Dean's and American's and United's and Delta's Excellent (?) Adventure

Here I was riding to the Raleigh airport on Wednesday (June 23, 2010) with James The Driver telling me about the book he's writing, I figured this is just another trip in the always exciting world of crowded airplanes and the sprawling dump that is O'Hare.

I had been in Raleigh, NC, for a conference, but now was headed home. I arrived at the airport and was a little concerned when I saw two United arrivals from Chicago had been cancelled, but I figured I was on American and they were showing on-time departures.

About 10 minutes before boarding, the captain came out of the jetway and commandeered the PA system. He said "those traveling to Chicago - I'm the guy who's going to get you there and you should hang up your cell phones right now because you're going to want to hear what I have to say." I looked around and saw a lot of cell phones snapping shut.

There were thunderstorms and tornado warnings in Chicago, so we were delayed, the pilot thought, until at least 8 p.m. (original departure was 6 p.m.). But things changed in Chicago, so we boarded at about 6:45. All right! I could still make my 9:15 p.m. connection to Hancock!

But - Ground Control to Major Tom -- we were boarded but conditions worsened in Chicago, so we would now wait again. "You can get off the plane," said the captain, "because we know it will be at least 50 minutes. But if you get off, you have to take all your stuff." I had a window seat, two good books, some chex mix, and a coveted spot in the overhead bin for my bag - so I decided to tough it out on the plane.

People started getting back on the plane a little before 8 and we were off to Chicago about 8:15. We were diverted around some storms, which lengthened the trip by about a half hour. It was kind of cool to be above thunderstorms and watch the lightning from above.

Once in Chicago, I had to switch from American to United, so I had a two-terminal walk and, of course, American folks didn't know the status of United flights. Jan had left a voice mail that the plane to Hancock was delayed by 133 minutes, so I thought, "OK, this is the lucky part of the trip." When I got to the United terminal, though, the departure board did not list a flight to Hancock, so i figured my luck had run out.

I went down to one of the gates where the commuter jets leave from. This is a really dumpy, dirty part of the airport, pretty much the Third World of O'Hare, and that's saying something. There seemed to be a lull in departures, so I went to the person at the desk and asked her to check on my flight to Hancock. Turns out it had been only about 10 minutes late in departing and was long gone. She checked and all the Thursday flights (yes, all two of them) to Hancock were already full with waiting lists, so it will be Friday at the earliest. She was then very patient as I asked her to check on alternatives.

My first alternative was to fly to Green Bay and rent a car to drive the 200 miles home. In fact, Jan checked on that while i was airborne, but none of the car rental companies would rent one-way - imagine that!

Second alternative was to try [Delta airline] to get to one of the two airports a little over 100 miles from Hancock - one in Rhinelander, WI, and one in Marquette MI. For Marquette, you go through Detroit. I could get to Detroit, but there were no more connections to Marquette that night and the three Thursday flights were already full.

For Rhinelander, you go through Minneapolis and, yes, there were no more connections to Rhinelander that night. BUT, there was one more flight that night to Minneapolis and then I could get a seat to Rhinelander in the morning. This is now 10 p.m. CDT, and the flight to Minneapolis was leaving in about 40 minutes. I rebooked me to Minnie and then to Rhinelander the next morning and I headed to yet another terminal.

The plane left about 10:45 p.m. CDT. As we were pushed back from the gate, the pilot came on the PA. "Because of the traffic disruptions tonight, we've been experiencing one-hour taxis for eastbound and about a half-hour for westbound," she said. "So we could be on the taxiway for awhile." I think we finally took off about 11:15 and arrived in Minneapolis at something like 12:15 a.m. (which is, of course, 1:15 a.m. EDT). I called a couple of hotels from my cell and found that the AmericInn near the airport had one room left for the night, but their shuttle had stopped running so I'd need to take a cab.

I grabbed a cab and told him my destination and he looked confused. "Ever heard of that hotel?" I asked. He admitted he had not. So I called the hotel and asked for their address and the cross street. "77th St. and Portland Ave." I knew where that was (I had lived in Minneapolis for two years) and told the driver the address and cross street. A few minutes later, we were on I-494 and he was in the center lane with the 77th Street exit looming ahead. I told him "here's the exit" and he made the right turn out of the center lane. He then got on his GPS looking for directions --- while the big AmericInn sign was clearly visible about 1/4-mile ahead. I tactfully pointed that out to him. No tip tonight, dude.

I had a conversation with the desk clerk that went something like this:

"Where you from?"

"Hancock Michigan in the U.P"

"What are you doing here? Long day?"

"You have no idea, pal."

Thursday morning was uneventful, given that I had gone to bed about 2 a.m. and was up at 6 to get back to the airport. I had actually considered just heading to the airport mezzanine and sleeping there, but figured I'd at least get a shower at a hotel.

Back to the airport - flew through security - off to the gate where two obvious city slickers kept being amazed at how many people were going to little old Rhinelander. "Must be a fishin' derby." Yeah, real clever guy.

Laura drove down to Rhinelander to pick me up, and I slept for most of the two-hour drive back home.

Who says there's no excitement living in a small town?

Brockway Mountain Adventure

We headed for Copper Harbor the last weekend in May for a birthday celebration and to make our annual pilgrimage to Brockway Mountain, Eagle Harbor and other points north. Spring is well underway in Houghton-Hancock (how nice for early June). But north of Mohawk, the budding of the trees and sprouting of the leaves are noticeably behind even the slow-starters of Houghton County.

With the cooler-than-normal May temperatures, and despite lots of rain, I’m willing to bet you would still have found a spot of snow here and there in the deep woods off the Mandan Road.

The lunch business seemed pretty good at the Harbor Haus and there were several customers in the general store, where we bought our post-lunch treats (“I just love coming to Copper Harbor,” Laura said in between bites of Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream). While there, we also managed to dispel a disturbing rumor making the rounds – that Marquette-based Jilberts Dairy was going to stop making ice cream. The general store’s proprietor said he has heard nothing about that, so we’re chalking it up to an tale stemming from the sale of Jilberts to Deans (no relation) Foods a couple of years ago.

On the way up Brockway, we made a stop at a relatively new hiking trail on land owned by the Michigan Nature Association. The trail descends partway down the hill (not all that far – it is a pretty easy hike) and affords a view of Lake Superior before turning back uphill. It was there that we spotted two freighters plying the waters. To me, freighters always seem to barely move against the horizon, particularly from the far-away vantage of Brockway Mountain.

Passing freighters from Brockway Mountain

This time, though, we were treated to freighters heading in opposite directions in the same shipping channel, giving a perspective on their speed. It was pretty interesting and, since I had a camera, I had to try to capture the moment of passing on film. (Or, I guess, on silicon substrate, since it is a digital camera. Whatever.)

After walking around the top of Brockway and paying a visit to the Skytop Inn, we navigated along the coast to Eagle Harbor, past the new mega-homes that have sprouted in northern Keweenaw County over the last few years. We talked about the prices such abodes must fetch, then the car fell silent, with each of us lost in our own thoughts. I think of it as lake effect – the contemplative spell of Lake Superior.

May you experience its effect in the not-too-distant future.

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Letters from Last Time

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From John Titlow (jtitlow@conxall.com)

Hi Dean:

Nice to see that you're back "on the air" so to speak. Your e-mail below did make a point about paid advertising and the potential of customer steerage. One can take that item a step further and compare the drivers "home" data with the in-travel data to actually "steer" customers to and from a service, based upon an assumed racial profile. (It is electronically possible, and if there is money to be made then the probability of racial steering by an electronic database becomes real.)

One of the items that us as a nation or world are missing in the mad rush to compile data for money is the mix and mix-up of data. The old phrase "garbage in = garbage out" needs to be modified to "private identity in = mixed identity out". As US citizens, except Californians, we have no laws
that protect us from a corporation screwing up our data files or using those corrupted files to make a buck. So your Home Depot analogy is not all that far fetched.

Is the U.P. going to digital TV? Of course they are as they have no choice. All digital was to take place on Feb 9, 2009 now I read it is Feb 20, 2009. My thought is to watch out. A typical TV broadcast antenna will consume over 100,000+ watt hours of electrical energy and that is a big cost to a television station. To go over to all digital TV across the board, the major TV networks wanted to turn the antennas off and legally they can. Provided that 90%+ of the viewers in a 30 mile radius of the transmitting tower are on cable.

The other item is that in between the TV station frequencies there are cell phone signals that can screw up a digital TV signal. (Not cable) Digital has no snow it is either "on" or "black", there is no in between. Another reason the networks use to request the ability to turn off their antennas.

Myself, and many others I might add, simply won't pay the extorted costs for cable TV. In the Chicago area currently $49.95 a month (less taxes) for "Basic" service and soon to be $69.95 for digital including the monthly lease for a "special" digital box. So far in the new millennium it has been good bye to a land phone line and soon TV. Anyone up in your area saying good bye to electronic communication devices because of the high cost? Simply too much of a good thing.

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Dean sez: Yes, the UP is going to digital TV along with the rest of the country. There are notices, it seems, that run every Sunday on the two over-the-air stations from Marquette. I’d like to do some research, but I’m guessing the U.P. was in the vanguard of cable television. I remember when I was in school at Tech, the mid-70s version of the Weather Channel was a camera that panned back and forth over three analog gauges – temperature, humidity and barometer. It provided great dinnertime entertainment.

Personally, I believe cable is pricing itself out of the market – the Woodbecks dropped to Extremely Basic cable (now $16/month) a year ago. I get the hankerin’ for SportsCenter and “Dirty Jobs” every once in awhile, and can’t participate in the swooning over Stephen Colbert, but somehow life goes on.

**********

Email from Art Rathke (artrathke@yahoo.com)

Dean,

I have to tell you that there IS a place for GPS in the Copper Country. A couple of years ago we were looking for a kennel for our Westie. There was (or is) a fairly new place somewhere south of Boston Loc. We NEVER would have found it without the GPS. That road had two names and was not the easiest to find, but the GPS took us right there.

**********
Dean sez: That road does have two names and one of them is “New Road.” I’ve ridden my bike on it. It’s not that new…

High Tech in the U.P.

I was reading the Sunday Detroit Free Press this morning. We do get the Free Press the same day here in the far reaches of Michigan, but that was not always the case. There was a time when Michigan’s largest morning daily arrived here the next day, apparently being transferred from one vehicle to anther along the way.

I’ve always pictured a scenario akin to Faberge eggs, where you open the egg and some smaller item is nested inside, with something small nested inside of that, and so on.

In my mind, the UP-bound stacks of newspapers start out at the printing plant, loaded into an 18-wheeler that says “U.P. or Bust” on the side. Stacks of papers are dropped off at locations all along I-75, until the remainder is transferred to a cargo van in Grayling, then to a mini-van in Escanaba. By the time the Free Press is distributed in Marquette, there’s a guy in a rusty 1985 Crown Vic with stacks of newspapers in the back seat on his way to the Copper Country.

This Sunday’s issue had an article about the increasingly sophisticated electronics available in cars. Going beyond the basic GPS direction-finding function, systems now will pinpoint the location of various types of establishments on the maps, such as restaurants, fast food, malls and WalMarts.

A friend of mine in Baltimore has one of these on his gigantor SUV and it is entrancing. In fact, I got to push the buttons during a trip we took together to Eagle Harbor last summer. And that is just about as exciting as you might imagine. Short of the map there was not much to see on the GPS screen. And, really, can you make a wrong turn when you are going to Eagle Harbor? “If you’re in Lake Superior, you’ve gone too far.”

Some advocates say this technology will disperse much faster if it is advertiser driven. Sponsorships may include some sort of preferred treatment when a driver (or, hopefully, not a driver but a passenger) requests information on, say, the nearest home improvement store.

So how, exactly, would such a navigation system work in the U.P.? I’m driving down Montezuma Avenue in Houghton and decide I need to pick up some parts for the gutter system on my house. My GPS search, sponsored by Home Depot, directs me to drive 45 miles south to the US-41-141 junction, drive 45 miles south to the junction with US-2, then drive 20 miles east to the Home Depot – in Iron Mountain. Might it not be easier just to stop at McGann’s on the way home?

I also wonder what will happen when we have all these techno-enabled vehicles driving around the Copper Country, being pointed to McDonald’s for breakfast and Applebees for dinner. Visitors will miss out on home-grown experiences as the Suomi bakery, Slim’s Café in Mohawk and Toni’s pasties in Laurium.

Meanwhile, spring has sprung here in the Keweenaw. The leaves have started to pop out, the grass is green (Jay even mowed the lawn already) and my new front yard has started to come in. New front yard? I guess I’ll have to tell you about that next week.

The Prom and The Mud

Keweenaw Tales
May 14, 2008

A weekly newsletter from Dean Woodbeck in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula (deanwoodbeck AT gmail.com)

It was the cleanest of times. It was the muddiest of times.

Saturday was prom night at Hancock High. Guys in tuxes. Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes. Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. (I was just reading about Julie Andrews’ biography and my head transitioned to The Sound of Music.)

Anyway, prior to the prom, we spent some time discussing etiquette. It started weeks before renting the tux.

“What color is her dress?”

“I dunno.”

Repeat that conversation nightly at dinner for a week. Until one day:

“What color is her dress?”

“It is black.”

Now we’re making progress. On to rent a tux. When you’re talking about a black dress, there isn’t much choice in a tux; it has to be black. “Why?” I was asked. “Because you don’t want to show her up.” That led to another conversation about why, exactly, such things are important.

I could go on, but you get the drift. Of course, I didn’t mention some of the colors of tuxes I rented in high school, not to mention that snazzy red plaid sport coat I wanted to use for my senior picture. With the white bow tie. Nice.

Prom wasn’t so exerting that we couldn’t head out for a mountain bike ride the next day. The trail right up from our house, Maasto Hiihto, wasn’t quite dry. Not even close.

Jay hit one spot with a narrow puddle, but the depth about equaled the width. Two pedal strokes in and the water was halfway up the tires and he slowed to a stop in the middle of the water. There are advantages to being slow and following behind.

Unfortunately, my chain broke three times in three miles. We had a chain tool with us – this handy gizmo that allows you to remove a link and make the chain whole again. After three surgeries, however, the chain was no longer long enough to accommodate all of the gears or, in my case, most of the gears. I turned around for the slow ride home while Jay continued out to the best part of the trail. Meanwhile, my chain broke the fourth and final time about a half-mile from the house.

But what about that puddle Jay tried to traverse early in the ride? He figured coming at it from the other direction, with speed gained on a downhill, would provide enough momentum to make it through. As he hit the middle of the puddle, his front tire sank and he did a slow-motion tumble over his handlebars.

Letters

From Tom Fisher

Well, well...........the wandering bard has taken time to fill us in. Way to go, and please, don't be so long before you stop by again!

From Douglas Fifield

Welcome back. I have missed you and your tales.

To be truthful, I thought you and your stories were the best tie I had to the U.P. I have lived in the Twin Cities for the past twenty plus years - far from the Kewenaw and the part of my life spent there some forty years ago. Since you went on to other things, my connection to that special place was missing.

I hope to hear more from you, and from the UP.

(Never actually graduated from Tech, but was there 67-70.)

From Jean Dalrymple

Nice to hear from you. Glad things are going well for your family. Maybe you can still enjoy a long walk in your t-shirt. Just make it a long-sleeved version!

From Becky Nold

Hi Dean,

Glad to have you back! Sorry we couldn't keep you in upstate New York, but the Keweenaw is truly a special place.

I wonder about the semester system and ending earlier in the spring - what does it do for the students' memory of Tech to send them away before spring has arrived in the Keweenaw. Maybe MTU needs to institute a mandatory summer program so that everyone gets to experience at least one wonderful UP summer.

From Heidi Fosch

I missed your updates from Tech. But really, it hasn't been two years. I refuse to believe that. One year maybe, but not two!!!

From Tom Nesbitt

Great to get the Husqi Tales and read your prose again! I am looking forward to a renewed connection to da UP eh!

From John Andree

Dean:

I can't say enough how glad I was to see your newsletter Monday morning. I was thinking something dire happened to you, as the newsletters ceased shortly after starting. Glad to hear things are all relatively well. I look forward to your newsletters.

From Mark Koski

Glad to see you're back. Any tales of "Woodbecking' things in NY? I can't wait! There's really no place quite like the Keweenaw.

Dean sez: There was one encounter with a root, the ground, and a very swollen knee. More on that sometime…

From GeekDad_4WD

Dean, Long time no type at.

I noticed the blog is called "Keweenaw Tales" but the feed title has Keweenawtrails.blogspot.com. Is this a Woodbeck? Is it supposed to be Keweenawtales.blogspot.com?

Anyway, you are back where you are well loved and we are anxious for you to continue blogging.

Dean sez: Keweenaw Trails is a website that I maintain supporting the silent sports in the Keweenaw. It seemed to make sense to connect the blog to that….but maybe not?

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You can subscribe to the email version by emailing Husqui-Tales-subscribe@googlegroups.com

Husqi Tales Resumes; A Snowy May

It is May. It is spring. And it is snowing.

That was the news on Saturday, when snow greeted Copper Country residents, plus all of the visitors in town for Michigan Tech’s commencement. I suppose it is only fitting that all of those who have footed the bills for the past four years get a taste of our most abundant natural resource.

Even for winter sports enthusiasts, snow at this time of year is depressing. This is the time for long walks in t-shirts . . . o.k., that may be optimistic for early May. But at least the temperatures should remain above freezing and the precipitation should be liquid, not frozen.

So enough about the weather, you might say, what’s going on?

Here’s an update. I returned to the Keweenaw two years ago, almost to the day, from an eight-month experience at Clarkson University in northeastern New York. You will recall that I promised I’d continue to write, just like your old high school girlfriend or your Spanish pen pal. And just like those intentions, mine fell by the wayside of adjusting to a new life in a new location.

But I did miss you. Honest.

Just like I missed the Keweenaw, which is why my tour in New York lasted less than a year. My family remained in Michigan, since 2005-06 was my daughter’s senior year of high school, so the move back was relatively easy.

Here’s how it went. I packed my stuff in the back seat of the 2005 Malibu I purchased in Potsdam, New York, from a car dealer named “Con” (and that’s the truth), pointed north to Ottawa, traversed northern Ontario, spent more than an hour sitting on the bridge at the Soo, and headed west on M-28.

Since that time, and thanks to some of the great folks I met in my 20 years at Tech, I have managed to make a living writing, editing, developing websites, and doing other communications work. I rent office space in a business incubator at Finlandia University’s Portage Campus (the old hospital in Hancock), which is 1.1 miles from my house.

I know many of you feel like you watched my kids grow up, so I’ll give you a quick update. My daughter, Laura, is home this week, having just finished her second year at Tech. She is the third generation of our family to attend Tech (both my wife and her dad graduated from Tech, as did I). My son, Jay, is just about to finish his junior year in high school and will work this summer at the Quincy Mine as a guide (hopefully providing some stories for these pages).

I got the writing bug again in March, when I spent nine days in Anchorage at the cross country skiing junior nationals. I set up a blog to communicate with other parents back home.

I plan to write regularly and distribute these via Google Groups and on that blog (www.keweenawtrails.blogspot.com), where I will also be posting photos. I’ll also provide you with news from the Keweenaw – most of it true, but undoubtedly filtered.

If you know of others who would like to receive this newsletter, just have them send an email to Husqui-Tales-subscribe@googlegroups.com.

Until next time,

Dean

Relays Provide an Exciting End to JOs

Kincaid Park is at the end of a runway -- sights like this are common.

Greetings from Anchorage (for the last time),

It was team relay day at Kincaid Park today and I think the Great Lakes had their race hats on. Team members seemed to perform pretty well, overall. I talked to Jay after his race -- his best of the week -- and he wonders why this didn't kick in until today. I told him next year he'll have to go to Truckee a week early and race a few times before JOs. Ruth said she felt good today; Olivia not so good. Christina had a good race but was coughing like crazy afterwards. Kai seemed to race OK, except he wasn't quite ready for the tag when it was his turn at the exchange zone -- not sure what happened there. Madelyn also had her best race of the week.

Here are a couple of short videos of Jay:

Rounding the bend
Heading uphill


It was a chilly, windy and overcast day at the venue -- no views of Mt. McKinley today. Teresa and I found a spot in the woods where we could see the skiers probably 100 meters after they left the stadium. Then we could move over to another spot to watch them come up a hill.

Jan left this morning at 9 a.m. (same flight we're on tomorrow). We found a cool bike shop on our way back from picking up the wax bench and wax box from Mike at the hotel. They seemed to be
doing a pretty good business, given that it is cold and there is snow on the ground. I've noticed, though, that there are quite a few folks out on mountain bikes, even in the winter.

I should also tell you a story that Mike Young told me. There's a brew pub across the street from their hotel. Last night, he and other coaches went for one beer prior to dinner. The waiter took their orders, then asked Mike for some ID. How long's it been since YOU'VE been carded? To top it off, today (March 15) is his birthday and there was a cake waiting for him at the team meeting last night: "Happy Birthday Tokoman" -- black letters on yellow frosting.

It has been a real pleasure being on this trip. I thought it would get pretty boring with four days of racing, but between watching our skiers and watching some of the close contests at the finish line, it was pretty exciting. It was also nice to not have any responsibility for the race and to just walk inside and warm up for awhile, if that's what I wanted to do. I wasn't thinking I'd want to attend a JO again but after this week I might.

So farewell to Anchorage,

Dean

Classic Day at JOs; One Race Day Left

Greetings from Anchorage.

It seemed to be a better day for Great Lakes skiers today; if not in terms of finish places, at least in terms of spirit. Everyone seemed upbeat today, both before and after the races. Temperatures stayed below freezing. In fact, when we left our apartment this morning at 9:30, it was 17 degrees.

It was classic day, with the J1/OJ boys doing 15 km, the J1/OJ girls doing 10km and the J2s going 10km. The tracks were fast and the course looked to be in very good shape. The stadium looked, again, much better than it did Wednesday and like a completely different place than Monday. The organizers have done a good job getting things in shape.

Christina Mishica and Mariah both said they felt pretty good during the race. Mariah said the course was very fast. Jay had a pretty good race for the first 12km or so and then he said he started to fade. Madelyn skied a good race in the J1 girls and looked very strong at the finish.

Kai started strong, but was involved in a crash early -- just out of sight of the stadium. I talked to him afterwards and he said there was a pile-up in front of him and he slowed down and was looking for a way out, when someone crashed into him from behind. He probably lost 20 seconds or so and, in a 5km race, that's hard to make up. He said this was the best he has felt all week. Ruth also looked very strong at the end. In the last 200 meters, she was making up time on the girl in front of her, but ran out of time :-)

Olivia did not race today. She fell yesterday and did something to one of her arms. I talked to her at dinner and she said she is definitely racing in the team sprints tomorrow.

We had dinner with the team -- well, sort of. To say we had dinner WITH them is a bit of a misnomer. We had dinner in the same room as the team.

The day just seemed to fly by -- of course I wasn't racing 15km. Because all of the OJ and J1 races were two laps, we had many opportunities to see the skiers, if we moved around.

Today was also the first clear, sunny day of racing and Kincaid was gorgeous. From the high point of the stadium, right by their chalet, you could look in the distance and see Mt. McKinley. It is 250 miles away. Even so, it looked very impressive -- it must be just magnificent when you are closer.

If time allows -- i.e. if I get packed in a timely way, I'll post one more message tomorrow night.

Power Shopping and Elevator Blues

This is the new Pisten Bully 600 at Kincaid Park.
It has nothing today with today's post, but I forgot my camera today.

I'm still in Anchorage for the 2008 cross country skiing Junior Olympics and today was the last non-race day. It is hard to believe it has already been a week since we set out on this journey. Classic race Friday and the team relays on Saturday, then we're back on that big airplane to Minneapolis.

The high was again above freezing today, but temps dipped into the 20s last night. We're supposed to have teens tonight and upper 20s tomorrow, so let's hope the course is fast and that Mike hits the wax!

We (i.e. the parental units) started out to "get a couple of things" from the shops in downtown Anchorage today. We left the apartment about 11:30 a.m. We returned at 5:45 p.m. Yes, we did some power shopping today. I guess it wasn't all shopping. I learned what an "ulu" is (http://www.ulu.com/aboutulu.htm) and we saw videos about the earthquake of 1964 and one about Denali National Park. We had lunch at a downtown deli and what trip to Alaska would be complete without finishing the day with some Moose Tracks ice cream?

A group of skiers, including Jay and Madeline but we're not sure who else, went to the Portage Glacier today (same place we tourists went on Tuesday). Jay said it was an incredible trip - that it gave him a taste of Alaska's beauty (see my post from Tuesday for photos of the glacier).

Meanwhile, this just in from the Westmark Hotel, Madeline reports that she and Olivia and 17 of their (now) closest friends got stuck in the hotel elevator for 40 minutes tonight. The elevator sign notes the capacity at 2600 pounds. Nineteen people. Do the math. The machine slowly descended down and stayed put. This apparently was not the first occurrence this week, according to the hotel operator. People were sweaty and there was condensation everywhere, but apparently there were no claustophobes and no one lost it.

More tomorrow....

Freestyle Race at '08 Junior Olympics

Jay Woodbeck

Greetings from Anchorage.

The freestyle races were today -- 5 km for the J2 boys (14-15 years) and all of the girls and 10 km for the J1 (16-17 years) and OJ (18-19 years) boys.

Kai Sharp

The difference between Monday and today was amazing. Monday, the stadium was an ice rink. While not perfect yet, the stadium was usable today, thanks to colder temperatures last night (i.e. 24 degrees) and a couple of inches of snow.

It was a tough course today. The girls had temps of about 28 when they started this morning and the first group off had a little fresh snow to contend with. Even after that was scraped off the course, the girls still reported a fairly slow day.

Ruth Oppliger

The older (J1/OJ) boys, on the other hand, were the last to start, so they all went out after noon, when the temperatures had climbed above freezing and portions of the course were slowly turning to mush. I talked to head coach Nick Baic after the race and he thought that everyone held their own, although he did say that everyone looked much better yesterday during training. But conditions were different and the course was much faster yesterday (i.e. still kind of icy). He's going to encourage much resting tomorrow in preparation for the classic mass start on Friday.

After Jan, Teresa and I returned to our apartment, Teresa and I went to the Hillside trails (across town from Kincaid) for some skiing of our own. The skiing was much better than it was earlier in the week, but those trails were also mushy.

I had klister on, which worked until I hit a couple of steep downhills and left it all behind. I ended up on a trail that was very hilly -- it had a pretty substantial elevation climb (at least for a ... well ... middle-aged guy who hasn't skied much in the last week).

The summit, however, afforded a beautiful view of Anchorage, Kincaid, the mountain that sits across the inlet from Kincaid, and some very big mountains to the north. You are supposed to be able to see Mt. McKinley from Anchorage on a clear day -- so I've convinced myself that I did.

More news tomorrow.

Dean

The Portage Glacier -- All it's Cracked Up to Be

A shot of the Portage Glacier, about an hour south of Anchorage.

Greetings from Anchorage, where I'm attending the 2008 Junior Olympics for cross country skiing.

We didn't see the skiers today, since it was a training day. Thanks to a tip from an old friend , Jan and Teresa Shoup and I went to the Portage Glacier today. The glacier is about an hour south of Anchorage.

The trip was just incredible. As you drive south out of Anchorage on the Seward Highway, the mountains and Cook Inlet converge and the highway follows the water with mountains on either side. There are several turn-offs that are ideal for picture taking. The mountains aren't as large and craggy as the Rockies, nor rolling and rounded like the Appalachians. They jut up from the Earth, but seem sort of squat.

This same type of terrain surrounds Anchorage, but the city sits in sort of a coastal plain. As you head south and east, that plain disappears and the mountains sometimes seem to rise right out of the inlet. We saw a number of spots where avalanches had occurred, ending right beside the highway.

We arrived at the visitor's center at the glacier only to find it closed (the visitor's center, that is. I don't think the glacier keeps regular hours). However, we had a map and our skis in the Alaska compact rental car (i.e full cab Silverado).

We drove out of the visitor's center parking lot and noticed a spot that had been plowed -- sort of an indent from the road that would fit 2-3 cars. It looked like a trailhead and we figured, what the heck. Came all this way. Brought the skis. Why not?

The first 200-300 meters were pretty rough -- large chunks of iced up snow covered with a thin layer of power. After that, though, it was smooth and the skiing was just like spring crust skiing in the Keweenaw. What a treat. (BTW -- the wax of the day was two-day-old klister covered by Swix Violet).

It turns out that it was a road that is closed in the winter. We skied back a couple of miles and ended up at the lake fed by Portage Glacier. The road ended at a boat dock where you can take an excursion to the glacier. It was closed. I wanted to ski out on the lake and to the glacier, but was outvoted. Since I had the car keys, they insisted.

As you'll see on the photos, a stop sign was almost buried -- there was easily six feet of base. Way, way, way more snow than at Kincaid Park. And the views were spectacular -- with the mountains and some blue sky and some fog all happening at the same time. That's the news for today. Back to racing tomorrow. Let's hope for some good performances by the GLD skiers.

Here are some shots of the mountains and glacier around Portage Lake.







These shots are from the drive along Cook Inlet south of Anchorage and heading toward Girdwood.

First Day of Competition -- 2008 JOs

Greetings from Anchorage. I'm finally adjusting, I think, to the local time and I've, at least, started to overcome the additional confusion of daylight savings (which has always been a rant of mine -- don't get me started).

Today was sprint day at the JOs -- the first day of competition. Among our locals, Christina Mishica came closest to moving to the next round. She placed 27th in qualifying among the OJs and 24 moved on to the quarterfinals. I did a story for Cross Country Skier with a newsy recap if you are interested (www.crosscountryskier.com).

Anchorage continues to suffer from weather. It was 44 degrees yesterday, 36 degrees this morning at 7 a.m and 40 this afternoon. Tough day for ski racers and ski race organizers.

Kincaid has this very large stadium area, complete with a nice two-story timing/announce building plus a permanent scoreboard. It must help to have a lot of oil money and Senator Stevens, who knows how to bring home the bacon. The stadium looks to have suffered the most from the recent rain and warm temperatures. It sits in a bowl and is basically a sheet of ice with no hope of being groomed.

This is a look at the stadium area at Kincaid Park today.

Organizers had to change the sprint course plus abandon the stadium area altogether and move both the start and finish. The course and tracks held up well this morning. It is windy at the venue which seems to be helping keep the snow colder.

The start line was only accessible to skiers and coaches and was not visible from any spectator area. The finish line was at the very edge of the stadium, with very limited viewing. We could watch the skiers come down a hill, make a 90-degree turn and head up the last 50 meters to the line.

The temperatures are supposed to stay in the mid- to upper-30s the next couple of days, but lows are supposed to dip to around 27 tonight and tomorrow. The media center person told me they hope to get out their new Pisten Bully and crunch up the ice tonight and/or tomorrow. But I'm writing this at 8:15 p.m. and it is still 37.

Tomorrow is a training day for the skiers. I'm going to take a trip to Girdwood, south of Anchorage, and gander at a glacier and do some other sightseeing.

I looked around downtown Anchorage this afternoon, which has a lot of t-shirt shops but also a five-story mall, complete with Nordstroms, in the middle of town. We wandered into the Alaska Troopers museum, which was interesting -- some old police equipment like breathalyzers and lie detectors, and some interesting stories about life for troopers stationed in places inaccessible to the rest of the state (except by air).

They also have a sort of visitors center in the federal building for all of the wild lands and national parks in the state. I watched a documentary about the earthquake of 1964 that registered 9.5 on the Richter scale, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America.

So there's your race recap, your weather report and your attraction reaction all in one spot.

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.

Springtime in Anchorage?

Greetings from the 49th state, where I'm visiting Anchorage for the 2008 Junior Olympic cross country ski championships. That's one of the views from the venue, Kincaid Park, above.

We have five skiers from the Copper Country Ski Tigers race team who have qualified (Kai Sharp, Jay Woodbeck, Olivia Orr, Madelaine Shoup and Ruth Oppliger, as well as Ski Tigers alumnus Mariah Featherly).

Teresa Shoup and Jan Woodbeck are here with me (we're the parental contingency).

The Anchorage Convention and Visitors Center says there are more than 100 miles of groomed trails in the city. That's, what, 175km? But there isn't much grooming going on right now, with temperatures around 40 today (Saturday, March 8). They are shoveling snow onto the race courses, but the media relations person told me today that the races will go on.

I visited Kincaid Park, the JO venue, today, then skied the trails at the Hillside area, across town from Kincaid. Hillside is at a slightly higher elevation and actually had snow yesterday when it was raining in town. I shopped Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking and purchased three different kinds of klister. Rex Yellow was the choice for warm weather and wet snow and that's what I used. I actually got great kick on tracks (when they were there) that were icy and a skating lane that has a hard base but various between icy and soft on top. Not your ideal conditions.

That photo to the right is the Kincaid chalet.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the parade of athletes and opening ceremonies. Races start on Monday.