Alaska, in general, seems to be a transient sort of place. People are always shuffling and moving around. Nome is a rather harsh environment and I have seen a lot of friends (and not-so-friends) come and go over the years. Last week 4 friends left town with their kids to move to Anchorage and Talkeetna. I suppose the constant rotation brings fresh (or not-so-fresh) new (and recurring) faces and makes a small town seem larger than it is but it's always sad to see good folks leave. So here's a little tribute, my favorite picture of Wayne, Owen and the kids.

Since returning from NY the temperatures have steadily been 15 – 25 with practically no precipitation. The ice base is forming really well, I wonder if this will be more of a snowless winter unlike Anchorage which has been hit with a few bouts of snow. It’s a little early to tell. I put away my boats for the year and have been eyeing up my snowbike and snow machine, biding my time for a creative excursion. The waterways are frozen which opens up some interesting options. I don't think any recent pictures are worth adding so here's what I'll miss about the Nome summer....

And here's what I look forward to...

The only outside activity I’ve done recently is driving down to the beach cutting wood for the stove. I have about 5-6 face cords- or 1.5 full cord- and am a little frantic to get a few more before the snow flies. I put the saw aside for a half hour the other day and managed a 4 mile run on the sand before getting back to it. Otherwise the training focus has been building my core strength through swimming. I have an hour to swim in the morning and started at 2 km workouts and on my way to 3 km. The 5:30 am wakeup has been getting easier and easier (especially since Hahnah has been training us to wake up at 3am).

There are two races I would (ideally) like to do in 2009, the 350 Ultrasport bike in March and the Yukon 1000 kayak in June/July. The 350 would be a training run to see if my body will adapt a little better to the bike this year for another go at the 1,000 mile to Nome the following year. I really should have done the 350 last year and the 1000 this year instead of vice versa but, hey, hindsight is always 20/20. The words, "don't get injured", will be plastered in my mind. I'm hoping it will activate as a flashing neon sign before the "don't be a wussy" sign starts in on me.

Comments

sasha said…
you are an amazing man. . . and a little bit crazy too. i so admire your strength and ambition, but i also feel the urge to shake you a little. the average adventure simply will not do for phil!! its incredible what you are driven to do. be safe my friend and thank your amazing wife EVERYDAY for being so loving and supportive of your craziness!!!
sasha said…
oh and i love that freakin' picture of the boys and the explorer. i found myself in the almost the exact predicament once, except all four of my tires were sunk. if only i had a camera too. erik and i were having a great time driving down the beach literally just commenting on how cool it is that we could drive our jeep down the beach. we had just passed liu's cabin . . . i think its derby creek or something like that . . . and whop, we just instantly sunk into the soft sand that was covering up the creek below. scary! luckily someone stopped and pulled us out. it took a couple hours to get the right person to come along though. whew . . . good times!!
don said…
I am to be in nome next week for work at the clinic. i hope to meet you. enjoy hearing a little about nome
Phil said…
hey sasha- yes that is definitely my favorite of wayne and the boys. classic. miss those guys already. as for the shaking yeah, you might have to wait in line though :)