Outdoors/Adventure

Schandelmeier: Take advantage of spring snow near the Denali Highway

As I slowed to turn on the Denali Highway, a robin flew across the Richardson Highway just in front of the truck. The bird took my attention from the road for a moment and I almost smacked into the porcupine munching willow shoots at the intersection.

Sure enough, spring is here.

Porcupines at the roadside and the early migrants arriving are sure signs of the changing season. So is the snow that still blankets the Denali country. The Denali Highway was cleared almost the entire way this weekend, and will surely be open by the end of this week. The bears are out, the ptarmigan are paired off and the snow conditions are great.

There is still more than 3 feet of good snow in and around the Maclaren Valley. For that matter, the entire eastern end of the Denali has more-than-decent snow cover. The lack of winter winds left snow in place and with few patches of bare ground, melting has been slower than normal.

Snowmobilers found very good conditions in both the mountains and the flats the entire weekend. Cross-country skiers also found the going excellent.

I talked with one group of skiers who had just completed a 25-mile run and were finishing up at 3 p.m. They had found some powder at the head of a valley. Normally, the snow melts on the surface and then freezes into a walkable crust by midnight. Conditions deteriorate by noon and travelers will begin to break through the crust. That hasn't been the case thus far this spring.

A serviceable crust has been holding for most of the day and into the evening. I expect, given current conditions, that there will be useable snow until mid-May.

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Dog teams should also take advantage of this last bit of snow. Dogs can run on the snow surface without a trail and travel very quickly to places that are normally unreachable without first breaking a trail. This weekend, I took some kids on a 25-mile run. The conditions were good enough we could walk on the surface in the morning without snowshoes, and travel with the dogs all day.

Snow! It is time to be done with it, people are telling me. Wait a minute; would you rather clean the garage? It is too early to stream fish and the lakes are a getting murky with run-off. Hiking is limited because of wet conditions and linger drifts. Enjoy the snow.

This is the only time of year when one can snowmobile, ski or run dogs in shirtsleeves. The mid-day temperatures, this weekend, were in the low 40s, higher in the sun. In spite of those temperatures, there are two weeks of useable snow left on the east end of the Denali Highway. One can squeeze a third week out in the Amphitheater Mountains, (at the top of the Maclaren Summit), if you are willing to get up early.

Early morning is the time to check out the birds that are coming through the area. To get excellent ptarmigan photos, late evenings are good too. Porcupines also frequent the roadsides late in the day to feed on new shoots.

It no longer gets truly dark at night in the areas above timberline. The critters that live in the area are active through the night, benefiting from the warmth and new growth. Spring in Alaska is short. Now is the time to take advantage. Clean the garage next week, the snow many be gone by then.

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.

John Schandelmeier

Outdoor opinion columnist 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.

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