East Leprechaun Canyon

 So, it’s been over two years since I have posted on this blog.  I’m sure nothing interesting has happened in that time, so I’ll just skip to the latest trip and maybe (probably not) fill in other stuff later.  I was going to just post pics on Facebook and call it good enough, but it is hard to tell a story on FB.  I posted a “here is a pile of pics from my trip” post, with a link here to provide more detail.

Last year on my Utah trip I got to explore two technical canyons, something I haven’t done in a while, and couldn’t wait to go back for more.  I had grand plans for a ridiculous number of canyons in very few days.  Unfortunately I got sick just before leaving for this trip, on top of my body trying very hard to cope with my current medical treatments, and then the weather decided to get involved as well to limit my options. This post details the highlight of the trip, a day spent exploring East Leprechaun Canyon.

Friends Adam and Ellen from Colorado joined me for about half my trip, including this canyon.  We spent the night before going through guide books to pick a route for the day, knowing that bad weather was going to limit the days we could be in the canyons.  The three Leprechauns share an exit, and we had initially thought we would do the middle canyon, but in rereading the description it sounded like both Adam and myself might not fit through the middle canyon, and all of our packs were even bigger yet, so we opted for the east canyon instead.

The hike up was mostly in open desert, hot and dusty, and we were lucky to have multiple mapping options on our phones to guide us to the start.

When we arrived at the head of the canyon for the first rappel, it was apparent this was going to be a squeeze.

The bottom of the first rappel dropped us right into a narrow section.

The curves in the passage and the designs in the rock were stunning.

A good example of how tight many of the passages became, there were a lot of places too narrow for our shoulders, and too narrow to turn sideways with packs, where we ended up taking off our packs, holding them either in front or behind us, and shimmying sideways to get through.

Lots of down climbing and stemming over too-narrow sections made for a good physical workout.

Throughout the day, the smiles never stopped.

We got to a section of beautifully sculpted narrows just as the sun dropped enough to light everything up.

The last rappel dropped down, and down, and down, and eventually passed under a truck-sized chockstone and deposited us in a huge, dark subway chamber.

Exiting the chamber there was an optional super narrow section, I climbed  on top and got pics of Adam squeezing through.

From there we hiked down the lower canyon and back to the parking area.

Summer 2023

Glossing over the bad, and concentrating on the good, we have had a really good summer.  Madeline participated in a total of seven summer camps this year, from Fine Arts Camp to rock climbing.  We made our usual trip to Washington for 4th of July with family, and this year my mom flew out from Minnesota to join us.  We look forward to this every year it is so much fun.

Samish Island 4th of July

Our friends the Bjorklunds brought their sailboat up to Sitka from Seattle, and as soon as we returned from Washington we set off together on a boating vacation around SE Alaska.  More than a week in Glacier Bay National Park, followed by several more weeks of just wandering around enjoying the scenery and each others company, made for a wonderful summer vacation.  I’m including a small selection of pics from the trip, to give an idea of the stunning scenery and how much we enjoyed ourselves.

Sea Lions in Glacier Bay

The Fairweather range with 15,000’ Mount Fairweather

Ice berg ice sculptures

M in front of Johns Hopkins Glacier

The kids collecting glacier ice

Lots of bears on the beaches

Sea Otters

Orcas up close

Lots of time spent fishing

Beautiful Anchorages

 It was great to be back out on the water for an extended trip.  Add to that being able to share the time with another family that will put up with us for multiple weeks, it was a real joy.

Now we are back in Sitka and Madeline has a couple weeks of 5th grade under her belt, so we are settling back into our school year routines.

2019

In my last blog post I mentioned that we had just purchased our new boat, which was located in Seattle.  In early November I flew back down to Seattle, spent a bunch of money on fuel, spare parts and food, and headed North to bring the boat back to Sitka.  Our friend Steven decided to come along for the ride, and after a fairly uneventful 18 days, we pulled the boat into our new slip in the marina, just in time for Thanksgiving.
While I was lazing around drinking coffee and driving a boat, Nicole and Madeline were packing and organizing so we could move out of our apartment at the end of November.  We lucked out in that we were house-sitting for friends for November and December, so we had a place to stay while packing up.  We made it out of the apartment on time, but ended up with a storage unit full of stuff, a truck full of stuff, and lots of our things in the house were were staying at.  December saw us continuing to organize and pack, slowly moving things on to the boat.  Of course, there was also that holiday thing happening.  We skipped our usually trip back to MN and had Christmas in the house, then feverishly packed to get out of the house and move onto the boat before the end of the year.
By December 31st, we were on the boat, with now two storage units, two trucks full of stuff, and a boat crammed with boxes and bags.  We are hoping that by the end of January we will be down to one storage unit, have most of the stuff out of the trucks, and find some semblance of order amongst the stuff on the boat.  I had hoped we would be getting out with the boat on the weekends, but until things are stowed properly it is best to stay put.  Nature reinforced that thought when the harbor froze over last night.
For now we are warm and dry and comfortable, if not a bit cramped, in our new home.  Hopefully there will be some nice winter boating pictures coming soon.

Ventana

We originally set up this blog to share our experiences on the water, cruising and living aboard our sailboat Baraka.  During our first year of full-time cruising we wintered over in Sitka Alaska, Nicole got pregnant, and six years ago our daughter Madeline was born.  We contiued living on the boat for another year, did some more cruising, and decided that even though our boat was perfect for crossing oceans, we might not want to go that route, at least not any time soon.  We sold Baraka, and our blog has focused more on Madeline over the past few years.  Earlier tonight that changed, and hopefully this blog will once again feature our experiences on the water, along with a large dose of Madeline.  At dinner time we signed papers, and are now the proud owner of a 42’ Kadey Krogen named Ventana.  Hope to see you out on the water.

2018?

Pretty sad that I go to check on our blog and see that it has been more than a year since I posted here.  Not sure if anyone is still following this or not.  Instead of going over everything that has happened in the past year+ (there has been a lot), I am just going to post this as a teaser.  Big news coming in the next day or so.

Otter

If you are one of my Facebook friends, you might remember a while back I posted that we had purchased a boat.  If you are not on Facebook, yes, we bought another boat.  Instead of me making excuses as to why we are not out on the boat more, and more importantly why I am not doing more blog posts about our boat, I'm just going to post some pictures of the trips we have taken so far, and then I am going to get stuff ready to go out on the boat this weekend.  Maybe I'll write something about it and post some pictures when we get back.

Our new boat "Otter"

Our first overnight in the new boat

Boating with friends is even more fun

Moab

Breakfast at the Moab Diner

I tried to do a blog post about our recent trip, but Blogger doesn't seem to like my writing, so it decided to just delete most of my post.  I am struggling to write so it wasn't one of my best posts anyway, and it really wasn't much fun to do.  When I tried to rewrite the post, it wouldn't let me add pictures, then when I finally got past that it scrambled the pictures and lost several of them.  I'm giving up for now.  I'm just going to post of bunch of pictures from the trip, and maybe fill in the writing later.

Exploring Onion Creek Road

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Dinosaur museum

Canyonlands

Horseback Riding

Birthday Dinner

Hiking in Arches

Anniversary Celebration

Outside Zion National Park

November

Many of you have probably heard of "Movember".  If not, it's an event meant to raise awareness of men's health issues.  You can find info here: https://us.movember.com/
There is also an event called "No shave November, similar idea but focused more on cancer awareness.  Info for this here: https://no-shave.org/#fundedprograms
I haven't signed up to participate in either of these events.  There was some talk about me looking a bit too much like a 70's porn star with just a mustache, and honestly I wasn't sure I could take the itching for a month to go without shaving at all.  That doesn't mean I'm not trying.  I put away my razor at the end of October and will see how things turn out in the next couple weeks.  Stay tuned for pictures.  Because I didn't sign up for any of the organized events I can kind of blaze my own path here.  I would love for people to take a few minutes and do something for the folks in your lives that are struggling with health issues, or have lost a loved one unexpectedly.  If you feel like you have a couple extra bucks, donate it to a good cause.  If you can't afford it, call a friend or family member that shares a connection to the person you are thinking of and just say hi.  Sometimes a quick call is more important than you might imagine.  If you need an idea, or want to help support my newly adopted cause, try this: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1440060
I know that growing a beard is really no big deal, I live in Alaska so its really more of a surprise that it has taken me this long to try it.  The big deal is that many of us need some sort of excuse to donate to a good cause, or show support of our friends and family that are struggling, its just a reality of our way too busy lives.  Make this your excuse, do something good, and have a good laugh at the end of the month when pictures will reveal that I still can't grow a decent beard even at this stage in my life.

Lastly, if this does inspire you to do something, let me know.  The interface on this blog sucks so unless you already know how to post here don't bother frustrating yourself, just let me know on the cross post on Facebook or send me a message or email.

Summer

Sitka in summer

My last real blog post was from Easter.  I guess I'm not doing well at keeping up with life events, although the last two posts explain a bit about what is keeping me busy.
Anyway, I'll start out after Easter and see if I can make it through summer hitting our highlights so far.
A little more than a week after Easter I got to celebrate another birthday.  Next year will be a big one for me so this year it was a pretty low-key event, so low key I wasn't even home for the day.  One of our boats needed to be put in dry dock so I spent several weeks in Ketchikan helping out on the project.  A week later was our wedding anniversary, and again next year will be a big one for us so we kept this mellow as well.  I did at least make a quick surprise trip back to Sitka for the day so I could spend the time with Nicole.  March, April, and May saw me working between 60 and 80 hours per week so I really didn't have much time for anything other than sleep and work.

Our little Earth Day squid

Towards the end of April Nicole and Madeline got to participate in the local Earth Day parade.  This year it was themed for sea creatures, with a workshop earlier in the week to help with costumes.  With Madeline as a squid and Nicole as a sea urchin they fit right in with the others for a parade down main street.

Owl talk at the park

During the winter and spring, Nicole and Madeline were taking advantage of the many activities for families in our little community.  Our library had weekly story time for the kids, with bigger weekend events once a month.  The science center had a kids program, as did the national park.  There was playtime at the gym several days a week, some supervised by the parents and some by gym volunteers to give Nicole a chance to work out.

Storytime at the library

We also enrolled Madeline in a class that combined gymnastics and cirque, which has now evolved into two separate classes.  Needless to say they kept busy while I was working.  Nicole and Madeline also spent a bunch of time as pickers.  They started out picking spruce tips, which are used by several of the local businesses.  Ours went to the brewery to help make their spruce tip ale.  About the time the spruce tips were done the salmonberries were ripe.  They ended up selling some locally, selling some to someone in Juneau, and keeping some for us.  Huckleberries were next, and we kept most of those for ourselves to use in scones and muffins.
June saw the beginning of my on-going medical fun, but it also meant Madeline and Nicole got to reconnect with our friends in Seattle while we were all there.  During my surgery recovery and during subsequent visits, our friends Dave and Judith have been incredible in their generosity.  With a comfortable place to stay and a vehicle to use when we need it, not to mention good friends to share our down time, it has made a bad situation considerably better.  Add to that having more good friends right next door, including Madelines friend Amy, it provided some enjoyable times during our visits.  I lucked out and was released from the hospital in time for Nicoles birthday, probably not an overly memorable birthday but at least the celebration didn't take place in a hospital room.

Fishing derby bait

We arrived back in Sitka just in time for the kids fishing derby.  Alaska Fish and Game organizes a kids fishing derby in just about every community in Southeast, providing poles and bait as well as prizes so all the kids can participate.  Last year we participated in the fishing derby in Juneau, and Madeline caught her first fish.  This year we were not so lucky, no fish but still a lot of fun.  Conveniently enough the derby was held right across the street from our house at Swan Lake so it should make it easy for us to practice up for next year.  We still had fun playing with the fish eggs we were using for bait, making fish print art, and watching some of the other kids catch fish.

Family visit

The beginning of July my family came to Sitka for a visit.  After an unexpected overnight stay in Seattle after being bumped off their flight, my mom, brother and Aunt Linda got to spend most of a beautiful week in our town enjoying the fourth of July festivities.  We tried out all the new restaurants, went to see the bears, visited the parks and museums, and went on a whale watch tour on one of the company boats.  Mostly we just spent a bunch of time together relaxing.  The weather decided to cooperate and give them some warmth and sun, and we even lucked out with a nice clear day for the fourth of July parade.

Tor, Jess, Lars and Odin

Very soon after my family left, our friends Tor and Jess arrived with their boys Lars and Odin.  A visit from great friends is special in itself, but the fact that they arrived on their sailboat, after a 25 day sail from Hawaii, made it even more incredible.  We did another round of the restaurants in Sitka, as well as more visits to the parks and museums.  Most importantly we got to spend some relaxed, quality time with good people.  Too soon it was time for them to head south so the boys would be back in time for the start of school.

Uncle Lowells birthday

At the end of July the three of us flew down to Washington, did a little visiting in Seattle again with some brief medical stuff as well, and then made the drive over to Eastern Washington to celebrate my Uncle Lowells 90th birthday.  This turned out to be a huge event with lots of family and friends from all over the country, including my mom and brother flying back out from Minnesota.  We stopped at a couple of our favorite wineries on the way out to replenish our supply, then spent several days visiting and re-introducing Madeline to many family members.  She had already met many of the attendees when we did our road trip in 2013-2014, but was too young to remember them so it was a fun refresher.

Cirque fun

August gave us some family time back home in Alaska.  My work had slowed down so I got to spend more time at home, and the weather was good so we got to spend some time outside.  Uncharacteristic warm days meant several trips to the beach, along with a lot of walks around town.  Madeline's combo class ended, and a new session started so we got her into two classes, one for gymnastics and one for silks and cirque.  She seems to really enjoy both of them and it certainly keeps her busy.  We also had someone open a childrens museum in Sitka last year, and Madeline really enjoyed the time she spent there.  Nicole will be helping out one day a week when they reopen this fall so that will be one more activity for the two of them to look forward to during the week.

The beginning of September marked Madelines fourth birthday.  Gifts had been arriving in the mail all week from family, and combined with what Nicole and I already had for her she made quite the haul.  Books, puzzles, clothes and toys made up the majority of the presents.  She also got her very own fishing pole, her first two wheel bike, and a new electronic keyboard.  It seemed like a lot of stuff, but she is at that age where she likes to do a lot of different things and is easily distracted, so a variety of choices for activities will hopefully keep her busy and happy while at home.
Later in the afternoon we had a party with some of her friends, with pizza and birthday cake.  We had the party at the local brewery (much to the horror of my mom I'm sure), but it turned out to be a great idea.  If you are going to ask adults to go to the birthday party of a four year old, with a bunch of other screaming four year olds, you might as well pick a place that has beer readily available.  I think the majority of attendees both young and old had a good time so I'm going to call it a success.