A Dose of Vitamin D

I have a new roommate. She's the long-term substitute for the roommate who took off for Anchorage and never came back. We're still not sure if she's coming back because nobody (and I do mean nobody) has heard anything from her since she left. The new roommate, Melody, got here on Friday, after being storm-bound in Nome for two days. I was a little nervous, but it was getting a little lonely, so I'm glad she came. I shouldn't have worried. We were chatting like friends in no time. She said she hadn't brought any books with her, so I let her look through my random collection. After we got done laughing over children's books an hour later, I knew we were going to get along just fine.

She wanted to get out and "play" today, so we asked Anna, the teacher next door, if she would take us out on a cross-country ski trail. I haven't had a chance to go skiing yet this year, and it felt really good to get out. The sun was peeking through some high clouds and it wasn't too cold, which was nice after our recent storms. We went out in a circle towards Baldhead (a mountain to the east of the village). After that loop, we headed towards Nex Creek, which is west out of the village. I hiked with Anna to Nex Creek in September, and I remembered it being quite a hill. My memory was right. We were v-stepping for quite some time. We stopped at the top of the hill before it drops down to the creek. The view from the top of the hill is one of my all-time favorite views, even though it looks quite different in March than it does in September.

September:

March:




The view of the village also looks quite different in the winter. September:


March:



After stopping for a break at the top, we headed back down. It would have been fun to go all the way to Nex Creek, but looking down the trail, knowing that we'd have to come back up eventually, was enough to make me want to turn around. Luckily, it had the same effect on Anna and Melody, so we headed back the way we came.

We were gone almost 3 hours and probably skied 7 or 8 miles. I went cross-country skiing at Anthony Lakes over Christmas break, and that was a cakewalk compared to this. That trail was flat (or at least smooth), firmly packed, and clearly marked, with grooves already formed for the skis to fit in. The trails we followed today were loosely packed snowmachine trails. It was up and down, bumpy, and so much more fun.

I have friends who tell me that they can't believe that I live in Alaska because it's such a crazy place. They tell me that they never ever want to live here, or even visit because it's so cold all the time. (You know who you are.) It really makes me sad to hear that. This is a beautiful state with so many opportunities to enjoy it, but so many people write it off as being a frozen wasteland. It's really not, but most people don't even give it a chance. Yes, it gets cold. That just means we have to wear more clothes in the winter. I don't know how people can honestly say that they don't want to live in Alaska without having experienced it for themselves.

I hadn't realized it, but the trail we were on is a part of the Iditarod trail. The Iditarod started this morning and the dog teams will be coming through in a little over a week. The ice is pretty bad this year, so the overland trail is marked for use. I can now say that I have been cross-country skiing along the Iditarod trail. True, it was only 3 miles of the 1150 miles of the Iditarod, but still. How many people can say that?!