Tellyouwhhhut.

We're unofficially collecting Northernisms. My favorite so far was in a "Chinese" "restaurant" in Haines Junction. The bartender was describing some manual labor that a man in her life hadn't yet taken care of. "Tellyouwhhut," she said, "I'll get him to do it just as soon as he finishes his poutine, that's what I'll do." Also, everyone in Canadia seems to say "right on." A lot.

The temperature here has dropped quite a bit and our wood stove has become more necessity than novelty. We were socked in for about a week, but the sun is slowly breaking through. The Nature Center sits at the trailhead of the Historic Iditarod Trail which runs 26 miles to a town called Girdwood. It's a very popular two or three day backpacking trip but also attracts a fair number of speed-hikers and runners who complete the trail in less than a day. We've had a few groups and several individuals who had already made it through this year, but they've all reported near white-out conditions and waist-deep snow. Steve and I plan to do this trip at some point, but will probably wait a month or so. Ben, naturally, wants to do the hike in a day.

To anyone who knows the Nicki/Leo/Georgie/Ranger/Ben clan: this is for real. We caught the live show.

These pictures were taken at the top of nearby Mt. Baldy. Bob leaves for Austin tomorrow morning and I'm rather heartbroken. It's only been a week and a half, but we've learned everything we know from him. The next resident volunteer to join us, Molly, will arrive sometime next week.

This is where we live.

<--This was taken from one of the viewing decks. The peaks are Polar Bear and Eagle, and Hurdygurdy is just out of view to the right.

Bob pointing to one of our more sizable beaver dams. The beavers have moved out of our part of the valley this year. -->

Bear

We just watched a large black bear try desperately to get into the bear-proof dumpster outside our kitchen. Bob, our (wonderful) co-worker, went outside to investigate and reported that the top of the dumpster looked like it had been attacked with a machine gun. At one point it was standing fully on top of the dumpster, yanking at the locking mechanism. We assume it's the same bear that a few visitors reported seeing on the trails yesterday.

We made it!

The trip was long but fun. We discovered quickly that the "mid-May"
opening date for most camp sites has been pushed back due to unusually cold and snowy weather in northern BC and the Yukon. We camped for two bitterly cold nights (once on a playground) and splurged on a tiny room in Toad River.
In four days we saw seven bears, four moose, twenty bison (we passed an entire herd and saw some very young calves), a fox, some caribou, and a few wild horses. The last day of the drive included some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen; the horizon seemed to have been edged with > 8,000 ft rick rack trim. We were warmly welcomed to the nature center early Wednesday evening and had time to get ourselves unpacked in our (wonderful) cabin, and to drive over to visit Ben in his yurt. The sky was still bright when we went to bed around 11 pm.
The next morning, Ben took us on a tour of the grounds and we started learning to identify the peaks and the plants. The weather could not have been better: 70 F and brightly sunny.
We drove into Anchorage Friday morning. As we pulled out of the nature center parking lot, I looked over at the mailboxes and thought "well that's tacky," of and oddly-placed 8 ft statue of a moose by the side of the road. And then it moved. Somehow I'd forgotten where we were...

And then there's Friday's big highlight, which can only be described in pictures (we attended the parade).