Well, if you watch this video it will pretty much let you know how we have spent most of our time this winter in Haines.
It hasn't all been fun and doing nothing...okay...yes it has !!
It is official now !
Us desert rats have survived a record winter here in Haines. This winter has seen the most snowfall ever recorded in the history of Haines. As of March 11th, we have received 354.7" (over 29.5 feet) of snow this winter smashing the old record of 309" set in 2007.
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| REALLY want to walk through those trees but can't get through the snow to get there! |
If you want to check out some snowfall stats and other cool Alaska weather you can go to my friends blog at http://www.williwaw.com/
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| These are "wind driven" snowballs in the Hitch Up RV park |
It's been fun experiencing many things we have never seen, or even heard of before, like "wind driven" snowballs (which by the way are exactly what they sound like). When snow conditions are just right and the wind is blowing hard, little balls of snow will start rolling across the ground, growing as they roll, just like when you start to build a snowman. It's amazing fun to watch them grow and leave trails behind.
Alaskans find many ways to have fun in winter. In fact, many locals in Haines have winter cabins 25 miles from town on Chilkat lake. There are no roads to get there, so most of them (and their dogs) ride in on their snowmachices (only non Alaskans call them snow mobiles). These cabins are rustic, they have no electricity or running water and are heated by firewood.
Sounds like fun to me!
This Haines local has a pretty exciting way of having fun. In the fall I watched this guy kite boarding in the Chilkat river on a wake board. He would speed back and forth across the mile wide river delta catching BIG air from the waves that were being generated as the tidal current fought the river current. Now I see him at the golf course where we sometimes go to ski, zipping around on a snow board, but only when it's windy. I'm trying to get Lori to do it but...
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| Kite boarding on the "Valley of the Eagles " golf course |
Haines doesn't have a ski resort but has still become world famous for skiing and boarding thanks to "heli-skiing". Some of the most extreme riders in the world come here for the (very) steep mountains and deep powder to film movies and commercials. They come in March when there is still plenty of light snow up high and clear weather to fly and film. Type "Haines heli skiing" in Google or YouTube to take a peak...get it...a peek.
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| Note "extreme Spaz" waiting to launch at 33 mile |
Out the Haines highway, 33 miles from town is a tiny wide spot in the road where most of the heli skiers stay, eat and launch from. There are a couple of small cabins, this cafe and a gas pump. They were rumored to have the best cheese burgers for hundreds of miles - a rumor we have since disproved. They are actually found at the Elks Club in town every Friday night at the "burger feed" and sometimes we volunteer to help out so we get a free burger.
We do go out the highway to ski often. The terrain may not be quite as steep and the skiing not really extreme (unless you are old like Lori...not me) but the snow is light and deep and the scenery is difinately extreme. Those tracks are part of the 10 mile loop along the river we made about 2 weeks ago. The tree trunks are evidence of some very severe flooding in the past.
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| That is the end of Alaska's shortest river coming from the frozen lake |
As you can ski, we have been doing lots of cross country skiing this winter. We can be at the golf course in 4 minutes where they have about 6 miles of nice flat trails that volunteers keep fairly groomed. We have also done some snow shoe hiking. We did a 5 mile round trip up to Lily Lake which is the natural lake reservoir for Haines drinking water. This is Lori skiing along the Chilkoot river where we fished last summer.
There is a lot more wildlife running around in winter that you might think. We see lots of Ptarmigen - a chicken sized fowl that has white feathers in winter and brown feathers in summer.
There are always bald eagles along the water and lots of ravens.
We have seen a grey fox who was too shy and quick for pictures (or I was too old and lame to shoot him).
There are also lots of moose around down low in winter (we even had moose tracks in our front yard a few weeks ago). We saw this cow coming home from skiing right around dusk. As I was taking this shot, we could hear a pack of wolves howling and barking that sounded to be nearby although we never saw them.
It is kind of sad to think that winter is coming to an end because as you can see, we have found many ways to have snow much fun this winter.
Some are funner than others and this would have been more fun if I had not messed up the "e" so badly...guess I needed to drink more water.
Well, snow much for this post and for winter. Have fun!
Sorry to add a sad footnote to a happy post:
I told you all about the extreme heli skiing that Haines has become world famous for. Well, I'm very sorry to say that the day after I posted this, the news was NOT fun and 2 young souls paid the ultimate price for chasing their passions and dreams.
