Ca•bin•a•tion – a Vacation at One’s Cabin

Maria and I are at the cabin in McCarthy this week, and it has been a dream.  This is not always the case when adventuring in the WRST (Wrangell-St. Elias) National Park in the winter.  We have been here when we have had a cold (virus).  We have been here when we thought we were not going to be able to drive out, because it snowed so much.  We have cancelled many trips, because the weather forecast and our work schedule didn’t align.  I would schedule a time when I didn’t have a lot of work, and then a blizzard would start up after we were already packed and ready to drive out to McCarthy.  The thing about McCarthy is that it’s a long drive of 310 miles one way, and the McCarthy Road is no joke in the winter.  It can vary from being a two lane ice highway, to just two ruts in ten inches of packed ice and crusty snow.  Tire chains are a must-have, and it is a good idea to have a reliable 4WD vehicle with 10 inches of clearance.  I will not drive out to the cabin in a winter blizzard, I’ll drive back to Anchorage in one, but not out here, just to get stuck for an unknown amount of time.  We haven’t made it here in the snow season since spring of 2020. 

Maria and I recently purchased a 2023 Ski-Doo Expedition Sport 600 ACE, and we love this transportation device!  It has made winter cabin life way safer, easier and more fun.  We have been here without a snowmachine (snowmobile, or sled for people not from Alaska) and the amount of time spent hauling water to the cabin was notable.  With our new “sled”, transportation around the area has been a breeze, and hauling our stuff to the cabin, including water, now takes a fraction of the time.  

We have a 10-acre lot here, and we put our cabin right in the middle of it to be further from the trail/road for privacy.  Nobody had been here since fall.  I had to break trail through 4 feet of packed sugar snow.  First, we unhitched the sled load, and immediately got stuck, almost rolling the snowmachine on its side.  I was able to back out to the road with some vigorous shoveling.  We then strapped on our XC skis and broke a trail-loop to the cabin from the the road to the front door.  About this time, Jason Lobo showed up (he lives past us, about a mile up the trail).  Jason was full of good ideas and pointers to get me and my stuff to my doorstep.  However, I didn’t put them to very good use, and got stuck about 50 feet in.  Jason took the handlebars and drove the last 200 feet of the trail, and Maria rewarded him with a beer for his efforts.  I then practiced driving around the still soft trail about four times before re-hitching the load and bringing it in to the cabin.  I really need to practice driving in deep snow.

Yesterday was a bluebird day, and we met up with our buddy Matt Empt and his dog Duncan.  We drove the sled to Kennicott and picnicked behind the power plant.  Duncan ran and alternately rode with Matt on his vintage Yamaha Bravo 250.  The views were spectacular!  The WRST park is a feast for the eyes!  We then went down the hill to play on the glacier lake where we towed Matt around on his alpine skis, and I practiced driving in the deep stuff.  I got stuck a few times and I figured out how to ride in the powder a bit better.  The thing is, the snow is not really completely powder, it is an accumulation of many storms, and the layers are inconsistent — a bit of crust mixed into the sugary stuff beneath.  It makes it really easy to bog down if you don’t keep up your speed.  We had a great time, and then we rode back to the cabin.

We love being at the cabin, and a vacation at your other home is a wonderful way to go.  Building a cabin is no joke, and buying one can be pretty expensive as well.  But it sure makes a vacation simple.  You have all you stuff there, and you don’t have to make a lodging reservation at a VRBO, or wherever.  There is no host to have to communicate with, and when you leave, the cleanup is all your own.  Using a wood stove is about as much a learning experience as using a snowmachine, but when it is your own, it makes it that much easier.  Relaxation is at a high compared to previous trips here in the winter, and I think mostly that is due to the new sled.  It feels safer to have a reliable mode of transport up and down the hill to the truck, and possibly all the way to Chitina.  Life is good!  Live it well!     

Spring is in the Air!

You can smell spring in the air!  That means pollen, dust, dog poop, and lots of muddy puddles here in Anchorage, Alaska.  This is the time of year when I start to really miss our cabin in McCarthy, and looking forward to escaping there.  We’re planning to head out there the day after Mother’s Day. That’s right, you still have a little time to order a present for your mom, before May 9th!  I’ve gone to MXY (the airport code for McCarthy) earlier in the year, but the driveway to our cabin gets really swampy during meltdown, so I’ve found it’s better to wait until the second week of May. This year will be especially swampy, considering the heavy amount of snow. I hope the wood shed is still standing! On big snow years, piles of snow are still sitting around through Memorial Day weekend!

I love the first trip in spring to the cabin, because we no longer have to do too much building, mostly just opening up the cabin, setting up the rain-catchment system, and seeing my MXY friends. I always bring my painting supplies with me, so I can keep working in my little studio out there, which was formerly our shelter while we worked on the cabin. This year I hope to go on a couple over-night backpacking trips into the National Park, and plant a big garden. My mother-in-law came to visit last year, and decided that we needed a garden, so she ripped out a lot of bushes, and cleared a nice spot for it. Then I cut down a few trees, tore out the stumps, and rototilled the dirt. We just need to build a fence to keep the critters out, and then we can plant the seed potatoes we’ve been saving all winter, and the little starts that are growing nicely in our condo right now.

Summer isn’t even here, and I’m already planning out the entire season. We all kind of go nuts here in Alaska in the summer with all this daylight. Here’s hoping for plenty of sunny days, but also enough rain to keep the forest fires at bay.

Brand new leaves on the aspen trees on our property.

Flight Around Denali with K2 Aviation

~ by Maria Benner

One of my side gigs is working as a freelance guide for a local tour company, guiding only 2-3 trips per year.  This allows me to see many different places in Alaska, and to do the fun things that mostly tourists get to do.  I get to meet interesting people from around the world, and the extra income is a bonus.  So a couple years ago I guided four different groups that all had an identical itinerary.  That may seem redundant, but the tour included a train ride to Spencer Glacier, and a flight around Denali with a glacier landing.  So in a span of less than two weeks, I got to land on Ruth Glacier on Denali three times!  The fourth group got to fly around Knik Glacier, because Denali was unapproachable by plane due to a storm.  We flew with K2 Aviation.  One of the guests exclaimed as she stepped down from the De Havilland Otter onto the glacier on Denali, “If I had known about this, it would have been on my Bucket List!”  That really sums up the whole experience.

One of the fun parts of my job as the Business and Marketing Manager for Real Art Is Better is brainstorming with Scott about ideas for new paintings.  So, a couple months ago, I remembered that summer that I got to fly around Denali three times with K2 Aviation, and I suggested that he paint one of the the iconic red airplanes flying in front of Denali.  He painted this piece, which is 20 inches x 30 inches, oil on panel.  The painting was on display at Scott’s solo art show at Midnight Sun Brewing Company this month, and it sold on opening night.  Scott allows customers to take the paintings right when they buy them, so the painting is now hanging in its new home.

If you haven’t taken this flight, I highly recommend it.  Put it on your Bucket List!

Limited-edition art prints of this painting are for sale at our Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Flight Around Denali. Oil on panel. 20″ x 30″. Scott Clendaniel

The person who bought this painting posted a picture of it on Instagram hanging in its new home, along with another one of Scott’s paintings that he bought at the same time of the Coastal Trail in winter time.

“New art makes me happy #alaskanart #art #mountainart #anchorage #oilpainting #beautifulart @realartisbetter“

Black and White Photos Painted in Color

Part of my duties as the Vice President of the McCarthy – Kennicott Historical Museum is to volunteer for a couple hours a week at the museum.  So, over the years, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in that building, looking at artifacts and at black and white photos from the late 1890s – early 1900s.  One day I decided to make an oil painting from two black and white train photos that I saw at the museum.  As anyone can tell by looking at my paintings, I like to use bright colors, so I went to work trying to recreate the photos in color.  There was no way for me to know what color things should be, but being in the same setting where many of these photos were taken, gave me a pretty good idea.

Recently, the museum asked me to design a new sticker, so I looked through many photographs of the Kennicott mining town back in its hayday, and put together the painting below that I named First “Lode”.  This depicts the first train load of copper pulling out of Kennicott, on its way down to Cordova and onto a steamship headed to Tacoma.  I worked from several different black and white photos to put together this scene.  Seeing today’s ruins of Kennicott was very helpful in helping me decide what colors things should be.  In the future, I plan to make several more paintings like this based on those photos hanging at the museum.  Creating large, colorful oil paintings from small black and white photographs highlights those historical moments, bringing more attention to them.  In any case, I’ve stumbled onto an interesting new genre that I’ll be experimenting with.

Here’s one example of a train oil painting that I did based on a black and white photo.  Prints of this painting are for sale at my Etsy shop.

Another example of a train painting.  Prints of this painting are for sale at my Etsy shop.

And this is the latest piece that I painted from a combination of photographs and my imagination called First “Lode”.  Prints of this painting are for sale at my Etsy shop.

 

 

McCarthy AK Museum

This painting was created in McCarthy, Alaska’s lovely little museum.  I enjoyed volunteering at this small museum this summer, and will look forward to spending more days there next summer.  The day I decided to work on this painting of an antique cash register, was full of excitement.  Outside on the museum porch are a couple of relics left from the days before the footbridge, two hand-trams that were used to cross over the powerful Kennicott River.  Having arrived after the creation of the footbridge I can only imagine how isolating the hand-tram must have been.  Well, someone else must have had an active imagination as well, as I was painting away inside the museum, a great commotion occurred at the hand-tram.  A large fellow, 300+ lbs, sat down on the hand-tram and flipped it over; he had literally fallen and couldn’t get up!  Well, he asked Maria (my wife) to help him out of the contraption, but she obviously couldn’t budge him, I don’t know how she did it but Maria saved the day and the man was okay.  However the hand-tram exhibit had taken some wear and tear.  It is a good thing that the Museum carries an insurance policy because the hand tram is dangerous. I have smacked my head on it more than once and won’t sit down in it anymore.  We need a sign that says sit at your own risk…okay back to the painting.  I just love this Art Deco cash register and think about the goods that were purchased nearly a century ago.  It really was a long voyage from the steamship to the train, all the way to Kennicott!  This unique antique sure would have felt exotic in the Wrangell mountains, just look at that styling.  They don’t make stuff like this anymore.

McCarthy Museum deck, building, and rail car

This year my wife and I decided to spend the entire summer in McCarthy, Alaska in the heart of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park!  We have a 10 acre lot on the south side of the town of McCarthy.  It was fun, but since we had yet to have built a building, I spent almost all my time outside in the fresh air.  Since this is a bit different than my usual life, I would jump at any chance to get some time under a roof (especially this summer as we have had so much rain).  I decided it would be nice to give back to the community, and get some inside time so I volunteered at the McCarthy Museum.  The Museum used to be open to the public without an attendant, however due to recent objects walking off without anyone to observe their departure, the board of directors decided it was imperative that an attendant be present.  I stepped up to the plate and volunteered several times this summer.  I painted this from the deck between the building and rail-car which houses the collections.  McCarthy and Kennecott have such rich histories although these settlements are only around 100 years old, aside from Nome, and Cordova, this is one of the oldest industrialized areas in Alaska.  It is extra special due to its rich history and well preserved artifacts.  It is especially interesting because the entire town shut down all at once when the Kennecott Mine closed.  What was once a bustling mining district became instant ghost towns.  The towns of McCarthy and Kennecott became devoid of life except for a few hardy hermits, pirates, and homesteaders.  Although the park has almost as many tourists and summer residents now as it had prospectors during the 20’s and 30’s, in the winter months the whole park just about shuts down except for a few hardy souls who winter over the dark and frozen months.  I love the McCarthy Museum and I enjoyed making this painting.  Later in the season, I gave it away as a birthday present to the notorious B-Mack, at his classic birthday party “The Endless BBQ.”  The Endless BBQ is an awesome party held every year, this year with great music by the Grannies and an amazing performance by a lady that goes by the name of Saucy Yoda.

Hiking to the Jumbo Mine in WSENP

Back from the Wrangell St. Elias National Park.  I painted some in the park this summer all plein air, as I was in the process of creating my indoor painting studio while I was there.  My wife and I had the most amazing summer camping out and building our little hut that will be a painting studio with a little sleeping loft.  One of the best experiences we had in the park was when we hiked to the Jumbo Mine.  This is the first and only time I have had the opportunity to climb up into this part of the Bonanza Ridge, to the ruins of the Jumbo Mine.  Not much left of the buildings and I decided to hike to the top of the ridge.  I was a little bit ahead of the others and sped quickly to the highest point under the cliffs on the ridge.  With a few minutes to spare as I was waiting for the crew, I painted this painting looking back towards the Chugach Mountains.  While on the ridge, I found lots of green rocks, (Chalcocite with Malachite) a whole vein up on the mountains!  It feels so great to be on the top of these amazing bodies of metal.  I was glad that I made it down with minimal damage to my painting.  Hiking 10+ miles with a plein air kit is not too difficult, but making it successfully home with a wet oil painting is more difficult that most people might imagine, so I always sigh a breath of relief when I get home successfully with a new plein air piece.

A Day with “The High One”

 

 

It was a fun little excursion to Talkeetna yesterday, finally making it out of Anchorage around noon.  Stopping to pick up our friend Dani, and for some espresso, we made it to Talkeetna around 3:00 in the afternoon.  We, of course, made it to the Denali Brewery and were surprised to find very good craft brew!  We took our booty down to the River and sat around a makeshift fire for several hours taking in the view.  Here is what came of the painting effort.  Too bad I started to run out of white on the third one who would think there would be so much white in  Alaskan winter!  At least I am finally outside again and painting!

Triple M Experience in Wrangell St. Elias with Jared….

On my last trip to McCarthy, Alaska in Wrangell St. Elias National Park I had what I call the tripple M, the most marvelous McCarthy experience.  It was amazing!  Another Super-friend has been dubbed, and the pursuit of happiness was achieved.  I painted this after bringing out three large windows, with a load of stuff for next summer, riding 60 miles within’ the park, climbing to near 7,000 feet, and drinking several liters of homebrew a night!  Overall, it was a very successful vacation/building trip in the national park.  The last day we rode to the Nizina River and saw the breathtaking Chitistone Valley.  After the near 20 mile ride we were pooped sitting around our campfire drinking a treasured bottle of homemade Pinot Noir from the vineyard Jared works at, my old time friend Mark Wacht showed up and reminded us that we said we would attend a party with him.  20 minutes later we were sitting in this tiny cabin on a lot in the Wrangells sipping rose wine from the Willamette Valley, swapping tall tales in McCarthy, Alaska.  I painted this painting for Kyle, a new friend out there, as a hospitality present.  Kyle, I hope your winter is beautiful out there.  This last trip was so remarkable I am considering making new t-shirts stating “I left my heart in McCarthy, Alaska”.

Here is One from Last Week in Wrangell St. Elias!

Well here is a toast to you Jim Drewry.  We couldn’t have asked for a better fish in return for this painting!  So I was hanging out at the footbridge at the end of the road, and painted this but I had no way to take it back to the property safely (a common problem for me).  I decided to tip the parking lot attendant a painting.  In return he invited us to a salmon dinner (Copper River red salmon!!!) but we had way too much on our social plate to attend, so he simply gave us dinner instead!  What a great guy!  Maria excellently cooked the fish over the open campfire and it was delish.  Perfectly roasted, way to go M!  It was one of those things that made our last trip truly grand!  Best regards to Jim and everyone in McCarthy as I really enjoyed your company and fellowship!  I look forward to August when I will finally return to my home (campsite on my lot) in the park.  I hope you stay tuned as I will be putting new work up from my trip to the Kenai for the Fourth!