I got nothing. The place speaks for itself…
The Grand Canyon is very grand indeed.
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Monthly Archives: July 2013
Alaska Cruise and Glacier Bay Photos
Lituya Mountain, Mt. Crillon, Mt. Bertha and Mt. Fairweather
Gloomy Knob, Glacier Bay and the Gilbert Peninsula
Margerie Glacier
The Brady Glacier
Johns Hopkins Glacier
Lamplugh Glacier, Mt Cooper and Jaw Point.
Lituya Bay.
Camping in Glacier Bay
Blue Grouse hooter at Bartlett Cove.
Lined chiton have a shell composed of eight separate versatile shell plates.
Green anemones tentacles.
Camp at the top of the icefall, Grand Plateau Glacier, 6700 feet elevation, on the northwest slopes of Mt. Fairweather.
his Yellow Warbler is a male, distinguishable by the darkish streaks that run down his chest.
First glimpses of Glacier Bay.
A turbulent river emerges from beneath a glacier.
A ‘moulin’ a hole in the ice where water running across the glacier plunges down into the interior of the glacier.
Moose biology is ideally suited to Alaskan conditions.
Desolation Valley is the active seam between North American and the Pacific crustal tectonic plate.
In 1928 the U.S. Navy flew a survey plane throughout Southeast Alaska taking aerial photos. Those photos show that most of the bay shown in the middle of this image didn’t exist back then it was beneath the ice terminus of the Hugh Miller Glacier, which has now retreated back around the corner to the left.
Sea cave and sea arch rock formations.
Merlins.
Soft sunset hues light the mountains behind the glacier.
Carroll Glacier’s many medial moraines.
Lupine marks the end of winter.
Bartlett Cove fishing boats.
Tinglit tree carving in Bartlett Cove.
Belted Kingfisher.
Bald Eagles.
Northern Saw-whet Owl.
Nothern Saw-whet owl.
American Three-toed Woodpecker.
South Marble Island and Steller sea lions.
West Arm of Glacier Bay.
Changeable Glacier Bay.
Icebergs at Johns Hopkins Glacier.
Lamplugh Glacier has one of the larger tidewater glacier faces in Glacier Bay.
Rocks carried along by the glacier scratch along other rocks.
Rocks scatter areas where ice has melted.
End of Glacier Bay.
North Crillon Glacier covered with rocks.
Arêtes are sharp mountain ridges, said to be knife-edged, formed by glacial erosion.
Mountains for the experienced climber only.
Rocks building up on moving glaciers.
Sculpture carved out by a retreating glacier.
Dammed lakes at the base of melting glaciers.
Water tubes draining water from the melting glacier.
Rocky coastline.
South Crillon Glacier where it pours into Crillon Lake.
Central Dundas Bay.
Nagoonberry - the berries are delicious.
Docks are incredibly important facilities for isolated Southeast Alaska towns.
Most of the year this alpine lake is frozen over and covered with snow.
Kayaking in Glacier Bay National Park
Lincoln’s Sparrow.
Orca at Glacier Bay.
Lower Glacier Bay with Sitakaday Narrows on the right.
Views over Glacier Bay National Park.
Run off from the Carroll Glacier.
Blue Grouse, known locally as hooters.
Sunset over the Beardslee Islands.
Glacial silt… or flour as it is known.
Newly hatched Common Raven chicks.
Dryas plant that has taken root in nutrient poor soil.
Beardslee Islands.
Humpback whale is formally the Megaptera novaeangliae
Sunset from Bartlett Cove with the Fairweather Mountains in the background.
Climbing the backcountry of Glacier Bay is often trail-less.
Iceberg studded lake near the massive Brady Glacier.
Sea lion.
Humpback whales take the plunge.
Transition between ice and land on glacier hike.
Puffins, once common are now quite rare.
Tarne lakes in the high country.
Camp between Fairweather Mountain and the Gulf of Alaska.
Harbour porpoise.
Margerie Glacier calving.
East Arm of Glacier Bay, Adams Inlet area.
Wild strawberries in the rich Glacier Bay habitats.
Evenings in Glacier Bay.
Breaching humpback whale calf.
Tatshenshini-Alsek River entices adventurers.
South Marble Island.
Orca has knocked a harbour porpoise out of the water before catching it.
Glacier Bay
Lush rainforest leading to Bartlett Lake
Close shot of Reid Glacier’s vibrant blue colours.
Reid Glacier, Glacier Bay.
Ice cave at Reid Glacier.
Cobble and boulder beaches on the outer edge of Glacier Bay National Park.
Waterfall gushing form the face of the Lamplugh Glacier.
Cotton grass fruits are grain-like seeds with tufts of attached ‘cotton’ that catch the wind and disperse the fruit.
A little dot of a person dwarfed by a spectacular landscape
Monument erected for Skagway’s Centennial in 1897.
Sea otters riding the waves keeping a watchful eye.
The ubiquitous Bald Eagle.
Orca whales frequently found in Glacier Bay.
Fairweather Range is one of the tallest mountain ranges on the planet.
250 years ago, this land was under a massive sheet of ice.
Oystercatchers nesting in Glacier Bay.
Giant fireweed in bloom
Bear standing on the remains of a dead humpback whale.
Great Blue Herons can be seen in many of Glacier Bay habitats.
Blue Grouse can be seen all over the lower parts of Glacier Bay.
Sea otters are meticulous groomers.
Steller sea lions.
Vibrant blue Stellers Jay.
Brown bear and her cub having some success at fishing.
August wildflowers in Glacier Bay.
Brown bear and her two cubs near the rich intertidal zone.
Mountain goats at Gloomy Knob.
Enormous calving events are unpredictable.
Camping next to a glacier with the cold wind coming off the glacier.
West ridge of Mt Fairweather on the descent from the summit.
Glaciers shrouded in mist at Glacier Bay.
Fallen trees at the delta in front of Mt Fairweather.
Uncommon yellow cedar in Glacier Bay.
Evening sun near Brady Glacier.
South Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm is under intense pressure.
Tracy Arm Glacier – the rusty red is oxidized iron.
The quick moving South Sawyer Glacier.
Striated ice in Tracy Arm.
Sitka National Historic Park is Alaska’s oldest federally designation park – since 1910.
Sitka is a very busy fishing harbour.
Antique trolley cars in Skagway.
The U.S. Coast Guard recommends that all vessels remain one quarter mile off the face of tidewater glaciers.
Glacier Bay sunrise around 9 o’clock.
Sunise over the Fairweather Range.
Eagles on icebergs are not uncommon in Glacier Bay.
The Alsek braided river.
Ten below near Halibut Point.
Walking trail at Bartlett Cove campground.
Glacier crevice.
Much of the terrain is too rocky or risky for hiking.
Spotted Sandpiper at the Bartlett River.
Gumbook Chitton – a species of red algae that lives on its mantle (shell).
Glacier bay receives approx 80″ of rain a year… a brief reprieve.
Sunsets over the bitter winds of the sea.
Margerie Glacier leads off to Mt Fairweather.
Reflections in glacial lakes.
Southeast Alaska is a pallet of grays.
McBride Glacier, July 1976.
Taylor Bay and the Brady Icefield.
The broad Grand Pacific Glacier.
Gloomy Knob, Glacier Bay.
Glacier Bay high country.
Skiing on the Grand Plateau Glacier, Mt Fairweather.
Startled bears.
Kayakers leaving from West Arm of Glacier Bay.
Many peaks of Glacier Bay are unnamed or informally named due to an early decree of park superintendents.
Jagged peaks in the morning mist.
Low moraines that separates glacial lakes.
Outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park
Lupine plants near the summit of Tree Mountain.
Orca whales – the largest member of the dolphin family.
Lakes near Brady Glacier.
Brady Glacer dams two small lakes.
Glacier Bay has 800 miles of protected shoreline.
Sitka Sound.
Big ice calving off the face of Margerie Glacier – over 200 feet high, causing a 100 feet splash.
Bear in Tracy Arm Fjord.
Summit of the train ride to the Yukon Territory.
View from Garforth Island in Glacier Bay.
Humpback whales compete with brown bears as being the most popular, ‘must-see’ mammal in Glacier Bay.
Old salmon cannery at Icy Strait Point in Hoonah.
Algae covered glacial erratics on the outer coast.
Muir Glacier, 1976
Wolf strolling down a beach in Glacier Bay
The Tatshenshini-Alsek river ends in Dry Bay
A pond formed on the ice.
Wildest parts of Glacier Bay National Park can be reached only on foot
Harlequin Ducks
Lituya Glacier covered in a layer of rock.
Boats used to explore Glacier Bay – far cry from modern cruise ships.
Lituya Glacier
Brown bear and her cubs.
River otter prints on a remote beach.
Glacier vs Forest – North Crillion Glacier prevails.
Water dripping from the roof of a moving glacier.
Whale at Point Adolphus during the summer months.
Tidal Inlet
Black and white Pigeon Guillemots.
Traversing under a cornice on the way to the high saddle on the west ridge of Mount Fairweather.
Bears eating during the salmon run.
Forests of spruce, hemlock and cedar cover much of Southeast Alaska.
Wildflower called a Shooting Star.
Ice caves.
Large sun star stranded by falling tide in Southeast Alaska.
Car sized erratics covered in algae bloom.
Bears stand to threaten, but also to observe.
Moose are relatively new residents in Glacier Bay, arriving in the 1960s.
Glacier Bay orchids.
Spider web on a highbush cranberry plant.
Glacial melt flowing over rocks.
Tlingit saying: When the tide is out, the table is set.
Unnamed peaks in Glacier Bay.
What makes the ice blue? The ice is blue because that is its true color. This color is expressed because the ice is pure, which allows the light to penetrate sufficiently far that the reds, yellows and violets are differentially absorbed from the light spectrum, leaving the blues and greens to be transmitted back to ones eye. Ice looks white when it contains too many air bubbles that scatter the light back before it can be differentially absorbed by the ice.
Early Spring mountain goat in Glacier Bay.
John Hopkins Inlet – winter.
Fragile Calypso Orchid.
Harbour seals in Glacier Bay
Tidal flats at low tide.
Waterfalls at Tracy Arm Fjord
Sitka Alaska Raptor Center
Yaadas Crest Corner Pole.
Older engines from the White Pass
Johns Hopkins Glacier
McBridge Inlet.
East Arm of Glacier Bay in the 1970s.
Clear blue ice and big crevasses!
Even from a quarter mile, the 150 foot high face of Lamplugh Glacier looms impressively above sea level.
Early June in Geikie Inlet.
Brown bear tracks.
An ice tunnel melted away, leaving only the ice bridge in the distance.
Steller sea lions gather on South Marble Island.
Riggs Glaciers tidewater front separated from Muirs in 1961 and was still calving into the sea in 1967.
Forest remnant south of Geikie Inlet has been cleanly sheared off below 1600 feet.
Johns Hopkins Inlet to Kashoto Glacier on July 14, 1967.
Plateau Glacier in Wachusett Inlet on June 5, 1967.
Reid Inlet during the winter of 1967-68
Charlie Parkers prospecting cabin at Indepencence Lake.
Arctic Tern
A rainbow glows against the dark grey sky, towards the crossing of Alsek River at Dry Bay
Boulders on the outer coast beach.
Surf crashes on the cobbles and sand near Cape Fairweather.
Wave smoothed stones at Cape Fairweather.
Icy Point – Glacier Bay Park’s rugged outer coast.
Brady Glacier – As the ice retreats, it provides a narrow passage to walk along its side.
Aerial view from over Muir Glacier on April 11, 1968
Muir Glacier in 2007 is no longer a tidewater glacier; it has retreated.
Muir Glacier in 1991.
McBride Glacier.
Brittle star, a limpet and coralline algae. Brittle stars use their highly flexible arms in a whip motion to move across the rocks and seafloor, unlike sea stars which use tube-like feet.
Steller sea lions.
Sandhill cranes stop over in Glacier Bay as they migrate.
Black bear cub playing with a fallen log.
Barrow’s Goldeneye.
Dappled with dew, emerald mosses throughout Glacier Bay National Park blanket the rocks, ground and trees.
Docks in downtown Juneau.
1950s era gas pumps in Gustavus.
Harbor seals haul out on the ice and rest for extended periods of time.
Clan House at Saxman Totem Park.
Humpback whales engaging in tail-lobbing.
Sunset in Frederick Sound.
The powerful twisting arc of a breaching whale.
Red Bluff Bay is one of many seldom-visited, yet spectacular inlets tucked among the islands of Southeast Alaska.
Harbor seal pups in May and June.
Mendenhall Glacier via kayak.
Downtown Juneau
Juneau tram- a six-minute ascent of 3,819-foot (1,164 m) Mt Roberts.
A humpback whale breaches into a strong wind turning rivulets of cascading water into a cloudy mist.
Tlingit art, totem pole.
Kyaking in the fog.
Calving glacier sequence, photo 2
Calving glacier sequence, photo 1
Calving glacier sequence, photo 5
Calving glacier sequence, photo 4
Calving glacier sequence, photo 3
Calving glacier sequence, photo 7
Calving glacier sequence, photo 6
Calving glacier sequence, photo 8
Calving glaciers!
Calving glaciers!
Calving glaciers!
Calving glaciers!
Calving glaciers!
Long-tailed Ducks, formerly called Oldsquaws, congregate into groups of many hundreds of birds during the spring.
White crescent shapes in the rock are fossils.
Barrows Goldeneye mother raised her ducklings near Blackwater Pond.
Humpback whales feeding as a group in a method known as bubblenetting.
Two of the larger and most common land birds seen in Bartlett Cove are the raven and the bald eagle.
Baby porcupine at Bartlett Cove.
Full moon rises above Bartlett Cove.
On a cold winter morning, three Trumpeter Swans navigate the ice-choked Salmon River in Gustavus.
A pair of Trumpeter Swans is resting along the edge of the Salmon River in Gustavus
A Black-billed Magpie was perched just above the carcass of a dead deer.
Owls are typically nighttime hunters.
A young moose calf, only about five weeks old, nuzzles up to its mother.
The most important plant to the native Alaskans of SE Alaska, the Tlingit, is the devils club.
The solaster sea star is an intense orange and purple.
Black-legged kittiwakes are a fairly common sight near the faces of Glacier Bays
The Fairweather Range
Bald Eagle with a fish in its talons
Small portion of a huge, huge glacier.
Winter ski-ing in the upper intertidal next to the ocean in the short days.
The black line in the photo is a partially buried glacier ice worm (about ¼ inch long). Glacier ice worms live in glacier ice and in snow on glaciers.
Most of the land in Glacier Bay National Park is designated wilderness without motorized access.
Kayaking in fog – it is eerily quiet, and peaceful.
And the Wild is calling, calling . . . let us go.
Ice worms crawling around the granulated snow.
Toads are important. Scientists refer to amphibians as indicator species. Amphibians, like this boreal toad, are extremely sensitive to small changes in their environment.
Riggs Glacier on July 19, 2007.
It’s fall and blue skies have emerged after another wet day. These hills are covered with a low growing pioneer plant called dryas, and when dryas fruits are wet their white feathery part becomes translucent and the overall color of the fruit head becomes brown, red brown.
Orca, don’t see them often, maybe once or twice a year. Some years none at all. They always strike me as on the move, heading somewhere. Bears amble, wolves mosey and double back. Humpbacks dive and surface. Orca seem to just go. As if they are late for an important appointment.
This little crevasse is full of water. In the bottom of the crevasse are little pockets where bits of gravel and sand accumulate.
The cone shaped mounds are called glacier cones or debris cones. They are mostly ice with a thin veneer of gravel and sand over a cone of ice.
Every spring and fall, the morning air fills with the ancient and primal call of the Sandhill Crane. The locals know that when they hear this sound in April, winter is gone.
Before the days of plastic fishing floats, glass balls were sometimes used to suspend large fishing nets. Most glass floats found in Alaska are apparently from Japanese fishing vessels.
These outer coast headlands of hard granite-like rock are infrequently visited by kayakers.
When you find a mooses bones out on the Brady Glacier, you’ve got to wonder. After all, there isnt exactly a lot to eat out there.
Magic moments abound in Glacier Bay ten years old and skipping rocks with icebergs
Two days rolled into one.
Time to leave the Great North wilderness and the closest I’m ever likely to come to the Arctic Circle, and head onto the next stage of our trip. I have had such an awesome time in Alaska. I still can’t believe the places we went, and the things we saw, and the experiences we had. Alaska has been on my list for ever so long and I can’t believe I have now actually been here. So many wonderful memories and so amazing I have gotten to do all these national parks with Aunty Mary – the one person I know who really loves nothing more than getting in amongst all the nature. 🙂
So, packed and ready to go. Only one problem. I had arranged some week and a half ago for a parcel to be sent from amazon.com to myself care of the McKinley Creekside Cabins due to the fact that these Amazon sellers didn’t ship the items I wanted to Australia. And I had been keeping an eye out all week on the post to see when the parcel would turn up… on our last day and nothin had turned up and I was flailing about arranging with the reception staff to forward the item on to Sedona if it turned up after we left. I left the girls at reception – Kayla and Denise – a bottle of Australian Shiraz to thank them for all their help with the stupid parcel. Just on spec, we thought we would pop into the Denali post office before high tailing it out of town. We waited until the post office was open and I walked in with my handy 24 digit parcel post tracker item number and crossed my fingers. Quite unexpectedly, the girls behind the counter went on a hunt and eventually came out of the back room victorious – my parcel had been located and we weren’t going to have to forward things onto an address I’m not even going to be at. Stupid thing was, that, according to the tracker, the parcel had left Anchorage on the 2 July and here was me at the post office asking after it on the 6 July, so I have a feeling it was there all week, it’s just that Mountain Time is a bit like Fiji Time… we’ll get to it when we get to it.
But, all was good. Got to head off to Anchorage for our five hour drive knowing I wasn’t going to have to chase and hunt that parcel anymore. The drive was good, no nasty monster trucks (well, no more than usual) and no roadworks, even better! We decided to spent the afternoon at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage to see some of the animals we saw in the wild but missed out on seeing them up close, like the wolves, the snow leopard, the red foxes, the Dall sheep and tigers… yeah, okay I made that one up, but the tigers at the zoo were still pretty cool.
Not at all surprisingly, I spent most of my visit at the zoo loitering around the river otter enclosure. Nearly every animal I encountered I took a couple of token photos of, but the otters of course, well there are a couple of hundred of otter pics from our short visit to the zoo! With a bit of luck, some of them might even be decent. After the stop by the zoo, we went to the local Wendy’s and had something for dinner. I even picked up a job application for Mr K, just for the sake of nostalgia, he used to work here back in his college days. 😉
After that it was off to the airport to get ready for the transit from hell… who planned these flights? Oh yeah, that would be me. :/
Our flight from Anchorage to Seattle was at 0035 and arrived at 0445am… we got to watch the sun rising at the same time it was setting which was quite surreal. We had been told that we would be on a flight leaving for Las Vegas at 0830 which meant a bit of a shitty boring lay over at Seattle with very little to do at that early hour of the morning. Fortunately for us however, we ended up on a flight that was leaving at 0600 and we pretty much landed and walked from one terminal to another, waited about ten minutes and found ourselves boarding for Las Vegas – no lines, no waiting, no problems. Awesome bonus there! Midnight flights are bad enough without finding yourself stuck in the airport doing nothing for hours on end. I did however get some amazing photos of the last vestiges of the evenings sunset out of the plane as we took off north out of Anchorage…
Then the most bizarre thing happened, the plan turned around to head south, and we could see the start of the SUNRISE in the east! It was weird, and freak, and completely amazing.
We arrived in Las Vegas and, oh my God, the heat just slapped us upside the head and unfortunately not with a wet haddock which might actually have been more pleasant. Being from the subtropics, we are used to the heat, and we are mostly fine with it… but going from a month of tops in the 14C – 16C range one day and o’night temps that make you grab the thermals, to maximum temps of 41C+, well that is quite another story. It was draining.
We went straight from the airport, to picking up our hire car, to hitting a Walmart for some groceries, to heading out to the Grand Canyon! Another huge tick off the Bucket List coming up right there. We didn’t realize it until we were already doing it, but going out to the quieter and less touristy North Rim meant that we drove through Nevada, Utah and Arizona to get here today… so including Alaska and Washington state, that made five states in one day. Crazy.
Got out to the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim here and got my first look at this Wonder of the Natural World and found myself at a rare loss for words, staring in silence at the amazing vista of the Grand Canyon. Words are unable to capture the scale, and beauty of this place. Even the drive out here was incredible, towering mountains of striated rock in a plethora of colours, through Ponderosa pine forests and open grasslands. Little tufted eared squirrels and a herd of bison on the plains, it all felt very much like stepping into a nature documentary. Just stunning.
So five hours drive to Anchorage (237 miles of bad road over five hours), a stop at the zoo, flight to Seattle (1800 miles and three and a half hours), flight to Las Vegas (867 miles and two hours twenty minutes) and the drive to the Grand Canyon (265 miles and five and a half hours with a few quick stops), and all up it took us over 30 hours to get here and on no sleep!
Anyway, we are safely here now for the next few days, and I am looking forward to exploring this incredible area. I was out on the terrace earlier and a guy saw my t-shirt and say ‘Oh wow, you’ve been to Denali… when were you there?’. ‘Yesterday.’ came my exhausted yet exhilarated reply, which started a conversation about how he thought he had come a long way from Denver, but then again he said, perhaps not. 🙂
Alaska (+)ves and (-)ves
Alaska (+)ves
- Most unbelievably gorgeous scenery I have ever seen in my life.
- Glacier Bay is remarkable… watching the massive chunks of ice fall off the face of the glacier into the water was simply amazing – and made me worry about global warming at the same time.
- The state has a rich and vivid history from their ownership by Russia and acquisition by the US, through to their Gold Rush days.
- The crazy flora and fauna are really interesting (says the girl from the country known for having the most bizarre flora and fauna in the world!).
- Most people were really nice and friendly and helpful (which the exception of some people in Anchorage, where there seems to be a large white trash population and an unusual number of people talking to themselves while sitting in a puddle of urine… so obviously some social problems going on there).
- Licences must be produced to buy alcohol and people with DUIs convictions, which are subsequently recorded on their driver’s licenses, may be refused alcohol at the point of sale.
- No sales tax! On anything! Yay! We love this. Mining royalties being ploughed back into the pockets of the state instead of into the pockets of big oil.
Alaska (-)ves
- Outside the main tourist drags, everything looks kinda run down and like it needs a lick of paint and some TLC… and by everything I mean most houses, most places of commerce, even most people’s cars.
- I swear Princess owns the entire state. Well, the Denali interior at any rate. They cruise in the customers, put them on Princess trains, put them up in Princess Hotels, send them shopping on the main drag, most of which is owned by Princess and set the up on Princess tours. Can we spell ‘monopoly’ much?
- No one drives at the speed limit. Ever.
- Even the best highway going north in Alaska is completely shit, full of potholes and not even remotely flat. They have really aggressive rumble strips and the line markings are so bad that if you overtake when the lines tell you that you are safe, you pull out and find out you can’t see for shit.
- The US Postal Service sucks arse up here… 4 days for a parcel to get from Anchroage to four hours down the road? I don’t think so.
- Pennies… (that’s really a US thing) don’t need ’em don’t want ’em, fuck ’em off. Come to think of it $1 bills are a pain in the butt too.
- Tipping. Fucking hate it. Make the price the price, and be done with it.
Other than that, I totally love Alaska though and would love to come back, maybe in March to see the Iditarod mushing dog race 🙂 Now THAT would be really something to see.
Husky Homestead
Today we went off to meet a rock star. Well, a rock start of the mushing world. Jeff King of Husky Homestead who is recognized as the “Winningest Musher in the World.” (OMG the grammar!) His victories include, not only the 1,049 mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 1993, 1996, 1998, and 2006, but he has also won over two dozen other sled dog races all across Alaska. And let me tell you, Jeff is quite the character – he was born and raised in California and was a huge Jack London fan (the author, that is) so as a young man he came to Alaska to see all the places London talks about in his books, and he’s never looked back.
Mushing dogs, racing them, breeding them, training them, caring for them and teaching others about them appears to be his whole life. The Husky Homestead sprung up around an interest that tourists have in the sled dog teams and how, and perhaps more importantly… why?? do people, like Jeff, put themselves through the very gruelling experience that is the Iditarod Race, year after year.
The short version is that the Iditarod is a trail that has existed for many more years than the 40 odd that they have been holding an annual sled dog race along it each year. The Iditarod trail has traditionally connected small villages all the way from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. It’s a supply line and a snow highway in the winter that keeps these people in touch. The 1200 mile race runs across very rugged and unpredictable terrain and during some of the most extreme weather conditions imaginable. These guys really go through hell and back – only that’s a bad analogy… because they might go the entire way in sub zero temperatures freezing their ‘nads off, racing through ice and snow, blizzards and rain, and all on barely 4-5 hours sleep a day causing severe sleep deprivation for the better part of two weeks.And they do it for fun! Every year! Sure there is a prize pool at the end of it and the prestige of having won the gruelling endurance race. But for every musher who is literally ‘in it to win it’ – it sounds like there are ten more who are there for the experience alone.
So, as I said, Jeff is a bit of a rock star in the mushing world, having been recognized for his contribution to the sport of sled dogging that spans the last 30 odd years. He is by no means the oldest active musher – that dude has never won but has entered for 37 years straight and is now in his 80s. He is probably not even the most famous – a woman named Libby Riddle was the first woman to win the race in 1985 and was followed up by Susan Butler who won in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990 (after this spate of female musher champions, apparently there were t-shirts going around everywhere in the early ’90s saying: “Alaska – where men are men and women win the Iditarod!”) but Jeff is widely known for his impressive collection of other mushing titles, his several Iditarod championships, but also very importantly, his breeding and training programs, and his excellence with the dogs.
Part of Jeff’s success and renown has been due to his efforts in the local tourism industry, sharing his knowledge, his experiences and his very amusing anecdotes about the Iditarod. He also shares a lot about the life of a musher, and the role of being a sled dog ‘coach’ with his visitors at the Husky Homestead. Jeff’s philosophy is that he, himself is not an athlete – his DOGS are the world class athletes that get him across the line. His breeding program is strictly controlled, yet none of these dogs have purebred pedigrees. They are cross bred from various breeds including, but not limited to, Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Huskies, Labradors and Border Collies to name but a few. These dogs are not bred to be pretty, these dogs are bred to be smart, sturdy and most importantly because they LOVE to run. These dogs are so strong and sturdy and healthy, that Jeff likes to brag that of the 30 odd adult dogs he might have at the Homestead at any given point in time, his vet bills are less than those of his brother in California who keeps three purebred dogs as house pets!
Literally from the time they are puppies, all they want to do is run, Jeff has a purpose made hamster wheel for the pups to run in from the time they are a couple of months old. They also need lots of affection and socialization and that is where Jeff and his staff make the tourism work for them… the first thing they do when you come to visit is hand you a gorgeous little two or three week old husky puppy. The more people the puppies are exposed to, the less skittish they are, and the more socialized they become, and of course all the visitors love the puppies.
The Husky Homestead dogs all have various paths laid out before them – some will become sled dog champions on Jeff’s team, some will be sold to other competitive dog teams, and some will be sold as working dogs to the parks and properties of people who use dogs to patrol the land when the land is impassable by regular vehicles. Regardless of their destination though, you can tell these dogs are going to have happy lives, so long as they get to run. Even in retirement the dogs will still get to run, effectively teaching the younger dogs how it’s done. I’ve never seen 20 odd highly strung (and let me tell you they look about as tightly wound as a pro football team before a finals game ALL the time) all in the one space and getting along so well together, and a lot of that is due to the socialization they get on the property, from the visitors, the staff and of course with each other since birth.
A Sneak Peek into Husky Homestead from Husky Homestead on Vimeo.
Jeff’s informative presentation on sled dog racing and the famous Iditarod in particular, makes me want to come back to Alaska in early March and watch these amazing teams stream out across the Arctic tundra. Even though I live in the tropics and are used to the heat and humidity, I would totally go back next March if I could afford it – It must be such a sight to see! The way he describes the 75 teams each with 16 or so dogs all in a two block radius in downtown Anchorage just all raring to go and the air electrified with energy sounds like incredible. Going to see the Iditarod is definitely going on my Bucket List!