The Grand Canyon is something many Americans associate with their youth, that family trip half endured and half enjoyed. But that view is not enough for a smaller subset driven to experience the power of the ‘Grand’.

Here in Alaska there has been a warm snap. Above freezing temperatures and liquid precipitation has wreaked havoc on the snowpack. A slide closed the Seward Highway for a day just south of Girdwood. All I can do is wonder what mother nature has in store for us this year.

Bacon. Fatty, cured, made of pig, mmmmm bacon. I don’t eat much so why did I order 40lbs of that tasty skillet fodder? Its fuel for little metabolic furnaces that’ll be in overdrive Dec. 18, our put in date for the Grand Canyon.