A Beautiful November Morning

It was a great morning to kayak into work today. Work on the kayak took a break for the weekend. Instead, I made key lime pies and went to the movies. There was also a Monthly Grind, I didn't perform but I did help on stage. Pictured below is where the kayak progress is at right now. I accidentally cut the strongback a foot too short. So I'm gonna run to the lumber store, pick up another 16-footer, and run and carry it back here. So, yes, quite literally "run to the store" and "pick up."

The Kayak Part 1

I pretty much will never get this blog caught up to all the stories I want to share.  I'll just have to tell you all the stories I have when I see you next.

This summer I made the drawings for the kayak.  In Nick Schade's book he gives a table of offsets and from that you can make an x and y scatter plot.  I saved the x and y scatter plot as a script file and then imported it in to AutoCAD. I don't own AutoCAD but I sure got a good use out of the 30-day trial. I had a cool picture of the kayak drawn up in AutoCAD but I think it disappeared when my Windows 30-day trial was up.  Apparently, I didn't save it onto the Macintosh half of my hard-drive.  Well, after spending lots of time trying to perfect the drawings I had them printed off at a local civil engineering firm.  I was so curious as to how close my drawings were to the real thing that I couldn't resist purchasing the real plans to compare. I'm glad I did because there were a number of differences. Mine are on the right and the real ones are on the left.

In September, my western red cedar arrived from Hoonah. The lumber mill that it came from had quite a fire this summer. Fortunately, everyone was okay and their business survived. I was going to build out by my apartment but Karen offered that I could build in her building! She said she didn't want to see me go from the building and that maybe a class from the high school next door might be interested in seeing the kayak's progress.  I thought that sounded like a great idea!

I pasted the drawings onto 1/2" plywood and cut those out with a jig saw.  They looked beautiful.  I didn't want to cut them anymore, but I did. I cut holes in the middle so I could place them on the strongback.

Well, that's all I have so far!  I need to rip down all the cedar planks I have (you might be able to see them in the back of the pictures).  Once I rip those down I'll be running the strips along these forms and that will really flesh out the kayak.

So I like Puffins

I performed at the Monthly Grind again. This was one of the things in September that kept me from any kayak-building progress. I had agreed to perform way back in the summer when writing two new songs* seemed like something that I had all the time in the world to do. September was fast fading, especially with the Klondike run and the church bell-ringing (I'll explain that one later). And I had two people that I had asked to play with me who were wanting to practice with me. It's a little hard to practice songs when they haven't been written. Anyway, where I'm going with this is... as the end of September approached, all my focus was on writing two songs. This one I will share with you is very goofy. Please excuse the few mistakes in the song.

*I certainly didn't have to write two new songs just for this event, but it is my goal to do it that way. I could do covers, but I think they are best left to people that can actually sing really well and are good performers. I could do a song I've already written but I had already played my best ones so something new is what's left.

Mt. Verstovia got some snow

I learned something recently (from my friend Paul) that I appreciate knowing. You will often hear Mt. Verstovia called Arrowhead, because the tip of it resembles an arrowhead.  And if you call it Arrowhead, you will often be corrected and told, "Arrowhead is actually about 2 miles that way," as the person points. So why is there a mountain that is not given much attention the one that actually gets to be named Arrowhead?  Because a cartographer didn't like one mountain having two names: Arrowhead and Verstovia.  So this cartographer moved the name Arrowhead to arbitrary peak, and that has led to much confusion and annoying corrections I'm sure. Now that you know that, I will share some pictures.

Annual precipitation in a few various U.S. cities

Kayaked to work

I'm going to blog backwards. I have so many blogs I want to do that go back to my visit home to Idaho this summer. I have a feeling if I work backwards I'll more likely get them done. So this blog will be the most recent one.

I finally started my kayak. The western red cedar that I ordered from an outfit in Hoonah finally arrived.  It arrived on the day I was leaving on the ferry to run in a race. Well, a couple days before my cedar arrived my friend and neighbor said she was selling her kayak. I thought it would be very nice to have a kayak that I could actually use since I had no idea when I would be able to finish my kayak. So I bought the kayak and she and I kayaked to work Wednesday. (She used her newer one that she had just bought.)

It was such a gorgeous day and it was supposed to be the last gorgeous day that we'll have in a while. We had nearly 2 weeks (I believe) of sunshine. It was quite overwhelming!

When I got to work, I was asked if I wanted to accompany a group from the high school hiking up Mt. Verstovia.  I said of course I did.  So, I have pictures from that, too.

Compare this picture to the bright green picture from a hike up Mt. Verstovia in August.

Pictured below is the path of kayaking to work. Some people asked if I live on an island when I said I kayaked to work. No, just kayaking along the shore; simply an alternative to taking the road.

Klondike Road Relay 2010

I ran in a race on the Klondike Highway.  It is a yearly event that teams run from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Canada.  I had never been to Canada either, so it was a great introduction to our northern neighbor.

There are ten legs in the race, so ideally, you want a team of ten. I was on a team from Sitka originally, but it ended up not working out for everyone and it sorta fell apart. It seems a large number of teams have trouble keeping all the numbers that signed up in the first place so there are quite a few teams scrambling to find last-minute runners. A few members from the team I was on dispersed and joined other teams. I joined a Juneau team called the UAS Road Scholars at the last minute.

I was worried that I was going to slow down the team since I had not been training as much as I would've liked.  I felt like I was not in as good of shape as I had been when I ran the half-marathon in Boise three years ago. I predicted I would run 11-minute miles.

The race started at 7:30 PM PST on Friday evening. The first four members of our team shared a vehicle and followed the race. Meanwhile, the runners following the first four, myself included, tried to get a little sleep before leaving around midnight to get to checkpoint 5.

I maybe slept an hour and then we were off. We got to checkpoint 5 and I was the next runner so I was pretty nervous. We got there about an hour before when we predicted the switch would be. I couldn't rest in the car though, I was too nervous! So, I got out and just stood by and watched all the runners.

It was about 2:30 in the morning when I started running. It felt so crazy running in the middle of the night. It was dark. Every runner was required to wear reflective gear for the cars that passed on the road. Some runners wore head lamps to see where they were going. I didn't wear a head lamp. It was sort of a thrill to run when it was pitch black and not know for sure where my feet were landing. I ran along Tutshi Lake and I crossed the border from British Columbia to the Yukon Territory. It was about a 14-mile run and I made it to checkpoint 6 at 4:36 AM. I ran 9-minute miles! My team called me a sandbagger. Hahaha.

I should mention that the race started at 7:30 for a few teams.  From then on there were teams that began every half hour until midnight.  The fastest teams started at midnight.

The last picture is Tutshi Lake.

A hike up Mt. Verstovia

I joined some friends on a hike up Mt. Verstovia on a gorgeous day in August. I will share some pictures.  Right before the hike, my good friend and co-worker Eileen and I were at work.  I was going to drive us and someone else out to the trail head.  As Eileen was preparing some snacks to eat on the hike, I was casually throwing my keys into the air and catching them.  They landed in the light fixture up above and I had to stack some tables up to retrieve them! I have a SketchUp drawing of the building I work in that I update from time-to-time. I thought since I was up there that I might as well take some measurements of the light fixture so I could include it in the SketchUp drawing. I just wanted to tell that story and share a picture from that.

SketchUp drawing.

Compare this vibrant green picture to the picture from a hike in September.

Brandi Carlile in Fairbanks

Just so my mom knows: I looked into getting a bus from Denali National Park to Fairbanks and a park service lady actually recommended that I hitchhike!  Hitchhiking is not that bad of a thing in Alaska.

Anyway, I made a sign.  I was making this sign at the park's mercantile and the employee was loaning me markers to make it with.  I guess I shouldn't go into details about poor Sharpies and highlighters but I am aware the sign could be improved upon... but I was hitchhiking so it wasn't like I was gonna put this in my portfolio!

I went down to where the tourist shops are.  It was raining very hard.  I held the sign out and a couple cars passed.  I held the sign out for the next group of cars and one pulled over.  I was shocked how quickly it happened and I was actually in disbelief that the car pulled over for me. A backpacker got out, he had just gotten a ride from Anchorage to Denali National Park. The lady that gave me a ride was very nice.  She was driving from Anchorage to Fairbanks to pick up her 78-year-old mother and drive her back. She said she was borrowing her son's car and if either of her children knew about her picking up hitchhikers they would have a meltdown. I told her if my mother knew I was hitchhiking she would have a meltdown!


When we got to town, I had her drop me off at this area of town that had some restaurants as I was very hungry. I ate at Pizza Hut and looked at the directions to the hostel. My walk to the hostel turned out to be almost four miles! With a large backpack that is a lot! Well, in my mind making it to the hostel was my only goal because once I got there then I would get info on taking the bus to the Brandi Carlile show that started at 8 pm.

The hostel has a big lawn for setting up tents if you choose to camp out instead of sleeping in a bed. So I got to the hostel, checked in, set up my tent, took a shower, and then I was ready to go to my concert which was in two hours. I figured I had plenty of time if I was going to be taking a bus. Well, I was talking to a guy about the bus system and he asked where my concert was.  I told him the Blue Loon and he replied, "The Blue Loon!? You're not gonna make it, the buses don't go out that far!" He asked if I had paid for my ticket already and how much, as if I was only determined to make it there because I paid a whopping $31 for it.  I didn't waste anytime and I said I was going to run.  There was no question about whether I was going to go or not. I took with me my sweater and rain jacket because I had no idea what the weather might be on my long walk back, and a water bottle because I was worried about being dehydrated. It was too warm at the time to run in jeans but I was so thankful I had brought along my running shoes, it would've been painful to run in Xtratufs!
 
I left at precisely 6 o'clock and arrived to the Blue Loon at 7:09 pm.  I couldn't have arrived at a better time and I couldn't have asked for a better run!  There were so many times I wanted to stop to take pictures, but I felt I had to discipline myself from that if I was going to make it because really I had no idea how far I was going. I was running along the Interstate that runs all the way to Anchorage.  There was this part as I was coming around a bend that gave a wide open view of the trees and tundra.  I was running in daylight but out into the hills were some very dark and massive storm clouds. It was such a gorgeous run.

(click for a big picture. The map has the Pizza Hut, hostel, and Blue Loon pointed out. The run was 6.15 miles)

I got to be in the front row for the concert. Brandi Carlile has two members in her band, Tim and Phil Hanseroth. They played an all acoustic concert, i.e. plugged in acoustic guitars; no electric guitars or drums.  Although they did one song completely acoustic, so they didn't sing into any microphones or use any amplifiers. Anyway, the whole show was completely delightful.


After the show, Brandi was selling posters and autographing them. I told her how I last saw her in Boise, Idaho and since then I moved up to Alaska so I was excited when I saw that she was touring here. She asked if I lived in Fairbanks, to which I replied no, Sitka.  She asked me how I got to Fairbanks. I told her I flew, took a bus, and then hitchhiked. She gave me a surprised look and told me to be safe on my return home. I told her I would be because I was taking the train. Haha.

There were some people at the show that recognized me from passing me on the road. This lady said to me, "Were you the shirtless guy running?" I said yes.  She and her friends had said to themselves that it would be funny if I was running to the concert. They were outside having a cigarette when I showed up to the Blue Loon and they laughed because I had been running to the concert. They offered me a ride home and I gladly accepted.  Since it had been an hour run it could've been a very long walk home! They gave me a ride all the way back to the hostel and they kept saying they couldn't believe I ran all that way. However, they all agreed that Brandi was well worth such a run!


Update: I got some videos uploaded on YouTube so I will post one here now.

Denali National Park

I camped out in Denali National Park for three days. It was cloudy and rainy all three days! I'm not letting it bum me out too much because it was a wonderful experience. However, I went with the idea that it would be a once in a lifetime trip. My plan was to go out to the park, get some good photos of the mountain and go on my merry way. However, I never saw the mountain! Now I feel like someday I will try again but I don't know... it just feels like one of those books that leaves you hanging, or the ending was not what you wanted. Maybe that's a bit dramatic... It was a good trip nonetheless.


I saw wildlife from the bus ride out to the park. I am thankful I didn't run into any wildlife while I was hiking. I took a dip in Wonder Lake. (I hadn't showered in 3 days so it was a good thing I did.) The mosquitos got an early Thanksgiving though.


I'm thinking I will trace an outline of where the mountain should be over my pictures of clouds. Only problem is I couldn't tell where the mountain was supposed to be (I knew the general direction but I had no idea where it's outline would be or how high it would reach in the sky).

The next is a cell phone picture of some Dall Sheep. The sheep were right next to the road!

Anchorage

My time in Anchorage was brief. I did however get a chance to purchase a new camera, which I'm excited about. 


I got to check out the Anchorage Museum and they had some wonderful paintings of Denali. The "technical" name of the mountain is Mt. McKinley, but I much prefer the native Athabaskan name of Denali which means "The High One."


I also enjoyed seeing these kayaks that the native Alaskans built long ago.

Speaking of kayak building: I haven't made progress with mine! For one, my western red cedar that I'm getting from Hoonah is delayed. And for the other reason I don't have a good place to build. Because I could start without the cedar.  I would place all the forms on the strongback, but I don't have anywhere to do that at the moment. I will have a good place in September though, so I'm just hoping things go smoothly soon.