Monday ... Again?

Didn't we just do this last week?  Oh, well ... let's check the headlines, shall we?

 

Two missing after boat found capsized near Ketchikan

 

Coast Guard continues search near St. George for fishing vessel with six on board

 

Lodges along Iditarod trail brace for financial hit as race start moves to Fairbanks

 

There are winter storm warnings and weather advisories for the Copper River basin and in the King Salmon area. And in the local area, we're expecting a freezing rain/snow mix this morning, changing to rain this afternoon with a projected temp around 34°. That pattern's expected to stick around through tomorrow morning's commute, before colder air comes back with a changeover to all snow.

 

We're all praying there won't be any significant ice build-up. This morning's drive wasn't bad, and there haven't been any road or traffic reports this morning. At least, not yet.

 

* * * * *

 

And to end this post, I'd like to show you a video of local racers getting some ice time in, at Big Lake. I'd like to, but can't get it to show, here.

 

Here's a link.  Sorry 'bout that, but stuff happens.

 

Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Update

Several of you have e-mailed to ask about Richard, the missing brother-in-law of our old friend.

There's been no word at all, and his family is quite distraught. Prayers are still needed.

Thank you.

Emergency Prayer Request

A very dear friend of ours (with whom I used to co-pastor a small church - it's a long story) is requesting prayer.

Her husband's brother Richard, 57 y.o., has been missing since Thursday night. In her words,

Pray he is safe, unharmed and not in any kind of trouble.  Also pray for strength and peace for the family, especially their parents (87 and 90). Richard lives with them.

If you're the praying type, please join us in passing her request to the Lord. Thank you.

Missing in Alaska Without a Trace

In a fascinating look at the scores of backcountry hikers, mountaineers, hunters, boaters and just plain folks who go missing in Alaska - and there's a lot of Alaska to go missing in - Alaskan writer Craig Medred details a few more recent stories.

Excerpt:

The Nabesna Ranger District of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is an easy place to get lost. Sprawling east from Alaska's Richardson Highway across big river valleys, brushy hillsides and the desolate Nutzotin Mountains all the way to the U.S. border with Canada, the district covers 5 million acres, an area almost twice the size of Yellowstone National Park.

Along the district’s northeastern border, lonely Alaska Highway 1 runs for 125 miles east from a backwoods gas station and convenience store at Gakona Junction to join the Alaska Highway in the comparative metropolis of Tok, population 1,258. Another 145 miles south from there along the Alaska Highway, the only road connecting the 49th state to the rest of the country crosses the White River, so named for the color of the massive load of sediment it moves north from the heart of the Wrangell-St. Elias Park and Preserve past the northern edge of Canada's Kluane National Park and Reserve on the way to the Yukon River.
 
...Spread across almost 38,000 square miles of mountaintops, glacier ice, forests and slopes thick with brush, the Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek World Heritage Site is larger than the state of Maine and far wilder.

Far, far wilder.

Nobody knows for sure how many people have gone into the wild here and never come out.

Read the whole thing.