misty!

This is a public thank you for being such a wonderful force in my life. Thank you for so many second chances, the great conversations the romance the friendship. Thank you for encouraging me to be who I am. I hope I can be all the things to you that you are to me. Happy Birthday Mist!
I love you.

seasons

Young love was ours
Forming on the buds of our hearts
Softly uncurling, opening to a world of new sun
Justly vulnerable to the touch
Eagerly, we soaked in the warmth of our romance

Aloft higher and longer
Our source of light
Opening us fully to the beauty of each other
Deep roots intertwined
Individually indistinguishable
Drink from the same cup of poison

Dark and cold winter is cruel
What once was life lies dead, compost at our feet
Scanning the sunless skies
Barren branches reach for fresh breath
Life is found among the death at our feet

The sun rises
Delicate buds form again on empty branches
A new spring, sprung from death
Love is resurrected

juneau falls

Last week we decided to cross some mountain biking off our summer bucket list so we loaded up the dogs, bikes, grub and headed south. We have wanted to get up to Juneau falls for a while. It is a 4 mile trip that climbs about 800 feet to the falls. The day could not have been better and the sun saluted us all day long from a cloudless blue sky. We took a little over an hour getting up and about 25 min to get down. I had forgotten how much I loved mountain biking. The ride down is all responsive as you scream down through the switchback trails and bounce through the rocks and roots till you skid to a stop at the car. Afterwards, we met our friends at a close by campground and enjoyed their campfire for a few hours before heading home. Another good day.

climbing bears

Our malamute has recently discovered her ability to climb fences. Interestingly, she has pursued her new climbing talent with a focus on recreation instead of using it as a means to freedom. She is obviously very proud of her achievement and rubs it in Cessna's face from our neighbor’s yard. To get her back into our yard we have but to call her and she climbs right on over, thankful for the chance to show off. Cessna, our other pup, is arguably more talented in terms of leaping and we often have seen her leap several feet straight up in the air. Fortunately for us, she has not figured that if she adds a little forward momentum to her leaps all of Anchorage will be her oyster to discover. It is hard keeping a malamute and a husky tired out. It seems no matter what we do, by 10pm Malley is howling straight in our ears or just starring at us while she sits in front of the television as if to say "I'll give you something to look at". I started putting them in pulling harnesses and letting them pull me on my bike. They are good for a few miles before they slow down. Misty also gave me a longboard (a skateboard that’s about 3 feet long and shaped like a surfboard) which I have been riding lately as they pull me through the neighborhood streets. Misty was afraid at first that I was going to hurt myself on the skateoard, which is not an unreasonable thing to asume, but it worked out really well. Turns out cruising at 20 miles an hour on a skateboard behind 2 sled dogs through suburbia is a good way to turn heads! Anyway, I’m rambling now but the moral to this story is if you want an easy pet, a sled dog is not your best bet, they are very entertaining.

first bear

We saw our first bear today! We were out mountain biking near Campbell airstrip enjoying the newly unfrozen ground. A few miles down the trail we found a little creek so we decided to walk down there and take a look around. After reclining next to a log for about 5 min we heard some branches break behind us and there he was, a black bear just standing about 15 yards behind us looking every bit as unsure about us as we were of him. we got up and started moving up stream a bit and he ambled down and walked across the creek disappearing into the wood. Pretty cool....