Aurora

Just a quick background on what makes the aurora...the sun gets so hot that is releases a thin layer of gas that expands outward into space. This gas is primarily made up of electrons and protons. When it expands it encounters the Earth's magnetic field (or planet's with magnetic poles), which also expands into space until it is balanced by the solar wind! When the energetic particles penetrate the upper atmosphere they collide with atoms, which take and store some of this energy. When the atoms do this they become excited and to return to an un-excited state, they release a photon (the light!). So now you know!!!

Last night was a fairly active aurora and we walked right outside the cabin and looked up!

Chena Hot Springs

Michelle and I drove out to the hot springs yesterday and enjoyed every second of it! It's about 56 miles north east of town and with all the nice weather we've been having we couldn't pass up the opportunity. All though it would have been neat to go when it was 30/40 below, because then your hair freezes and you get some crazy icicle formations! So like I said it's just outside of town...we followed the winding Chena river to the end of the road and hopped in!

This is one of the run off springs from the river:

This is the hot spring you get in:

Yukon Quest 2012

The Yukon Quest covers 1,000 miles between Whitehorse, Yukon and Fairbanks, Alaska during the depths of the Arctic winter. It is by far one of the most extreme winter sports out there and it has now made its way onto my bucket list! I'm sure if I ask Kitty she could tell me all I need to know about mushing...Michelle and I went down to the Chena River this morning and watched all the dog teams take off on there 1000 mile journey. It's a good time to start the race, the weather is supposed to be nice for the next few days as a high pressure fills the eastern interior of Alaska. This mornings temp at the starting line was around 8 below and the mushers might see some daytime highs above 0 along there way! The teams start on the frozen river and travel from check point to check point. They all carry Spot GPS systems and are easily tracked all the to Whitehorse:

http://yukonquest.com/site/live-tracking/  


We took a video and posted it to youtube:

 http://youtu.be/DIfOt-FEj0A

Here are some photos we got (keep in mind we are all standing on the Chena River!):

49 Below, check it out!!!

We survived our first cold snap and I'm sure it won't be our last! The month of January was extreme to say the least...There were 16 days where it was 40 below zero or colder, which made it one of the coldest January's in 40 years. The all time record was set in 1970 where they saw 21 days of 40 below or colder! There were several days where the low temps were 50 below or colder. Not much to do when it's that cold, except hunker down in the cabin and enjoy some hot chocolate :-)

But one fun thing to do is throw a hot cup pf water into the air and watch it evaporate. Michelle and I were told about this neat trick and have been waiting to do it, so click on the link and check out the youtube video we posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUslOkdquBk&list=HL1328419414&feature=mh_lolz

And I guess this makes it official:

Just a few shots from a morning when it was 42 below...