Warm spring weather in Galena

The weather has really warmed up in the last week. It’s in the 30’s or 40’s at night but gets up to the mid-60’s during the day. For us that is really warm. Mosquito’s are out but still manageable right now, that will change. I’ve been doing most of my runs during the day. I noticed the barge was in so I got a picture of it as I passed the landing.

I couldn’t quite figure out why they were loading gravel on to the barge. Most villages out here “mine” gravel from the river before breakup. There is a sandbar next to the airport that provides the majority of our construction gravel. At first I thought this might have been some gravel that has been contaminated by fuel that was being shipped out, but that gravel is in bags. It turns out that the village of Nulato downriver from us needed gravel, and for whatever reason they weren’t able to get it this year. Gravel and a loader were being barged down to them.

School is out for the year. A lot of the staff is heading out for the summer. Our short construction season is beginning so I know I’ll be busy. I’ll probably be in town all summer. I don’t plan on leaving until near the end of August for a race in Anchorage.

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The weather was pretty nice today, I did a long run yesterday so Lynn and Cocoa went out for a stroll. Cocoa is a retired sled dog so “walking” with her is a fair workout. It is fun to run with her but it takes a good deal of effort to slow her down to my pace. She seems to enjoy it.

Not much else for now. I need to get the boat ready to take out. I hope to spend more time on the water this summer than I did last year. We will see how Cocoa enjoys going out in the boat. That is sure to be interesting.