President's Day Weekend on the Yentna River



Yentna Station Roadhouse

Last October, one of our friends invited us to the Palmer Chamber of Commerce Silent Auction.  I bid on a 1 night's stay and breakfast for 2 people at Yentna Station Roadhouse on the Yentna River.  The roadhouse is about 35 snowmachine miles from our cabin and it had been a while since we'd been that far upriver, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to get us doing something local this winter.  Now that the Big Lake Snowmachine Club is actively grooming trails, it took us about an hour to get to the roadhouse.  We checked in, bought some gas and grabbed a snack before continueing our exploration up river.   

Both the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and the Iron Dog Snowmachine Race travel the Yentna on route to Nome. Four time Iditarod Champion, Martin Buser, was at the roadhouse with his sleddogs. I wanted to get a picture of him to share the story with my class at school, but did have the heart to turn normal roadhouse conversation into a "fan club" picture taking session.  

On our exploration northwest on the river, we decided to check out the various lodges.  Each lodge offers something different and it seemed to me that one just needs to embrace the experience for what it is. Each person has an interesting story of  "how and why" they came to live off the road system as their places are only accessible by plane, snowmachine or boat. 

McDougall Lodge

In the past, we rode right by these places as going further up river was the final destination. Now we had time, so why not.  First we stopped at McDougall. They have cabins and rooms for rent, and were busy preparing the place for 75 guest who were scheduled to arrive Iditarod weekend, which is on March 3rd. 

Northwoods Lodge

A few more miles up river, we rode 3/4 of a mile off river to the Northwoods Lodge on Fish Creek. They gave us a tour of the rooms and cabins they have available. It turned out that the owners were the aunt and uncle of a boy I had in my class last year. The brother lives just down the street from us.  We debated heading all the way up to Skweenta Roadhouse, but seeing as we were losing our daylight, we turned back to Yentna Station for a dinner and enjoyed an impromptu session of guitar playing and singing by our hosts.  

The upstairs carpeting needs to go . . .

. . . . so we start this house project by painting the downstairs!

Bryant painting the downstairs accent wall.

At the top of those stairs is another living room area and it has the nastiest carpeting you have ever seen.  Well, maybe I shouldn't go that far, but it's worn out.  Since the house also needed a new paint job, it only made sense to paint first. But the upstairs and downstairs living room spaces share some of the same walls, so the downstairs needed to be painted at the same time.  And with the upstairs open floor plan, we decided to put the same flooring and paint into the kitchen area. Suddenly changing out 300 sq ft. of carpeting has turned the whole house inside out.    

20 Years and Counting . . .

On February 6, 1993, my parents drove me 4 hours from Chassell, Michigan to board a plane in Green Bay, WI to fly to Anchorage, AK.  I had with me my road bike and a backpack.  My volunteer obligation with the Student Conservation Association at the Chugach National Forest was three months, but I knew the day I left I wasn't returning on the flight they booked for me; although at that time I hadn't quite imagined the time frame would turn into 20 years and counting.  Life happens and as one of our friends often says, "You have to know when you have it good."  And that is the way things seem to work.  In the end the reasons for staying, outweigh those for leaving.  It will be interesting to see how everything unravels in these next years.