Moose on the Loose in Anchorage

Today was opening ceremony day at the JOs (2008 Junior Olympics in Anchorage, where I'm spending the week, along with my wife, Jan, and Teresa Shoup).

We started the day with a ski and the consensus is that this will be the last ski for us this week. The temperature, as I write this at 4:30 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time, is 42 degrees. We went out at 9 a.m., in honor of those of you starting the Great Bear Chase. Even then, the temperature was 36. The trails have snow, but are icy and rutted, since it hasn't been below freezing in at least three days.

I made a couple of nifty slide turns at the bottom of hills that, while looking quite classy on any highlight reel, effectively removed my klister. So I basically skated a few loops on my striding skis.

I interviewed the chair of the JO organizing committee before the opening festivities (in my media capacity with Cross Country Skier magazine -- see today's report at www.crosscountryskier.com). They had a shoveling party yesterday and are plotting trail re-routes today.

Kincaid Park is huge -- something like 1400 acres. Some of the trails go along the ocean or sound or whatever they call this body of water that connects to the Pacific. Those deteriorate first in marginal weather, so they'll be moving Wednesday's classic race inland. They have a boatload of trails at Kincaid (60 km).

Tomorrow is sprint day and the biggest problem has been the stadium. There is water in part of it, but most of it is still snow. So they've reconfigured that and still have a decent 1.3 km loop. Temps will stay above freezing tonight and are predicted to approach 42 again Monday. I recommend the Rex yellow klister that I had (briefly) on my skis today.

And, finally, two things about Alaska.

They think big. I reserved a compact car for $99 for the week. Here in Alaska, that means a 2008 four-door Chevy Silverado. More power, baby.

(Actually, the cars they had didn't have back seats that fold down and we have this at no additional cost. That beast will hold a lot of groceries.)

The second thing -- the stories about city moose are true. We sat as one crossed the road in front of us about three doors down from our apartment. And this apartment is in a city neighborhood, with houses close together like in west Houghton only closer.