Ten people, three cars, and two dogs, plus nine sets of cross-country skis, one pair of snowshoes, and plenty of food and booze...that, friends, is how you go winter camping.  To celebrate our good friend Justin's birthday his lady Helen rented a cabin out at Fielding Lake Recreation Area.  The morning after Thanksgiving we loaded up the cars and headed southeast, past Delta Junction, for what proved to be a memorable overnighter in the Alaska Range.

The drive was beautiful, from the landscape to the wildlife.  I rode with Grant and Gordon and we saw a moose in North Pole as well as a suh-WEET birdfight - a juvenile bald eagle was getting harrassed by a couple of ravens.  I love seeing eagles get BEAT DOWN by other birds just because it's so hilarious!  Unfortunately I couldn't get pictures of that but Grant pulled over so I could snap a few of a large herd of caribou grazing by the highway.

The cabin at Fielding Lake is located at mile 200.5 of the Richardson Highway.  Once we arrived and parked the cars at the pulloff we had to "gear up."  Skis were waxed, snowshoes strapped on, packs assembled, and sleds loaded with firewood and other supplies.  The cabin itself is actually about a mile off of the road and luckily we were graced with beautiful weather - no wind and if I had to guess I would say it was at least 15° F.  I traded in my heavy duty gloves for little cotton stretchy things and ditched my hat completely.

Here we all are, preparing for the ski out to the cabin.  In addition to Grant, Josh and myself, and Justin and Helen, we were joined by Helen's sister Kate, Bennish, Kate and Helen's visiting friend Zach, and our new pals Trina (of lumpia fame) and her boyfriend Lei.  Oh!  I can't forget Kate's and Bennish's dog Benjamin, also known as "Pooch."

Zach was a real trooper, jumping onto skis (with a loaded pack, no less) and going camping in the middle of his Alaskan winter vacation!  Josh and I actually met Zach a couple of years ago when he and Kate (who was still living in Minnesota) came up for a visit.  That was also the first time we met Helen, over an intense game of Trivial Pursuit.  But I digress.

I skied ahead of the group so I could get some photos.  Here is Zach rockin' and rollin' in his do-rag.  He and Josh bought them at the IGA in Delta.  Yeah, they are way cool.

The rest of the crew wasn't far behind.  Bennish is up front on snowshoes, hauling firewood on a sled!

The second sled (below) is being pulled by none other than one Joshua Payne.

A lone caribou ran along the ridge to our left.  He (or she) seemed as interested in us as we were in him (or her.)

Gordon and Pooch obviously had a riot.

By the time we got to the cabin it was snowing lightly.  We were all excited by our surroundings: a river flowed in front of the cabin, the lake was only about a quarter-mile away, and it was all nestled at the base of beautiful snow-covered mountains.

Pooch approved of the view, I think...

Of course, no one from DNR had given us the combination to the LOCK WE FOUND ON THE CABIN DOOR but that's a minor setback, right?  Josh and I climbed through the window and started a fire while "others" just unscrewed the damn lock from the doorframe.  Grr.  Alaskan bureaucracy.

It wasn't long before we had a visitor perched atop the pole in front of the cabin porch.

This adult Northern Hawk Owl stayed for quite awhile, and even stopped back the next morning for a quick visit.

Once we unpacked and got somewhat organized the boys were anxious to start ice fishing.  Justin rented an ice auger in hopes of supplementing our evening meal with Arctic Grayling, or perhaps some burbot.

Josh, Zach, and Justin start the process...there is a joke in here somewhere about how many boys it takes to drill a hole, but I'm tired and this is a family-friendly blog.

We all took a turn - even me!

Is the auger taller than me?  Yes.  Am I wearing a headlamp?  Yes.

Unfortunately two holes yielded zero fish but I think everyone agreed that it was a fun attempt, anyway.

We went back to the cabin and enjoyed an evening of eating, drinking, and mild debauchery (in that we were all in our underwear but it was long underwear so all-in-all, fairly chaste.)

Dinner cooked on the woodstove while Trina and Justin celebrated their respective birthdays with a dangerous-looking bottle of tequila.

The cabin was small - 12' x 14' - so with ten of us, plus two dogs, and a lot of cooking on the stove it was positively sweltering.

Trina might be taking Lei's temperature but he outlasted her that night!  In fact, we had to wake Trina up for her birthday "cake" (chocolate chip cookie brownies) and "ice cream" (dehydrated!)

The next morning brought us even more luck in the wildlife department - over the course of three hours we saw about eight or ten moose, mostly cows with their calves.  Luckily I woke up with the stomach flu (NO not a hangover, I know the difference!) and had to go outside and throw up bright and early so I got the first peek!  I snapped this moose family just before we skied back to the car.