Wow, have we come a long ways from all this. Some days I almost cry, I miss Alaska so much. I really don’t miss the -40 degrees or the constant winter freezing, but everything else was what I was all about for over 20 years altogether.
My wife and I have many friends that are still there and we read communications from them on Facebook and other media. I see the pics and hear the stories and I picture how we would and did handle many of their circumstances.
I Remember the winter, Janice, myself, and our adopted daughter, Reyna, lived in our cabin which was 11 miles from the little town of Healy, AK and 3 miles on a trail to the actual cabin.
(At the time Reyna was a foster child and she had a social worker in Nevada. In November Janice and I drove down to the lower forty-eight for a quick vacation with relatives and came back with her. We arrived back in Alaska in January.)
As a family no matter the weather we would do our best to get to church down in Healy every Sunday and Wednesday. We had an Aerostar van for a while. Many times it would not start due to the extreme cold and we were a long ways from electricity. Our pastor would have to drive all the way from Healy to Ferry, 11 miles, where we parked our car. (We parked our car near the Nenana River Railroad Bridge. There was a cat-walk for us to cross the river when the river wasn’t frozen.) The three of us would then jump on a ATV and drive the three miles to the cabin. It wouldn’t matter what temperature it was and many nights it was close to -40 degrees.
This was the 90′s and we didn’t have a cell phone. We communicated with our pastor through CB calls to one of our friends who monitored their CB. When we needed a ride we would let then know.
We had mid-week services and the pastor picked us up one Wednesday. It was very cold. When we returned it was -45 degrees. Our ATV had a battery and it had only an electric start. Needless to say our ATV wouldn’t crank over. The battery was frozen, basically. Pastor Jeff had to use his van and jump our vehicle so we could go home. What a night. It was the coldest I’ve ever ridden on my ATV.
Another evening after church, I believe on a Sunday, It had snowed all day and the wind was blowing pretty steadily. We had to drive the four-wheeler up a short ramp to the railroad bridge cat-walk. When we arrived home to where our ATV was parked, the trail had two feet of snow on it. We had to, some how, remove the snow then drive the ATV up the icy trail to cross the river.
Reyna threw a fit. She was 13 and thought we were going to strand her out here in the wilderness. She wanted to remove the snow by hand but I had a shovel. It was a nightmare but we finally cleared the ramp to the tracks.
I drove the four-wheeler a long ways back to get a run at the little hill. When I charged up the hill I only got halfway up and then slid backward. I tried it two or three times. The last time with Reyna on the back for more traction, we crossed the bridge easily but then there was the other side. How will we get down from the tracks and the ramp on the other side?
I told my passengers to get off, and drove down the railroad tracks, (Don’t do this at home.) Some ways down the tracks, I powered the ATV through the brush and drifted snow on to the little snow-covered road below. After about three or more hours we were home. That’s a mile an hour. Yea!!
This evening is the classic AK story. It was in late February and the Nenana was frozen solid. We had driven the river for a few weeks. My family had watched big trucks full of coal cross it several times.
But this night it was 20 degrees above and the wind was blowing from the south. The three of us jumped on the Yamaha and started across the river on the ice. We got half way across the river and we were driving in a foot of water and slush. The further we drove the more stuck we got. So I stopped in the middle of the river and told Reyna and Janice to walk back to the safe side. They had to walk in a foot of slush. Reyna was panicking and everyone was scared.
Needless to say Jan and I had to push the ATV back to the side where we started and then we crossed on the cat-walk. We got home with frozen and wet feet. It turns out that it wasn’t the river thawing as we had expected but it was overflow from down river that flowed over the area we used to cross the river.
Just more drama from a winter from hell.
I have one last musing. On a very cold morning we arrived at the river to jump into our 82 Subaru. We were headed somewhere; I don’t remember where. I sat in the frozen seat of the car and tried to start it. It wouldn’t. So we pulled out the propane tank and touch Our usual tactic was to put a curved stove-pipe under the car where the pipe could feed warm air to the oil pan. This would soften the oil enough for the car to crank and then start. It was ready for me to start it. I put the key in the ignition, and the key twisted and broke. The ignition was frozen and the key had too much pressure on it that winter. Later we got a new ignition and it ran as usual. That thing could start at -40 degrees. WOW!
Oh, my, that’s just a few. I have more but for a later occasion. Bye!!
