Bonanza Creek

Skiing and hunting for sharp-tailed grouse in Bonanza Creek on a sunny day! This area was burned about 10 years ago, so the trees are still very small.

Thick frost on just the tips of trees - a larch

Frost on a birch

One Track, Two Tracks, pen and watercolor

Looking over the Tanana River valley, you can see the mountains on the horizon (faintly) and the burn scar in the foreground

The grouse we caught had a HUGE crop, totally filled with willow buds, birch catkins, and even a few blueberries. The crop was larger than any other organ, and almost bigger than the breast meat!

White Mountains SkiVenture

The warm weather was timed perfectly with the weekend for our ski jaunt in the White Mountains, just outside of Fairbanks. The trail to the Moose Creek cabin begins at Wickersham Dome, and continues along a rolling ridge line for about 16 miles. We started at about 2:30 PM, which meant we had only about 2 hours of daylight left.

The setting sun quickly left us in a world of blue. Below, you can see the "snow line" on the distant slope. Anything at a higher elevation is subject to winds which keep the snow off the spruce.

After this point, we were skiing in darkness until we reached the cabin. Sunrise the next morning revealed everything we had missed seeing the night before!

Nodding black spruces

This was Moose Creek cabin, and I'm trying to pull the sled 

Going up hills was much more challenging than expected

The snow was so deep on some of the trees! There must not have been much wind here all winter.

Hoarfrost on burned black spruce

… and another sunset

We had left a little earlier today, so we arrived back at the trailhead just as it was getting too dark to see.

Calamari shrubs!