First XC meet was TOP NOTCH!

Got to see some trees in the village 60 miles north of Shaktoolik for the Cross Country meet today. The Koyuk Invitational Meet was a blast, a race filled with huge hills and twisty roads! The kids in Koyuk are very open though--one of them asked me why I had such a big nose. I told him it was so I can smell lot of different things. He kept pointing at things far away and asking me what they smelled like. He pointed to a tire across town and I said, "Smells like rubber!" He thought that was amazing. Koyuk is very different from Shaktoolik geographically, take a look:

This is Shaktoolik from the air. See the tiny dots? Those are houses.


Here is a very tired Dorinda walking up a Koyuk road.


The race was awesome! Dorinda took 8th place and Marie took 5th. Here they are at the starting line. Yup, that's all of the high school girls from like 6 villages who run xc.


They even have lots for sale in Koyuk that teachers can buy! One Koyuk teacher bought a lot and put herself a yurt on it! I asked her if it gets cold in the winter, and she just laughed pointed to the woodpile. Not much wood though, at least by Washington standards. Maybe it doesn't take a lot to heat a yurt?


The Koyuk store got a fresh shipment of Mushrooms ($3.50), Granny Smith Apples (8$ for 10 apples--a real steal), and Green Peppers (one big pepper for 1.50). I know you're not supposed to capitalize vegetables, but I am really happy to get these! They were to celebrate my win! I placed first in the open race with a time of 20:06 (not too shabby for 5k). Everyone who wants to run gets to run up here.


Everyone was very tired at the end of the day though. Here we are flying back. Bart was very excited to get 3rd place with a time of 21:00. If he takes another minute off of his time, he might go to state in Palmer!