Iditarod!

This year my friend Karin (pronounced Car-in, not like Karen) is running her rookie year of the Iditarod. I knew she was good, but right now she is in the lead for Rookie of the Year (first rookie to Nome) and is keeping pace with mushers who have five to ten years of Iditarod behind them.

Rich and I handled for her at the two race starts. For those of you not familiar with the Iditarod, they have a ceremonial start in Anchorage, and an official re-start at the beginning of the trail out in Willow, Alaska the next day. The race is 1,000 or so miles over some of Alaska's roughest terrain, and it's no place for a beginner. Every Iditarod rookie usually has years and years of mushing experience behind them before they attempt the big race. Go to http://www.iditarod.com/ if you want all the details, or visit http://www.adn.com/ for the latest news updates and stories from the trail. Karin's kennel page is www.blueonblackdogs.com check the News section for the updates.
Enjoy the pictures!


This photo is from the Anchorage Daily News, and shows Karin charging into Takotna - look how happy and fresh her dogs look after 400 miles :)

Karin at the ceremonial start, with her official bib.

The ever supportive and wonderful husband of Karin, Varan. He really is the glue that holds the team together.

Karin's live-in dog handler Irene, who made a big change by coming here. Before sled dogs she worked with big cats in a wildlife rescue park in Ecuador.

Our friends Paulster and Sarah, who came down and happily fell into the black hole that is the Iditarod. Fortunately for Paul beer ended up being involved.

I think this is Cerveza, if it isn't Cerveza, it's Luna :) They are sisters, hard to tell sometimes. I held Cerveza back at the restart.

Karin telling us part time handlers what to do!

Huskies howling because they want to goooooooooooo! Nooooooooooooowwwwwww!!!!

Downtown Anchorage all decked out for the big event.

Rich and Karin's lead dog Scooby. Rich was a good handler for Scooby, kept him from pulling us all over the place. Scooby is much bigger than the rest of the team, by about 20 pounds.

Rich holding onto Scooby and Chase as we 'line out' prior to walking to the start. If the handlers didn't hold them back the dogs would just dig in and start running.

Rich and I on the tiny school bus to Willow for the restart on Sunday. Parking is, hmm, terrible. So we rode the shuttle. Which was also, hmmm, terrible.

Strange fur hats and wild wooly coats are the preferred costume during Iditarod. Sarah is modeling the 'Racoon' it has beady glass eyes. Very creepy.

And then we run into our very own mountain man from Wrangell, Jeff. Why he's wearing that coat only he knows! He said it was to attract the ladies. I'm guessing he meant lady grizzlies.

Karin's trail boots, ready for her to get in them and go TO NOME!

A weirdly Alaskan picture, these wolf hides were hung up for sale on the playground equipment at Willow Elementary, where the restart is. Notice the kids playing in the background and totally not caring about the hides hanging up? Love our state!

There goes Mackey, everyone's favorite. We ALL want him to win again. He's such a nice guy, and his dogs are pretty spectacular. GO #47!!!

The start, we had to obey the stop and go signs as handlers, letting the team walk, or stopping it. Harder than it sounds. 16 dogs are really, really strong, especially with four feet to our two!

This is Barbara and I after Karin took off for Nome. Barbara is from Italy, but spent the last four years in American Samoa, and came up to help her friend Karin. Needless to say we got along great and are friends now too!

And this last shot is of WSU (pronounced Wazoo) who is the friendliest and prettiest sled dog. She's a pet for most of the year, but this is her third trip all the way to Nome. Performance athlete AND face licker!!

Merry Christmas from the Oelkers!

Shannon, Richard and Wilco at the top of the South Fork trail in Eagle River

Hello Friends and Family!

2008 has been another whirlwind year. We find ourselves healthy and happy at the end of 2008, which is something to be thankful for.

Shannon & Richard recovering from Shannon's surgery

Some fun things that Shannon did this past year:

Becoming and Outdoors Woman
It’s like girl scout camp for adult women, and I had a lot of fun learning to skin, gut and quarter a caribou, how to cast a fly rod, how to use a map and compass to verify GPS, and of course, went skiing and tubing (sledding down a steep hill on tire inner tube).

XCountry skiing at BOW

We went to Chitna again and had a miserable, rainy, wonderful time with our friends Paul and Jarkko, and netted our full family allowance of 39 Copper River Reds and one slow and ugly King Salmon.

3am on the way to the river!

This summer was also travel time for my job, I did inspections in lots of places, but the most beautiful were Saint Paul, St. George, and Adak. The Aleutians and Pribilofs are so beautiful and wild. The best part of living and working in Alaska, is, well, Alaska!

While Rich was out hunting I made a few baby quilts, started cooking for fun again, and worked hard on getting the house and the yard in shape.

Some fun things Richard did this past year:

In March, Richard went on the Trek Over The Top (http://www.trekoverthetop.com) with his good friend Dan. They had a great time and Richard even managed to win a few thousand bucks playing poker.

Richard went on an out of state trip for work to Galveston, TX and New Iberia, LA. In between he had time to visit his sister and brother in law Kristen and Nathan in Abilene, TX. It was a good trip and a real adventure learning how to eat crawfish. Eating at one of the president’s favorite restaurants was pretty cool too.

Richard managed to go on one camping trip with a rifle and one hunting trip. Richard and his brother Alan went sheep hunting on the north side of the Brooks Range for a week. They arrived just after a snowfall that left the mountains covered in a thick white blanket. Then there was more than 60 miles of hiking with 60-70 pound packs. Weather was cool, getting as low as 15 degrees F at night. On this trip the sheep won. The only rams spotted were sublegal, but they had a great time.

Richard also went on a deer hunting trip with 5 friends to Montague Island in Prince William Sound. The trip was planned for 7 days but ended up being 8 when the boat couldn’t pick them up due to weather. In that time, Richard managed to get two deer to bring home. The venison that we have had so far is excellent! The best part of the trip was spending a week with good friends and having almost enough beer to last the whole time...

Richard has also had a great year at work. Richard has been very involved in some very exciting projects that are improving the safety for the entire corporation. He’s really looking forward to 2009 and getting these projects finished up.

We managed two vacations this year, one to Las Vegas for Rich to attend a conference (and Shannon got to just hang out by the pool and see the sights) and another, delayed a bit, to the beaches of Mexico.

Vegas BABY!

At the top of Nohach Mal at Coba ruins

Finally, at the end of the year, we managed to get off the waitlist we’d been on for months, and we got our first brand new car, a 2009 Jetta TDI (diesel) and the car is AWESOME, and fuel efficient too. Our weekly commutes will cost us literally hundreds less per month!

We continue to see lots of friends and family as they come to Anchorage, and that is really great! So if you’re thinking of coming down, please give us a call, we’d love to see you, and if you need a place to stay we have a very comfortable guest bed. Love, Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!

Diving at Akumal

Richard and Shannon, sitting in the sea, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

So, for most people, diving wouldn´t be such a big deal. Especially since I´ve been open water certified for three years now, and have plenty of dives under my weight belt. BUT, this dive was my first one post-op. Would my lung be as sturdy as the doc said they would? Would I panic? Would I feel weird with the pressure or the regulator?

In short- NO and HOORAY! A heartfelt thank you to Dr. F for fixing me - 100 percent.

This ray was as long as me! Thankfully he wasn´t the same kind as the one that got Steve Irwin...still I stayed a good distance away. He actually left big scallop shaped dents in the sand, that once you knew what to look for you could trail all over the ocean floor. I so should have been an Indian tracker instead of working for the state. I´ve been obsessed with tracks for the last few years. And I love riding horses and getting the best of cowboys. But I digress...

Can you see the conch?So different on theunderside :) You can just see his wee foot poking out on the bottom edge.

Tulum, Quintana Roo Mexico

So Rich and I are taking our last sunny vacatin for awhile. This is the long awaited and long delayed (from March) beach retreat! We are staying in Tulum, along the long beach towards the Sian Ka´an biosphere (sorta like a Mexican national park). In Tulum they didn´t develop the beaches into non'stop all inclusive monstrosities, here they are all small hotels and cabana´s (much like Fairbanks´cabin scene) and the effect is wonderful. Laid back, lots of small restaurants anyone can go to, and hardly any people, because each place can only host so many. Truly paradise here. Sadly we can see the signs that this beach is now getting cooler, and more popular...which means in five years it will all be torn up and changed into some slick ugly modern resort, where good looking teenagers prance around and offend all the locals that are left. But I am here now, and it is beautiful and wonderful now, so maybe my worst fears won´t come true!


Our place of residence. I like it. Mostly cucharacha and skeeter free, a pretty decent free breakfast, no hot water, and the shower water is a bit salty, but not too bad. The restaurant is, well, blech for any meal other than breakfast. Good thing it´s so near all these other AMAZING restaurants. I´m not sure why, but many of the hotels on this beach are owned by Italians, and they love food so much that for $30 USD you can get a three course meal on the beach that is mind blowingly tasty. I got focacia fresh out of the oven with sandy toes! And they have great wine. What more can a girl ask?




So these signs are all over, in a rainbow of langauges, English, Espaniol, Italian, German, and maybe a few more. Turns out there is a woodland based greyish-black crab that has to cross the road to get to the beach. What does a woodsy crab needs at the beach? Maybe some sun, like me! Anyways, we´re extra cautious and have avoided two of the little guys so far.

Pretty much every day Rich and I walk the long, powdery, palmy beautiful beach, sometimes twice in one day! Ít´s great exercise, and lovely. We walked all the way to the nature preserve once, which was 6+ kilometers round trip (4 miles for you metrically challenged folks).

I´ll post some more updates as we do more cool stuff. Right now we´re just reading, relaxing and getting tanner by the minute. Adios amigos!

Gorgeous Saint George

I really loved Saint George. The birds were still here, and I picked salmon berries and saw all sorts of wonderful things. I kept pinching myself to see if it was all real.

Overlooking one of the cormorant and puffin rookeries

Guess where the pot of gold is?

A great black sand beach. Great weather too!
The volcanic rock was spectacular here. Very cubist in design and structure


I couldn't get over the beauty inside this urchin shell. A quilt may come from this picture...

Tiny fox feet crisscross this island. We saw smoky blue and brilliant white foxes.

Hundreds of gulls nest along this beach
A cave! Just like in Swiss Family Robinson. This whole island reminded me of that favored childhood story.
A Holey Rock
Not the best year for Salmon Berries according to our local friends, but we found (and ate) some nonetheless.

Russian Orthodox graves in the sunlight

The church all decked out for a special holiday with lights and tolling bells calling everyone to worship
A scoundrel! He/She just stole some seal vomit and was rushing away with their mouth full.
Just in case you land along the beach and don't know where you are, link up to your on board wireless and go to pribilofs.com...except there isn't any wireles....
Hundreds and hundreds of birds. It was easier to tell them apart by how they flew then by their color.

Vast puffin rookeries
Seabird feathers from fox kills
Can you see the cormorant perched along the cliff edge? to his left you can just make out two cute puffins hugging the cliffs.
These stacked stones were all over the island. I found out that they are ancient navigation aids from before there were roads. Apparently when the island gets fogged in telling direction is very difficult, so at the top of every hill are groups of stones that somehow tell you which way north is. Some of the stone groupings refer to village sites that aren't there any more, so it was confusing, and the guy explaining it to me said his grandfathers generation were the last to actually use the stones.


Our really nice hotel. Seriously the nicest rural Alaskan hotel I have ever stayed in.

See? Check out this sweet room?!

My chariot awaits
Saint George is a great community