Spring? What spring?

A friend from ANC came up this last weekend, and I took a personal day for Friday afternoon. We enjoyed a great lunch, with all of the goodies Elaine brought with her :)

We had planned a weekend out to the BLM cabins outside of town, and ended up leaving town around 3:30. It had been windy and snowy all morning, but the weather cooperated for once and cleared up. The 1.5 hour ride out to Old Woman was a great one.




We ate some chili, and another family joined us at the cabin. We decided to go for an evening ski. Unfortunately we didn't check to make sure Elaine's boots fit my bindings :( bummer. We ended up taking a nice long walk, and decided that with the good weather, we ought to go ahead and ride to the next cabin, another 17 miles up the trail. Getting on the trial at 9:30, we thought we might be pushing the envelope of visible light, but we did it anyway. Not knowing the trail myself, I realized I was a little anxious and tense throughout the ride. Not only was the light fading, but to add to the worry, I remembered that my machine's electrical wiring wasn't working, and I had no headlights!! Thank goodness we got to the cabin without any problems, and the cabin looked dark. Wahoo! A cabin to ourselves! But alas, driving up to the front of the Tripod cabin we found three pulks full of gear. Oh no! People, and they were clearly in bed! We had no other option; we had to crash their party. It turned out to be three (rather cute) Netherland guys who have been walking the trail from ANC for the past two and a half months!! Craziness!! They were doing it to raise money for kids with cancer. They were in good spirits and were more than gracious to share the small cabin.









Saturday brought the most beautiful blue skies, and a trip 15 miles beyond the cabin, towards Kaltag. I skied a little, while Elaine took a walk and did a little sketching. We ate lunch, and turned back around. We stopped again to let Elaine sketch another mountain range, and though I felt a nap coming on, I got out the snowshoes and adventured into the rolling snow dunes.

Returning to the cabin, I took a nap in front of the wood stove; it was dreamy and lazy. The three trekkers were taking a rest day, chatting with Elaine, and taking naps themselves. We decided to take a snowshoe (okay, I really wanted to, and I got Elaine to come with me). It was a great evening, and we came back to a cabin with fish being cooked, and the guys treating us like princesses. They hauled all the water, boiled water for dinner, made us dinner AND dessert, and to top it off, they even did the dishes. . . it was quite a treat. They had a system, and it was fun to watch them work as a well oiled machine. Sunday morning, they were packed, fed, and out the door in less than an hours time. I suppose working with each other very closely for 2.5 months would have that effect.


Sunday the weather did a 360- it was snowy with very low visibility. The light was low, and it had snowed enough to hide any trace of previous machines on the trail. Talk about tense riding. We made the 17 miles back to Old Woman, and had some tea to warm up- then back on the Skandic for the 35 miles back to town. We got back around 3, and proceed to take a nap :) My favorite!

It was a great weekend- and a real treat to have a visitor (*hint, hint to all my friends out there :)