Took advantage of beautiful weather in an attempt to reconnect with Alaska and had great weekend in the process. Last things first, I am pretty sure I saw a wolf last night. Heading out of Anchorage the brush has been cleared back from the highway a couple of hundred feet. In winter this gives a broad expanse of white to see moose coming across it and heading for the highway. As a matter of fact I saw a young one just before the wolf. This was in an area where a wolf pack has been reported. Last winter there were a few attacks on dogs.
He was heading across the white, running low in the slinky way wolves will with his head and tail low and made it all the way to the roadway before I could hit the horn. Smarter than the average moose he immediately turned away and streaked across the white toward the trees where he stopped. There was just enough light to where I could see him, head up, ears alert looking to see what that noise had been. And then I was past him. He was big, too big for most dogs and grayish though coloring was difficult to make out in the dim light and I am counting this as a wolf. Rare, I have seen maybe four in 30 years.
So, Thursday in bright sunshine I began another expotition to the East Pole. Fresh snow on the trail gave me something to read as I stopped occasionally to look at tracks that had been made that morning. Passed two moose who looked up to watch me go by and went on. At the pole, the mountain was out, the sun bright, the temperature in the 20s, it doesn’t get any better than this. I had left a mess last time when I cut and fitted counter top and it had been bothering me ever since. Once I got the fire going and the propane hooked up, that was where I started, that and melting snow for clean water. The day passed quickly and I was into a book by early evening, Stepping outside now and then I saw Northern Lights, the second this winter after the brief look the other night. These were all the way across the sky from northwest to northeast but still dimmer than many I have seen, kind of a pale yellow-green. I slept for 12 hours.
Next day I set out to glue down the counter top. Here is a lesson... any things longer than about five feet, get a friend to help. In maneuvering an 8 foot piece I managed to break the thin strip that runs between the sink and the edge of the counter. Now I will learn how to repair counter top. I wonder when we get to sit back and reflect on what we have learned and pass it on to the next generation. All I do is keep making mistakes and keep learning. Anyway that is the picture… but the stove side, not the broken sink side. Almost getting too fancy for a bush cabin, but the food odors that sink into the wood that was there, in the long run can only draw critters.
By afternoon it had clouded over and the mountain disappeared … the weather forecast was predicting two to five inches of snow. All I did was eat, read and keep the fire going. The snow started shortly after dark, which is after 5 these days -- we are past 10 hours of daylight, heading for 12 at the Equinox around March 20.
Still snowing when I woke up and 2-5 inches had turned into about a foot. But it was cold, light, fluffy snow, so no big problem. Cruised out just fine, with another fresh newspaper to read … fresh tracks. Another moose watched me leave. Then I got to drive 130 miles in a snowstorm, 85 of it towing a snowmachine trailer with my little car. A quick nap at home and then off to work in the still falling snow. And, it was amateur day on the commute. Saturday, lots of people who weren’t used to the highway -- and snow. What could go wrong? In the 30 miles of four lane highway, I counted 24 cars in the ditch and the median. That’s a new record for me. Even after going by a five-car pileup people passed me doing 60. What part of slippery road, limited visibility, traffic and cars in the ditch don’t they get? Darwin had more than a theory. Have to wonder what he would write about the chaos of Saturday traffic in a snowstorm.
After three days in the Bush, I seem to need two weeks of retraining to do my job, but I muddled through and headed home in weather that had turned snowless, cold and clear with a sky full of stars and a crescent moon.
And in that clarity it was then I saw the wolf.
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