Snowmobile riding and xc skiing

Hello Y'all, I hope things are going well for you. I hear you are having a wonderful spring. We are in spring but we did have 7 inches of snow on Wednesday. But, we have sun up at 6 am and sunset at 9:20 pm and twilight for another hour. That means spring! School is going well. I can't believe I only have 5 more weeks of school. This year has really flown by. I will be taking a course the week after school and I will return to Memphis Memorial Day weekend. The next week David and I will ride the Harley to Chattanooga for the Bike Rally. I hope my body is ready for this adventure. Speaking of adventures, I am going to enter the Alaska Gold Nugget Triathlon on May 16. You heard correct - triathlon. In case you didn't know it but a tri includes swimming. Nope I don't know how to swim! So I have been taking swim lessons. On my third lesson I swam 500 meters - with MY FACE IN THE WATER!!! It took me about an hour but for a beginner I was so pleased I was able to do 40 laps (one direction) or 20 (there and back). My arms were very sore the next day. I didn't write much on the board! I know I can bike the 15 miles and I know I can walk fast for the 10K but the swim is the first part of the race. I hope to get my swim time lower by race day.

Here are pictures from Poli, Bruce and David's visit. We went to Whittier and Seward sunny and very snowy day. Some of you have taken cruise ships into Whittier's port. This is what it looks like in the winter. Gorgeous blue skies and snowy mountains. The first pictures are Spenard Glacier. The third picture is not a street light. It is the snow guide pole. They are so high to help guide the snowplows! The big apartment building is the only lodging (housing) in Whittier. You get to know your neighbors really well. Do you notice the snowfall amount at the front door? Aren't you glad you don't have to shovel snow? Me too. The last two pictures were taken on our way home. I think the night skies are awesome. Then we had several days of cross country skiing. Poli was a bit apprehensive because someone told her it was difficult. WRONG! David, Poli and Bruce really enjoyed the sport. Yes, you are seeing David and Bruce dressed like twins. The Sealife Rescue Center jackets were such a great price they both had to have one. Aren't they cute? The next picture is the trail maker at the S. Birchwood trails. David got so nervous, or as he said, he was turning around to see the machine and he had his first fall. He was so graceful! Then I made a mistake with which trail to take and accidentally took my friends on one of the hardest trails - Oops! My bad! But it was tricky and you can see Poli and David had both had graceful spills. In case you don't know it - when you fall xcountry skiing, you are required to laugh and smile! They do it well. I fell once but since I carried the camera you don't get to see my graceful fall. Bruce never did fall. He was such a pro! Then we went snowmobiling or up here they say - snow machining. The first picture is where David misread the trail and almost went over the edge. What was so amazing is that this is almost the exact spot where he left the trail in November! He is amazing. That is our wonderful guide - see how deep the snow fall was this particular day? That great building is our snow machine bathroom. You can see that we had to make our own path to the doors. By the way, there is no heat in these outdoor bathrooms - brrrrrr! We had a lot of fun with Poli and Bruce. They were such troopers about being adventurous. The next pictures are from David's and my snowmobile trip to Spenard Glacier. It took us over an hour to get to the glacier. I followed our guide before I realize I wouldn't make it. So you can see how I got my machine stuck on the uphill. He had to turn the machine over and over to get it upright. We had to ride over water. I have never done that before. I got the front ski caught on the ice so I had to have help getting to the other side. Oh well it was fun. The river was about 30 feet wide where we had to cross. It was fun but more fun on the way back since I crossed the river with no help. I will include a few more pictures on the next blog. I have used my photo allotment on this blog. So what am I doing besides creating lesson plans, teaching and training. I took spin fishing and fly fishing lessons. They were free. I believe in taking full advantage of all the free offerings that Anchorage has to offer. The week after the triathlon we plan to go salmon fishing. The gentlemen from Ducks Inc said I had an awesome fly fishing technique. I am sure it will improve my golf game. Anything will improve my game - I haven't golfed since last June!
We have a new pair of baby bald eagles in Eagle River. They cause quite a traffic jam when they are flying around. They are cute but their white heads don't arrive until they are more mature. I also have bad news. I didn't win the $300,000 for guessing the date of the ice melt in Nunanna. I will be much better at guessing next year. I picked April 1. How silly of my. The person at the counter didn't tell me that you can purchase tickets up until April 5th. Duh!!! So I didn't win. But I guessed too early. The TV reported that hundreds of people select April 31! Now I wasn't that stupid. You know, of course, there is NO APRIL 31! At least I selected a real date. So far the ice has not melted so no winner yet.
We have a lot of activities happening up here now that spring is sprung. We have bear and moose safety classes being offered all over town. I don't know if I told you but 40% of all the bears in Alaska live in Eagle River. Every time I see moose I have good luck. I will be taking a bear safety class at the Nature Center next week. I want to be prepared like a Girl Scout.

I will bid you good bye for now. We, our group of ladies who xc ski and exercise together and now training for triathlon, are heading to Denali (Mt. McKinley) next weekend. The National Park doesn't let people drive in the park (only a few miles and then you have to take a guided tour bus). But for these next three weeks, you can drive your car into the park (up to 30 miles) and see all the wildlife and beautiful scenery. We will be driving up to Denali (5 hour drive) and then stay in a bed and breakfast called the Mossy Moose. I hope to get some awesome photos. I bet you can guess what will be on my next blog! Have a wonderful day! I will see y'all soon.

Hugs from Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.