I sat down today and randomly thought about this blog. I tried to log on, and it turns out the domain has been expired for quite some time. So here I am thinking to myself “yea, it would be a good idea to start remembering the past 8 months”. I left off in August in Nome, with my sister visiting, picking berries, catching fish, and getting the first glimpse of cold weather.
Summer’s end came with fall’s *short* beginning and hike to American Creek, where is meets the Sinuk river around 40 miles outside town. It is a 10 mile round trip walk with sweeping views of the Kigs during the tundra color change. We had a pack of people and a pack of dogs to go along with us. While sitting at the river junction, laying down and resting, a friend sat up and screamed “Bear!” Us on one side of the bank, a large grizzly was on the other side. Once we started making noise, it ran the other way across the flat tundra, which allowed us to watch it’s behind the whole way. Once it disappeared from view, a bull moose emerged from the same direction, heading towards the river’s edge. I understand the bears are plentiful out here, but to have an encounter that close was neat and luckily safe.
At the end of September came the close of halibut fishing, the turning of willows from green to golden yellow, and the fleeting first snowfall. I savored all the moments where we could still drive the roads before they became too covered with snow because once that happens, you are stuck in town until May, unless you’ve got a snow machine, and ours is way too unreliable to use safely outside town. It pretty much sat in our lot all winter because we were too lazy to pay to fix it right now. Nonetheless, with the colder temps we were able to start running the dogs: fall training, with an ATV or side-by-side. But before that could happen, we had to help the dog owners move the dog lot from the old location in town to about 5 miles outside town. We spent the month of October planning the new space, driving poles rapidly as freeze up hardened the permafrost, moving dog houses, sheds, and finally running the dogs from old to new. The new location is perfect for leaving the lot on sled and having wide open tundra and trails at your disposal.
Along with the cold weather came the shortening days, and at winter solstice the daylight is approximately 12p-4p. Although the length of day is short, we’ve had a much colder and clearer winter than last (although not nearly as much snow, sadly). Mostly all of November/December/January had BEAUTIFUL sunrise and sunset, and during the period of really short days, that lighting was constant all day: i.e. one constant sunrise, or one constant sunset.
For me, the dark was welcomed, and the sleep was good. On the weekends, you made sure to spend every minute outside in the light, too. During those hours, we spent a few weekends fishing for tom cod, little fish under the ice of the small boat harbor. With some jigs that Phil made us, we bobbed down once and hooked a fish almost every bob! With 15 gallons of tom cod at the end of it all, we had a huge store for the house dogs, Cord and Gorder, for winter. Oh yea, we’ve more or less adopted another dog: Gorder. She’s going on 14 years old, and we love her old lady, retired sled dog status. She’s been questionable on her attempts staying inside before, but she’s really nailing it for the past few months!
For this being my first entire winter spent here, I had no complaints about the light. The temperatures dipped to -20/-30 for a few weeks, which caused a few problems like the Subaru not wanting to start and freezing our shower/toilet lines. But plugging in the car and punching a hole in the wall/ sticking a hair dryer down it solved everything!
As I’ve mentioned before, Nome has no trees. And I’ve grown up my whole lift cutting down a live pine for a Christmas tree with my family. So although this was impossible for us, we managed to do something else: a Christmas willow. Locals do this, so I’m glad we got to partake this year. There’s an abundance to choose from, and you can’t really go wrong. It may have looked dead and barren when we cut it down, but it sure looked beautiful once it was all decorated!
On Christmas eve, we took advantage of the clear skies, the negative temperatures, and the alpen glow on a long afternoon walk with the dogs. Luckily the snow on this summer two track was hard pack and solid enough for us to walk on. There is nothing better than letting the dogs run around free with no boundaries; they are always tired when we get home.
We finally got a decent amount of snow in January, at least it seemed enough to go play in. Cord loves the snow, which is pretty obvious because she’s a sled dog. But seeing her get excited melts my heart every time. She’s speedy as can be and loves to romp around in the deep snow. If there’s a hard pack trail for me, and soft snow off trail for her, it’s ideal. Even though we managed to find some good spots, there was not nearly enough snow for snow machine travel at early February as would be expected. Phil, myself, and friends Meade and Cole went out to 70 miles on Kougarok road for a weekend trip at Phil’s camp. The trail/road was 75% DIRT and gravel, rocks, and icy drifts. What usually takes 2.5 hours took 4 hours, and our backs got a beating from all the bumps. It was around -10/-20 out there, but we managed to have some fun ice fishing. I caught this gigantic pike which was thrilling for me- I couldn’t even pull it out of the hole myself: Phil had to help. He’s a real tough Alaskan guy who has been through all the cold weather scenarios and thinks a frostbitten toe or finger is no big deal. Even so, I’d rather not cause myself the discomfort! Beaver mitts and a coyote ruff saved my butt. I’ve learned a lot about dressing appropriate out here.
Right outside town, there are a few mountains (honestly, just big hills) that can be good for backcountry skiing/snowboarding if the conditions are right. One such day, we could not pass it up, especially Zeph. We met a few others at the base, and they snow machined us up. I had Cord run behind me, which is pretty impressive. She booked it through punchy snow up the 1,000ish feet in no time. I didn’t have much confidence in myself to go through the inches of new powder, but I actually did make it down decently well to my surprise. Zeph was having a blast out there, I wish the conditions were always that good. There’s always more out of town, but you need a good snow machine and good connections on where to find the best spots. We’re working on it.
Once mid-February hit, Zeph and I decided we needed some time away from Nome. Although we had a week in New Mexico with his family and a wedding week in Phoenix with mine during the holidays, a long weekend together was what we needed. We decided on Cordova, AK as it was only 10k AK air miles round trip- a bargain!! We spent the weekend in this beautiful, mountainous town of 2,000 people- half the size of Nome! The locals operate a small ski hill in town that has one of the only two remaining single-seater lifts, and that’s where spent the majority of our time. Zeph’s really missed snowboarding this winter as that’s what he spent his entire winter doing in NM. So for this weekend, we relished in the rare fresh powder and sunny, blue skies of Cordova. We met a bunch of really welcoming locals that made us feel right at home, so we have been convinced that we need to go back and visit, perhaps in the summer. A lot of them had the same story as us: came for 3 months, never left.
The latter half of the month was pure beauty for mushing: still clear skies, lengthening daylight hours, and mostly hard packed trails for the dogs. Our friend Phil even hand made a dog sled (a first for him, as he usually makes freight sleds). I learned a lot on the runners this year, mostly due to my own errors and mistakes which could be a post on its own. My favorite tale is how the quick release (what’s holding the dogs tied around a pole before you leave the lot), got snapped somehow while I was grabbing another dog to place on the line, and I hadn’t set my snow hooks. Smart, you know, because quick releases always work.. (I will never forget the snow hooks again). The dog team took off, I saw them running away, and luckily friend Curtis had a snow machine. I jumped on, he revved fast the quarter miles to the dogs, and I jumped off. I managed to sacrifice myself in front of the two lead dogs, have the rear dogs tangle into them, and the front point of the sled jammed into my thigh. I’ve got some big thighs, so honestly it was the perfect spot to hit. It was not the smartest decision I made, but I did manage to stop the team AND have a big kick ass bruise for a month. In a real musher’s world without the snow machine, those dogs are gone.
March: the month of Iditarod. Everything in town gears up for two weeks of events and visitors centered around the 1,000 mile sled dog race. Even though this was only my 2nd Iditarod, I was way more invested this year as I had learned more about mushing and started following the mushing community in Alaska a lot more closely. The race started Sunday, March 8. On Thursday, March 12 the city was shutting down it’s public spaces and encouraging social distancing as a result of COVID-19. When the mushers started the race, they had no idea what had escalated. When they finished, the world was in pandemic. To me, this was a bummer not only for selfish reasons but also for the mushers who had put so much into the race and did not have the support at the end of the trail. Regardless, we hosted a musher Lev who was so kind and open with us! He did not mind sleeping on the floor in our 250 sq ft apartment, even though we had an air mattress. We hope to host him again next year. Apart from COVID-19, the trail this year was pretty cold (-20’s highs) the first half of the race, then jumped to 30+ degrees the second half with brutal winds, drifts, snowstorms, and overflow along the Bering Sea coast. Lev finished alongside Lance Mackey (legendary musher!!!!) and they arrived at the finish line soaked up to their waists from overflow. On an unrelated note, Cord originally came from Lance’s kennel, and I think it the COOLEST thing ever. So although it was an untraditional year for Iditarod, I can’t wait for next year to be here already!!!
Before COVID-19, we had something planned every night in the community. Now, for the past 6 weeks, we’ve been pretty much limited to walking the dogs on the outskirts of town and running the dogs when the weather allows. The biggest bummer has been the closed bowling alley!! Zeph and I got really involved with Wally, who has been bowling since he was young in Nome in the 80s. We bowled every Wednesday for league, then Thurs/Fri/Sat for fun along with cleaning the lanes on Tuesdays in preparation for league. If there’s one thing we are excited for the re-open eventually, it’s definitely our beloved 6-lane Golden Strike Alley.
Also since the virus, I’ve more or less been repurposed to working in the nursing home with a little bit of OT telehealth on the side. Although I went to school to be an OT (obviously), it’s been a good change of pace to have a different schedule, different environment than the routine. I’ve missed having “a light at the end of the tunnel” every 3 months in terms of always looking forward to moving somewhere new or having a month off for vacation/personal use. So I’ve been trying to focus on making the most of my permanence here. It’ll be at least a few more years, and there’s a ton of things on my list in addition to the things I’ve already learned from being here. First up: fishing for pinks! The sea ice is still present this year (which is GREAT), but thaw is very much happening. We went walking, or should I say SLOSHING, on the ice a few days ago, knee deep punching through with every step. Town is wet, it hasn’t stopped raining in a week, and the fog hasn’t left. Two days from now, we are forecasted for sunny and 30 for days and days along with 16+ hours of daylight! A sign of summer to come. I enjoy winter way more than most, but I still can’t help but look forward to those clear sky, green grass, berry picking and fishing Nome summer days. From freeze up to the current thaw, it’s been a beautiful winter.
