Training

Training this summer has been a lot of fun! It's been the most intense muscle aching work outs that I've had, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Skagway is at sea level with mountains towering over 7-9 thousand feet so all the trails, roads, rails are all up. Which makes it calf burning city! My main motivator is getting back into competitive shape. The reason the training has been so fun is mainly because the sun is up for 20 hours and all of the landscape is breath taking
I have been trying to determine which marathon I would run this August. I was torn between the Yukon River Trail Marathon (which is considered the hardest in North America) or the Juneau Marathon. I finally decided a week ago to do the Juneau marathon for many reasons. But mainly I was worried about doing one of the hardest marathons as my first one might leave a sour taste in my mouth. I've stayed on track with my training goals and have 3 more weeks to go for the Juneau Marathon!
Immediately after finishing the marathon I will be switch my training over for some triathlons. I have decided to do the Ogden Tri again, last year was a lot of fun and I know I'll be a lot stronger this year. And then the Extera Tri which is in the end of September. Both will be challenging but a lot of fun! I will only have 3.5 weeks to get back into swimming shape, but I figure my cardio should be pretty strong and shouldn't be to difficult....I hope!

This week has been good, on Monday morning a woke up early and headed up to Upper Deay Lake to summit the glacier mountains behind it. This would be my first real glacier climb. It was way intense at took about 4 hours to summit. The view up top was breath taking! I'm addicted now and have some other summit/glacier climbs in mind before I leave.
On Tuesday I decided to take a break on my knees and did some cycling. The only real road here is towards the summit of Canada so I grabbed my passport and made the long trek up the pass. It's only 15 miles but its a slow steep pass that will make your legs burn! I forgot to dress appropriately for the ride back down. It was really cold but exhilarating, you can get up to 50 mph coming down!
Today I was able to throw down some more miles to prepare for the marathon. I did 15 miles but, after 13 I started to get really dizzy and could barely keep the road in focus. I realized that I hadn't eating for over 8 hours and the GU wasn't holding up. The last two miles were pretty difficult. Learned a good lesson!
My parents purchased their tickets to come to AK! I'm way excited for them to come! They deserve a good vacation and I'm trying to set up some sweet excursions for them.
I know this was a long post but I lost my hard drive on the Mac and wanted to catch up.

Sunset

Sometimes when I look back at my past week I can't remember when and where I did what. Everything just becomes a blur. Sure glade I take a lot of pictures so I can look back and remember what and where I've been. This last week has been great. It was the first time I've seen the sunset for almost 2 months. Being so far north and at sea level with giant mountains all around it blocks the sun from actually setting (like it does in Id and UT). However, I was able to capture some good pics.

Bennett Lake, Carcross BC

I made it over to Haines a few days ago. Since I was 16 I've heard Haines AK, over and over in professional ski films like TGR. When I decided to work in Skagway I was excited to learn how close Haines is. I jumped onto the fast ferry with my friend and 45 minutes later I learned why it was so famous. The town and mountains were everything I had imagined big mountians tucked under a beautiful small town. Actually Haines is 4 times larger then Skagway and has been rated over and over again as one of the best small towns to live in. Once you go there you'll know why!

Haines

I attempted to hike Goat lake yesterday..... I failed for misjudging the weather. Goat lake has a pipe line that powers all of skagway and there really isn't a trail so you hike on the pipe line all the way to the top in the Sawtooth mtn valley. After hiking a ways and forgetting that it had rained the night before deemed the pipe line very slippery. Plus I took my buddies dog Annie which couldn't get around the larger cliffs so we turned around and I drove to Canada to chill at Tushi lake. I will attempt it again!

The Alasakan Dream!

Looking into Upper Dewey and the Ocean

At 3:02 p.m today myself Christen and Dave stared at each other with the same look in our eyes not knowing if we were going to catch our train back to Skagway at 3:25 p.m. We still had a ways to go on the trail. Earlier that day we rode the White Pass Yukon Train (mainly for tourism) to be dropped off in the middle of no where to hike to Lottin Glacier. We only had 2+ hours to hike to the glacier and make it back to the train. We power hiked to the magnificently huge glacier and snapped a few shots and turned back the direction we came from. When we took our short break at 3:02 we knew that the rest of the trip would be a full on run. As we set off to go Christen bent over and started taking off her boots. I asked what she was doing. She said, "I can run faster with out them." I stuffed the boots in my pack and off we went with the barefooted girl. She ran fast and we made it to the train 2 minutes before it got there.

Christen running back barefoot!

There is always something adventures about running to catch the last train after a hike. If we had missed the train we would of had a 15 mile hike back to Skagway!

Lottin Glacier

Just two days ago at 9:00 p.m me and some other friends decided to hike to Upper Dewey Lake. Its only 4 miles but everything over here is straight up so its a very strenuous long 4 miles. We left the trail head after 10 p.m. I guess only in Alaska could you hike until 12:30 when there is still light. When we arrived at the lake we found one of the cabins that were built in the early 1900's empty so we piled inside for cover from the wind and spent the night.

Me filling up the Nalgene for the best water in the world! No joke!

Upper Dewey and the sun rising

The next morning was so beautiful. The sun was poking over the jagged mountains and made for some good photos. Christen and Casey Fromm left at 5 am to go to work and I stayed to push further up the trail. I hiked a few more miles and found a large waterfall gushing out with snow all around. I made it to the top of the waterfall and didn't want to mess with the unstable rocks so I traversed over the the snow, flipped my backpack around and rode all the way down! It was riot.

Waterfall and my tracks sliding on my backpack.

Alaska has been amazing so far, I've really enjoyed every thing up here. The people are chill, the scenery is breathtaking, the Church is strong, plus this place is perfect for training. I will be running the Yukon River Trail Marathon in August 2. (Thanks to my brother-in-law Luke who has put together my training plan and worked out some of my injuries.)

I logged more than 2300 miles by myself driving to Alaska from Idaho. I started early in the morning with a small radiator leak that stuck with me the entire trip. I made it to Missoula Montana where I took a break to ride some trails up Rattlesnake canyon. I was impressed with the amount of trails and folks that used them. It was a good hour mountain bike ride and I took off to make my way to Glacier National Park. The park was beautiful and quite with few tourists.


The next day I made it to Banff and Jasper National Parks which were breath taking. I've lived next to the Rocky Mountains my whole life but the Canadian Rockies are different, they are tall jagged mountains full of snow and glaciers. After I had traveled through these three parks I was getting lonely and ready to get to Alaska. The night before I stayed at a hostile because it was snowing and tents weren't allowed for the season. I had internet and bought Angles and Daemons the audio tape off of I-tunes for the following long day. I had about a 1000 miles left and wanted to travel a good distance that day. I was glade I bought the audiotape for it was my savior when I traveled the entire distance to Skagway Alaska.


Driving on the Alcan was interesting, its a wide two lane highway that's very desolate. I would go an hour before seeing another vehicle. Bison and Caribou where the main animals I saw but but I saw several black/brown bears, deer, elk, wolves etc.
When I finally pulled off the Alcan and headed towards Canada there was a lot of snow all around me. The mountains were huge and all the lakes were still frozen. You drop thousands of feet to sea level and turn the corner into Skagway. When I arrived the first thing I noticed was the smell of blooming flowers and trees.
So far my time here in Alaska has been what I always imagined Alaska would be like. Big and beautiful!

My first blog

For some time now I've been checking other peoples blogs religiously and figured it was time to start my own. This will follow the outdoor sports I take part in, the areas that I travel, and the progress I (and others) have made in humanitarian work around the world. My first real post about my trip on the Alaska/Canadian Highway to Skagway will be coming soon!