mountains

skiing; sky; bears; John Denver; overlook; dry air

Skiing down a mountain brings you closer to the sky than flying.

The sun must stay longer in the sky before the bears will come out of hibernation.

Bears should have eaten John Denver, he deserved a mountain death.

John Denver's over-the-top songs never fail to come to mind at every mountain overlook.

At the overlook, I paused, and breathed deep the dry air.

Vermont and the Drive Through New Hampshire

The White Mountains of New Hampshire as seen from a scenic rest area along the route. Beautiful beautiful scenery.

Driving north on the Interstate in New Hampshire.

We had a show booked at a coffee shop in Montpelier, VT, but found out just a week or so before the tour that they had triple booked and we were canceled. Along came our saviors, couchsurfers Jim and Kim were kind enough to pick up our gig and move it to the River Arts Center in Morrisville, VT. The above picture is the set up in the beautiful, 150+ year old building. Unfortunately, due to the last minute switch of town and venue (and the fact that Jeremiah and I are nobodies in Vermont), absolutely no one showed up.

The night was not lost, though, as Kim made us an amazing Indian dinner, look at that spread! We played our gigs for Jim and Kim while dinner was being made, and had a great evening chatting with them. They put us up in their horse barn that night, and it was the best night of sleep I've had yet on tour.

One Last Hike in Alaska

I was taking the red eye flight out of Alaska on a Sunday night, so there was time for one last hike just outside of Anchorage that day. Matthew and Olga took me up to Powerline Pass, picture above, and we hiked up a mountain overlooking that pass and the city of Anchorage.

Hiking up the spine of the mountain. This is where it finally got easy, the ascent until this point was one of the more grueling hikes I've ever been on. Apparently they don't believe in switchbacks in Alaska, and prefer to hike straight up a steep mountain.

Down in that valley lies Anchorage. Its simply amazing how easy it is to get outside of the state's largest city and into nature.

The descent was much easier, as it involved sliding down this snow field on my butt. The gray covering over the snow is actually ash from the Redoubt Volcano which has been erupting on and off since the beginning of the year.

More pictures from Alaska...

Performing at the Whole Wheat Radio House Concert in a cabin in Talkeetna. Pay a visit here to check out this amazing concert space. Jim and Esther open up their home to have musicians perform. While there was a great, intimate audience, there were also people listening in over the internet. Thats where the 'Radio' part come in, Jim broadcasts the concerts via internet radio, and anyone, anywhere can listen in and interact. We even had listeners that night in far away places like Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, and a few European countries, as well as a number of American states. This was probably the coolest concert experience I've had to date, and I hope to make it back soon.

Stopped at this mountain lake on the way back from Talkeetna with Matthew and Olga, pictured above with their dog.

Enjoy the scenery...

First Pictures from Alaska

Beluga Point in the Turnagain Arm with some gnarly mountains situated on the Kenai Peninsula

looking out over Turnagain Arm

a beautiful blue river up on Turnagain Pass

Glacier

Back to Turnagain Arm, looking at the Kenai Peninsula