Saturday April 3
At 3:30 AM Millie knocked on my door... she was all ready to go on the trip, and believed it was 7:30... I was glad I could return to bed instead of leaving! When it was really 7:30 I had to wake her up, and she looked like I woke her up at 3:30 ;). We walked to the Wood Center, where our guide Cameron was already loading the car. We went on the trip with 5 people: Cameron, Justin, Millie, Ann and me. Enough room in the car so that was good :). Our first stop was the McDonalds to have breakfast at 8:15. Believe it or not, but this was my first meal at the McDonalds since I'm here!
The drive to Denali National Park was beautiful, we saw Mt. McKinley again! After a while we fell asleep and missed a great part of the trip. Here's a photo of us at the entrance of the park, one of Ann trying to call home, and a photo of the view in the park.

We had to wait until the road through the park openened, they were snow ploughing it. We drove as far as we were allowed to. There we parked the car and we put on our snow-shoes.. The weather was good and not so cold, that was good. The first part of our walk was steeply going up, so we were ready for lunch very soon. After that we climbed up further, until we couldn't go any further. Justin and me climbed the rest of the way up without snow-shoes, it was great! Amazing view and we were both very proud to have reached the top :)

After this we drove back to the camping at the entrance of the park, the only one opened in winter. We had to snowshoe our spot before we could put up our tents. In the mean time we made a fire, and we prepared dinner (buritos). After that we put up the tents. Ann, Millie and me had a tent for 4 persons, and Justin and Cameron both had their own tent. The bird at the photo looks cute, but it was annoying! He tried to steal our food all night and was not shy at all. We started throwing snowballs at him, but that didn't scare him. I think he was waiting impatiently for the summer tourists to arrive.

After dinner we went to bed early. I spent some time sitting by the fire with Justin who brought whiskey :). The sleeping bags we took were very warm, and it is really something different to camp in winter. You have to take all your clothes in your sleeping bag, and everything else that you don't want to get frozen.

Sunday April 4
On Sunday we got up late. Everybody's muscles were hurting! The bird was happy that we woke up so that he could continue trying to steal our food. We melted snow for tea and coffee and for breakfast. In the mean time we broke down the tents and loaded everything in the car.
After breakfast we drove into the park again, and we went snowshoe-ing again. This time on a flat surface fortunately! The weather was still beautiful, and so was the walk. We saw many animal tracks: moose, lynx, wolf...

After the walk we made lunch and we drove back to Fairbanks. The weekend was fun! I was a bit afraid of going wintercamping, but it wasn't that bad. We were lucky we had 'warm' weather and I borrowed a lot of clothes from Kim and Brandon. At 4:30 PM we were back on campus, where everything was melting: Springtime in Alaska! For the first time we could walk out without a jacket, strange feeling. Here's a photo to show what Kim does when she doesn't feel like doing homework...

Monday April 5It was a beautiful Spring day again, and the snow is melting like crazy... They are expecting this weather for the whole week. We want to go skiing this weekend... let's hope they're still opened then! We celebrated Spring today, see the photos :)

Saturday April 10
On Saturday I went skiing with Mihailo and Celia. The slopes were very icy in the morning, we almost regretted that we went. We all fell down too. Later during the day the ice melted, and the snow got much better! Of course we couldn't resist taking a photo at our favorite bench ;)

Tuesday April 13
The day of my driving test... I was nervous like it was my first drivers exam! Fortunately I forgot about that as soon as I entered the car, and I drove according to all rules. Even in downtown Fairbanks! When we were back on the parking lot I had to make an emergency stop and do parallel parking. I ended up too far from the pavement, but since that was my only mistake, I passed the test!

Saturday April 17
The weather was very good, so later Yavor and I decided to visit Creamer's Field, here in Fairbanks. This used to be a huge dairy farm in the time of the goldrush. Since 1966 it's not working anymore. It mainly serves as a refugee for migrating waterfowl. The birds are coming back now, we saw a lot of Canadian geese and trumpet swans and some ducks. The clouds were very pretty! My film still has to be developed, but here's a digital picture:

Sunday April 25
At 7 AM we were ready to go! We were going on a paddling trip with Outdoor Adventures for a day. We went to a place close to Delta Junction, a 2 hour drive from here. I shared a canoe with Millie. The first part was really relaxed, the current was strong so we didn't really need to paddle ;). Later we had to, but it was ok. Halfway we had lunch and after that we paddled some more. But then... the last part was going upstream for a mile! It was terrible, the current was strong and I thought we would never make it! Especially the first turns were very hard, we were going backwards often, even though you're paddling like crazy. What made it worse, was that the last part was the ugliest part. The first part was beautiful and with really clear water, but this part didn't have that and there was mud on the shores with dead rotting fishes that were smelling nasty. After an hour we finally reached the lake, my arms were hurting so much!