Tag Archives: history
Moving snow
Hockeyland
Friday Night Lights on ice:
I recently saw the documentary, Hockeytown. This very raw film, follows two high school hockey teams in Northern Minnesota during the 2019-2020 season. Two rivals on very separate paths: Eveleth is the iconic Iron Range town, home of the U.S Hockey Hall of Fame. Both the town and the hockey team are long past their prime years. Hermantown is on the rise, gaining both population and championships.
All the pressure, pride, excitement and disappointment in playing Minnesota’s state sport at the high school level is laid out bare in this very well done documentary.
Texas has football; Indiana has basketball; Minnesota has hockey.
New Glacier
A wilderness guide, Zachary Sheldon, came across a glacier in the Shublik Mountains in northern Alaska. Just thirty miles from the Arctic Coast and ten miles northeast of Alaska’s Brooks Range, it is the northernmost glacier in the United States.
Glaciers this far north are much different than glaciers on our southern coast. There isn’t much snow accumulating this far north, and the elevation of this glacier isn’t as high as others, as it sits at 4500 feet.
Like 99% of glaciers in Alaska, this newly discovered one is not growing in size.
Clam Gulch
It used to be a tradition. A trip to Clam Gulch, clam gun in hand, on the hunt for razor clams. It was always a fun weekend, and we always came back with clams galore.
Those trips have not taken place in 9 years.
The beaches of Clam Gulch and Ninilchik on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula were once a hot bed for clams. For another year, the counts by the Department of Fish and Game showed poor growth, so the beaches will remain closed.
Ninilchik has shown slight progress with some three year old clams, but Clam Gulch is seeing a mortality rate of 90%.
Happy Winter Solstice
The above photo was taken at noon of the Winter Solstice in ’98, as in 1898. P.S. Hunt arrived in Alaska that summer from San Jose, California. It would appear that Hunt named the cabin after his previous hometown.
Way to go Chicken!!
The Chicken, Alaska weather station continues to impress. -63F is the coldest I have ever experienced in Fairbanks.
It was -41F at the cabin on Tuesday morning.
The Iditarod 2023
The “other” sled dog race in Alaska is the Iditarod. Like the Yukon Quest, mushers have been slow to sign up to run in 2023. As of last week, 34 mushers had committed to race. Only one year had such a low number, and that was the first year in 1973.
Several factors have entered into the low number, but the price tag to train a team of dogs right now seems to be the driving factor. The price of gasoline, dog food, and even straw has gone up considerably this past year. A team of 45 dogs can go through six pallets of dog food a year. The average price of a pallet of food has increased by $700 in Alaska, if you train on the road system.
Legends of the sport are also seeing their careers wind down. Jeff King, Dallas Seavey, Mitch Seavey, Joar Leifseth Ulsom and Martin Buser have won a total of 17 races among them, yet none of them have signed up to run in 2023.
The past ten years have seen an average of 64 mushers at the starting line, and 2016 had 85 mushers in the field.
The race to Nome will follow the southern route through the abandoned mining town, and race namesake, Iditarod. Then through Anvike and north to Kaltag, where it rejoins the main trail to Nome.
The ceremonial start in Anchorage is set for March 4, with the restart in Willow the following day.
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