Spring has Sprung!

Hello everyone!

Saturday, March 20th has finally brought the first day of spring! I will admit that it has felt like spring here in Montana for most of the winter. However, the geese are back, the river is full of mallards, and the robins and blackbirds sing all day. We have also been seeing lots of sunshine all week. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make it into the park all week. I have, however, been able to spend a lot of time by the river and the lake here in Whitefish, MT. The lake is slowly beginning to thaw out. Luckily, I head into Many Glacier tomorrow morning for a couple of days. Two friends will be joining me for the trip in. We will be riding bicycles which will make the seven miles go by much more quickly. Wednesday is supposed to have a high of 48 degrees! Speaking of spring, the bears are starting to stir again. Jeff has been seeing some grizzly bear tracks in the woods (scary!), but luckily he hasn't run into a bear yet. Now we must carry bear spray as a precaution while skiing or snowshoeing. Bear spray is concentrated pepper spray that will temporarily cloud a bear's eyes and burn its nose (and hopefully keep it from attacking the hiker). The bear spray doesn't have any long term affects of the bear and allows the hiker to get far away. Maybe we will see a bear this week! Jeff is enjoying his time in Many Glacier and has had any visitors over the last few weeks. He has been seeing more and more bighorn sheep down around the cabin again and lots of mountain goats up on the side of Mt. Altyn. Jeff no longer skis across the lake because he just doesn't trust the ice anymore, and I don't blame him. I can't wait to get in there and snowshoe some trails!

Well, this is the last week that we will talk about the Iditarod. The Iditarod officially ended at 8:06 pm (Alaska time) on March 20th. Celeste Davis was the last musher to make it across the finish line. For this feat, she received the Red Lantern Award. The Red Lantern Award is given to the last person to cross the finish line every year. Although Celeste came in 55th place, she had the fastest Red Lantern time in the history of the Iditarod. It took Celeste 13 days, 5 hours, and 6 minutes to complete the race. To me, it seems like that is a short amount of time to cross over 1,100 miles of Alaskan wilderness on a dog sled, but what do I know? The longest Red Lantern time ever was 32 days, 15 hours, and 9 minutes by John Schultz in 1973. Now, I can't imagine camping with 12 dogs in Alaska in the winter for over a month straight! That would be really tough.

I hope that you enjoyed tracking your mushers throughout the Iditarod. A couple of your mushers did quite well. Only two, Judy Currier and Kathleen Frederick, scratched. Meanwhile, Ken Anderson finished in fourth place, and Martin Buser finished in fourteenth place. I am also very impressed that the rookie musher from Jamaica, Newton Marshall, completed the race. Now, the dogs and their mushers get a break for a while, though it won't be long before those racing next year will begin training again.

So, my only assignment for you this week it to just keep an eye out for the signs of spring around you. I think you have already been doing this, so keep it up. It won't be too long before you hear the sound of baby birds chirping in their nests! See you next week.