White Spring

Following the Fairbanks winter first comes 'white spring', then 'brown spring' (when everything melts) and finally 'green spring'. March 1 has come and gone - the northern hemisphere equivalent of 1 September - but there are certainly no daffodils or lambs in sight! However it is warming up, and the daylight hours are increasing about 5 minutes a day. White spring is the time to get out and enjoy the Alaskan wilderness with less concern about either horrific cold or bears!

We took part in a little ski tour last Sunday. We drive about 90 km from town and skied an out and back trail along the North Chena river for about 4 hours, including stops. Here we are during lunch break.
Accouting for Frank behind the camera, there were 4/6 beards. Lisa is sporting a new hat - won the previous day at the UAF trails day. She rocked up for some extra skate-skiing lessons, the 2 km classic ski race at the end of the day. Hey, first out of two is still first, especially when you win a hat, t-shirt, drink bottle, and $10 gift voucher!

So this little trip was really neat. I'm so glad that Lise and I have both picked up xc skiing quickly enough, and indeed enjoy it enough, to make these kinds of trips possible and fun. Skiing gives you access to these pretty remote places with minimal disturbance. When you stopped to pause in that vast wilderness, you could really get a sense for the enormity of the open spaces up here. Just snow sloughing off branches, and a few birds chirping to break the silence. Plenty of tracks about the place too, from moose wading through metre-deep snow to squirrels only punching through the crust about half a centimetre. Plenty more trips to come I hope!