Tag Archives: alaska

Jack gets his ATV stuck on a muddy trail!

Yes, Jack got stuck in a mud puddle.  It was a big mud puddle though!  If fact, it was kind of a swamp.

He was not pleased!  After sticking a few pieces of wood under the vehicle for traction and not getting any we gave up and started walking.  Thank goodness it was only a mile back to the road!  I stayed there with our dog and Jack hitched a ride back to our house to get the 4-wheeler that has a winch on it.  So in a flash Jack was back, and soon we had the side-by-side out and we were heading down the trail on our merry way… it was already 11pm but Jack needed to balance his hard work with some hard play so we didn’t get home for another 2 or 3 hours!

We found a great easement trail!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with side-by-sides, they are similar to 4-wheelers but bigger and you can sit side by side behind a wind shield.  It’s more comfortable than a 4-wheeler, warmer, and you don’t get rained on.  Best of all, our old mutt can ride instead of run so he doesn’t wear himself out.  He must be part sled dog because he would run himself into the ground if you let him.

Moral of the story:  have a winch on your ATV if you are going to drive it through mud.  Jack hadn’t gotten around to buying one when we got stuck.  But you can be sure it’s at the top of his to-do list now!  Either way, it was a very fun night and we probably wouldn’t change a thing even if we could.  🙂

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World’s Largest Convoy 2009 – Special Olympics Fundraiser

In September of 2009 Jack took part in a fundraiser for the Special Olympics in Seattle, Washington.  Over 250 trucks lined up and drove through part of the city to create the “World’s Largest Convoy 2009”.

Jack signs photos and talks to his fans.

And he catches a photo with the Special Olympians.

In the next post there will be more photos from this fundraiser.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!

Jack’s Northern Lights Shots

Not sure if you’ve ever tried to take a digital photo of the northern lights but it will most likely turn out grainy unless you have a very expensive camera (or you know some really good tricks and in that case please share!).  So I took 9 of Jack’s aurora shots and put them together in thumbnails after running digital camera noise removal on them a couple of times.  If you don’t know what this means don’t worry about it, but the shots turned out kind of surreal.  Click on the image below and check it out.

You can see the side mirror in one of them – he obviously took the top 3 from the truck.  The bottom 6 shots show one formation getting larger from at first just a wisp in the sky.  The northern lights are a winter-only phenomenon for us since in the summer it’s light throughout the night, from May until August.  This awesome kind of sighting is a big perk for us in the winter, and boy do we deserve it after months of bitter cold and darkness.

Click here for a couple more shots of northern lights – these taken from our house.  Have a great week!

Bear Follows Wolf

Jack had an unusual wildlife sighting the other day on the Richardson Highway (the road that connects Fairbanks to Valdez).  A grizzly bear crossed the road in front him, so Jack pulled over for a possible photo since the bear was now on the left side of the road and easy to see from the driver’s side.

As soon as he snapped the photo of the bear, a wolf stood up out of the brush and trotted off, away from the bear.

Then the bear turned around and followed the wolf into the woods.

It’s pretty rare to see a wolf by the road, much less a bear and wolf in such close proximity.  Was the bear following the scent of the wolf?  Was the wolf injured?  Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

Hauling Pipe from Valdez to Salcha

This month Jack has been hauling huge pipe sections to Salcha, a small community about 35 miles from Fairbanks.  The State of Alaska is building a railroad bridge across the Tanana River in Salcha and these pieces are probably going to be standing supports with concrete poured inside.  Each driver manages to haul two sections a day, you can see them loaded here.  In back of the trucks and in front of the shipping containers there are stacks of more pipe that need to be hauled to Salcha, so Jack won’t be off this project for a while to come.  Yes, work means a paycheck, but ending up with one a a half days off a week is hard when you’ve got a home you want to take care of, and knowing there are only 3 months of summer in Fairbanks.


We’ll post more about this trip soon, so stay tuned and click “follow” if you are interested in getting an email each time a post is made here.

Lone Musk Ox on the Dalton

This musk ox was taking a break pretty close to the road, at least close enough for Jack to get a photo.

Musk ox are herding animals but this guy is a loner.  He doesn’t appear injured, but you can see he trampled the snow, probably looking for food, before he laid down for a rest.  Maybe he was eating those little twigs sticking out of the snow.  Not very appetizing!

Jack sees Musk Ox all the time on the Dalton.  He’s never heard of any driver hitting one (unlike caribou and moose who have a bad habit of running out into the road).  Good thing, since Musk Ox weigh almost three-quarters of a ton!

Here is a small herd resting near the road back in 2008 when I went with Jack to Prudhoe.  If you ever get a chance to drive the Dalton, do it in the fall!  It’s unbelievably beautiful.