Fall Harvest

In Alaska we may not be able to have tree-ripened peaches like the Pauley family in Wenatchee, nor are we able to grow watermelons and sweet potatoes like Grandma in Kansas...but some vegetables do grow, even after the 3rd coldest summer on record.
Mom and our neighbor, Rosa Meehan.

Picking, washing, cooking, drying and freezing vegetables and herbs is very tedious --but enjoyable-- work. The more I take part in harvesting the garden produce, the greater appreciation I have for the fresh food on my plate. And I didn't even break my back over the planting, watering and weeding.
To stock up our freezers for the winter we blanch the produce for a few minutes in boiling water before freezing. This quick scalding theoretically stops the action of enzymes that cause vegetables to mature so the nutrients, colors, and flavors are retained as much as possible.
Bringing in some red potatoes from the back yard. We will wait a few weeks before harvesting the rest of the underground crops.

It's interesting how different plants change as the snow creeps further down the mountains. After the first frost, cranberries get better because it takes the bite off. Root crops and tubers get sweeter after a few hard frosts because the sugars get pushed down. Most vegetables are best before it frosts, however. Rhubarb, one of my favorite vegetables, can actually be dangerous to eat after a hard frost because the oxalate in the leaves gets pushed down the stalks. High amounts of oxalate can cause acute poisoning and even death. Usually there is a harmless amount of oxalic acid in rhubarb, spinach, cabbage, and beet tops but it binds with calcium and interferes with Ca absorption-- so forget eating your spinach if you have a broken bone!
Cranberries on the Falls Creek trail

Kincaid Stampede

This past weekend was the final Anchorage Rollerski Series race. My teammates and I were uncertain how the racing would go after several weeks of high intensity training, but the hard work must be getting ingrained in our systems because we had very encouraging results.

Almost all of the APU athletes improved their personal times significantly. I was excited to find out that I was 42" faster than last year. Miss Fitz took the cake as the "most improved" --she was 1.5minute faster! It was evident we have been fine-tuning our double pole, because we were able to double pole more of the course than before.
Katie Ronsse and Laura Valaas-- thanks to Ian Mannix for the nice photo.

After the race Kikkan mentioned that "Erik has effectively managed to deplete every muscle group in my body". I had to agree with her. This week we get a recovery week (with 8 hours on the training plan) to allow our bodies to absorb the training and, hopefully, come back stronger when we repeat the cycle in the coming weeks!

An Old Boot, a Crash, and a Lesson Learned

It's easy to inadvertently neglect checking the safety of rollerskiing equipment. Yesterday I had a shocking reminder of how important it is to make sure my rollerskis AND boots are in perfect condition before heading out the door.

I was rollerskiing down a hill, took a skate-stride near the bottom and then belly-flopped. After the little slip-'n-slide game with the pavement, I lay there for a few moments as a "pile of Katie", as described by Kate Fitz.

It turned out that my boot delaminated from the sole. I had no visible clues that this had begun to occur, but I didn't thoroughly check it before training. In Rossi's defense, these boots are several years old, only used because my other pair was still wet, and any boot will eventually fall apart when you ski and r-ski as much as I do. Many of my teammates who are using other brands have visual signs of their boots beginning to delaminate.

In order to help save my friends from kissing the pavement, I made a r-ski check-list, so you can make sure your gear is in working order before fearlessly heading down that hill.

THE "MUST CHECK" LIST:
1.Wheel bearings are not worn-out or gritty. If the wheels spin faster than when you purchased them and they have a "shhh" sound, they are probably worn and will seize up soon. Ordering two new bearings/wheel is the cheapest way to go.
2.Shaft is in perfect condition. Cracks often begin vertically near the wheels.
3.Fenders are secured tightly. The tap of a loose fender on a wheel will act as a brake at high speeds and can cause a crash--just ask Kikkan.
4.Wheels are not worn down and cracked. Switch the wheels from back to front and in-between rollerskis to help slow the wearing process. Keep them rolling in the same direction, however.
5.Screws are tight, wheels do not move side-to-side.
6.Boots are in good condition, with no signs of splitting between the boot and the sole.
7.Binding is tightly secured to your r-ski shaft and clipped into the boot.
8.An un-cracked helmet is secured to your melon.

THE "GOOD IDEA" LIST:
9.Sharpen r-ski tips. A diamond stone file or dremel can help.
10.Wear brightly colored clothing when on busy roads. If you haven't noticed, the APUNSC ladies are partial to neon pink.
If you have anything to add to the check-list or good wipe-out stories to share, leave a comment!

Riding with Rollerskis and Poles

I was bragging to my Mom that I "only" used 3.5 tanks of gas this summer, until she pointed out that I was out of town quite a lot. I thought back to helicopter rides at Eagle Glacier camps, the drive to Homer in Dad's van (along with the boat), flights around the state, as well as the trip to the White House. I was aghast that I was momentarily proud of my recent gas consumption. It was a long way to travel to meet up with the DU ski team in D.C. for NCAA Champion's Day, but it was definitely a summer highlight!

In college I was often known as "the girl who's always on her bike", but that's definitely not the case here at home. I haven't been commuting to practice since July, when I lost a pair of racing poles to my spokes while stepping off a curb. I've been especially guilty the past weeks because my carpool buddy, Valaas, has been in Whistler for a US team camp. Last week I saw UAA skier Amy Glen commuting to practice with her poles strapped to her top tube, became inspired, and decided to stop making excuses and do the same.

So with the help of a velcro pant strap and swix tie I rode to practice. But 2.7 hours and 15 L5 intervals later I was wishing I had a snack rather than a commute home.
While I was getting ready to ride home, I was sulking to myself, knowing I would have to shorten on my afternoon r-ski practice in order to recover for the next day's intervals. My teammate, Bart, offered me a ride and I didn't turn it down. I have decided that on days when the ski specific training load is high, carpooling is fine by me.

Bear Alert for Rabbit Lakes Area

For those Anchorage-ites out there: There was another grizzly bear charge on the back-side of Flat Top/Rabbit Lakes trail head on Tuesday. The trail is expected to re-open Friday, but I'm going to stay away from that area for a while.

I've become a bear wuss this summer after my teenage neighbor was mauled during a mt. bike race and after reading stories from numerous other runners who were charged or mauled while out on the Hillside trails. I do enjoy seeing bears, but only from a safe distance. I have avoided the Campbell creek part completely and have only gone out on the other Hillside trails with a large group...and a can of bear spray. I have no shame in carrying it around anymore, especially after seeing a bear less than 15ft away last week. I whipped out my pepper spray and held it up, ready to fire. Of course, the bear did nothing more than look at us and move away, but this was a good thing--I like "normal" bear behavior.

Symphony Lakes

When I received my training plan for the week, the "long run in the mountains" was the workout that I was looking forward to most. Our training this summer has been very ski specific, so I have to savor every micro-adventure that I can get. I do enjoy roller-skiing (...weird, I know), but circling around the suburbia of Anchorage doesn't compare to being in wide open places.
Mikey Matteson, Peter Kling, Bobby Miller, and Jeff Ellis on the ridge north of Hanging Valley, contemplating where to go next.

The guys' loop was going to be longer and more challenging than what I was supposed to be doing this morning, so I tried to be a responsible athlete and made a shorter loop. I'm not perfect at following my training plan...while bush-whacking down to the trail I did stop to fill up my zip-lock with blueberries.
If you would have seen the sack of liquid that I pulled out of my drink-belt after a few hours of running, you wouldn't have guessed that I found any solid food at all.

I've enjoyed everything I've seen in this area so far-- next time I'm going to make it a mission to go further down the valley to the Flute Glacier. The map shows some canyons near Triangle Peak. Has anyone checked out those canyons? Is it worth the side-trip out there?

The AK Capitol City

On Saturday evening I realized that I didn't have any responsibilities through Labor Day weekend...so I threw a sleeping bag and some clothes in a backpack and convinced my Dad to do the same. We headed southeast Sunday morning with hopes of checking out the sights and surfing in Yakutat, Alaska. We had to stop in Juneau to climb aboard a smaller plane full of fisherman, only to deplane half an hour later. The plane had a serious mechanical issue which needed to be fixed, but first they needed to have a part shipped in from Washington. Dad and I decided that since while we were already in Juneau we might as well explore the area for our 1.5 day vacation, rather than spend a chunk of it burning daylight in the airport.

Juneau felt much more civilized and starkly contrasted our recent adventures in Nome and Kodiak. Fist of all, the rental car place was open, and the rental car employee told us "no smoking" in the car, rather than "no fish guts, blood, or animal hair", as we were told in Kodiak. Also, we camped in a designated camping area...not that I'm complaining. The drinking water from the pump and the view of the Mendenhall glacier from our campsite was quite nice!
We hiked above the glacier and got some pretty sweet views. It's difficult for me to do glaciers justice with my digital camera and photography skills, so in order to appreciate the magnitude of the glacier you may have to click on this photo to see the boats in between the seracs (ice towers).
As a side note, Dad is making a remarkable recovery after the cycling crash that occurred in May. Last week his doctor surprisingly announced that he could stop taking Coumadin (a blood thinner aka rat poison)...very exciting! His ribs and vertebrae have healed and he's working on regaining his lung function. He isn't wasting any time getting back to doing what he loves most. Saturday he went with Mom for his first road bike ride outdoors and then he joined me in the evening for his first single-track ride of the summer.The Shrine of St. Therese Chapel (built out of stones from the beach)In many ways I think the sights in Juneau are what people expect to find when they come to Alaska-- gigantic Sitka Spruce, beautiful glaciers, and a fair share of "liquid sunshine". There was also an abundance of bears and salmon.
And I mean real ones too!I found Dad's face on a Tlingit totem pole--the guy's a legend!


I feel super lucky to have been able to travel around the state this summer. I'm indebted to Mom for hooking us up with the free flights, for working and scooping feces for me at my house-sitting jobs (while I've been off adventuring or at glacier training camps), and for being a good sport about the whole deal! I think I owe her 67 million hours of manual labor.