2020 Recap

Sup friends,

Time for the yearly recap! Alas, Facebook has gotten rid of Notes, so I'm moving all my posts over to my Wix blog site. 2020 was br00tal in many ways, but it's still worth remembering some of the wonderful experiences that were shared with family and friends. 2020 was also a big year of growth for me. I took on multiple new roles at work, navigated first time supervision, and learned so much especially in the field of geology. I pushed my body harder by completing multiple backpacking trips one of which was 26 miles long! I grew my experience in multiple hobbies including biking, whiskey, and photography. I made new friends while strengthening existing friendships even if only virtually. We're all basically ready for 2021, but read on to find out what I was up to in 2020...

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Top 10 Songs

Every recap must start with the best music of the year. I didn't discover as much new music in 2020 as I usually do, but still found some killer beats that were on repeat. 

1. Snow - The Lost Boys Collective

2. Let's Get Lost - Carly Rae Jepsen

3. You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar - Erra

4. Gates of Ivory - Dayseeker

5. Lonely - WildHeart

6. Block out the Noise - Jonny Craig

7. In Your Image - Drown This City

8. Mothflower - Martin Grech

9. SoftBoy - Hail Your Highness

10. Life Goes On - BTS

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Travel Destinations (* = New Destination)

Travel in 2020 was definitely calmer than any year in recent history, and may be the first in a long time of not going international! Regardless, it was a good one since Alaska still afforded plenty of opportunities to explore and discover new destinations. 

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• Jackson Hole*, Wyoming

• Sun Valley, Boise, Idaho*

• Fairbanks, Homer, Seldovia*, Hope, Cooper Landing, Cantwell*, Paxson*, Alaska

• Saugatuck, Michigan*

• Chicago, Illinois

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Favorite Memories

One of my favorite sections of the yearly recap! Sure 2020 sucked, but it sucked a bit less thanks to sharing some wonderful experiences with good friends and family. I will especially remember this as the year of stepping up our game on backpacking, biking, and skiing. 

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1. Backpacking to Snowbird Hut with Lauren, Chanty, Shayna, and Stacey. Hiking up to a beautiful ridge at sunset and setting up camp with some tasty food and whiskey. Completing a treacherous climb up a valley, down a slope, across a glacier, up some boulders, to get to the hut. Sliding down snow fields and almost dying a few times.  

2. Visiting Jackson Hole with Lauren, Ann, Adrian. Snowshoeing in Grand Teton national park in fresh snow, driving out to Idaho to check out some breweries, exploring Jackson Hole's restaurants and bars, skiing an amazing mountain, and relaxing in the hot tub in th evenings. 

3. Visiting Sun Valley with Tony, Phil, Branson, Pat, Taylor. Skiing some icy sunny days, playing drinking games at the condo, going snowmachining and getting the machine stuck in deep snow for an hour, swimming in a natural hot tub by the side of the road, watching the sunset over the sawtooth mountains, bar hopping around town and narrowly avoiding covid by skipping a concert, and checking out Boise on the way home. 

4. Heading up to Fairbanks with Lauren and Andy. Seeing the most insane display of northern lights at 3am, driving out to Delta Junction and snowshoeing to the castner glacier ice cave, staying warm in -30F nights with some Eagle Rare, soaking in the chena hot springs and having hair completely freeze after cross country skiing the local trails. 

5. Staying in Hope with an oceanfront campsite and hiking up Palmer Lakes trails with Lauren. Following that up with backpacking Johnson Pass, staying in the most stunning campsite without another soul around, not getting a wink of sleep from fear of being eaten by bears, and hiking back on the most insanely hot day. 

6. Visiting Homer with Lauren, staying in the cutest lil cabin with sunset views over the mountain. Hiking Grace Ridge after a beautiful morning boat ride, seeing 15 black bears including one that refused to move off our path until we started singing. Staying in Seldovia in an awesome harbor-front airbnb, enjoying local cuisine, and hiking the otterbahn and rocky ridge local trails. Enjoying an amazing meal in the traincar in Soldotna on the way home and closing things out with the Skilak Lake lookout hike.

7. So much biking. Fatbiking almost every day in the spring including rides to Portage Glacier, Knik Glacier, and around BLM tract, Kincaid, and North Bivy trails. Getting a mountain bike in the summer and finally learning how to hit some jumps at hillside, while doing shuttle runs from glen alps to hillside. Doing Bird to Gird on my bday and making it through a gnarly crash involving concussion, stitches, ER, etc. 

8. Backpacking Crow Pass with Lauren and Shayna. This was certainly a love hate hike since the multiple river crossings, hiking over boulders, down slippery slopes, up ladders was rough. But the views from our campsite the first night, the experience of crossing the river at first light, and the joy of finishing the thing made it worth it. 

9. Driving the old Denali highway from Cantwell to Paxson with Lauren. Starting off the trip with a night at Kesugi Ken and hiking Curry Ridge while getting completely drenched. Biking along the Denali highway and staying at McClaren Lodge one night and BLM campsite the second night. Hiking McLaren summit trail, and miraculously getting back in the car after getting locked out with the dead battery. 

10. So much hiking with Lauren and multiple friends. Besides the 3 backpacking trips, completing multiple new hikes including Near Point, Lazy Mountain, April Bowl, Blackstone Bay Vista, Bear Point, Thorofare Ridge, Crescent Lake, Slaughter Gulch, Harp Mtn, Mt Gordon Lyons, Palmer Lakes Trail, Hidden Lake, Grace Ridge, Curry Ridge, Skilak Lake Lookout, Maclaren Summit Trail, Blueberry Knoll, Peak 2, Peak 3, Bird Creek Falls, Rocky Ridge, Otterbahn, and Little O Malley. 

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Honorary mentions:

• Riding out to knik glacier on fatbikes and getting our asses totally kicked by the inadequate bike tires and loose snow

• Camping at Williwaw with Petersons and Carsons; hiking horsetail falls, biking the trail of blue ice, and kayaking on portage lake. 

• Trying so much good new whiskey; doing virtual whiskey tastings with friends over Teams/Zoom. 

• Cross Country skiing with Lauren; finally advancing to skate skis. 

• Enjoying some incredible powder days at Alyeska including multiple feet of snow on opening day; skiing Arctic Valley including backcountry skin up trip. 

• Going four wheeling with David and Jonathon at Bird Creek area; going all the way to the end of Eklutna lake and enjoying stunning views on a sunny day.

• Winning the Denali Road lottery and driving a car all the way to Eilson. Enjoying insanely clear views of Denali mountain and seeing 4 different grizzlies including one that came up with a few feet of the car at the Eilson lot. 

• Camping at Quartz Creek for princess Jonathon's bday. Hiking Crescent Lake with Lauren, biking Russian River falls with Phil, Jacklyn, Jonathon, and enjoying birthday festivities at the campsite. 

• Going fishing with Raiche's at the Russian and limiting out. 

• Enjoying campbell lake with winter walks, ice skating at first freeze, and kayaking on the lake on sunny days. 

• Narrowly avoiding multiple moose at the house, including a massive bull moose sitting right outside the door. 

• Going tubing at arctic valley with McGraths

• Enjoying sushi night and christmas dinners at Petersons

• Virtual happy hours with the viscous dream team; teambuilding excursions for axe throwing, portage glacier tour, and biking trail of blue ice

• Virtual hangs with the cousins and playing poker

• Visiting Andy in Chicago and doing a weekend road trip to Michigan. Exploring various dunes and checking out the Coppercraft distillery

• Taking a boat tour out to blackstone bay, college fjord, and esther passage with Lauren

• Watching some amazing virtual shows from August Burns Red, BTBAM, and Tesseract

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Top Accomplishments
Despite a tough year in general, I felt that I accomplished a lot in personal, physical, professional growth. 

• Having a strong year at work including taking on a new role as the viscous development supervisor, getting to know and work with an amazing team, and delivering on multiple projects despite slowdown in activity. Starting a new role at the end of the year and managing smooth transitions. (I had 3 different roles & 4 different bosses in just the span of 2020!)

• Finishing the His Dark Materials and Old Man's War series

• Enjoying multiple shows including Outlander, Queens Gambit, Peaky Blinders, The 100, Altered Carbon, Tiger King, Chernobyl, and My Hero Academia

• Completing the buildout of a new travel site ready for launch in the new year

• Buying a XC60 T5 Inscription!

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Pics

No year is complete without looking back on pictures. My love for photography continues to grow, and I have really enjoyed testing out and using a new camera & lenses in 2020.