Author Archives: matt

Do Bananas prevent you from catching fish? Alaska’s top researchers decide to find out.

We had the opportunity to watch a humpback whale repeatedly breach near our boat. It was an amazing experience!  

On our 2nd try we finally made it to McGrath, Alaska, following the Iditarod trail ahead. We left March 7, a day before the Iditarod dog sled race mushers took to the trail. After arriving in McGrath, we watched the dog sled teams come in. Along the trail we encounter moose, flip snow machines, and […]

We were in for a real treat on Friday, July 31, 2020, when we went out looking for Killer Whales. Not only did we find them, they put on a show by jumping out of the water for the camera. It was exciting, and fun to watch.

Our old dishwasher gave out, so we decided to retire it with a bang, well actually, several bangs. Here you can see us ensure that it no longer works and can be safely taken to the dump and disposed of.    

We finally hit the real Iditarod trail in our first attempt to reach McGrath. Things don’t go quite as planned and we end up spending the night in a trapper cabin. We see sub zero temps, moose, and a lot more interesting things.

Before the big trip, we needed to do a thorough test on our equipment. We did this in -20 weather at Hope, Alaska. Everything performed as expected. While nothing really crazy happened, the skies were clear and the scenery was awesome.

Are there magic bears in our backyard? Or is Shane just being silly in this video? (Yes, he is testing out some video editing features-in case you didn’t know for sure)

Part of getting ready for our upcoming trip was getting rid of the old snowmobile. My brother-in-law Paul Weaver takes it off my hands, for $100. This gives me some cash to invest in replacement machines.

Our family has decided to take a snomachine trip from Willow to McGrath, a distance of 300 miles. We plan to follow the historic Iditarod trail, although the actual trail is much longer than just 300 miles. It will be a several day trip to McGrath and back. Journey along as we plan the trip, […]

In this video, Andy Stoltzfus and Shane Snader attempt to transport building materials to a remote cabin site. The only way in is through a very muddy trail.  

On November 16 we took a fishing trip on Cook Inlet. My good friend Shannon High went along, and took some of his boys. Another friend, Steph Schrock, also went along.

What could be more efficient at removing car windows than a shotgun? It worked very well.

We retired our old limo by launching it over the 300 foot high cliff at the Glacier View Car Launch, in Glacier View, Alaska! The results were amazing-if you like cars flipping end over end.