Alaska Bald Eagle. I never get tired of seeing them. I am mesmerized watching them. What an amazing bird.

View looking ahead of me on the frozen river with Jeff in the lead The first picture is in black and white and then the second one is the same view in color. Winter can be pretty monotone on cloudy winter days. Not much difference but some blue sky and Jeff’s red trailer in the color photo. Beautiful either way!

It’s common to see snowmachines and dog sledders pass by the cabin on the frozen Susitna River, less common to see fat bikers but it does happen. I’m always amazed when I see them out there peddling along. It’s hard enough sometimes driving a snowmachine. Alaskans love endurance sports and fat biking takes a lot of endurance. It also takes some toughness to travel out in the Alaskan wilderness, especially in the wintertime. These bikers don’t appear to be carrying many extra clothes or much survival gear and since the weather out in the Alaska wilderness can be unpredictable and brutal, I am dumfounded to see them out there riding sometimes. This was a pretty nice day for a ride though. They seem to be enjoying themselves.

This dog musher was doing a run on the river and passed right in front of the cabin. No races going on so they were just out enjoying the day, probably doing some training for the Iditarod which starts next weekend. We look forward to Iditarod every year. It’s a big deal in Alaska. We love our mushers!

Here’s our burn barrel this winter. It got buried in snow! It’s only February and Jeff is standing on about 3 feet of hard packed snow to get to it and we’re bound to have another foot of snow still before Spring melt. We usually burn all our paper so we can limit the amount of garbage we have to haul out with us when we go to town.

I just love stories about hardy people which you find a lot of in the wilds of Alaska. I’ve told you about the Iron Dog Snowmachine race this year and it’s about time to move on to a new subject but there is one more team I’d like to talk about before I do. Team 21, the Hale Brothers, Israel and Joseph, were the Red Lantern and Rookie Team of the Year for 2021. That means it was their first time to run the race and they were the last team to finish out of 14 teams. They did a great job and they were a fan favorite. The amazing part of this story is that Israel Hale, one of the 2 brothers, was the first double amputee to compete in the IronDog. He was in an accident a few years ago. He was stopped alongside the road repairing a trailer when a driver passing by hit him. The accident caused him to lose both legs. This 2500 mile race is not an easy one anyway and you can imagine what an additional challenge it is to do it as a double amputee. Israel rides with no prosthetics. What an amazing spirit he has to get right up after such a life changing accident and compete in one of the toughest competitions on earth. Way to go Team 21.

Here’s the story of team 14, Boylan and Leslie, in this year’s IronDog race. They did so well. They had the lead and were on the way to the win. After a great race for almost the whole 2500 miles they got to the last leg of the race and were in first place when one of their machines broke down. They couldn’t get it running again so the other machine began towing the broken machine to the finish. During this time team 6 who were only 20 minutes or so behind managed to catch up and take the lead in the last stretch and win. Heartbreaking for team 14 but they should certainly be proud of themsleves for not giving up. They still managed to take 2nd place with a broke down machine. It was funny that team 6 didn’t realize they passed team 14. When they got to the finish line they thought they were second until they realized team 14 wasn’t there yet! You just never know so no matter what keep on going and give it all you got!

Here’s a few pics of the winners of Iron Dog 21, team 6, as they passed by us on their way to Nome last week. 7 days and 2500 miles later they crossed the finish line for the win. Quite a feat considering most of those 2500 miles are through remote Alaska with no other people around. Out of 21 teams that started the race, 14 teams managed to finish with 7 scratches.

We go through lots of wood in the wood stove every day to keep the cabin warm, especially in the wintertime. Jeff stays ahead of the game, keeping a couple year’s worth of stacked wood around already chopped up and drying. Here he is loading up a sled full to resupply the cabin. It’s a daily chore.

While out on the river this past weekend we saw mushers pass by us in the Goose Bay 150 race which is a 150 mile race. I love watching them go by. So cool! It was a cold weekend. They sure are tough riding out there in that kind of weather into the wilds of Alaska.