How We Spent Our Time in 2024

post by Corrine and Eric

When Corrine looked back at 2024, she felt like she had been a slug. Strava showed that she was less active, both in miles and hours spent exercising. And she had also read 25% less books according to the list she keeps. Had she just wasted more time watching YouTube videos? And binging Netflix? She was a little afraid to look back but decided to see how we actually spent our time in 2024.

Eric is not into numbers the same way as Corrine. He does know that he spent more than 100 hours dealing with the Fairbanks Cycle Club’s loss of its IRS tax-exempt status (after an accountant screwed up – twice!) and that he didn’t do any creative writing. Pretty easy to see how that happened. Still, Eric is curious to review what we did this past year, too.

Exploring New Places

Lighthouse Rock in Palo Duro State Park 

2024 was a year of exploring new places, though it started a bit slow. We missed a trip to Hawaii in January due to getting COVID plus having our flight cancelled. (The flight was on one of the Boeing planes that were grounded after the door panel flew off one of them.) And we cancelled our trip to Wisconsin in February to ski the American Birkebiener due to the lack of any natural snow. But we did end up spending about five weeks taking four different vacations to new places.

In April, we met with Montana, Riley, and Sam in Del Rio, Texas, to see the total eclipse of the sun. The weather was cloudy, but luckily the clouds parted just in time for us to enjoy the magic of the eclipse. We watched it from the bluffs along the Amistad Reservoir in Amistad National Recreation Area. If you haven’t already, you should try to see at least one total eclipse. You won’t regret it.

Afterward, we headed to Big Bend National Park with Riley, which none of us had ever visited, and spent three days exploring trails while spending our nights glamping and stargazing in a geodesic dome outside the park.

Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park

Our glamping dome in Texas

In July, we drove to the southern Yukon for a week of exploring. We had driven through that area but never really spent time there. We camped and hiked in Kluane National Park before heading to

Whitehorse for a couple of days. We then drove and camped on the South Canol Road, finding a great old mining road to explore by bike, before heading back to Whitehorse to mountain bike on its extensive trail system. We plan to spend more time exploring the Yukon, especially in the Tombstone Mountains north of Dawson City. 

A mining road off the South Canol Road

In September, we did a quick trip to Ketchum, Idaho, where Eric played on his mountain bike and Corrine participated in Rebecca’s Private Idaho, a three-day stage race/ride put on by Rebecca Rusch. We had been through that area before but hadn’t really explored it. We stayed at our friends’ place (thank you Tom and Barb) in nearby Hailey. The elevation kicked Corrine’s butt but otherwise it was another great vacation exploring by bike. Well, there was that little detail about her missing a turn and not officially finishing one of the races. . . but who cares, it was still a lot of fun in a new place.

And finally in October, we headed to Arkansas, where Corrine had to drop out of the Arkansas High Country Bikepacking Race due to a mechanical on day one. But that mishap allowed us to spend the rest of our vacation exploring four different states. We spent three days in the mountain bike mecca of Bentonville, Arkansas, after hiking to Hawksbill Crag, the most photographed spot in Arkansas. Then we spent an afternoon hiking in the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma while making our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to visit Sam and Riley and experience the international Balloon Fiesta. While in Albuquerque, we also hiked and biked on local roads and trails before heading to Santa Fe where we spent time biking on local roads and trails, hiking in Bandelier National Monument, and checking out Valles Caldera National Preserve (another place that deserves more time). And on our way back to Oklahoma City to catch our flight, we spent a couple of days at Palo Duro Canyon State Park south of Amarillo, Texas, another totally new-to-us area. Whew, we did a lot in a two-week vacation!

Hawksbill Crag

Dawn ascension at the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque

Hiking the La Luz Trail up to the Sandia Crest in Albuquerque

Exploring the Pueblo ruins in Bandolier National Monument

We love finding and exploring public lands when we travel, and this was definitely a year of finding new hidden gems. We can’t wait to find more next year.

Local Adventures 

Yeager's Cabin, a new cabin we went to in the White Mtns Nat Rec Area

But the year wasn’t just about new-to-us places, we also had smaller weekend adventures to some of our favorite local spots. We did overnight bike trips to Moose Creek Cabin in the White Mountains National Rec Area in February and to Mastodon Creek Cabin in the Chena River State Rec Area in June. On both trips, Corrine opted to start from home while Eric started at the trailheads. And the last two weekends in December we did cabin trips in the White Mountains again, with our friends, Jill and Beat, from Boulder, Colorado. They are good at motivating us to get out in the cold and dark!

Mastodon Cabin

In March, Eric biked with our friend, Nikki, from Nikolai to McGrath, so that she could finish her Iditarod Trail Invitational Race. She had to drop out in Nikolai due to developing respiratory distress and pneumonia. He was happy to get to see a different trail and help her accomplish her goal.

In June, we drove the Dalton Highway all the way to Galbraith Lake, hiking and biking, and camping along the way. It had been years since we had driven this road, and we picked a great weekend to do it. We did get some rain, but mostly it was sunny, warm and minimal bugs! Also that month, we attempted to mountain bike a new-to-us trail out the Steese Highway with friends Nikki and Mike. But we had to turn around as it was taking us longer than we had thought. We’ll be better prepared next time we attempt it.

Corrine bikes the Dalton Highway with Sukakpak Mountain in the background

Camping at Galbraith Lake

In July, Corrine did an overnight bikepacking trip on the Denali Highway on a spectacular weekend. And in August, she and a couple of WOW (Women on Wheels) friends, rode with Lael Wilcox in Tok while she was on her around-the-world record ride. (She ended up beating the previous record by two weeks!) Corrine was happy to be a small part of her accomplishment. 

McClaren River on the Denali Highway

Biking with Lael (left) and WOW women

Racing

Besides relaxed weekend trips, we did do some racing. Maybe not as much as usual, but enough to keep us focused on training and staying in shape.

As usual, we did the Distance Series ski races and Corrine finished the ski season by doing two 50-kilometer ski races, the Oosik and the Sonot Kkaazoot. She finished both in just under five hours, although she was a minute faster in the Sonot which is a much hillier course. Go figure! Eric joined her in the Sonot with a slower time. His lack of ski training showed!

Silly outfits definitely make you faster!

Corrine biked Rebecca’s Private Idaho stage race, finishing with a century ride on the last day. She also attempted the 1,000-mile Arkansas High Country bikepacking race, which did not go well as mentioned earlier. She also did the Midnight Sun Run with her nurse, Lori, who can walk 12 minute miles! Corrine had to run just to keep up!

Having fun on the Midnight Sun Run

Eric did several snowshoe races but missed all the local trail-running races due to injuries or scheduling conflicts. He was bummed about that. But he finally finished the winter Chena River to Ridge 26-mile multisport race on foot, something he has been trying to do the last several years.

Eric is ecstatic to have finally done the 26 mile CR2R run!

Other Ways We Spent our Time

Corrine continues to work long hours as a family doctor but is counting down to her retirement in early March. She hasn’t figured out how she will spend her time in retirement but wants a couple of months to get bored! She continues to quilt and finished nine quilts this year. And this year she was featured on a podcast about women athletes! 

Eric continues to be very involved in volunteering. Besides being president and treasurer of the Fairbanks Cycle Club, he edits a couple of monthly trails newsletters and does trails advocacy, and helps with neighborhood issues and the local ski club. He also couldn’t say no to helping with the snowshoe running series. Sigh. He did get to play at the Fairbanks Folk Fest in June. He visited his mom in Sierra Vista in April after our eclipse trip. While there he did some hiking and got to cross paths with sister Teresa and her husband Mark, who were on a big road trip. Eric is headed down to visit his mom again this month 

From left: Eric, LuRue (mom), Teresa (sister), Mark (bro-in-law)

Montana continues to live in Missoula.  She works two part-time jobs so she can concentrate on her music.  Check out her YouTube channel and her music videos.

Riley and Sam moved to Albuquerque a year ago.  Riley is working for Space Dynamics Laboratory and Sam is teaching high school science.  They want to find some property and build a tiny house.

Visitors 

We had several visitors in 2024. Besides friends Jill and Beat (mentioned before), friend Betsy visited in February and got to mush and walk with reindeer, friends Jill and Dani came up in March to compete in the White Mountains 100, and Eric’s sister Janice came through town on her way to an arctic river float trip (where she got to see some polar bears on her last day – although they were too close for comfort!). 

Betsy walks with a reindeer

Janice visits before and after her float trip in the Arctic

Recap

Looking at everything we did this past year, it’s not surprising that Corrine’s stats were down. There was more fun and more exploration so less time for long miles and evenings reading books. We’ll call that a win for the year! We would love to hear how you spent your time in 2024. Let us know. And we hope that 2025 will be filled with more fun and exploration!