Dance Camp 2012

Over Memorial weekend, I had the most relaxing time enjoying great live music and dance, wonderful people, beautiful views of King's Lake and the Chugach mountains, and some very delicious food prepared by Chef Steve and Jason. The Dancing Bears are a nonprofit organization promoting traditional music and dance in Alaska. Their annual dance camp just celebrated it's 31st camp (it was my 2nd). It is a great atmosphere at the camp and contra dancers are some of the friendliest people I know. We had guest bands and callers from out of state as well as some of Alaska's best musicians and dancers. Dancers come from all around Alaska for the weekend camp and some even travel up from the lower 48 to enjoy the Alaska scenery and great dance. This year the weather was a little cloudy and partly rainy. I really don't mind the rain though and besides, when there isn't sun to enjoy, there is always dance! Over the weekend I danced and talked with old friends and made new friends. The Dancing bears hold dances throughout the winter season so the Dance Camp is sort of a final hurrah before the summer season when dances happen less often. I don't see many of the people here outside of the regular dances. When we're together we talk about life and what things keep us busy when we're not out dancing or playing music. It is so neat to see so many people from different walks of life coming together with a common interest like dancing. Throughout the weekend, I told a lot of people about my summer plans for the Justice Ride. I was continually encouraged by their responses. I felt that people were genuinely interested in the ride and in IJM. Not only that, but they were full of advice about places to visit along the way, where I could find contra dances, and people they know who I could stay with as I pass through. Thank you Bears!

Looking over King's Lake from my lakeside camp spot.

Watching the sunrise on King's Lake with Elaine while the Dancing Bears sleep.

Thank you Elaine for the beautiful pictures and thank you Dancing Bears for putting on such a wonderful event! 

This is where I train

Looking towards Anchorage, AK along Turnagin Arm.

Looking towards Girdwood, AK. Check out how much snow is still in the mountains!

Not a bad place to ride a bike :) If you don't mind the passing cars.

Morning Calm

I went for a bike ride this morning at about 4:30 am. I hadn't intended on riding at this hour but I didn't really have much of a choice. Earlier in the week, I volunteered to set up flags marking out a race course for a run. I spent the evening last night visiting with some wonderful friends and eating delicious home-cooked food, so the night came and went and I still had not set up the race course. I set out bright and early today to get it marked before the start time. Before the ride, I was definitely not looking forward to it. But, I was pleasantly surprised! The ride was along the Chester Creek trail, a paved trail through the woods and it was so peaceful out there. I had expected things to be deathly quiet at this hour but the trees were busy and filled with birds singing their morning songs. The air was cool and crisp making the ride actually refreshing. I have been on this particular trail many times and it is usually occupied by many other bikers, runners, and walkers. This time, there were birds chirping, rabbits hopping along the trail, and ducks and geese gliding smoothly across the glassy ponds. Do you have  mornings when you wake up much earlier than you need to and have more than enough time to get ready for your day? I have these once in a while and I go into a state of "waking up" that is really quite enjoyable. I have these mornings when I am up extra early before everyone else in my house. I like to leave all the lights off and eat breakfast in the dark. Sometimes I shower in the dark and get dressed in the dark too. I take my time and let my body and mind slowly awake and prepare for the coming day. I love these mornings. Today on my ride, I felt as though all the animals I saw were having one of these mornings. They seemed relaxed and not startled by my presence. As I biked by, a rabbit paused to look me right in the eye. It was not a wide-eyed fearful stare but a "Good morning, hope you are enjoying the birds' songs" look. Yeah, a rabbit :) Riding along the trail stopping periodically to place bright orange flags in the ground, I had an overwhelming feeling of excitement for my upcoming bike trip and the many opportunities there will be to enjoy more calm mornings like this.

Hot water anyone?

Slowly but surely I'm checking things off of my gear list for the summer. I have many of the camping things I will need like a tent and sleeping bag but there are a lot of little odds and ends I still need. Hopefully I can keep track of everything without losing them before I leave. I have a tendency to misplace things frequently.

Sunday night I had a cookout with my friend Ben. We were partly testing stoves to find the best one for this trip and partly just testing stoves because it's fun. Who doesn't like boiling water? We had a number of stove and pot combination's to choose from. I think the decision now is between the Esbit and the Vargo Decagon. The Esbit uses little solid fuel tablets that burn for about 12 mins and the Vargo burns alcohol. Both stoves are super simple and compact. I'm mainly looking for a stove to boil water with so these will work well for that because they just produce a constant heat until the fuel runs out. Some of the qualities we compared were compactness/weight, time required to boil 2 cups of water, accessibility of fuel, maintenance required, and stability with pot. The Vargo has the cheapest and most accessible fuel as well as no moving parts which is pretty convenient. The Esbit was more stable with the kettle pot and it also doesn't need to be primed so it boiled 2 cups of water in 8 mins compared to the 11 mins that the Vargo required. I'll probably end up using the Vargo stove because I can get fuel easily and for cheap.

The Esbit is on the left with the packaged fuel tablet and the Vargo Decagon is on the right. In the middle is the MSR Pocket Rocket. For size comparison, the Esbit folds down into a little box just larger than a deck of cards. The Pocket Rocket is small too but if requires a fuel canister that is not pictured here.