A Close Race

Hello everyone!

It still feels like spring time out here in Montana. We felt a little blast of winter last Tuesday and got about four inches of snow in the park. Besides Tuesday, it has been in the upper forties and even into the fifties! I managed to make it into the park twice last week for some hiking. I hiked up to a lookout tower on top of Scalplock Mountain last Sunday with one of my friends. It was in the mid-fifties and the sun was shining down. The trail up to the lookout was icy at times, but it was still manageable. I was happy not to have to wear snowshoes! On the way up we saw a snowshoe hare. I had never seen one in the winter before though I've seen hundreds of tracks out in the Many Glacier valley. Do you remember what kind of adaptation they have? In the winter snowshoe hares are all white so that they can blend in with the snow and avoid being seen by predators. During spring, their fur slowly turns back to brown so that they will blend in in the brown and gray forest of summertime. Pretty cool! We made it up to the lookout in the the late afternoon, relaxed for an hour, then headed back down. We ran out of daylight with about two miles left to hike, but I wasn't complaining. The sky was perfectly clear, and the stars were amazing!

Later in the week, I hiked up to another lookout tower. This time I hiked to Apgar Lookout. It was not the best weather, but there were hopeful patches of blue sky peaking through the clouds. Since it snowed on Tuesday, this hike proved to be a little more difficult. There was a fresh layer of snow to trudge through, but eventually I made it to the top. It was cold and gray, so I only stayed long enough to eat some lunch and wave at my dad on the webcam. If you want to check out the view from Apgar Lookout, click on the link below. Then, click on the link that says Apgar Mountain webcam. This is the webcam that I waved at for my dad to see all the way back in Pennsylvania!
http://www.nps.gov/glac/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm

Well, I've been following the Iditarod very closely. It is getting very exciting. It's a very close race between the top four mushers. As of press time, the top four are listed as Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Hans Gatt, and Ken Anderson. Anderson just slipped into fourth place today. Lance Mackey is fighting to win his fourth Iditarod in a row, and Jeff King has already won four Iditarods. Both men are excellent competitors and are only about ten miles and a couple of hours apart on the trail. I've noticed that one of your mushers, Kathleen Frederick, has scratched. So far fourteen mushers have dropped out of the race. Newton Marshall is still hanging in there which is impressive. He only began mushing five years ago and is originally from the sunny country of Jamaica. He is sort of a celebrity in this race because he is not the typical Iditarod competitor. I am rooting for Lance Mackey, so I hope he can hang onto the lead. Although, Jeff King also deserves to win.

This week, I have a short assignment for you. I know you are busy getting ready for your tests, but this will be fun. I want you to create an acrostic poem. You need to pick one word that relates to the Iditarod. Below are a few examples in case you need some help brainstorming.

Examples: Iditarod, Mushing, Alaska, Trail, etc. Write your word vertically on a sheet of paper. Don't forget to capitalize each letter. Make sure you leave some room at the bottom of the paper for a short paragraph. Start each line of the poem with the capital letters that you wrote. Each line should consist of a word or phrase that relates to the Iditarod. Check out my acrostic below.

I chose the word "booties."

Beautiful Alaskan wilderness

Outdoors

Over 1,000 miles

Teams of dogs

Iditarod race

Exploration

Snow

Once you've created your acrostic, write a short paragraph using the words and phrases from the poem. Check out mine below:

During the Iditarod race, teams of dogs race over 1,000 miles to the finish line in Nome, Alaska. These teams explore the beautiful Alaskan wilderness while sleeping in the outdoors and mushing through the snow.

See you next week!