So Saturday I dropped my dear father off at the airport and then Lea and I headed up the Glen Highway with Lila and Phil. Chickaloon is a few hours north of Anchorage. The cabin sits on a hill looking down on Fish Lake. The neighbors own the land over which the driveway passes and are currently being difficult -- they won't let Butch and Maria use the driveway because Butch and Maria sold the land to some other friends of ours instead of the neighbors. (Side note 1 - Butch and Maria are moving to New Zealand; we are very sad.
Side note 2 - I'm unsure of the history, but when the land got subdivided, I would have thought that Butch and Maria would have received an easement by necessity. But hey, I'm only a lawyer in CA, not AK.) So we had to carry our gear up some muddy switchbacks to the cabin. As folks arrived, we prepped the events and played with the obligatory kids and dogs. Turnout was somewhere around 40-50 folks. There was a giant potluck. Life was good.
The first event was the axe-toss. The target was a large stump attached to a large sheet of plywood. You could choose to toss a double-headed axe, single-headed axe, or a hatchet. Points were awarded thusly: 5 points for sticking the axe in the target stump, 3 for hitting the stump, one for hitting the board and none for miss. Most people went with testosterone and threw the big axes. I went for points and used the hatchet. I won by sticking the target two out of three times. First weekend in Alaska, and I'm off winning axe-throwing competitions. Yeah, I'm all that.
The next event was target shooting with a BB Gun. I didn't win. (Not that this is all about me and being competitive.) The third event was the Jandall Races. (Spelling?) Jandalls are two 2x4s with pairs of shoes screwed to them -- four in all. You and three close friends put on the shoes so that you are stuck together and have to walk in unison. Two teams race. Hilarity ensues. The hard part is turning around. It's a down and back race.
The fifth event was the partner carry. Alex and Brendan employed a strikingly clever stratagem in one of their heats. They noticed the large groups of dogs roaming and attempted to trip up the other team by tossing sausage into the other team's path. They hoped the other team would get entangled in the feeding frenzy. It didn't work out. Video of Alex and Brendan's Gambit is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPGr7apWtGk 
(For more on the Keyboard Cat, go here: http://playhimoffkeyboardcat.com/) The last event was the obstacle course. Teams of five competed. Cheating was rampant and largely ignored. Rules? Why bother with them when fun is the objective.
After the obstacle races, people settled in by the fire pit. People eventually trickled off to their tents.
The next morning we enjoyed pancakes. It was a fantastic welcome back to Alaska.
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/ChickaloonOlympics02
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