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.

Hatcher's Pass

What do you do when it is a Saturday,clear, cold, and -6?  When Bryant suggested skiing at Hatcher's Pass, I wasn't really into it, but I couldn't think of a real reason not to go so I went along with the plan.  Hatcher's Pass doesn't have a ski lift, so there are some runs you can do with a car shuttle and ski down or walk up and ski down.  Since the purpose of us going to ski was to get in a little exercise, we picked the later.

I unearthed my old telemark gear; the boots, poles and skis weren't hard to find as I use them occasionally at Alyeska Ski Resort. What surprised me is that the skins I needed to climb uphill and hadn't used in 18 years were easily found and in working condition. As I hooked the skin to the top of the ski and stretched it down the ski, I found myself traveling back to a time when I worked ski patrol on downhill skis and on my days off, I climbed mountains to telemark ski down. 

Overtime, I lost the desire to invest money and time into skiing and other activities have taken its place.  Yesterday was proof though that it is nice to have the gear laying around the house to get outside and do something.  Given the right set of conditions, I am easily persuaded into a day of skiing both at the resort and now that I've broken the ice, backcountry skiing at Hatcher's Pass is a closer cheaper opportunity.  And, contrary to consumers of the new latest and greatest goods, old gear does still work on the mountains.  I was able to climb up, make some figure eight tracks down on my runs, and thoroughly enjoy the thrill of the downhill, being outside, and just soaking up the scenery.  Here is a short video clip of them mountains:  http://youtu.be/6bm47JBZe4g

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The Long Blog . . .

It's been a long time since I've posted a blog. I guess tonight is as good night as any to go on a long, blog, slog and hit upon some highlights on the last few months.  Winter started out cold and dry.  Other than a little dusting in mid-November, it remained clear and cold for an extended period of time, which is a little unusual because much of the precipitation for Southcenteral Alaska is in November and December. 

Knik River in November

I spent a few weekend days running the Knik River Road and slowly watched the sunlight disappear behind Pioneer Peak and the river freeze over.  In the end of November, Wyatt turned 17 years old.  While he wasn't interested in any sort of party, he gladly ate his cake and ice cream.  


Wyatt's 17th Birthday

We did make it to the cabin once in December.  There was a little more snow there than there was at the house.  We spent the afternoon, clearing the drive and cutting some firewood.  

The Cabin in Early December

By the time Christmas rolled around, our weather changed into its other mode, warm, windy and rainy. Jonathon, his girlfriend Jess, and Autumn made their way to our house on Christmas Eve. 



Christmas Morning

We enjoyed an evening of visiting, opening presents on Christmas, a nice breakfast, snowmachine rides, and an early dinner before they all made their way back into Anchorage.

Merry Christmas

Since we weren't able to rouse Wyatt from his sleep, he's missing from the family Christmas picture. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

A couple of days later, Bryant, Gus, and I headed down to Mexico for a two week vacation.  We celebrated the New Year in shorts and a sweatshirt.  How cool is that!  I'm becoming convinced that is the only way a New Year can be celebrated.  

This Mexico vacation was different than any of our others.  Instead of exploring the sea, we explored the land.  A northwind blew most of the time we were there which made travel on the ocean pretty uncomfortable.  So we settled into Marina Palmira, and enjoyed exploring the land on bike and foot.

Riding bikes on the trails in La Paz

 Bryant had some mountain bike tracks loaded on his I-phone and we explored all kinds of new trails in the area.  The temperatures were perfect, high in the low 70's and in the evenings it would dip into the high 50's. 

Swimming with the whale sharks in La Paz

We had a couple of calm morning where we toured with the boat in the Bay of La Paz.  We were fortunate on one morning to spot the whale sharks that migrate to this region each year. All of us took a turn swimming with them. A highlight was when one circled around the boat and swam right underneath us.  It was mind boggling to see such a big creature inches from the hull of your boat.    

 

The last two days of our trip we went to Todos Santos on the Pacific side to surf, which was so much fun that I didn't even remember to take any pictures.  We arrived home in the early hours of  a Monday morning on January 14th and both Gus and I were excited to learn two hours later than school was cancelled due to icy roads.  Our warm and windy weather continued the whole time were were gone.   

Our backyard on January 14th, 2013

We did end up getting a couple inches of snow mid-week, so the yard is once again filled with the few inches of snow.  Bryant and I even went cross-country skiing at the new trails up in Hatcher's Pass today. 

That pretty much sums up life in Alaska the last few months.  If you're interested in more Mexico pictures:   https://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/MexicoNewYears