Outdoors/Adventure

Time to get out and enjoy winter

PAXSON -- Have you ever made a run to the outhouse at minus 40? That's when one really appreciates the Styrofoam seat.

It was 40 below here last week. The low temperatures arrived on the heels of the best snow of the winter, reminding us that this is Alaska.

Much of the state was wondering where the winter went until a few days ago. Then it began to snow. Twenty inches fell near the eastern Alaska Range. Glennallen received 14 inches. Paxson got a foot and a half. Even the normally dry Interior received fair snow. The temperatures have dropped, keeping most folks inside by the wood stove, but it looks to be a short-lived ice age.

Moderating temperatures toward the end of the week will let recreationists out to enjoy the reasons they live in Alaska.

Snowmobilers will find the Denali Highway, which had good snow compared to everywhere else, now has enough powder to get off trail and into the mountains. Isabel Pass, site of the spring Arctic Man event, has excellent conditions -- and the pull-offs are plowed.

Use care in the high country. The heavy snow came on an icy, frozen, base. Avalanche conditions are extremely high.

The Richardson Highway was closed Saturday night north of Paxson due to two separate snow slides. A few vehicles were caught between slides and had to wait for state maintenance crews to break open the road.

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It is worth the drive to get out this coming weekend and take advantage of the snow. Ice fishing always seems better when there is snow around the hole. I think that makes it quieter. Fish, especially big fish, won't spook as easily. There wasn't much ice on most lakes before this snow because of our unusually warm winter. Big Lake has between a foot and 18 inches, depending on where you drill. Copper Basin Lakes have less than 2 feet of ice. Most Interior lakes are the same.

I was out yesterday as temperatures dropped to 30-below and found no overflow on the lakes. However, expect to encounter that hazard soon.

If you're into small-game hunting, this coming week should be the best of the year. Grouse and hares will leave tracks and neither will be traveling far. Bunny season is open everywhere, but read the regulation book for grouse and ptarmigan. Those seasons seem to change with every few feet of roadway.

Sharptail populations are high across the Interior. Ptarmigan had a good year too, and are plentiful, though with the lack of snow, most were in the higher willow thickets. That should change with the heavy snowfall.

Snow came just in time for the Northern Lights 300 sled dog race. The race was planning to go out on minimal conditions just as the snow began. Conditions changed quickly enough to cause trailbreakers some difficulty in opening the trail between Yentna Station and Finger Lake.

Iditarod organizers no doubt are breathing a sigh of relief.

There should be enough new snow in the Rainy Pass area and the South Fork of the Kuskokwim to allow for an Anchorage race start. The cold snap will help close up the last open water along the trail.

North of the Kuskokwim River, the trail received little precipitation, but there is probably enough snow on the ground now to make racing possible in the flat country farther north. It is still pretty brown in Shaktoolik and Nome.

Whitehorse, Yukon, where the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race begins, may have enough snow but has been light on ice. The forecast calls for near zero temperatures over the next week, which may not be enough to create solid ice for the Yukon River start.

Consequently, the Quest will start in downtown Whitehorse or just down the road near Takhini Hotsprings. No matter. Thankfully, there is enough snow -- enough for everything an Alaska winter has to offer. There will be some whining about how cold it is. And expect some whimpering about shoveling snow in the driveway. However, winter is why most of us live here. If it were all fun and 40 above, everybody would want to be here.

John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

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