Now taking bookings for the 2011 season

After a successful 2010 summer season with trips to Katmai National Park,
Gates of the Arctic National Park and a spring trip in Utah and Arizona we are now taking booking reservations for the 2011 summer season. Besides our wilderness trips and race in Alaska we are now also offering guided mountain bike trips in Southern Utah and Arizona. We are looking forward to another successful race on the Iditarod Trail this coming February and March. Our race roster has been full since May 1 of this year with several racers on a waiting list. Hope everyone is enjoying fall and looking forward to the first flakes of snow.

Kathi Merchant
Alaska Ultra Sport

2010 summer season

The 2010 Iditarod Trail Invitational started on Feb. 28th at 2:00 PM at Knik Lake. Out of 44 racers that started the race 35 finished in MacGrath after 350 miles on the Iditarod Trail. This was Peter Basingers fourth win and Tracey Petervary from Wyoming set a new women's 350 and 1100 mile record. 5 racers continued on to Nome and the 3 cyclist and runners Tim Hewitt and Tom Jarding have arrived in Nome. Tom Jarding set a new overall foot record to Nome, Tracey Petervary holds the fastest time to Nome for a woman.
We have already received over 70 e-mails for the 2011 race which will follow the Southern Route.
Sign up for the 2011 race starts April 1 for race veterans that have finished the 350 and/or 1100 mile race before and rookies can sign up starting April 8th, 2010.
Bill and I will be in Germany to visit family from April 1- April 21.
Racers should contact us by e-mail to secure a spot in the race for 2011.
On May 1 we are off to Utah and Arizona for 5 weeks to guide a two week Mountain bike trip and then explore more trails in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.
We will be back in Alaska June 7th to begin our summer guiding season here.
We still have some availability for guided sea kayaking trips and river floats in the months July and August for those interested in a guided summer vacation in Alaska.
We hope to do another exploratory sea kayaking trip in Prince William Sound in June.
Our favorite areas are based out of Valdez, Alaska.
Last year we explored Glacier Island, Columbia Glacier, Sawmill Bay, Shoup Bay and Jack Bay.
In the fall we did an exploratory trip in Southwestern Alaska in Wood Tikchik State Park.
I am exited about another summer filled with adventures by bike and sea kayak in the Southwestern USA and Alaska.

Kathi M.
Alaska Ultra Sport

Guiding Season 2009

Our 2009 summer guiding season went well and is not quite finished.

Besides our standard trips into Katmai National Park, Bill and I spent a lot of time paddling Prince William Sound out of Valdez on our own in May and June. We also rafted the Copper River with friends in June. After another trip on the Savonovski Loop in Katmai National Park, we are off to Wood Tikchik State Park where we will be kayaking about 120 miles from Lake Kulik through 5 lakes connected by 4 rivers to Dillingham. This is an amazing place in the Bristol Bay area which we want to check out firsthand.
Then we are off to Florida for a 300 mile kayak trip on the Suwannee River and the Big Bend Saltwater paddling trail in the Golf of Mexico, trip report will follow on my other blog.
Here are some of our images on Google Picasa from this summer and other adventures.
Alaska Adventures and Guided Trips Alaska

Kathi & Bill Merchant

2008 Summer Season

After a summer full of adventures I have some time to sort through my pictures.
Most of the summer in Southcentral Alaska was rainy with cool temperatures. We got lucky and had a sunny August in the Southwest in Katmai National Park and in the Arctic. Fall was spectacular with all its colors.
Winter is finally on its way, we have some of the first snowflakes of the season here in Chickaloon.
We are heading to Florida for a month and plan on paddling the 99 mile Wilderness Waterway in the Everglades National Park.
Here are some of my best pictures I have picked out of the hundreds I took this summer.

Alaska Ultra Sport

We organize summer and winter adventures throughout Alaska.
In February we organize the world's longest human powered ultra marathon on the historic Iditarod Trail. On this blog you will also find trip reports on Bill and Kathi's adventures throughout the year.
Our last trip was a 1000 mile training ride from Salt Lake City, Utah to Tucson, Arizona where we followed a route I put together with Scott Morris' Topofusion GPS program. We were on fantastic singletrails, remote ranch roads, forest roads and a bit of pavement, spending most nights in our one person tent and got a room once a week when we went through a town. You can see our pictures on the links list to Google Picasa.
We started on September 13 and were just ahead of the first snow above Salt Lake.
We covered 85 remote miles through the Escalante National Monument on Smoky Mountain Road and 80 miles on Skyline Drive on the Wasatch Plateau where we stayed above 10,000 feet for 50 miles until we dropped into Salina Canyon.There was a series of beautiful singletrack trails to the Grand Canyon. We got a shuttle from the North Rim to the South Rim and continued on the Arizona Trail to Tucson. We enjoyed the transition from the red and yellow fall colours in Utah to the pine forests in northern Arizona to the Sonoran Desert with all its variety of cactus. Temperatures were as low as 28 F degrees on morning on the Wasatch Plateau to 97 the day we arrived in Tucson.
Water was scarce in places this time of the year, so most of the time we carried two days water about 18 Liters. One of the highlights was an Elk bugling and stomping right in camp at night.
Happy Trails.

Kathi