Snowshoeing In Powder... Who Needs A Trail? 12/30/11

Another beautiful wintery day… this winter’s snowfall has been awesome so far! We decided to go check out a different park to go snowshoeing this time.  We ended up choosing Russian Jack Spring Park. There’s more snow here than near my house since this park is on the east side of town, closer to the mountains. So we wandered around the park off the trails. It was such a relaxing (but hard work!) trek around trees, through the powder, and zig zagging through the park.  We were sinking down about 2 feet or so along the way… it’s crazy to think how far down we’d be post-holing if we didn’t have the snowshoes on!

An example of how deep the snow was with the snowshoes on...

Snowshoeing Through Powder from Mary-Beth Schreck on Vimeo.

 

I still love how the snow falls so gently and straight down around here... SOOO beautiful!

Some people just can't leave the snow as it falls. ;)

Introduction to the Game of Curling!

Ah, another great sport to watch/participate in in Alaska... CURLING! It was an impromptu invite to join some friends as they went curling. I decided to be the unofficial photographer and have some fun capturing this scintillating sport. Two of the 4 people there were curling for the first time, so I got to hear some of the tips and rules as well.  It's one of those sports that's intriguing and at first seems silly, but once you learn how much goes into it, it's pretty fun! No wonder a bunch of geeky meteorologists are out there having a great time late on a Saturday night!

'Til next time...

A Beautiful Day For Snow

Sometimes when it snows, it's a gray day and it's snowing. Other times, it's a brighter day, snow comes down hard, and then the sun comes out to highlight all the trees with their newly fallen snow. This was one of THOSE days, and thankfully I had my camera with me! I don't think these photos need any other explanation... so... enjoy!



The view from the upper air building (where we launch weather balloons).

'Til next time...

First Snowshoe Adventure of the Season and Snowflakes!

I was itching to go snowshoeing, but didn’t know where some great trails would be.  I don’t know why I thought we needed trails, but we ended up going to the Coastal Trail and snowshoeing for awhile on there. It was neat to see the trail for the first time in the winter… I’m so used to seeing it in the summer when I bike along it! It’s been a cold winter already, and sea ice chunks are building up as one of the highest tide differentials in the world continues day after day.  It’s pretty neat to see these huge chunks of ice and silt out there just piled up.  It looks like a natural disaster has occurred!  It’s definitely natural, but not a disaster at all (although… these ice chunks can be quite dangerous for many coastal communities, especially on the northwest part of Alaska when unusually strong storms or high tides bring the ice on shore. Thankfully that doesn’t happen all that often!).



That's Mount Susitna (also called Sleeping Lady) in the background.



Part of the Coastal Trail



The Chugach Mountains sure do make a nice backdrop for our humble city!

I decided to go for a drive along Turnagain Arm today after snowshoeing on the Coastal Trail. I got a few photos of Turnagain Arm, but it was flurrying.  Not that flurries are bad… they’re just distracting because they’re so beautiful when they’re dendrites and plates! At one of the pull-outs, I stood there photographing all kinds of snowflakes on my car windows for probably close to an hour and a half.  At one point, the people in the car next to me (who had taken in the view and then were sitting in their car for a few minutes before leaving) put their window down and asked if I locked my keys in my car.  “Uh… no… I’m just photographing snowflakes… don’t mind me!”  He said, “I was wondering what you were doing there!”  Haha, yes, it’s true.  I’m not going to lie… it was hard to tear myself away!  The flakes just kept falling gently and I’d see a new one and just HAVE to photograph it as well.  Anyway, enough chatter… enjoy the photos!

Ok, NOW you can see some snowflakes.  I hope they were worth the wait!

I hope they were worth the wait!!  'Til next time...

November 23rd... Exploring My Neighborhood Park

Well, we've gotten 28.9 inches of snow so far!!  Our "normal" snowfall by this time is about 18", so we're starting out strong!  I decided to grab a friend and go for a walk in my neighborhood park so I could be out in the snow and enjoy the falling snow and beautiful scenery.  I also wanted to explore the trails that someone (or more than one person) was making through the bog.  Here's a little of what I found:




Mid-afternoon sunset has begun... days are getting shorter!



Not that I would know this if I had kept current with these blog posts, but I'm certain these shorter trees are completely buried now (Feb 2012)



One of the trails we're exploring... perfect, and close to home!