Remember a few days ago when I announced I am a PUBLISHED AUTHOR?? Here’s the thing. Between Each Step has been SEVERAL years in the making, from the time we hiked, to the time I started writing the manuscript, to the time it hit your bookshelf (that’s me happily assuming you’ve pre-ordered it …). Bottom…
On Feb. 5, 2016, I announced on the blog that I was getting serious about book writing. The post was part-reflective, part-goal-making, but I fully recognized that the process would be glacially slow and I ended the post by saying: “Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll have a book written by 2020.” Oddly enough, we are…
I believe most people think we have a view of Denali from our cabin. Sadly, no. We have a view of beautiful mountains that are part of the Alaska Range, but not “The Great One” or “The High One” (the Athabascan translations of Denali) As a comparison, our surrounding mountains in Healy reach between 4,000-6,000…
Currently living/working in: We are well passed the halfway point of our Leave No Trace contract—still from Alaska. The full schedule continues. We finished up in-person programming at the campgrounds in Denali National Park and did some cleanups in September before the snow covers any summer trash! For October, we’ll be focusing more on online…
Here’s one of the many truths about Alaska living: the standards for fresh fruits and veggies are quite low, availability can ebb and flow, and “in-season” produce doesn’t really exist in Alaska. #alaskaproblems Often, the shelves of store-bought produce are empty, and I guess I kind of expected that. When we do come upon stocked…
We’ve all been pretty grounded lately and sticking to local areas, but in the largest state in the US (Texas can fit in Alaska 2.5 times), “staying local” is really a misnomer! So when Justin & I were coming up with a mini-trip to put in the books for this summer, we opted to drive…
Currently living/working in: We’re two months into our Leave No Trace contract—still from Alaska. It’s been a surprisingly full schedule even though we are not traveling around like we normally would be! We weren’t sure what kind of in-person programming we could do, but since Denali National Park is open, we’ve been filling in lots…
We live about 15 minutes from the entrance of Denali National Park, which means we are lucky to have endless acres of a playground for hiking. I did a roundup about the “front country” hikes a few years ago in this blog post and we love all of them! But there are SO many awesome…
Currently living/working in: We’re one month into our Leave No Trace job—from Alaska—and all is going well. Besides lots of meetings and trainings to get up to speed, we’ve mainly been working on content projects, including 3 blog posts, 1 Instagram Live Video (follow @Leavenotracecenter on Instagram if you aren’t already!), and our first webinar…
As we mentioned, the previous owners left us a perfectly functional cabin, but as with anything, you tend to want to make it your own. It’s also worth noting, we forgot what it’s like to own property again. We figured purchasing a cabin without running water would simplify the to do list, especially compared with…
Being back on a specific work schedule sure does eat up a lot of time! I’m afraid this blog is feeling the brunt of it … so to help me feel less guilty, I’m inundating you with less words, more pictures. In all the places we’ve lived, we always wanted a wildlife camera. Who doesn’t…
Currently living/working in: We started Leave No Trace work 6/29! It’s all based from Alaska and online for now, but it takes some adjusting to be back on a specific schedule. Knowing this was coming, we spent most of June tying up quite a few freelance content projects, including a secret project that hopefully I…
I’ve always stated spring is my least favorite season, if I had to rank them. With that being said, I absolutely enjoy the growth and change spring presents, particularly the bursts of wildflowers popping up. Growing up in suburban New Jersey, our wildflowers included dandelions. We also had lilacs and touch-me-nots (I think that’s the…
As I explained in past posts, our area is not experiencing the same flood of tourists we would normally have. Denali National Park would normally have multiple tour and camper buses running on their out-and-back 92-mile road that parallels the Alaska Range through low valleys and high mountain passes. But, with cruises and related land…
Currently living/working in: We are still at our cabin in Healy, juggling multiple writing projects and hustling to gain more. It’s been a pretty full plate of freelance work lately, all things considered. Thankfully, the long summer days mean we can still get ‘er done and have time to play! We also have a tiny…
I’m gonna guess one of the last things someone would associate with Alaska would be golf. I mean, with average high temps in the 60s and four months (sometimes less) of summer, it’s not really the calling card of the state. So it’s not surprising the biggest U.S. state has the fewest golf courses (8,…
Besides the river breakup, Alaska’s springtime arrives with a leap and a shout in many other ways. Obviously the first thing we noticed was the return of the sun. It was around mid February when the sun started to hit our street from over the mountains, which felt like a miracle. We could not believe…
At the beginning of April, we had close to 2 feet of snow, some fresh. By mid-April, winter had conceded her reign. But before I get into this installment of Arctic Adventures, let me define the word “breakup.” Because before we visited Alaska, that term had a whole other meaning. (And I’m “breaking up” this…
Currently living/working in: Well, we’re still in limbo job-wise, hanging in Healy and literally cannot conceptualize where we’ll be and what we’ll be doing beyond May. We’ve done lots of coloring outside the lines to piece together a livelihood over the years, and it’s worked well to juggle 10 “jobs” at a time as a…
There’s no shortage of “only in Alaska.” But besides the most obvious national headlines, such as the midnight sun and electrifying northern lights, Justin and I have been capturing photos of things we’ve only seen or experienced in the last great frontier. I’m sure as our years here accumulate, we’ll have much more to report. …