Here’s Jeff drilling holes in the thick river ice so we can fish for burbot.

Our favorite winter sporting event on the river has got to be the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. We love watching and routing on the best dog mushers in the world as they race 1000 miles from Willow to Nome the first week of March every year. They run down the Susitna River and we meet friends and make a day of it watching the mushers go by. Here are pics of this year’s winner, Ray Redington and some of his dogs that led him to victory. His grandfather, Joe Redington, was instrumental in starting the Iditarod in the 70’s and is called the Father of the Iditarod. Although Joe ran the race he never won it. It’s nice to see his grandson win it decades later.

Here are pics from this year’s Iron Dog in February. This snowmachine race goes from Big Lake near us to Nome and back – 2000 miles. It’s a big deal here in Alaska. The best riders in the State. They pass right near us on the river so we love to go watch them race by each year. This year it was a snowy day so Jeff put up an umbrella so I could keep my camera dry as I took photos. They ride in teams and team #7 Nick Olstad and Tyler Akelestad won the race. I got a good pic of Nick as he passed by.

It snowed till late this morning and when all was said and done we probably had about 20″ of snow in one snowstorm. I tried to walk to the outhouse but my boots got filled up with snow so I got Jeff to run me a path on the snowmachine! He ended up staying out for awhile making new trails all over the yard and across the river. You can see how deep the snow was as his snowmachine plowed through it. I hope we’re done with snowstorms like that this winter. Enough!

This has been one of the snowiest winters on record. Anchorage has had over a hundred inches of snow this winter and the Susitna and Matanuska Valleys have had about the same. Here it is April 11 and we’re getting snowed on again. It’s been snowing since yesterday afternoon and coming down thick all day today and it’s supposed to continue all night long and into tomorrow morning. Good grief! I thought we’d be getting the boat in the water soon but the river is still frozen like a rock.

The Susitna 100 is another winter race on the river every year. I am in awe watching these people go by the cabin. They bike, walk or ski in a 100 mile race on snow and ice through the wilds of Alaska where there are no roads, no people, in extreme weather conditions. This year there was a blizzard going on while they were racing. Tough athletes!

This winter we watched the Knik 200 dog sled race out on the Susitna River as the mushers passed by the cabin. The Susitna River is used for a lot of winter sports.

It’s been a long winter as usual in Alaska. I haven’t posted since last October but it’s been much the same as other winters. White is the big word. Here’s a few pics from winter riding on the trails. Jeff marked the path with branches to help us find the trail. It can be pretty difficult finding your way in a blizzard.

The Fall season is changing to winter soon and our transportation changes from boat to snowmachine. Jeff got the boat all tarped up and stored away protected from the winter weather to come and he got one snowmachine out to work on to get it ready for winter season.

It snowed in the city already. Here’s pics. That was last week though and it’s all gone now. It had been in the 30’s in the days and the snow stuck around a few days. It’s supposed to be in the 40’s during the days this week and snow isn’t expected again until next week when it gets back to the 30’s in the daytime. The nights have been mostly 30’s and a few 20’s. I already got my winter coat, gloves and hat out. I’ll be getting my snow boots out soon.