A Good Mental/Physical Day...

Before you read today's journal entry, you just have to watch the 3 1/2 minute music slideshow that I put together from May 1 through May 4. CLICK HERE TO WATCH! I'm sorry that my access to the Internet has not been very good in this part of Alaska, but that was to be expected. So, since many of you have been wanting to see recent pictures, I thought I should at least make another music slideshow. I'll try to post other photos soon in the column to the right for the past few days. Thanks for your continued patience! Oh... I also was able to post some videos from last Friday and Saturday. To see those, click here for May 1 and click here for May 2. Then, click on the two links that appear on each of the pages in the "Today's Video Files" section.

Sometimes on a journey like this you have days where you have to simply get into a comfortable rhythm and knock off the miles one by one. Today was such a day for me. I knew that this was a 35-mile trek from Healy to the turnoff to Anderson and I found the right balance of both mental concentration and physical pacing to handle well the terrain, changing winds, and occasional moose along the edge of the highway. I took few stops along the way and did the 35 miles in about 8 hours of striding with my 80-pound companion. The day began rather chilly (around 25 degrees) and warmed up to around 55 degrees by the time I ended the 35 miles. However, the winds kept it feeling much cooler during most of the day.

I saw a couple of very large moose today just off the edge of the roadway. One actually surprised me when he came out of the brush across the road from where I was and began to run across the highway toward me. He then saw me and stopped. We both stared at one another, literally about 30 feet apart. I slowly reached for my camera and then a car came down the road and scared the moose. It turned around and ran back into the trees. I would have had an amazing photo! Oh well... the moment will forever be etched into my memory. This wasn't a day for taking too many pictures. The view was pretty much the same for 35 miles... trees and more trees. I did get some pictures of moose, but aside from that there was not a lot to take pictures of. There are no towns between Healy and Anderson, and you're all probably getting tired of seeing pictures of me and "Bob" along the road. Don't leave this page today without viewing the music slideshow I put together (the link is in the first sentence of today's journal entry). Tomorrow I will continue north... a 30-mile day from Nenana (where I am this evening) to about 25 miles west of Fairbanks. So far, I've logged 333 miles and am two-thirds done with this adventure. There are 167 miles remaining.

So, What Exactly Is The "Nenana Ice Classic"?

The Nenana Ice Classic has been an Alaskan tradition since 1917. Essentially, people submit guesses as to when they think the Tanana River ice will break up at Nenana. This occurs in the springtime and the person who has the closest guess to the actual date/time of the ice break up wins around $300,000.00. I put a guess in for this year's breakup! My guess was today, May 5, at 1:44 in the afternoon. In 2008 the ice broke at 10:53 p.m. on April 26. This year is the 93rd year that Alaskans will watch for the exact minute of breakup on the Tanana River at Nenana. (NOTE: The ice actually broke up on May 1 this year due to the very warm weather that hit Alaska at the end of April. The prize money was actually split between two people who had the same date/time guess).

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