I was wrenching around the guts of this place today, looking to change some things I dont like and I wandered into the unpublished room, where currently sit 4 pages worth of links to posts Ive made that I never published. I will begin posting some of this stuff throughout the week and before each one I will note where it came from, as you see below.

Things that amaze me:

Last night, not even 24 hours ago I was in a cabin @ the Arctic Circle with 5 new friends drinking a bottle of Absolut they were kind and generous enough to arrange for me, they had no ice cubes so we used frozen blueberries harvested earlier in the season from the nearby mountain to keep our booze cool. Before that I helped with the sled dogs exercise regimen thanks to a very pleasant 3rd party connection to the captain of the dog mush team. Once all THAT was finished, it was time for another (6th of the day) soak in the Hot Springs before setting up shop in the nearby airstrip armed with cameras, tripods, cigarettes coffee and you guessed it: booze. We were out there til almost 3am watching the Aurora threaten with exposive activity but inevitably always stopping short on us. I cannot recall a time where Ive been more relaxed and excited simultaneously. Does that make sense? It does to me but only because I am writing and the feeling of it stunned me at the time, and frankly still does.
Now here I sit in Seattle uploading photos of the past 5 days, clipping and stitching film bits together, listening to a four-tet mix. What a marvelous world, to think such corners of the Earth are so accessible: visually/audibly/physically.
Listen to this:
Rocketnumbernine – Matthew and Toby (TEXT008) by Four Tet

What struck me so deeply about the Arctic Circle is the immense strength of it, the air itself is charged with a sense of survival. Its an unforgiving place, even with a remote lodge right there, the environment is almost……hostile. Not in the classic sense, the emotional sense, but more the variance where your not allowed many mistakes out there; you have to tune yourself to be cognizant of everything going on around you while still capturing the essence of the land, which is endless. There are no sky scraping crags that create a dramatic landscape, the mountains are barely that, in fact they are alot like Eastern Washington or a sparse rolling area of Northern Idaho in appearance. There are no massive forests blanketing the land and towering just below the sun, no there is none of that. The forests here are mostly small, sparse and scruffy, its too cold for anything else to grow to any magnitude, alot of the trees there now are 5 feet at best and I was told are hundreds of years old.
Each morning I wake up around 5am and troll the outdoors for creatures to photograph, there are 3 moose that have been at the grounds every day this week, I am determined to find them but of course I never did, because I was looking. When I finally did find them, it was more like they found me. I was soaking in the Springs one morning @ 7am and the sun was just barely making an appearance over the nearby ridge. They sidled over towards me, munching and chomping away in the dense fog produced by the 10 degree morning air converging with the hot springs.
These are defining moments in life, and I found the obvious beauty not just in the Moose grazing next to my soak, but in the massive strength of the environment itself, I drew from this place a strength Ive never felt before……the vast tracts of land puncuated with a distant mountain and peppered with such bitter temperatures inspired me, there was an overwhelming understanding that no matter what, this time cannot be pressed, this time here cannot be massaged any other way than what your orignal purpose for being there in the first place was, in my case, sorrow and deep loss. This land forces an introspective, a quieter look at the things that make you who you are, and why. My time here was profound in every sense.
I suggest you all go at least once.

I found a beaver lodge in Alaska and I cant stand beavers so I tried to find them, but once in the zone I couldnt handle the fear.
Hunters found baby bones in a beaver lodge once, or maybe it was just a half eaten baby I dont know….but it must have been so gnarly.
Beavers are bad.
Beavers, monkeys and the string they tie you together with when your born thats tucked in your bellybutton. When I was a kid I pulled mine out a little and it never really grew back so I used to hate being tickled b/c I knew it would get caught on something and I would die. True story.
Those are the three bad things in life.
And now I give you heavy duty beaver action in HD.

Taking off shortly, joining an expedition to the very beating heart of the North-Central Casades in search of stars, fresh caught mtn trout and high country solitude. This is the second backapck of my life not taken alone so its still new to me but the crew is a good one and we will have our times Im sure.
Two nights in the Wilderness is always just what you need, no matter what. The snow level hit 6000′ last night, the bears are out in full force getting last minute berries so I cant imagine any better possible time to go: Freezing temps and marauding bears.

Heres something for your weekend:

The “color photo craze” continues, this time with Hitler and Co. Its hard not to look at over and over again. Most of these were just released for the first time ever. Hitler up close and in color.

Its honey harvest time over at Shipwreck Honey and there is a another video in the works, keep an eye out: Shipwreck Honey.

I discovered The Awl last week when researching Juggalo’s and Juggalette’s. I hit the jackpot, this blog is one of my new favorite places. See for yourself: The Awl: Be Less Stupid.

Since Winter seems in a hurry to get here I thought its a good a time as any to unroll this years #hashtag for shred. Last year we used #stokeland to let our twitter homies know what was up and where we were; this year when in the mountains on the shred, use this: #gnarnia

Heading deep into the Northern Range with one: black motorhome and one: smoking hot Asian for 36 hours of much needed r&r. All mobile broadcast devices are shutting down promptly @ 9am Wednesday morning. When we come out on the other side I will be 34 and no less for the wear.

33 is wrapping itself up nicely and Ive lived to tell the tale.

on Friday nights for a good time.twitfeedWatch my

Message Boards/Tech

Until yesterday I was anxious to begin, and have been reading up on furiously, the art of a message board.  The process/reasoning here was two-fold as I need to get my hands in the fire for Admin’ing something like this for major future projects that I have been dwelling on for over a year now.  When I THINK, it gets a little smoky in here. Over the past 24 hours I have realized the doomed nature of the immediate message board i want to build, but I just might do it anyways, as a test tube case. (Lab Rats.) The nature of this board/forum is still a closely guarded secret.

Full Time Skipper

How to move into my Motorhome full time, has been burning up part of my brain for 3 months now. I reckon it will be smoldering yet, come Summertime. I have ideas…wild ones, but ideas none the less. Some of those ideas involve large sponsored message boards and large unsponsored vats of likely: Ramen Noodles for life. At least its Ramen in a motorohome on some NorthWest Coastline though.

RSS Search

I cant find a good Alaska Blog and its dissapointing. I dont care about bitchy housewife blogs, I need some keyboard grit that really presents life up there in a way that any of us would almost not understand. I will keep searching. I am of course eagerly anticipating (pictorial) results from the Fur Bikini contest, coming soon from all of the people I dont know but really should…up at the annual Fur Rondy. That looks like one fun party.

Stevens Pass Political Fails

Stevens Pass has been sitting on the front burner of my brain for weeks, on simmer. We are mere weeks away from a major announcement wherein us in the Lower Lot will likely be displaced, permanently. None of us have been given representation nor any formal voice in this case, despite a committee having been formed to provide “input” on whats best done with our sort. It is increasingly difficult to hold my tongue on this fiery issue, more and more we are being spoken of in such disposable manner, like a colony of lepers on the edge of town…a village that for the betterment of others must be burned and all its scourge and plague with it. What keeps ringing in my mind is how my money would spend BETTER anywhere else, but Im so attached to that place that it is utterly discouraging to even consider a move. I have a large piece of written work on the topic that I will share, but not until the time is right.  For a bunch of people who just want to get out of town and ski all weekend at their local ski resort, things sure have become political, and that just about takes the fun out of everything. All this heat and it begins to feel so incredibly inhospitable that you remind yourself of a rat, slinking around a rainy gutter looking for scraps, or in this case, a parking spot. For overall hospitality, general warmth and simple humanity: Stevens Pass gets an F in 2010.

Kiteboarding and ceasing to exist

Kiteboarding resumes soon, with all this early weather….I am not mentally prepared in the least….for certain death.

Borg Elders

A small matter if you dont know me, huge if you do: The Borg EldersMy parents are absolutely delightful people. They have been on my mind of late, something Im just completely unfamiliar with. Handwritten correspondence with my grandmother has also been very nice. Not enough people write letters anymore and frankly, the crinkly  feel of paper, the strain of meticulously placed ink…..it just cannot be beat.

Postal Service as a lost art

In 2009 I announced I would send anyone who wanted, a free book called Tough Trip Through Paradise, gratis. The book mattered that much, it is necessary reading. In 2009 I spent 15 quid per shipped book, start to finish, for a sum of 14 books. Not one letter or email was ever sent in exchange or gratitude. One of the reasons I did the project was to see how people would communicate back, alot of the books went to people I have never met, much less even spoken to on the phone. I was curious: do people write letters anymore? My conclusion is no, sadly. I am a proponent of paper….big time. My favorite blog posts are the scanned images of a notebook. Look for mine to begin this Spring.

Summer Hiking

I have begun my Later Summer Hike planning, it too sits on paper. A 7 day stretch through the Pacific Crest Trail, likely solo….an unsafe decision but this is a hike that cant be put off, for lack of hiking partner.

Film Footy

Been playing around with footage shot from late Autumn and early Winter. Keep watching for a finished project as I continue to buff and edit.