call...planning summer trek...life is good!

there is a moose hanging out in the bog of late. he likes to chill on the trail as it's easier to walk on. poor dude is totally postholing otherwise. looks fairly young i think. he's pretty calm and today we just followed along behind him til he finally moved off trail about 25 feet to let us pass by. he's pretty handsome i think. as we hit break up the moose really take advantage of the anchorage trails, roads and sidewalks when they can. moose sightings are frequent.

i'd say it's officially break up here in the big city. that means the sun is out longer, the day time temperatures heat up to near 40 and meltage occurs. several feet of snow for us to melt out of so this can take over a month to get to the bottom of. in the meantime it's slush during the day and ice at night. will have to get the cleats out more and soon the mud and puddles will be impossible to avoid. not my favorite time of year, but we still manage to get out and enjoy. someone said, it's beautiful as long as you don't look down. there is some truth to that. in a few weeks we'll be postholing on the main trails as well. i will have to avoid any larger bodies of water for fear that blossom will go out on the semi frozen lake and fall through.

the moose was on the trail when i walked it with blossom and rio on thursday so i turned around as he looked quite happy.

the picture below was from todays bog walk. loved the big halo around the sun. each day there is something else to behold and all you have to do is be aware of the bounty before you.
i ended up with an on call for today. yippee!! i slept great today, but i'm just tired from working the past three nights. the sun was shining so my bedroom, which gets all the direct light, gets all toasty which wakes me up early. as long as i'm awake, blossom gives me that hopeful shall we walk look.

friday and saturday i took the girls to n. bivouac trailhead and went different directions. below are what i suspect are lynx tracks. there were also lots of rabbit tracks in the same area. cats are just more stealth than other animals and seem to be able to trek across the top of the crusted snow without sinking in. they also have those snowshoe like feet. i saw some tracks when i headed to the gasline/powerline trail yesterday and also up at prospect heights when i walked there on wednesday. we did the loop to the right and then came back and went the other way for a bit. rio's leg seems to be doing well right now. it may get rough out there for her soon though with break up.

got a nice swim in so i got my 3 days in last week. 33 laps wednesday. wednesday was also a special day as my brother and his partner's baby boy, ian was born. st patty's day baby. he appears to be healthy and all went well. they are in oregon for the birth and will stay there til they get all the legal documents sorted out. they are very excited and i'm happy for them. so they now have 2 kids. their older one was very excited to skype. funny how fast the world changes in a lifetime. was talking to jeff about that. when they left their daughter, ella, was all chill about it and said something about skyping them. she's 5. my grandpa was born when there was no auto's, no tv, min electricity...for us, we had typewritters and carbon paper to make copies. everyone was excited about pong when it came out and computer games now make that look pretty pathetic. what will change in ella and ians life to make our modern computers and such look prehistoric?

work was pleasant. nothing too insane, nice patients/familes, able to feel like i really made a difference for them. had an 18 year old who broke his back snowboarding. it's funny how different 18 is at times. he looks like such a baby, but he's apparently already been to afghanistan. i joked that they gave me the peds patients in the adult unit as i had him and a 23 year old. she was transferred from another local hospital, pretty sick. she kept me busy for a few nights, but nothing insane. felt very badly for both these "kids". her original was an elective surgery...life changes so quickly and you just never know when the mac truck of life will slam you sideways.

there is a little photo contest at work and my co-workers asked where my pictures were so i brought some in. it's just for making cards to send out to people who were in the icu and encourage them to reply and tell us how their stay was i guess. kinda an ego boost that so many folks there wanted to make sure my pictures were included.

trying to start looking into plans for this summer's trek to deadhorse. hopefully, we'll have a nice group going. should be loose. i want to pre-determine where we stay and then just plan on meeting up at those spots to campout together. we'll do the roadie as a caravan so we can have back up in case we have emergencies or car troubles. i think it will make it fun in the evenings to get around a campfire with friends too.

was talking to dr kamali the other night. he's going to go to round island this year with friends and wants to meet up to get information. i'm always excited when someone goes to one of the cool places they've heard about from me. i'm so happy that i've taken advantage of the amazing place i'm blessed to live in and that i inspire others to get out beyond the road system and explore this great land. we went to round island in 2003 and that was the first of "betsy's island adventures...

2003 round island

2004 kayak island

2005 pribilof islands

2006 churchill,canada

2007 chilkoot trail

2008 shuyak island...first attempt at ferry to dutch

2009 ferry to dutch harbor

so we are up to year 8 of the adventures. i've always been fortunate to end up with groups that get along and have fun. already thinking ahead to next year as well. i've never gone to glacier bay so that is possible or rent a cabin and kayak out of sitka. i've been to sitka but not for any extended period. don't think i'll ever run out of places to explore in alaska.