On 29 March 2025, the Alaska Northstars rocketry club held their annual high power rocket launch at Lake Louise, about 3.5 hours north of Anchorage where I live.

The lake is about 10 miles across, and we launch from the middle of it. Not owning a snowmachine, I brought my fat tire bike along and rode out to the pads. It took me about an hour to ride it, struggling to find and stay in tracks that were at least 24 hours old, which gave them time to set up. 

The biggest rocket we launched went up about 38K feet on an “O” motor. The two I brought barely broke a thousand on F26 motors, but flew perfectly. (Each time you move up a letter in a motor designation, you double the total impulse of the motor… so there’s quite a difference between an F and an O!)

I’m already looking forward to next year, but I think I’ll rent a snowmachine and a cabin to stay overnight!