Canada In My Rearview Mirror...

Whatever you do, don't miss today's music slideshow featuring pictures from this day. Click here to see it.

Today I began my second day of running on this trek. On Monday I ran 25 miles in Alaska's capital city, Juneau. Since then, I've done some school assemblies, traveled by ferry, and have been transported for two days by vehicle to the Alaska/Canada border (with the wonderful company of my parents). Today it was time to roll up my sleeves and get into the serious part of this adventure.

A Day Of Ups And Downs... Literally!

As I write today's journal entry I have ice on my feet after logging 30 road miles through the Alaska wilderness. I began the day at the Alaska/Canada border and stepped out of the truck camper into snow and light winds. The temperature was around 25 degrees and I'm sure "Bob" would have shivered if he could. It was a day of ups and downs... literally. The road was either going up, or going down. There was very little flat ground. At around the 9-mile mark my parents stopped to check on how I was doing. They checked on me periodically throughout the day, which was nice. However, I never got into the truck camper during the run or received any supplies from them. "Bob" and I are doing this solo and my parents are there to provide me with a place to lay my head at the end of the day... and to transport me to various locations around the state. Today was their 55th wedding anniversary and you would never know that these two people are in their seventies. I can only hope that I'm as full of life when I reach their age. "Bob" did really great today and there were no issues. I saw a lot of animal tracks and droppings, but never saw an animal all day. Of course, they were probably in the forest looking at me and I just couldn't see them. The wind was on and off today, coming out of the north and into my face. So, that kept the wind chill to below 30 for much of the day. After logging the 30 miles and wrapping up at 1:30 p.m., my parents and I got some lunch and then drove to a spot just west of Chistochina. This is where we would experience something to be dealt with.

NOTICE: A Change Of Plans...

We pulled the truck camper over at a location that we thought would be good to spend the evening. However, the camper's battery was not charging and that would leave us without power... and without heat during the below-freezing evening. So, we decided to drive an extra hour to Tolsona, Alaska (which is where my parents' home is located) and spend the evening at their house. As a result, I'm switching the next two days. Tomorrow I was supposed to run 37 miles from just outside of Chistochina to Glennallen, and then the next day I was to run 37 miles from Tolsona to Copper Center. However, those two days are going to be switched around now. As a result, tomorrow I will run 37 miles from Tolsona to Copper Center. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. We had snow showers on and off today as we made the drive from Northway Junction to Tolsona. Overall, it was a good day and went rather smoothly.

P.A.C.E. Teams Are Doing Awesome...

I'm so proud of how the P.A.C.E. teams are doing on this trek. It has only been one week and many teams logged a lot of miles over the past 5 days. In fact, 4 teams have already gone beyond the 500 miles slated for the entire trek! However, about 40% of the registered teams have not yet reported mileage progress. This is something that each team leader can do through the team leader section of this web site. I hope that more team leaders will post mileage updates next week.

That's all from this Alaska milepost! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to run back here tomorrow.