The Southeast Continues: Juneau, AK
Posted: May 31, 2012 Filed under: Alaskan Cities, Beer, Camping, Hiking, National and State Parks, Wildlife | Tags: Alaska, Juneau, landscape, Photography, Southeast Alaska, Travel 3 Comments »We took way, way to many pictures (over 500) during our nine day trip so today I thought I would present the next leg of our journey in pictures.
Our Juneau, Alaska photo journal:
On the Ferry…
The M/V Columbia.
Wonderful visit to the Alaskan Brewing Company!
The view from Mt. Roberts (Juneau below).
Bald eagles at Auk Bay.
Handsome, Eagle.
One of the many harbors, plus the mountain reflection. Makes me happy.
Whale Tail: Step 1
Whale Tail: Step 2
Whale Tail: Step 3
Beach walk on our drive “out the road.”
Mendenhall Glacier. Love. Love. Love.
View of the Mendenhall from the west glacier trail.
Lake feed by the glacier, near our campground. Great views in our own backyard.
Steaming to Sitka!
The Southeast Continues: Ketchikan, Alaska
Posted: May 30, 2012 Filed under: Alaskan Cities, Camping, Hiking | Tags: Alaska, Ketchikan, landscape, Photography, Southeast Alaska, Travel 3 Comments »
We arrived in Ketchikan, AK in the late afternoon, after a “milk run” plane ride. Meaning we stopped everywhere on our way: Fairbanks to Anchorage, Anchorage to Juneau, Juneau to Sitka, and finally Sitka to Ketchikan. Needless to say, I was happy to be off the plane, ready to begin our adventure.
Ketchikan is on an island. A small dot of civilization on a wild, rugged coastline. The town itself is a mix of industrialism and tourism. These two seemingly opposing sides of the coin geographically split the town. From the airport ferry drop-off to downtown we walked through two different world. Outside the downtown, the city is framed in metal shipping containers and warehouses and commercial fishing boats, rusted and twisted by harsh weather. It felt gritty and real. The transition to downtown was striking. Fresh paint, bright signs, little shops, and looming over the harbor, giant cruise ships that swamp the town in loads of people when they dock. The strange thing is the two parts seem to merge and separate seamlessly. I liked the juxtaposition of it all.
The little downtown was cute, and tiny, but my favorite part was seeing Creek Street. Not because I wanted to shop or the salmon where running, but because my grandparent’s had been there, many years before, on their own vacation. I had seen the picture my Gram took of the shops lifted up over the water by stilt-like wooden beams, and I wanted to merge the real version with her picture. Memories laid on memories. And it lived up in the live version. A quaint, walking-only street, floating in the air over water.
We only had a short visit in Ketchikan, but to me, these were the highlights:
- Ward Lake- our pretty (but loud) campground. Nestled in a valley ward lake is surrounded by snow capped mountains and features a walking trail that circles the lake. On the trail, green draped trees towered over us, twisting towards the sky like sleeping giant. Sitting by the lake, in the shadow of the mountains was a beautiful place to eat our first dehydrated dinner of the trip!
- Deer Mountain- a local called this the “standard” hike, and I can see why. With a quick rise in elevation after just a few short miles, it offers spectacular views. I loved both the hike through the temperate rainforest (more green- I may be obsessed!) and the ocean/mountain views at the top. We didn’t get all the way up, about 500 feet short of the summit, because the snow was still very heavy, but it didn’t impact the beauty. We could see out over another distant island, and on the farthest horizon, snow covered Canadian mountains. Water drifted like dark ink between the green and white pockets of land making the world seem like the wide screen opening of a movie. Pretty, pretty.
- Rotary Beach- our first ocean stop. Here I loved the piles of sun bleached drift wood stacked in haphazard designs, the rocky crests of tide pools, and slow lapping of the stunted ocean waves. We ate lunch here, smelling the thick aroma of salt and drying seaweed, and later came back for a nap/break. It is such a different kind of Alaska leaning against the smoothed wood, sitting in sand, scanning the sky for eagles.
- Totem Bight State Historical Park- the totems in this park are as impressive as I imagined they would be. A gravel path weaves through the woods to an open area with totems looking out towards the ocean. I loved the intricate designs, paint colors and patterns, and the stories they tell through symbols. A remarkable history. Most totems are made of red cedar because it resists rot and for the height, isn’t as heavy as other kinds of wood. Standing beside one of the massive totems made me feel toy-solider-small.
- Settlers Cove- our second camp ground, snug against the rock shoreline with a waterfall pushing fresh water out into a new salty world. And it was quiet. Thankfully. So quiet. Here we also hiked, Lunch Falls Loop, with nice view of the waterfall and the river, more green on green, and the howling of ravens that sounded so much like monkeys it felt like we had slipped into the jungle. Dinner on the rocks looking out at the ocean.
Bright and early on our last day we boarded the ferry. Best way to travel ever! The solarium, a covered outdoor deck complete with overhead heaters and chase-lounge chairs, was our spot. We put our sleep pads and sleeping bags right on the chairs and watched the scenery float by while snug and warm.
Steaming to Juneau!
Exploring Southeast Alaska
Posted: May 28, 2012 Filed under: Alaskan Cities, Camping, Hiking, National and State Parks | Tags: Alaska, landscape, Photography, Rainforest, Southeast Alaska, Travel 2 Comments »
Last week Lucas and I went on a nine day adventure to Southeast Alaska. It is a place of extremes: overwhelming mountain and ocean views coupled with intense weather and an abundance of wildlife. In moments of sun or clear skies, it was beautiful, like seeing a cloud of sparklers at night, almost magical. But other days, it was wet and foggy, which was sometimes eerily striking in its own right, and sometimes equally frustrating. I have never been so glad to own a good rain coat.
*Map courtesy of http://montessoriborealis.wordpress.com/about/
It was a traveling trip. We flew into Ketchikan, AK, a small town of around 14,000 people, and the southern most city on our trip. We spent two nights camping and touring this area before hopping on the Marine Highway, the state ferry system that connects this roadless corner of Alaska. Our ferry, the Columbia, passed through the even smaller towns of Wrangell and Petersburg, before we reached our next destination, Juneau. The state capital, and home to around 31,000 people, Juneau is nestled in a narrow straight with mountains on all sides. Here we explored and camped for three nights before getting on a new ferry, the Fairweather, for our final boat ride to Sitka. It is a small town, around 8,000 people, on the outer edge of the southeast, surrounded by little islands that dot the ocean like gum drops. We spent three nights here, staying with a family friend. I loved the sinking immersion of being in one region for so long and seeing how the little communities that stretch out across this part of the Alaskan coast are so similar and yet so different.
One of my favorite unifying factors was the Tongass National Forest, part of the largest temperate rainforest in the world that stretches 1,000 miles along the coastline of the Pacific. All the places we visited were dripping in green for this exact reason. On several of our hikes in the southeast, moss and lichen were so invasive it covered every inch of the forest floor, wrapped up around the trunks of trees, and hung like gnarled green hair from the limps above. A snow globe of green. After months of white on white, it felt almost like falling into another world.
In addition to the forests, and the snow capped mountains towering over them, the ocean and the culture it creates seem to tie this part of Alaska together in a way roads never could. Fishing is life here, whether as a profession, for food, or for fun, boats and harbors are more plentiful than parking lots. Access to the water expands the reach and scope of life in the southeast making the small stretches of land populated with people feel much bigger than they look. And of course, I never get tired of seeing all the marine life that thrive in this isolated place.
I can’t possible write about our whole trip in one blog, so this is the introduction. Welcome to the southeast. More to come in the next few days.
The Rise of Olive Oil
Posted: May 17, 2012 Filed under: Food, Writing | Tags: Food, Olive Oil, Recipes, Writing 1 Comment »
Today the second issue (May+June) of Food Loves Beer Magazine was released. I may be a little bias, but I think this is a great new digital food/beer magazine. And it’s free! To check it out click here. My article, The Rise of Olive Oil, starts on page 69 and includes one of my all-time favorite recipes, Spicy Bread-Dipping Sauce. Enjoy!
“Greenup” in Alaska
Posted: May 15, 2012 Filed under: Alaskan Cities, Nomad | Tags: Alaska, landscape, Photography, Spring, Travel 1 Comment »
For months I have been hearing tales of spring from the lower forty-eight, bright colors, intense blooms, vivid greens, while I looked at muddy piles of melting snow, matted down brown grass, and naked trees. But that is all changing, fast. According to the local Fairbanks newspaper, the Daily News Miner, we are finally joining the rest of the country in our little corner of Alaska.
Thursday, the National Weather Service announced that Fairbanks, AK had official entered “greenup.” Greenup is a new term for me so I will give you the definition listed in the newspaper: “Although somewhat subjective, greenup ‘is the 
rapid transformation of the landscape from brown to spring green as the leaves of deciduous trees burst forth,’ according to greenup guru Ted Fathauer, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.”
Most locals agree that greenup, aka spring, all happens within a matter of two weeks. Brown to green with the snap of your fingers, and from what I have seen so far they seem to be right. This weekend when we were driving to meet friends, I looked up at the tree line and realized it had changed. Instead of scratchy branches, the trees were peppered with lime green sprinkles that almost seemed to glow or sparkle in the evening light. Green. Actual green. It seems the only color I have seen, for months and months, is white. I hadn’t realized how hungry for color I was until I looked at those trees popping with buds of spring. It felt like getting a new box of crayons, all the points still sharp.
I am still skeptical that winter is really over, especially when I hear that in Denali National Park it has been snowing all week. Fresh inches piling up. But for now, I am embracing the green of greenup, like an oasis of color. Fingers crossed the color palate here in Alaska just keeps growing.
The Queen of Dehydrating
Posted: May 10, 2012 Filed under: Backpacking, Food | Tags: Backpacking, Camping Food, Dehydrating, Food, One Pot Wonder 3 Comments »
Over the last month or so I have been on a quest to stock our “cache” with dozens of homemade dehydrated meals for our upcoming summer backpacking and camping trips. I am getting so used to the bee-like hum of our dehydrator it feels a little quiet without it. I am on the fast track to being a dehydrating expert.
We dreamed up our great dehydrating plan at Christmas time when we were searching for gift ideas on an outdoor website. Why hadn’t we thought of this before? It made perfect sense for people like us. We have, since the beginning of our backpacking days, struggled to break out of the monotony of eating couscous and peanut butter every other meal while on the trail, and here, right on the computer screen was the answer. Our outdoor culinary world was about to change.
Until a month ago, the dehydrator had been sitting unused, waiting, like us, for the snow to melt. And melt it has, at least enough to start getting outside in our tent again. So I checked out a book, Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail, and the journey began.
I am amazed at how easy it is. Cook a meal, preferable one that has all the major food groups covered. A one pot wonder. Spread it out over parchment paper or thin plastic trays you can buy to go with the machine. Plug in and wait. It takes time, but you don’t really need to do anything with it while you wait. If you are around, you can speed up the process by crumbling the food a little half way through, but other than that the machine does the work. Once it is completely dry, pour it into a bowl, crush it up a little more, and package. Dinner is done.
We even splurged for a food saver, to make our meals vacuum-packed, but you can also use high quality zip lock bags, which we sometimes still do. So far, we have 22 meals in the “cache” and two more humming in the dehydrator today. Keep it coming!
We have eaten two of our creations out in the woods so far: Sierra Spaghetti and Chickpea Brown Rice Soup. Both excellent. Sierra Spaghetti includes white beans and a touch of heat, adding protein and flavor. The soup is pureed, with a tomato base, and is nice and hearty. There is nothing like a tasty, hot meal while sitting in the shadow of the Alaska Range.
I am a dehydrating convert! It makes dinner fast, light, cheap, healthy, and yummy. No turning back now.
Sierra Spaghetti:
Ingredients: olive oil, onion, mushroom, garlic, spaghetti sauce, white beans, red pepper flakes, oregano, and whole wheat linguini
On the Road: Fairbanks to Valdez, Alaska
Posted: May 1, 2012 Filed under: Alaskan Cities, Wildlife, Winter | Tags: Alaska, Alaskan Mountain Range, Chugach Mountains, landscape, Photography, Travel, Valdez 3 Comments »
Thompson Pass, Chugach Mountains
This weekend we headed south on the Richardson Highway for Valdez, Alaska. Beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe this drive. So today I will let pictures do most of the talking. But I will note that we saw three mountain ranges, lots of wildlife (moose, caribou, bald eagles, and a wolverine), tons of snow, rushing rivers flanked by ice and snow, waterfalls, a canyon, and ended at the Valdez Arm which opens into the Prince William Sound, and eventually the Gulf of Alaska. In the course of our seven hour drive we had sun, rain, snow, and sun again. The day offered a little bit of everything, and I wouldn’t change a moment of it!
Moose, Black Rapids
Pipeline, Alaska Range
Thompson Pass, Chugach Mountains
Thompson Pass, Chugach Mountains
Caribou
Horsetail Falls, Keystone Canyon
Small Boat Harbor, Valdez
Alaska Range
Hiking/Snowshoeing Granite Tors
Posted: April 25, 2012 Filed under: Hiking, Winter | Tags: Alaska, Hiking, landscape, Photography, Travel, Winter Leave a comment »
Our hike this weekend was an exercise in persistence and a lesson in the pitfalls of “break up.” Spring in Alaska means water and snow and icy and everything in between. We had an idea what this would mean, but not really a sense of how this changes hiking.
We set out for Granite Tors in the morning armed with snowshoes and layers of clothes and dry shoes that would be waiting for us back in the car. Prepared. This hike is a loop that runs along the North Fork of the Chena River and then ascends into the mountains where it passes by and around large rock outcroppings know as tors. It offers mountain views all around. My kind of hike.
The first section of the hike was sloppy. Melt water flooded the trail in many sections and thick, wet mud blanketed the rest. But we had expected this. What we hadn’t expect was what came next. As the trail steadily climbed out of the flood water and mud, we thought we would come to snow. Strap-on-your-snowshoes-and-go-kinda-snow. Instead, we encountered a hopscotch of deep snow and bare ground. It was a pain in the butt. For over an hour we continuously put on snowshoes only to take them off again. The sections of snow were too deep to walk, up over our knees, but walking on bare ground in snowshoes isn’t a great idea either. Fortunately, we at least had good views. Mountains, mountains, and mountains.
We did finally get to a spot with more continuous snow, but it wasn’t very stable. In some places you could easily walk on the top of the hard-crusted, wind-blown snow, but then a few steps later, you would sink, even in snowshoes, up to your knees, hitting what we started calling “bomb holes.” The hardest part was getting back out of them. Your snowshoes would catch in the thick, icy snow, and you had to work to get them moving again. It was like trying to walk up stairs with glue on your feet.
At the crest of a hill about four miles in we realized we were never going to be able to finish the loop. It was just too slow between the bomb holes and the on/off processes with snowshoes, so we stopped for a break to enjoy our distant view of the tors. I never get tired of looking out at the mountains, especially when you have the view all to yourselves.
There was also weather rolling in. Out over the mountains in front of us, huge dust-gray clouds clumped and hung around the peaks. In contrast, behind us the sky was crayon blue and clear. I loved the feeling of the sun warming my back as I watched the dark clouds roll and bubble like a caldron moving towards us. It was time to head back.
The walk down turned out to be the more comical version of our hike up. After three hours of sun, the snow was mushy, and we found ourselves sinking and flopping and falling through the snow all the way back down. When you hit a bomb hole the motion of your body, coupled with the downhill grade, sent you forward at a pace that face planted me into the snow, twice. I wish we had a video of us laughing and falling and laughing our way down the mountain like the two stooges. It would have made a great black-and-white movie with a pie in someones face at the end.
Hiking in Alaska is always an adventure!
Homemade Ciabatta Bread
Posted: April 20, 2012 Filed under: Baking, Food | Tags: Bread, Ciabatta, Food, Home Baking, Recipes 4 Comments »
This week I was in the mood to bake. I also wanted to try something new. I have stacks of recipes waiting to be made in Pinterest, and as I was scrolling, I found a recipe from the blog, The Kitchn, I had pined a few months before for ciabatta bread or rolls. Perfect.
I shied away from this recipe in the past because it requires a biga, or pre-ferment, which I had never used before, but this week I was ready to tackle a new technique. The biga adds to the breads flavor, texture, and crust. Basically, it gives the bread an extra bunch of all the good stuff. There is actually nothing complicated about creating it. You mix basic ingredients, water, flour, yeast, and let it sit overnight before you want to create the actual dough. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I imagined it would be. And it helped create a pretty spectacular result.
I decided to make rolls with my dough, as we had left over lentil “meatballs” (no actual meat) that we wanted to turn into sandwiches (see picture below).
Lucas and I have been munching on the rolls all week, and I can say they are a hit. Because we are in Alaska, and my kitchen equipment is in Pennsylvania, I had to do without my scale and stand mixer, which would have made things a lot easier. But I didn’t mind the adventure of kneading this super wet dough. If you are making the bread by hand, it can not be kneaded in the traditional fashion. Instead, you alternate between “slapping” the dough on a well floured counter and folding it in half. The key is generous amounts of flour for you hands, the dough, and the counter. And a little bit of patience so that the dough fully develops. Needless to say, a stand mixer takes out all the guess work for kneading.
I highly recommend rolling up your sleeves and giving this bread a tried. So tasty!
Ciabatta Bread or Rolls
What You Need:
For best results weigh ingredients.
Biga
4 ounce (1/2 cup) water
1/2 teaspoon active-dry yeast
5 ounce (1 cup) all-purpose flour
Pour water into a medium size bowl and dissolve the yeast. Add the flour and stir to form a thick paste. Continue to stir several more times to build up the gluten. Cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature eight hours or overnight.
The next day, the biga will look soupy with bubbles dotting the surface.
Ciabatta
17 ounces (2 cups + 2 tablespoons) water
1 teaspoon active-dry yeast
Biga
20 ounces (4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
To Make:
In the bowl of a standing mixer, again add water and allow yeast to dissolve. Scrape the biga into the water using your hands or a spatula. Once in the bowl, break up the biga with your spatula or squeeze with your hands. The biga will not dissolve completely, rather it should be broken up into stringy blobs.
Add flour and salt. Using your spatula, stir to form a thick, wet dough. Then let the dough rest for 10-20 minutes.
Now attach the bowl to your standing mixer that has been fitted with the dough hook. Knead at medium speed for 15-18 
minutes (Level 5 or 6 on a KitchnAid). Keep an eye on your mixer as it may move on the counter top at this speed.
At first, the dough will start stick to the bottom and sides of the bowl. Around the 7-minute mark, it will start to pull away from the sides of the bowl, collect around the dough hook, and slap the sides of the bowl. If it doesn’t, nudge your mixer speed up a notch. Also, if the dough starts climbing the dough hook, stop the mixer and scrape it down again. By the end of kneading, the dough will look smooth and creamy with a glossy shine. It will puddle back into the bowl once you turn off the mixer, and this is fine.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 2-3 hours, until tripled in bulk.
Heavily flour your work surface. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper or if you have a pizza stone, lay the parchment paper on the counter. Now carefully scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the floured surface. Dust the top of the dough with more flour. Using a pizza wheel, cut the dough in two pieces for loaves or 8 pieces for rolls.
Cover your hands with flour. Gently scoop the loaves (or the rolls) one at a time from the work surface to the parchment. Press your fingertips about halfway into the dough to dimple the surface and slightly flatten. Let the dough rise, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes. When ready to bake, they should look pillowy with bubbles just beneath the surface.
Preheat the oven to 475°F. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven now.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Slip the parchment out from under the loaves and cool completely before eating.
Enjoy!
Women’s Adventure Magazine
Posted: April 18, 2012 Filed under: Dog Sledding, Winter, Writing | Tags: Alaska, Dog Sledding, Photography, Puppies, Travel, Writing 4 Comments »
Today my first blog post for Women’s Adventure Magazine came out. I will now be posting monthly for them! To see the post about my last week mushing click here.
