Nate's Photo Blog

British Columbia Scenic Drive

2009-09-30T15:14:00.000-08:00

WE MADE IT!!!

2009-09-25T15:15:00.000-08:00

I was right about Karma, my perserverance was rewarded with a smooth trouble free trip home. I wanna thank everyone who supported me and even the many that doubted I could make the trip, it only makes success that much sweeter! 3,800 Miles, 7 Days, 6 Nights, what a trip.

The Ballad of the Red Dragon

2009-09-18T17:56:00.005-08:00

Tomorrow I leave Denali for the great unknown. The Red Dragon is prepped and primed for adventure. I feel its necessary to write a brief account of the drama that I've been through with this car.

June 28th: Purchased that car after hitchiking 249 miles to Anchorage. She ran great.

July 16th: Drove to Anchorage in route to Homer. Car got exceptional gas mileage :)

July 17th: Leaving Anchorage after filling up the car could barely climb the hills. Soon the car began to overheat, we realized that at this rate we wouldn't make it to Homer ;-(

July 18th: Figuring it was bad gas I drained the tank and swapped the fuel filter. No improvement still down on power and overheating.

July 20th: After much research I figured the cause of heat and power loss was due to obstructed exhasut i.e. a bad catalytic converter.

July: Cat finally came in the mail. No man was strong enough to loosen the old cat and remove it. Then we realized it would have made no difference, the aftermarket cat was too long. I went back to the drawing board (www.rx7club.com) to search for some answers. I discovered that lack of power is commonly due to a throttle cable thats slipped from its mount. I ran out to the car to discover that very problem, eureka! I took the car for a short jaunt to realize I've fixed nothing.

July: I never understood the ignition wiring on this car (rotary engines are completely different than piston engines) so I read up on that. I found that my wires we're wired wrong! I swapped them out and went for a short jaunt. Finally I solved the problem.

August: I deduced that on the Kenai trip I had indeed swapped plugs wires when I got the bad gas. With the poor performance from the tainted gas I didn't realize I had set the plugs wrong. ...Solving car problems is akin to murder mistery, I'm serious!

August: Johnny backed the company van into my car parked outside work. Wow I can't catch a break. Flawless exterior no more ;-(

August: Found that my oil cooler line (unique to rotary engines) was failing so I order and replaced that, after some bloody knuckles success!

Sept: After a 300 mile trip to the Chena Hot Springs I was feeling very confident about making it to Chicago. Inspecting the radiator I noticed a metal flange that held the radiator shroud was bent out of shape. I gingerly tapped the metal flange back into shape. With a look of horror on my face I watched green fluid oozed from the flange. I had made a hole in the radiator. With a failed radiator I wouldn't be able to get more than 50 miles ;-(

Sept: I frantically talked to everyone and each person gave me the same solution; a epoxy called J Weld may patch the hole. It had to work because there was no way I was going to be able to sell a sports car in winter in Alaska nor would I be happy about ordering and waiting for a new radiator to arrive.

Sept: A local friend came over with some J Weld and we put the first layer one. Later I put two more coats on. The J Weld cured rock hard, eveyone was confident I would have no trouble. With two days left before my planned departure I went on a 50 mile ride to retrieve my friends wallet from the bar. Car ran exceptionally well again, more importantly no bleeding radiator :-)

At this point I'm ready for anything. I feel that I've had enough bad car Karma in Denali that the trip will be nothing but good car Karma, it would only make sense right? We shall see. Next post will be Canada and the Lower 48...

ZONE 18: Mother Natures Wrath and Beauty

2009-09-01T10:09:00.018-08:00

This pic was taken at the Eilson vistor center before we left for Zone 18. This is a pair of bull moose antlers locked together which ultimately caused their demise.

River crossing at the start of the 3-day trip. There are no bridges in Denali and drowning is the number one cause of death here. Not too deep luckily but boy is glacial water cold.

Night one camp. That night the rain started and it didn't let up for 2 days. My overpriced mountaineering gear which was once a source of ridicule soon turned to envy. Luckily I loaned Tyler my old Marmot shell which kept his core dry but his pants we're another matter...

It was wet and cloudy on day two but the beauty was still to be admired. Also a large golden eagle flew by before I could snap its picture.

Day 2: After a full day of hiking in the rain we desperately needed to get some shelter. I found a gully (as the Irishman would say) and stretched our tarp across it for a temporary shelter so we could cook and get our thoughts together.

Tyler was especially miserable in his blue jeans. We knew he did not have the appropriate clothing to head up the steep snow covered Anderson pass so we decided to camp out and leave the next day. Hypothermia was a real possibility at this point. Lesson learned: Gore-Tex does work, and jeans can kill you!

It was cold, wet, and windy, we became very resouceful.

That night we set up camp at 4:30pm and didn't get up till 6:00am. It was a long time in the tents but to be warm and out of the rain was the name of game.

Day 3: The next morning we hiked back the long journey to the park road. Amazingly by noon the clouds had lifted and the sun shined brightly.

A once in a lifetime spiritual encounter, a lone shewolf trots cooly before us as we stare on wide-eyed. I could nearly reach out and touch her she was so close, we couldn't have been more exicted. Our early departure turned out to be a blessing.

***Not shown here was Tyler releaving himself as a bear approaches. I shouted at the old griz and he took off. Thats the second time that has happened! Last time it was Emmet taking a number 2 in Zone 10 when hes spotted a bear mid drop and had to run. Never to be forgotten!***

View from the road before a park bus picked us up to take us on the looong 6 hour ride back to the the park entrance.

The fall colors are jaw-droppingly gorgeous in Denali. Every green willow and scrubby bush becomes a shade of firey red and flaming orange. The aspens follow suite by turning yellow and the all the tundra looks like a surrealist painting.

Mt. Healy Hike

2009-08-23T19:41:00.007-08:00

Kelsey and Jenna at the base of Mt. Healy. Less than a week and these two are going home ;-( It's crazy how fast the time has gone by.

Rainbow arching over the Alaska range.

Here I am laying in a bed of tundra that has turned brilliant red signaling the end of summer. Soon all the mountains will be swathed in hues of red, yellow, and orange. Fall is short and brilliant, I can't wait to capture it on film. We didn't make it to the summit but 4 hours of hiking was long enough for a after work excursion. Just enough hiking to build and appetite for taco night. I think I'm one of those hike to eat people, but whats wrong with that?

Culinary Creations and those Bountiful Blueberries

2009-08-17T17:48:00.015-08:00

Blueberries like this are ev-er-y-where!

After we finished the pie Jenna posed with it and almost spilled the whole thing on the floor. It was recovered and devoured. I did the crust and baking while the friends did all the berry picking.

Sooo delicious, I couldn't get over it. Who thought'd I'd become such a chef up here? Served it up with butter pecan ice cream, mmmm.

My most recent culinary masterpiece: Blueberry cheesecake. Just as much a success as the pie. Berries were even more ripe and tasty than before.

"I never liked fruit pies until I baked them myself, I guess what turned me off was that fakey pie filling that stores use, go natural and you'll never go back."

- Chef Nate

Dry Creek Jug Band - Cookin' For My Lady Campfire Performance

2009-08-12T11:43:00.004-08:00

Return to the White's Cabin

2009-08-10T19:43:00.010-08:00

After a wonderful night at the a dinner theater production we hiked up to the old cabin. On the entrance to the trail we saw this threatening sign. We were a little nervous because its actually getting dark here and these woods are thick! Fortunately our group was noisy enough to ward off this "agressive bear."

Here's a shot of the old stove in the cabin. We thought it would be nice to have a fire crackling but it turned out to be waaaay too much heat. I have no doubt this guy would keep you warm in the winter

Here we found a geocache. Didn't know what it was till we found it: "Geocaches (also called just "caches") are the key playing pieces in the sport of geocaching. The object of geocaching is to find these caches, which vary widely in shape, size, and appearance. Some are are placed in obvious locations, while others are hidden in maddeningly obscure ways." - wikipedia

This is a view of the valley from the cabin. You can see some of the smoky haze covering the mountains. Locals say this have been one of the smokiest summers in a long time. I could post a picture of the thick smoke I saw in Fairbanks but it would just be a gray square.

Savage River to Dry Creek Torture Hike '09

2009-07-26T21:15:00.011-08:00

The idea behind this hike was to take the park bus to the savage river and then bushwack to dry creek which would bring us back to our camp in Healy. Last year two girls tried the same hike and infamously got lost. There was a $100,000 search party effort and it made a lot of rangers weary about park employees going out into the backcountry. Well we made it in one day; 12 hrs of nonstop hiking cause we're that good. Here's the news story from 2008 Rescuers Reach Two Missing Hikers in Alaska Park.

Rare find! You don't see Dall Sheep horns because unlike antlers which are shed annually, horns are kept for life. Looks like hungry bear or wolf had his way with this Dall.

BAD GAS FOILS KENAI ADVENTURE!

2009-07-22T17:32:00.005-08:00

So we didn't make it to Homer. We we're flying down to Anchorage and got awesome gas mileage until we filled up to head down the peninsula. Thats when she started running poorly so we had to turn back but we made the most of it.

Lookin' sharp even when she's down on her luck.

Grizzly Prints on the beach!

The ocean can be seen here as it meets the mountains. Locals say the this Alaskan fireweed tells us when summer is over. The plant flowers from the bottom up and drops its pedals, when they're all gone winter is around the corner.

The following day we rode the park bus to the end of the line and got a rare peak at "the mountain." Not shown was the awesome grizzly bear fight on the park road. It was straight out of the "Grizzly Man" movie. Luckily no bears were hurt.

I love seeing these trucks around town that have custom cabs to hold all your sled dogs. License plate reads: "SLDDGS"

Born to bake?

2009-07-15T22:41:00.004-08:00

One of the great things about being up here is that I have time to practice many crafts, I guess I'm a real Renaissance man. And guess what it turns out I'm pretty damn good at baking! Everything is made from scratch and I'm fraid to admit I'm getting pretty cocky about my abilities. I've made some dank wild crow berry muffins, blueberry pancakes, frosted brownies, and homemade pizza.

Natures Architect: The Beaver

2009-07-14T18:56:00.002-08:00

Did you know that Beavers are monogamous and mate for life? Or did you know it takes a beaver 20 minutes to cut down a 6 in Aspen? Or how about their specialized digestive system with colonies of microorganisms in their intestines that digest up to 30% of the cellulose from the tree bark and other woody material they eat? Boy, beavers are fascinating. They are so industrious and driven, I wonder how all these beavers know to stick to the family business and not get a liberal arts degree. Yup, they're wise.

Alaskan Wildflowers

2009-07-11T16:09:00.007-08:00

Circle of Life

2009-07-11T15:31:00.006-08:00

Here's my pal Emmet with his first kill. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "oh poor rabbit." But if you eat meat than you need to put your money where your mouth is. I believe anyone who eats meat should have a chance to see the whole process on how that meal gets to the table. I found that the process of hunting game for meat is much more humane and respectful then buying a Big Mac and McDonald's.

With that being said, we felt a little tinge of sadness for the big hare. From an environmentalist standpoint the hare population in Alaska this year is out of control, the Ranger was joking that tourists should be given rifles to hunt out all these snow shoe hares because they're eating everything in sight! We joked "Save a Moose, Kill a Hare." We did our part. I've also had a chance to try reindeer and moose. Moose steak is delicious, give it a try when in Rome.

The final result looked beautiful! The meat was overcooked and veggies undercooked but hey we're bachelors and it was very tasty. I know Grandma would be proud. Next on the menu will be ptarmigan, should taste like chicken.

Nate + RX-7 = Sports Car Heaven

2009-07-01T20:38:00.010-08:00

So after roughly 10 years of being an armchair rotary enthusiast I have my very own Mazda Rx-7. Sure the 93-95 model is sexy and supercar fast but how practical and affordable does that sound right now? No I wouldn't have it any other way the old 1st generation Rx-7 is the most popular, reliable, and lovable. I could go on and on about the virtues of this car but that'll bore 90% of my viewers. So much fun, and after driving the 250 miles from achorage to Healy I feel confident that she can go all the way to Chicago. P.S. Alaska plate are way cooler than any other plates.

Here I am posing in front of the ill-fated Igloo Hotel. This lonely monument is the only stop on a 100+ stretch of the Parks Highway. Legend has it that the hotel never opened for business do to its snow-like foam cladding. It never passed fire inspection so now it sits here for tourist photo ops like this one.

Talkeetna rocks!

2009-07-01T19:51:00.006-08:00

Took a detour on the way home from Anchorage and stopped in Talkeetna. This is the town that inspired "Northern Exposure." It's actually more fun and quirkier than the fictitious town of Sicily, Alaska. It was great to stroll the old main st and talk to all the warm friendly people. It reminded me alot of Mycanopy, Fl. If youre driving down the Parks Highway you gotta stop in.

Sled Dog Demo

2009-06-28T21:20:00.003-08:00

Here's a clip of the sled dog demo:

Denali Zone 10

2009-06-22T10:28:00.012-08:00

This is the start of our 3 Day, 4 night expedition into Denali's back country. You can see me here opening my "bear keg" which is basically a bear-proof container that any food or scented object must be placed inside of.

This is our bear safe campsite known as "the mushroom." Its a 12' rock with soft spongy ground with just enough room for our tents, felt like a hotel compared to our night on the glacier.

After swimming in a glacial pool we discovered this towering waterfall. Drinking from this pure source was a rare opportunity, delicious.

Denali Zone 10 cont.

2009-06-21T10:47:00.006-08:00

This is a shot of our "Neptune" campsite. This whole area is glacier moraine. Beneath all this gravel is solid ice. No moss, lichens, flowers, nothing, like being on another planet. Now I have a feel for what Everest climbers deal with.

Here's another view from "Neptune." We're at aprox. 5,000 ft which is about a 3,000 ft increase in elevation from the start of our hike. The idea of our Zone 10 trip was to hike up into one glacial valley over a pass and down another valley back to our starting spot. We definitely prefer the easy hiking of the valley to the treacherous glaciers, but the views were well worth it.

You have to be very careful crossing glacial
snowfields, below many of them is an under ground river created by the melting ice. Sometimes you can only hear the river, this time you can see it as an ice cave.

Denali Zone 10 cont. cont.

2009-06-20T11:08:00.003-08:00

Caribou antler and skull found in the "Bearitory."
Emmet was pumped to utilize his bear scare tactics as this griz got too close for comfort. I was concerned but totally pumped to get such a good view of these terrific creatures (we saw 8+). These Toklat river bears are so grizzled they often appear white or yellow, some tourists claim they are polar bears, nope they're just towheads.
Sometimes I wonder if all this hiking and biking I do is just for the food. This Baja Burger was just what I needed after running out of food on day 4, what a great trip!

The Dry Creek Jug Band is Immortalized

2009-06-16T01:22:00.002-08:00

Tyler hitched to Anchorage the other day and came back with this sweet tattoo. Yeah this is our band's logo that I drew out earlier in the week. Better than having my painting in a museum, longer lasting too, unreal. I said I'd get one too if we get a record deal, we shall see...

Last of the Bus Pics

2009-06-12T22:20:00.006-08:00

Here we are eager and enthusiastic. No one stayed around for a pic after we returned, all we could think about was FOOD.

Note my sweet wolf Tee.

More Bus Pix

2009-06-05T15:17:00.008-08:00

Interior of the bus just as Chris left it.

Plaque installed by the McCandless family.

Our colorful crew of campers.

Tyler and I after successfully crossing the river. The second attempt was not nearly as easy.

"The Bus"

2009-06-04T15:35:00.003-08:00

On this day I joined a group of 18 assorted Denali employees lead by and experienced guide to the famous bus Chris McCandless lived and died in. Its an 8 mile drive from the highway and a 20 mile hike on foot to the bus. Given only two days vacation we hiked all 40 miles in two days. More pictures to come. I fell in the Tek river in one of many failed attempts to cross it on the way back and I'm afraid my pictures are lost. Luckily many other people took pics that'll should be up shortly. More to come...

Dry Creek Jug Band Plays At The Famous Salmon Bake

2009-06-01T01:00:00.001-08:00

My first live performance playing my original song "Bush Eyes" inspired by life in Alaska. Our rather informal band is known as The Dry Creek Jug Band. A music video and album are due out in September.

First Bus Trip: Bear, Moose, Ram, and Ptarmigan.

2009-05-31T23:38:00.003-08:00

Here's another view of the Dall Sheep ram. Perfect set of horns.

First Griz! Seeing this bear in action really gives me a whole new respect for them. They are muscular and light on their feet. I would have felt really naked if I wasn't in the safety of the bus.

Dall Sheep: Closest Encounter Ever

2009-05-31T23:22:00.006-08:00

Incredible video, I feel like Marty Stouffer! Five of us were hiking Savage River and spotted a group of Dall Sheep Rams. As we were crouching down taking shots from afar this magnificent ram and his ewe came trotting up to us 6-10 feet way from my camera. We snapped some shots without flash. He trotted past and began grazing as if he was a domestic sheep.

Ice Climbing

2009-05-25T17:00:00.004-08:00

So while I rode Blue Bomber to the lake Tyler, Jenna, and Joe hitchhiked and got picked up by two cool hippies in a motor home. They told us to give them a call later if we wanted to go climb a frozen waterfall-so we did! You haven't lived until you try it-I LOVE CRAMPONS!

Did this just to make mom nervous...Joking Moms!

Polar Bear Club

2009-05-24T14:51:00.004-08:00

Got off work early and thought hey lets do something crazy like go for a swim (group photo missing). It was cold but not as bad as I expected from a lake that was frozen solid a month ago. Refreshing and heart stopping at the same time, fun stuff. Thanks to Nick and Kari I had stylish new shorts to sport for the occasion.

Otto Lake

First Time Fishing, 1 for 1

2009-05-22T00:11:00.006-08:00

Horseshoe lake.

Catch of the day; Arctic Grayling. He tasted great! I know hes small but its a shallow lake and I figure he was one of the biggest guys in there. Cleaned, cooked, and ate my own fish. Served it up Costa Rican style with rice, beans, and fried bananas.

Road Bike

2009-05-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

BEFORE

AFTER!

Gone shootin'

2009-05-13T17:48:00.005-08:00

Big old 454 this thing really kicks you can't really understand the power till you try it (the shotgun ((pictured at bottom)) really kicks your arm, still feelin' it.)

Its all about gun safety lol!

Cool Cabin

2009-05-07T14:47:00.006-08:00

Today Tyler and I hiked up the Montana Creek Trail to this great cabin. We chose to pitch a tent it and get that fresh mountain air (pretty dark and dingy inside). Awesome hiking and scenery. It was perfect spot for a log cabin, makes me want my own, but who doesn't?

These Bear boards close over the windows to keep hungry bears from breaking in and eating your beans. The cabin door (not shown) was really neat. It had a big old log on the inside rigged up to a pull string that you could set from the outside to lock the door. It took us a second to figure it out and I guess a bear couldn't figure it out at all.

Bear Trap

2009-05-06T15:07:00.001-08:00

Extras from the Park

2009-05-05T19:19:00.005-08:00

Jumping into a snowdrift looked like fun but I quickly realized how people get stuck in avalanches and die.

DGC and The Bake

2009-05-05T18:42:00.003-08:00

The famous Salmon Bake (I hear it'll get pretty rowdy at night) and one of our three shops, the DGC

AKs in AK

2009-05-05T18:32:00.003-08:00

Here's Kev posing with his new AK-47. Guns are like lawn furniture up here. No need to be alarmed it's definitely a different gun culture here. Guns are useful for substinance hunting and in a land so empty and wild they're just plain fun to have around for target practice etc. Kev said at University of Alaska there are gun swaps every so often. Imagine that in Illinois, no way!

Bear Grylls Eat Your Heart Out

2009-05-05T18:28:00.003-08:00

I found some arrows laying around and couldn't help but make myself a bow. Not quite lethal but lots of fun. Note the bandaged hand, oops.

Views from the top

2009-04-28T19:22:00.002-08:00

360 from mountain top

2009-04-27T18:28:00.000-08:00

Joel and I picked a random peak, stopped the van and started dashing up the mountain. Don't underestimate the scrubby tundra brush, probably the most difficult terrain I've hiked through (not to mention waist high snow drifts). The view was outstanding.

Group at Denali

2009-04-27T15:09:00.001-08:00

Mt. McKinley can be seen here in center.

Today we got outta work early and the boss let me drive a bunch of us into the park. It was a rare occasion to travel into the park by van, all the way up to mile 30 which isn't possible after May 15th (shuttle only afterwards). We nearly had the whole park to ourselves. On our right we saw about 6 moose and to the left a rare glimpse of stormy Mt. McKinley.

Yeah I like snow

2009-04-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

Snow!

2009-04-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

Big snow fall last night! Everyone was excited especially the kids who don't see snow at home.

View of the some 30 dogs

2009-04-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

Husky Eyes

2009-04-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

At first glance I thought this dog was blind but upon closer inspection I could see that its just an incredibly unique coloration.

Young sled pup

2009-04-23T10:53:00.000-08:00

Denali Kennels!

2009-04-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

Seeing all these Alaskan Huskies was so exciting for a dog lover like me. After a lifetime of reading countless novels about mushing I finally made it to wild of Alaskan to see a real working sled dogs. With my husky, Zuzie dieing so recently it was painful to see all these pups and not miss her.

The ranger who runs the sled dog programs said that I can adopt a dog for the summer and in the future the retired dogs can be adopted. Something to consider for when I settle down somewhere.

First Day in the Park

2009-04-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

Spent 8 hours in the park today on my first day off from work. Everything was closed with the exception of the science center (not pictured). I had the whole place to myself!

Bear Grylls or Surviorman?

2009-04-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

We found this shelter, wanted to test it out.

Me, sporting the vest look. Thanks Mom!

2009-04-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

The early crew

2009-04-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

Out on the dry creek again. We learned that you can pretty much do whatever you want in Alaska so we had a bonfire out here on the creek and drank pricey Alaskan Ambers. Good times.

Mountains at Dusk

2009-04-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

This is a view of the mountains from the vantage of Dry Creek up the road from our cabins.

Macro lens on the forest floor

2009-04-18T10:25:00.000-08:00

Most folks in the lower 48 might find these early pictures to resemble winter scenes. Although there is still a lot of snow on the ground, the warm sun and looong hours of daylight (sunset 10PM+) have us all outside, running around, hiking etc, until the wee hours. Even with the Aspen trees lacking foliage the landscape is still mostly green, unlike the depressing shades of gray back home.

The Love Shack

2009-04-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

This cabin has a rather dubious name, it was inhabited by three men last year (?!), pranksters I imagine... Anyways, this is a typical housing cabin here for the Denali Gift Co. employees. Just think of a shed that would house a riding lawnmower, that's about the same dimensions.

Touchdown Denali!

2009-04-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

I finally arrived in Alaska! Unfortunately I was too overwhelmed with all of the new scenery to take pics on my trip from Anchorage to the cabin in Healy. Here's a pic taken later, you can see a few hotels on the right hand side and also how frozen most of the area still is.

This is the Nenana river as viewed from a pedestrian bridge in the Denali Village. The village is known as "Glitter Gulch" for all of its tourist trappings and accommodations. Hardly glittering or over commecialized in my opinion when compared to other National Parks (not so for natvie Alaskans). In fact Denali is refreshingly subdued. For the enormous size of the park the amount of concessions etc are much less than on would see at Yellowstone or Rocky Mountain National Park.

"New" Bike

2009-04-14T11:57:00.000-08:00

I wanted to get a road bike with some range so I picked up this cherry '84 Peugeot. This thing was winning the Tour back in the day. Sure if I had a grand laying around I would have bought a new roadie but this baby is pretty sharp and damn light. Can this be shipped to AK for cheap?

My Raleigh Fixed Gear Conversion Done...?

2009-03-29T17:00:00.000-08:00