What a blast and very interesting weekend this was. And I should have known it was going to be that way to. I had us all loaded up and ready go Thursday night and on Friday the wife decides to hit the grocery store and pick up a couple of last minute item, so she does a nose drive on the parking lot pavement. Ouch, she calls me at 1:15 PM, knowing I plan to leave work early and lets me know she isn’t going, not with a big O’ bruise on her hip. :<(
I get Tyler and we finish loading up and hit the road for Paxson, figured it be a nice easy ride down. Friday afternoon and just a spit of snow was falling, with nothing to do but enjoy life and the drive. Hahahha, that was a laugh at my own mind set or maybe I should say lack of my mind as I seem to have forgotten that I live in Alaska and the weather can change in about 2 seconds flat.
The drive to Delta was fairly uneventful, normal winter ice on the road, nothing to be concerned about. Then we hit the Donelly Dome area and the wind picks up, not bad, no biggie, then we hit Black Rapids. Now the winds are at 20 to 30 mph with some gust at maybe 40 or better, but still nothing new, then Tyler says “hey papa, what’s that” and I look over and see a 200 foot tall cloud of snow blown up from the river by the wind, every once in while you can see the river and there isn’t a lick of snow on the ice, it’s all suspended in that cloud. Now the fun begins, whiteout conditions most of the remainder of the ride. I did have a pucker moment or two when the wind gust blew the trailer sideways a bit, but we made it to the lodge at 7:15 in one piece.
I have to say that Willey has done a heck of job cleaning up the Paxson Lodge, the atmosphere is friendly, the food is good and the rooms are cleaner than I ever remember seeing them. I’ll have to make it a point to visit more often in the future.
Saturday morning we get up and there is now eight of us and were waiting for Dean to show up so we can head out. The light is flat as can be and the trail down the Denali Hwy is all but visible. Before we got 3 and half miles down the road we had already pulled three folks out of the ditch. I was leading at this point and also ran off the road a time or two, but hey I had my new ride and she just jumped out the powder and back on the trail like a snow coach, oh yeah, I like my new toy…..
The only way to give you an idea of what it was like is to show you, so here’s some pictures that demonstrates what we had to go through. Check them out until you see the fuzzy one, thats not a bad picture, just lots of blowing snow.
Dean offered to lead and I said have at it, my eyes were getting tired of the strain. And as you can see, it was a slow going ride in and took us 3 and half hours to make the 44 miles to MacLaren Lodge. I think after the first few miles everyone sort of settled in to the slow pace and keep their eyes on the tracks in from of them. It did clear up closer to the lodge and we made it in all in one piece.
The only drawback was not being able to play much on the way in and I wasn’t up to going out again in the flat light. Paul, Pat and Tom did though, they rode out along the river trail and put on about 20 miles When they got back they said it was a lot of fun, even driving blinded on the river back to the lodge, thank goodness for the trail makers Alan put up.
So a quiet evening was had by all, Suzie did steaks for dinner with all the trimmings and I must say she out did herself. A relaxing evening with good food and friends is always a welcome break from the day to day work grind. So here’s my plug for the MacLaren River Lodge, if you come to Alaska, this place is must see.
Sunday, we woke up to sunshine and fresh snow, yeah team, it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day and an excellent ride back to the rigs. And it was, for the first 20 miles or so.
Then the wind hit and were back to the same conditions as in the first picture, whiteout conditions and you couldn’t afford to lose sight of the sled in front of you. Just past Tangle Lakes we hit a hugh windblown snow drift and had 4 sleds from our group go over sideways trying to side-hill it across. Some folks opted to walk over it and Tom, Pat, Dean and I helped them and others get across. Now were just about done when along comes this group of seven sleds with lots of kids. Each one of the seven sleds is packing double and just about all of them get stuck. So we hang out and dig them out and get them turned around headed back to Paxson, this was just way to bad weather to be packing young’uns .
Well we all made it over the first drift and a smaller one and were back out of the wind about 10 miles out of Paxson. We stopped at this point and waited for that group we helped cross the big drift, just in case they needed more help and as we were considering going back to see how they were doing they showed up. Dean, Pat and I let them go on ahead and then we got to play a bit more as we passed them on the way out.
Let me just say two last things. First it was a great ride to MacLaren even with all the weather we hit and I’ll do it again first chance I get. I just love the MacLaren River Valley, and second, its trips like these that make me appreciate being alive but also helps me remember that Alaska can be unforgiving. So always pack your safety gear and when you’re riding into the back country, take along a friend or two, hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst…
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