We have been living in remote Alaska all winter; dreaming, planning, envisioning the possibilities that winter outdoor adventures might have in store for us. For the past several months our ears have been pressed against the closed door, a winter play ground on the other side. We have been knocking on that closed door, rattling the handle, twisting on that door knob, waiting until we had the right winter gear and conditions so we could take that next step. This week we were finally able to swing the door to winter travel wide open and take our first steps through. Our overnight trip might have only been our first steps, but we are thrilled with our initial greeting into a whole new season in the Alaska outdoors that just became our play ground. We took our first few steps through that door and now we are standing at the entrance, our mouths open in wonder and awe as we soak in the possibilities of the new winter world that just opened up in front of us.
We moved to a remote Alaska lodge this past February and began exploring our new surroundings as we learned to travel across the snow on cross country skis. Our first excursions were frustrating and slow as we learned to balance and glide on these narrow planks, but we also found humor and fun in the learning as we stumbled our way across the frozen lakes and tree lined paths of our white back yard. Walking seemed like a quicker option than the awkward skis, but we pushed on and continued to learn as we took short day trips whenever possible. Finally, after receiving our four season sleeping pads and after temperatures leveled out above 0* F to what we thought our three season tent and down sleeping bags could handle, we were finally able to stuff our gear into our back packs and slide across the snow covered paths into the woods for our first Alaska winter over night trip.
We started our adventure mid-day after a hearty breakfast at the lodge. We began our journey by following a network of well traveled paths which were packed down from previous snow machines and easy for us to follow. The path led us through narrow sections of densely forested spruce trees, our views occasionally extended as we passed open areas of frozen lakes and sparsely vegetated meadows. After about ten miles we reached an intersection where we split from the main trail and began to wind our way through the remnants of a twisted, bumpy path that had not been traveled since the recent snow falls. We stopped to identify animal tracks in the snow as we passed and we were thrilled to see that only four legged critters seemed to have been in the area for many weeks prior. When our narrow tree lined path opened up at a low lying meadow we cut into the powder and made our way towards the nearby ridge line. When we reached the crest of the ridge we could see the open snow of a lake below and decided to carve our way down the other side of the hill towards the lake. When we reached the shoreline we saw evidence of a beaver dam and beaver activity, but it appeared we were the only other mammals to have been in the vicinity for most of the winter. It was the perfect place to camp.
We took our time finding the ideal place to set our home for night and finally settled on a flat area at the edge of the frozen waters somewhat sheltered from the icy winds that were beginning to make the trees around us bend and dance in the sky. After setting up our tent and bed we lounged around our "front porch" area with a small bottle of tequila and a lime to celebrate our days journey. Once we were fully relaxed from our lounging and drinking we made our way to the opposite side of the small lake to cook and eat our dinner. We melted snow to fill our water bottles and steeped fresh spruce needles in boiling water to make a citrus flavored tea. The dark and cold of the night had fully settled in by the time that we made our way back to our tent and the warmth of our down sleeping bags.
The following morning, after a night that was much warmer than I had anticipated, I crawled out of our tent as Goose continued to sleep. Shilo and I played fetch by the morning light and once I had boiled a pot of melted snow I wrapped my hands around a hot cup of coffee that I sipped quietly while soaking in the beauty of our small silent lake. The birds and wildlife began to scurry around as the warmth of the morning sun occasionally brightened our surroundings when it peaked out from behind the thick blanket of clouds that covered most of the sky. I brewed another pot of coffee on our small stove when Goose finally began to stir inside our tent and while he greeted the day from the warmth of our down bags I wandered into the nearby spruce forest to collect the amber colored pitch that oozed and dripped from many of the solid trunks. I was excited for the opportunity to spend more silent time alone in the woods while harvesting one of the many offerings from nature that I have recently been learning to use for medicinal and edible purposes. I returned to our tent in the early afternoon and together we broke camp, snapped on our skis and began to follow our tracks back towards our home about twelve or fifteen miles away.
Most of our return trip was a quiet one, the sound of our skis crunching and sliding across the heavy snow the only sound in the silent forest. We fell into a meditative rhythm of sliding our legs in long strides as we pushed and pulled with opposite arms. We enjoyed the ache in our muscles from the previous day as we made our way back up the slopes and mountain sides that had originally led us to our private little lake. We stopped several times finding small dry patches of grass where we could sit and Shilo could curl up for a quick nap. Our silence was eventually overcome by conversations about how much we were enjoying the time that we were spending in these winter woods, and to how excited we were to do trips like this every weekend. We also dreamily talked about what the following winter had in store for us once we completed our full collection of severe cold weather winter gear.
This was the first step into our Alaska winter adventure world. A new door has just been swung wide open in front of us we can not wait to explore this new world much, much more!
