One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Last Saturday was one of those incredibly beautiful winter days that we may only get a handful of in any one winter. The temperature was in the high 20s, the sky was piercingly blue and there was lots of snow to play in. The drifts were waist high. The sun is making a low, flat arc across the sky for the six or so hours of daylight that we have now, and the long noon-time shadows create dramatic lighting.

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Snowmachines were everywhere, as kids were out having fun. People were cross-country skiing, building snowmen, mushing dogs and generally enjoying the beautiful day. Dutch and I decided to try miniature mushing: i.e., my new kick sled with one dog.

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The snow in our front yard was so deep that to get to the tundra I had to strap on the snowshoes and tramp a path out and over the water/sewer pipes that encircle our subdivision. The drift was about four feet deep, but the snowshoes made it easy to stamp down. The well-used snowmachine path that runs in front of our house is about 50 yards away. It was pretty well packed, but the snow next to it was soft and loose.

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I had high hopes for Princess. She is a well-trained sled dog who ran the Kuskokwim 300 last January. She is 8 years old, and has worked every season since her first year. She is small and light, about 35 pounds, and always pulls hard. But with the soft snow, she was not able to pull me up a small incline by herself. We did well going downhill or if I was running beside the sled or kicking.

Next was Bear’s turn. He is an Alaskan Husky, the son of a very good sled dog from my team several years ago. Bear is 6 years old and has never worked a day in his life. He is quite a bit bigger than most sled dogs these days, but he has never pulled. When I tried him on the team as a young dog, he just lay down and refused to pull. He let the rest of the team drag him in harness. That was the end of his career as a sled dog; he moved into the house and has had a warm bed by the fire ever since, loved by one and all for his good humor and good looks. I thought if he were the only dog and Dutch (whom he worships) were there to encourage him, he might pull.

You guessed it. No. He was NOT pulling. He continues to insist that his career in life is as a Pretty Boy. He was not meant to work.

After such a gorgeous day, the weather had to change, and change it did. The thermometer began rising, heavy clouds moved in and it started to rain. We spent several days at 45 degrees and watched the snow melt like it was a time-lapse movie.

Today is December 1^st, and it seems as if the year’s monthly dial has clicked back two notches. It feels like October 1^st. The thermometer is above 40, the roads are deep in mud, and last Saturday seems like a dream. What happened to winter? We are back in early autumn.

As much as we all loved having the deep snow, the ground was not nearly frozen enough to hold it. I remember thinking last week that what we really needed was two days of rain to melt the snow, followed by two days of high winds to dry out the land, and then two weeks of hard, deep cold (zero or colder) with no precipitation to harden everything appropriately. And then a good blizzard with a couple of feet of fresh snow. Then we’d be set for a good winter.

To my amazement, that seems to be what is happening. The warm rains followed our perfect winter day, and then the winds started two days ago. Almost all the snow is gone and the landscape is brown everywhere. Dutch and I spent the afternoon working outside in sweatshirts, gloveless and hatless. The wind last night was fierce; the house shook occasionally. The roads have lots of frost to give up, so they are still very muddy, but Dutch’s crews were out grading roads today. The river still has a skin of ice, but no one is traveling on it.

We are poised for our second attempt at starting winter. I predict a sudden drop to zero and two weeks of hard dry cold. And then a big blizzard for an all-white Winter Solstice. My fingers are crossed.

All photos by Dutch and The Tundra PA