Here is the first issue of “Real Alaskan Magazine.” True stories of what it’s like to live in the frozen North.
First issue.
Real Alaskan sea lions.
Alaskan bareback riding
Why they’re called Puffins.
Crabzilla.
Alaskan turtle races.
I saw this vehicle drive by and had to circle the parking lot to get a shot of the license plate. By the time I got to the car the driver had gone into the store. I can only imagine what got out of that vehicle.
What do you have to do to earn this nickname?
This beast?
Or this beast?
Oh my god, this beast?
Holy shit run away – not this beast again.
I love driving behind anyone on the road who has a brand new vehicle and a zest for life.
Yellow just isn’t dark enough for me.
Saw these two vehicles within 5 minutes of each other on the road in Anchorage. Can there be bigger assholes then these?
Driving a Hummer with Palin and NRA stickers, a WAR license plate and a Jesus fish.
Here is what some of these stickers say:
• I’ll cling to my GUNS and religion – You can have Obama
• Miss met yet? (photo of W)
• Rush is Right – Limbaugh 2012
• Criminals Prefer Unarmed Victims
• Real Presidents DON’T Apologize for Their Country
• Live Free or Die
• Miranda Rights for Terrorists?
Oh, and by the way, I’m a AAA member.
This is my first fish. It’s a 27 pound halibut caught with my friend Steve Haber of Habervision Sunglasses. Steve took me out of Homer, AK to guide me on my first halibut hit. We went to some of his favorite fishing holes out in the bay and fished at 200 feet. Here’s a map of where we fished. Just the two of us and I didn’t get sick.
View Larger Map
In the middle of Kachemak Bay out toward sea.
I really caught this thing – and it’s a small one.
Big ones like this are frequently caught all yearlong.
Went to a party at my friend Sky’s house down on the Kenai River in Soldatna, AK. Great house on the river and and great place for a party.
Fire ring looking out towards the river.
Had the band under the tarp.
River anyone? Steep stairs down to a fishing dock.
From the dining room.
Coming out of Homer harbor, cruised past the king crab fishing vessel “Time Bandit” from the hit television shot “Deadliest Catch.” It’s a cool looking boat but cooler looking on the TV show.
Deadliest Catch show.
Time Bandit.
Another view.
Stolen from the web.
Yea, I really took this one.
Should have seen me get this one.
This year there have been only two seasons in Alaska – Winter and Summer. Spring came and sent one night while we all were sleeping. The trees have finally popped, the sky is that amazing Alaskan blue, and the moose are out. Here are a couple of shots of the first few days of summer.
From the lagoon towards the Chugach mountains.
First moose of the season munching away.
In the yard.
My seven year old niece Layla had a class project called Flat Stanley. It is similar in respect to the traveling gnome in the Travelocity ads. A gnome escapes a person’s lawn to travel the world. Photos are regularly sent back from interesting places. You’ve seen the ads.
Instead of a gnome, each child draws Stanley. Since Stanley is a two-dimensional drawings, he is called Flat Stanley. Each child sends out Flat Stanley to friends and relatives near and far. The person receiving Flat Stanley has to photograph him doing something interesting or at an interesting place. Knowing that Uncle Scott lives on the other side of the world (Layla lives near San Diego) Flat Stanley should visit there. Previously I had sent her photos of animals and other crazy Alaskan stuff, so she had an idea of what she was hoping for. Flat Stanley finally arrives so I carried him around in my car. It took less than a day until what I wanted to see happen, happened. I also had to write a story about Flat Stanley and his encounter with whatever. Here is what I saw along with my best seven-year-old writing ability.
Flat Stanley and the Moose
Flat Stanley went on a trip way up north to Alaska. He wanted to see a real live moose so he hitched a ride in his friend Scott’s car. Flat Stanley and Scott drove all over Anchorage, Alaska in search of a moose. Finally, on the third day, Flat Stanley spotted a moose by the side of the road. Flat Stanley wanted to be in the window right next to the moose but Scott told him that was not very safe. Moose are real big and very dumb. They can easily get scared and may hurt you if you are in the way when they run. Flat Stanley said he wanted to be a safe traveler to he had Scott put him in the window and then had Scott drive about ten feet from the moose. Flat Stanley waved with both hands as Scott took the picture of him and the moose. Flat Stanley said goodbye to Scott and went off to his next adventure.
I love the continued Sarah bashing that is going up here in her own home state.
“But I’m a victim of the evil liberal press.” No, this is on a person’s car at the Home Depot.
I sat in a restaurant across the street from the Pony Wheel Ranch one Saturday afternoon and couldn’t stop watching the human drama being played out in a tight circle. It broke my heart to see these tethered ponies walk endlessly in a small circle carrying on their backs the children of a now single parent. Apparently, this five minute ride was the one sure way each kid would know that they were with the best parent – the one who really loved them. Save us from our domestic bliss.
It’s custody day at the Pony Wheel Ranch.
I don’t know what this was about, but I didn’t want my car anywhere near it.
Do the authorities know about this?
Went to a house party this last week. And typical with the sloppy and often wet and muddy external world, the common courtesy is to remove your shoes before entering a home. I saw this conglomeration of zapatos in the foyer and couldn’t resist the photo op.
This would make a great commercial for oder eaters insoles. The room was ripe.
Let’s not mince words
Oh, and by the way – Fuck you too!!
Let me see here. Are they trying some form of entendre humor? If not, I want to participate! I’ll join any fun that has three gears in the front and six in the rear.
I’m tired. Can you pump for a while?
This is your typical Alaskan over-the-road truck. These trucks are usually dressed for the harsh conditions up here. Especially troubling are the moose killer front bumpers. These heavy duty contraptions can keep a trucker safe in Alaska by not letting the dumb moose that stands in the middle of the road in the middle of the night destroy your rig.
How would you like to see this coming up fast in your rear view mirror?
Visited the Anchorage Museum of Art on a special night and watched a Native Alaskan dance exhibition.
Weather has been miserable here for a long time. Showing, cold, windy, and generally nasty. After snowing the night before, I woke to a glorious deep blue sky with no clouds. I wanted to take a driving trip to the Kenai before Spring came. This was my opportunity since is became nasty the next day and for the foreseeable future. I shot a ton of shots between Anchorage and Moose Pass. The low sun made the shadows interesting and colored much of the landscape with blue tones. This is the most beautiful section of the Kenai (in my opinion). Check it out.
On the road out of Anchorage.
Turnagain Arm trying to melt.
Love a good avalanche.
Snow machine bowl. Four snowmachiners were killed two weeks ago from an avalanche on the mountain to the left.
Up on the left for the killer alavanche.
Portage Glacier Lake.
Took the gondola to the top of the Alyeska Resort. People were skiing down the face of this mountain.
From the top looking across the valley.
There is the resort.
Turnagain Arm from the ski mountain.
These skiers are nuts.
That one skier was yelling “shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.”
That’s the ski resort at the top of the mountain.
In the early 1920′s, settlers had come to Alaska following a gold strike. They traveled by boat to the coastal towns of Seward and Knik and from there, by land into the gold fields. The trail they used is today known as The Iditarod Trail, one of the National Historic Trails as so designated by the Congress of the United States. In the winter, their only means of travel was by dog team.
The Iditarod Trail soon became the major “thoroughfare” through Alaska. Mail was carried across this trail, people used the trail to get from place to place and supplies were transported via the Iditarod Trail. Priests, ministers and judges traveled between villages via dog team.
All too soon the gold mining began to slack off. People began to go back to where they had come from and suddenly there was less travel on the Iditarod Trail. The use of the airplane in the late 1920’s signaled the beginning of the end for the dog team as a standard mode of transportation, and of course with the airplane carrying the mail, there was less need for land travel. The final blow to the use of the dog team came with the appearance of snowmobiles in Alaska.
The Iditarod is run each year to commemorate the emergency delivery in 1925 of diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska. Nome in 1925 had changed from a booming, boisterous turn-of-the-century gold-rush camp into a small, quite town of about 1,500 people. It was fifteen years since the end of the gold-rush, but Nome remained an important settlement on the Seward Peninsula.
(stolen from the web)
The race originally began in Anchorage, but when freeways and urban life got in the way, the official start was moved to Wasilla, AK. After more urban sprawl, the official race start was moved to Willow, AK. The Anchorage portion of the race is ceremonial with each musher carrying a paying passenger on their sled for about a 10 mile ride. The mushers pack and and drive to Willow for the official start of the race.
1049 miles.
Race start.
Downtown Anchorage (stolen from the web)
Dogs getting ready.
Official starting line.
Downtown Anchorage, AK.
What the hell is this?
Good pooch.
Pick-a-boo I see you.
Got my booties.
And there they go.
They will let any vehicle cruise around here during the winter. If I was a betting person and it was between an ice patch and this bike, I’m betting on the patch.
I’d freeze my nuts off on this bike.
Spotted Santa at the Iditarod race and had to take his picture. He told me Mrs. Claus let him out for a little bit so he could go to the race.
Dammit, where are those elves???
Didn’t know that Santa lived in Chicken, AK.
At the Iditarod race I spotted a couple of real Alaskan families out with their kids.
It doesn’t get anymore Alaskan than this.
This guy and some of his Holy Ghost Riders crew are always out stumbling around on the streets preaching for Jesus at every Anchorage event. I finally caught one of them on camera for who they really are.
Antithesis of the Hell’s Angels?
Baptism through beer?
Jesus bless APD (Anchorage Police Department???)
Slipping his placard behind the trash cans.
Fuck this Jesus shit, I need a drink and into the bar he went.
Only in Alaska would they have a contest like this for women. It reminds me of that old nasty joke:
Guy: “Oh baby, oh baby was it as good for you as it was for me?”
Fat Chick: “Are you in yet?”
This is not something the Keebler Elves baked.
Every year during the Fur Rondy event in Anchorage has a three-day sprint dog sled race. It’s a 20 mile course that runs through the city. You can catch the dogs running at many good viewing spots. The course actually runs through my university’s property as it makes a full circle back to the downtown finish line. Mushers compete the three races for lowest overall time. The dogs are bred to run and that’s all they want to do. They get so excited in preparation for the race that it’s fun to watch them. These dogs are not pets. They all live outside in the Alaskan winter and if they get loose, will run away. Not because of mean treatment by the mushers (these mushers love their dogs and give them a lot of attention) but because all they want to do is run. Check out the video to see excited dogs.
$80,000 purse.
Dogs getting ready to run.
Down 4th Ave.
Gettin closer.
There they go.
Action shot (stolen from the web)
Action shot (stolen from the web)
Action shot (stolen from the web)