Fresno Ridge

Dante texted a few days ago that he would be out and about Sunday on the peninsula(he recently accepted a job offer in anchorage) so I met up with him and his crew at the Fresno Ridge parking lot. We had a great day with cold temps and light snow deposited in gullies. We are still waiting on a little more snow to take care of some alder trees here and there. The day was fueled by Alaska Jack's great backcountry stories and his enthusiasm for the outdoors. Jack is roughly twice my age and had roughly twice the backcountry endurance that I posses. He is an animal. Follow his blog here

Pan-seared sesame-crusted tuna

This recipe I found on userealbutter.com and amazing place that is super informative and helpful when it comes to cooking, recipes, cooking paraphernalia etc... They have amazing photo's of their food and the process. This tuna turned out amazing. I seared it just long enough and the sauces turned out well also. lucky lucky. My pictures however were hampered by an external flash that was full of dead batteries and wouldn't work. Sorry for the half rate pics..... Enjoy your food!

Josh
Click HERE for the userealbutter recipe for this

Salmon with Balsamic Reduction Sauce & Fresh Tomato Salsa

I made this tasty rascal tonight, thought you may enjoy the recipe as well. Try a little more salt or garlic in the reduction, something else was needed. maybe a bit more mustard.

Balsamic Reduction Sauce

1/2 c. good balsamic vinegar
1/2 c red wine vinegar
1 tsp. chile powder
1 T honey
1 tsp. grainy Dijon mustard

Tomato Salsa

2 c tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 c red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp. red chili flakes
1/4 red wine vinegar
2 T extra virgin olive oil


Directions:

Prepare reduction Sauce. Reduce vinegars by simmering to 1/4 cup. Add chili powder, honey and mustard. Mix well. Use this to glaze your salmon just before done. Set aside half of your sauce to serve with salmon.

Brush salmon with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Sear salmon in non-stick pan or on grill approximately 6 minutes per side depending on thickness. Just before done glaze with balsamic reduction sauce.

While salmon is cooking, toss all salsa ingredients together. Serve along side or on top of your salmon and with some basmati rice.

Winter

busy busy busy around here lately trying catch up on winterizing the house and yard, I have learned over the last few years that it's easier to do when there is not snow on the ground, but i can never seem to pull it off in time.... Here are a few pictures from winter so far. One is of Dante on a good day up in the pass, the other is a from a couple days later in the same area. Loads of snow so far this year.

Fall is almost over

Had a nice trip up Skyline today, It had been a month or so since I had been up so it was good to be back. There was a dusting of snow on top and I saw a Porcupine,Grouse, and a load of Ptarmigan. There was also an odd gathering of small moth looking rascals. They were all hold up in the underbrush, but when they couldn't handle the wind any more they would all flap around chaotically. There were thousands of them.
Hope all is well

Slaughter Gulch

Yesterday(Sunday) I hiked up Slaughter Gulch trail which is directly across from the mountain in the previous post, you can see it covered in snow this time. I have spent the last month in the Cooper landing area, re-discovering all the great trails and amazing scenery in the area. I have really taken a liking to the Crescent lake area and am getting excited to spend more time up there. Not having an airplane has really forced me to enjoy what we have here in our local area. We are the lucky ones!

Cecil Rhodes Mt.

Monday I needed to get out in the mountains after running on the pavement Sunday. Cecil Rhodes is a great mountain just south of the highway as you pass through Cooper Landing and it offers great views of the surrounding area, especially with the sun we have been enjoying! The access is a bit tricky, but Bob Summer was nice enough to give away the route a few years back. I came across a family of Goats, and threw in a picture of the repeater station and radio towers on the back ridge. They used to leave the doors open on the buildings, one has a microwave and phone in it, but they have since locked them. ohh well....

Shadow Mountain

Last week I did the annual fall hike up Shadow mountain. The trail start is hidden and only a few know of it. Wasps attacked a couple of separate times, making speed a necessity. What great fall weather!

Crescent Lake

It was super windy on the flats today so I struck out for the mountains to see if I could duck the wind. Luckily I guessed right and found respite from the wind up Quartz Creek on Crescent Lake Trail. I ran up to the big bridge and grabbed a few photo's. It was perfect fall day up there, crisp, but no wind at all and amazing fall colors. I love Alaska Autumn's, but I wish they would last a bit longer.

Alyeska Climbathon

On Sunday Justin, Jessica and I gave the climbathon a go, we were all first timers and only had a slight hint of what it might be like from friends who have done it. The event isn't very old, maybe 5 years or so and usually doesnt draw the huge crowds that the other mountain running circuit races draw. The Climbathon involves climbing the north face of mt. Alyeska to the top of the tram, riding the tram down, and doing it all over again as many times as you can from 9am to 7pm. It is a lot more fun when you are done with it. Justin and I had set rough goals of 8 laps a piece, figuring it would take us about 50 minutes a lap untill we got super tired. I ended up finishing with 7, Jessica 7 and Justin killed it with 9. At 2k feet a lap that 14k, 14k and 18k in a day. The weather was perfect and the company was even better!
The winners set new records of 12 laps. They are animals...
ADN story HERE

Tiehacker

Went up Tiehacker Mountain with Zack today to scout a few lines to ski this winter. More pics tomorrow. I'm pooped.

Flowers

The front yard is peaking right now, starting it's downhill slide into a long cold winter. I grabbed a few images for my mom so she could see the fruits of her annual 2 week pilgrimage to Alaska to maintain the flower beds. My carrots, onions and potatoes and berries are doing well.

Wet and Muddy

This has been the state of my running shoes for about 2 months. As I type this the sun has broken out for the first time in a LONG time. Peninsula residents are becoming unruly. This upcoming Saturday is the Lost Lake Race which benefits Cystic Fibrosis. The race course starts at the Primrose trailhead and ends at the Firehouse just outside of Seward. During a training run on the course the other day it rained the entire time and seemed like it was nearly snowing at lost lake. I enjoyed ankle deep mud in many spots, hence the state of my shoes. Hope your weather is better.....

Josh

Rain

We have been getting too much rain lately, a sunny day is rare this summer. Many visitors through lately, some of my mom's friends from Montana are up, good family friends are down from wasilla and a smattering of others. They all have one thing in common. Oncorhynchus Nerka, Sockeye, Red salmon. Picked strawberries for my ice cream tonight. training for the Lost Lake Run all week. Denali posts will continue.
Cheers,
Josh

Day 3 Denali Basecamp to the base of the Northwest Basin Route on Hunter

We woke up early on the 7th of May in Denali Base camp which was fairly empty as we packed up our stuff onto the sleds and made our way out of camp. We hauled the majority of the bulky stuff in the sleds and kept the essentials for survival in our packs should we have to cut loose a sled in a crevasse fall. Our route snaked out of base camp, down heartbreak hill(named that because it's the last hill to ascend into base camp after a long Denali climb)and left (west) toward the base of our route on Mt. Hunter. The weather was amazing and we finally got great views of all the mountains we have read about for years and years. While the distances look relatively short, the massive layout of the Kahiltna glacier is super deceiving. Our move took about 4 hours of navigating through crevasse fields and dealing with 70 degree temps on the glacier. TJ led the way and we learned a lot about rigging our sleds properly for downhill travel and probing for snow bridges over crevasses. We set up camp in a safe spot that evening, built our kitchen and dined on mashed potato's with cheese, peperoni, bacon bits and crushed chips for crunch.
Lessons learned that day - snowshoes suck, shake out the tent in the morning to get out any lingering frost and moisture, good sled rigging is essential.