All five of the Pacific salmon have a common name, and a really common name. Chinook salmon are also called kings. Coho are also called silvers. Sockeye are reds. Pink salmon are also called humpies. Alas, the poor chum salmon, whose common name conjures up images of ground-up fish gruel used to attract sharks, are also known as dog salmon. This name stems from the practice of using chum salmon as dog food… so in at least one respect, both of these monikers end up more or less in the same linguistic place – ground-up fish gruel… one for attracting sharks, the other for feeding sled dogs.

Chums get no respect.

In many places in Alaska, the run of pinks and chums more or less coincide with each other. These runs also coincide with the silver salmon run, and often people will be actively fishing for silvers, but catching pinks and chums. Most people don’t keep the pinks – by the time they reach fresh water, their flesh is quickly deteriorating in quality, and since people prefer the silvers, they toss the pinks back. Almost nobody keeps chums. Chums are for dog food. Nobody eats dog food.

Yesterday we were fishing (for silvers) and catching a lot of chums. They may not be the choice for the table, but I tell you what, they sure are strong. They’re not jumpers, they’re pullers. Pullers and head-shakers. They’re aggressive and take lures readily. They can get quite large. They’re colorful. The lure of choice is typically a Pixie or a Vibrax, and this is exactly the lure you’d be using for fishing for silvers. Unfortunately, chums are so strong that they often straighten the hooks on the lures! So when you’re fishing for silvers and hook a chum, you often experience the double-disappointment of catching an undesirable fish and having to retire your favorite lure, because the hooks are ruined!

When I was fishing this weekend, I had a couple of guests with me from the East Coast. Neither had ever caught a salmon before. The silvers were being elusive, but the chums cooperated, and both of my friends landed hard-fighting chums. It is an experience I am sure they won’t forget.

After my friends left, the rest of our fishing party started to discuss how chums really need another name… something that doesn’t conjure images of ground-up fish gruel. The commercial fish people have done just that, and when you see chums in the supermarket, you’ll see them under the name “silverbrite” salmon. Seems a little misleading, doesn’t it?

In the spirit of full disclosure, until yesterday, I had been disparaging the chums myself, by grouping them together with pinks, and calling them “humpies and chumpies”. But I am past all that – I have seen the error of my ways, and now I have a new-found respect for them. I may not want to catch them and take them home and cook them… but as fighters, they’re top notch.

So, we narrowed down our new name for chums to two choices. Which do you prefer?

Alaskan River Marlins or Tiger Tuna?

I did something this year that I hadn’t done in the past… I bought a ticket for the PSEA Matsu Valley King Salmon Derby. If you’re not familiar with the concept of a fishing derby, the basic idea is you purchase a ticket (in advance) and then you check-in and weigh the fish you catch, and you are eligible for prizes.

In past years, I hadn’t purchased a derby ticket, and in most years I catch some pretty respectable fish. Last year I caught a fifty pounder, and the year before, a forty-eight pounder. These fish aren’t winners, but they’re close… I figured if I put the time in, and focused on catching a really big fish, I’d have a good shot at the top prizes.

What a mistake.

So I started fishing hard in June, and I caught four king salmon… But I released them all, because they were too small.

Then it happened… with three weeks left in the season, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed the rest of the king salmon season. The numbers of returning kings was so small, they were concerned about making sure that there were enough fish to spawn.

When fishing closed, I hadn’t kept a single fish… and I realized that I hadn’t really enjoyed fishing all that much. Fishing, when there is money (or prizes) on the line… and making a choice to compete for them, is a lot more like work than fishing.

Don’t get me wrong… fishing derbies can be fun, and in Alaska, they raise money for some great charities. But doing what I did was a mistake. I thought it would be fun, but it wasn’t near as much fun as just fishing would have been.

I have always been a bit of a weather nut. Those of you who are also weather nuts know what I mean. At a point earlier in my life, I was destined to become a television weatherman, but alas, I was defeated by calculus. But before I suffered that defeat, I did get my feet wet in that field, and I even worked for NBC News in Washington, DC, where I was assistant to their longtime weatherman, Bob Ryan.

One of the main reasons I moved to Alaska was my love of winter weather. I moved from Washington, DC to Fairbanks in 1986, and to say that the winter weather in Fairbanks was different, well… that would be an understatement. But I fell in love with the Fairbanks winters, and when I got into the business of creating custom tours for clients, I always thought that there was room to do winter tours in Alaska – after all, the first thing that many people think of when it comes to Alaska is snow and cold.

No matter how much I love winter, I thought it was a bit of a stretch when I heard that The Weather Channel had declared that Fairbanks was among the top ten winter weather locations in 2009-10.

Wow.

Really, it isn’t that big a stretch to realize that winters in Fairbanks are pretty spectacular… but it is a little surprising that others would figure it out. It is true that Fairbanks gets modest amounts of snow, but the climate is otherwise dry, and late in the winter (like in February through April), the skies are clear and the sun is bright most days. The weather is just perfect for winter activities, and a lot is happening in Fairbanks in March, including the World Ice Art Championships, and the Open North American sled dog races. Many of our guests go to Fairbanks in the winter for dogsledding adventures and a visit to Chena Hot Springs. I even created a special website just for Alaska winter tours.

So, a hearty thank-you to The Weather Channel for recognizing something we here in Alaska already knew.

We do winter right!

A lot is made of the darkness in Alaska in the winter.

We do get some sun, though. Would you like to see how much?

Check out this video made last week at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. You get to see sunrise to sunset in one two-minute video.

There are an increasing number of visitors to Alaska in the winter… and many of them are coming here to experience the Iditarod.

The Iditarod starts in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March, and the race lasts about two weeks. Most guests arrive on the Thursday before – you wouldn’t want to schedule a Friday flight into Anchorage and end up stuck in Chicago because of a Midwestern blizzard – you’d miss the start of the race!

Dogs discuss race strategy while sitting in the back of a musher's dog truck.

The ceremonial start is on Saturday. This is when all of Anchorage turns out and lines the the streets to watch the mushers as they head through town. Most people head to Fourth Avenue, which is the starting line… but there are many great places to watch the mushers all over town, so it isn’t necessary to fight the downtown crowds. Among the more favorite spots are on the hill on Cordova Street as the mushers head down towards Chester Creek.

The route winds its way south through the parks in Anchorage. At one point the mushers cross a bridge over Northern Lights Boulevard, and a tunnel at Tudor Centre. In 2009, the Anchorage trail ended at Campbell Airstrip in Centennial Park.

A view of the "chute" at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod.

One advantage of heading to Fourth Avenue is to see the mushers prepare their sleds and dogs for the race. While the festivities on Saturday are purely ceremonial – the clock on the race doesn’t start until Sunday – there is still plenty to see in the “chute”. The area of downtown on Fourth Avenue west of D Street (the actual starting line) is fenced off, and each musher brings in his or her “dog truck”. A dog truck is how the dogs, sleds and equipment is hauled to different locations. The most distinctive feature of a dog truck are the boxes on the back where the dogs ride. You’ll often see dogs sticking their heads out of holes in the doors of the dog truck.

This is a great opportunity to get some photos of the mushers, talk to them a bit, and see the dogs. Most people can’t imagine the preparation and training that goes into a run to Nome. While the show on Saturday is just a very small piece of the entire process, it is very clear from watching the mushers get ready that a run to Nome in the Iditarod is something that takes years of planning.

Musher heads down Fourth Avenue in Anchorage at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod.

After the ceremonial start, the mushers pack up the dogs and sleds and head for Willow, where the race restarts on Sunday afternoon. Several thousand spectators attend the restart in Willow, and this event is an even more authentic Alaskan event – people arrive by car and truck, snowmachine (this is Alaska-speak for snowmobile) and even a few by airplane.

The atmosphere is a little different in Willow; the trail heads out across the frozen lake, and spectators line the trail and cheer as the mushers head out to Nome. At the same time, snowmachines race across the lake, and airplanes on skis come and go.

After the restart, many guests head north to Talkeetna, where they catch a flight out the next day to some of the remote checkpoints in the foothills of the Alaska Range. Flights leave in the morning and head to Skwentna and Rainy Pass. The first day is often a very entertaining time to be on the trail, because this is when the fastest of the teams try to set the pace.

For guests that are serious about the Iditarod, you can fly from checkpoint to checkpoint in a “Chase the Race” package. Other guests take a few days off and head to Fairbanks where you can take in the World Ice Art Championships, do a dogsledding adventure, where you can actually learn to drive a dog team and spend the night under the northern lights in a cabin or arctic-weight tent. After your dogsled adventure, an afternoon soak at Chena Hot Springs sounds like a very good idea.

The following week the lead mushers approach Nome, and guests fly out to this Norton Sound community to greet the mushers as they arrive on Front Street.

Iditarod packages have become more popular over the last few years, but there is still time to arrange your package if you’re up for a winter adventure in Alaska. Alaska Vacation Store creates custom Iditarod packages that include lodging, rental cars, and all of the activities. Packages can be as short as four days, or last for as many as twenty.

… and you’re cutting it off, to spite your face.

This morning’s Anchorage Daily News contained this piece which describes Alaska Airlines decision to begin charging for even the first checked bag on most flights.

Bad idea. Really bad.

I suppose if you’re some airline revenue guru, this makes some sense – a way to recover $15 per passenger each way on most routes… since on most routes, most people check a bag. I just traveled to Washington, DC on Alaska Airlines, and I checked a bag. And that makes sense, I was there for ten days.

Thirty bucks. Cha-Ching.

But here’s the thing… Alaska Airlines isn’t any airline. It is our airline. Alaskans are very loyal. They fly Alaska even though other carriers are often cheaper to the same destinations. Alaskans want to earn Alaska Airlines miles. They don’t want Delta miles. They don’t want USAir miles. If you have doubts about how important Alaska Airlines is to Alaskans, ask the Alaska Airlines folks what happened when they decided to change their logo and remove the smiling face from the tail of their planes. It was Alaskans – all 500,000 of us – that objected. Alaska Airlines is a part of the Alaskan identity… even if the company is headquartered in Seattle. When you mess with Alaska Airlines, you’re messing with us.

As the owner of an Alaskan business, I do all I can to direct business to Alaska Airlines because the Alaska Airlines experience is superior to other airlines. My guests are happier and are treated better on Alaska Airlines. Let’s face it, ten hours on an airplane is taxing even for people who like to fly, so anything we can do to make that part of the process more pleasant for our guests makes it better for us and our business… There’s no sense starting off your vacation any more unhappy or uncomfortable than you have to be… And happy customers are repeat customers.

If you took Marketing 101, you know that what Alaska Airlines has done is to differentiate themselves in the marketplace – that is, create the perception with consumers that the experience you get with Alaska Airlines is not like the experience that you get with others. There is a benefit that you get with flying Alaska Airlines, and for many customers that benefit is worth paying for. It certainly has worked to keep Alaskans loyal for all these years. But what the revenue guys will tell you is that isn’t the way many consumers buy their airline tickets. What matters for those consumers is the price of the fare.

Where consumers are damaged, and where companies like Alaska Vacation Store are damaged is that the experience is downgraded when customers are presented with what they believe are hidden costs. Certainly one can’t argue that Alaska’s new policy is a hidden cost, but for the same consumer who worries about a $5 difference in fare, getting hit with a $15 charge for checked baggage he or she doesn’t expect negatively affects the perception of the experience.

It would be naive to think that travelers today expect the same level of amenities that were available on a plane years ago… and there is some sense in the “pay to play” mindset – I would add that I heartily applaud Alaska Airlines adding on-board WiFi to their fleet. But there is a substantive difference between charging for value-added items, like WiFi, or DigEPlayers or even a sandwich or beverages, and charging to bring your basic clothing and toiletries on the plane.

The other day, one of our clients came into the office to pick up his airline ticket, and he asked us about the policies regarding taking his prescriptions on board the plane. He uses several creams and ointments that come in tubes and bottles that are larger than one can carry onto the plane, because of the security rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). His solution was to put a day or two supply of the different drugs in empty film canisters, and then place the remainder of his prescriptions in his checked bag. As it was, he had no other option except to check a bag, since he couldn’t bring the existing containers on the plane. Now, he will be charged $15 each way for the privilege.

Southwest Airlines is making hay on these different revenue generators. As they should – they understand that there is a certain basic level of service that you should expect when you travel, and those things that go beyond basic… well, you pay extra for those.

All of the airlines that have taken to charging for all bags are coming dangerously close to crossing the line between pay-for-play and failing to provide a basic and expected part of the service. As much as I didn’t like it when airlines started charging for a second bag, I was resigned to the fact that certain passengers have abused the privilege in the past (count me as one) and this was a fair and equitable way to increase revenue and discourage that abuse. Charging for any checked bag seems petty and unfair.

Until now, I hadn’t really worried about this issue, because my airline still offered one free bag. But now that has changed.

So to Alaska Airlines, I have this to say: You’ve spent your entire existence working hard to set yourself apart from the rest of the industry. You’ve owned and embraced what is important about being an Alaskan, and being a part of our community, and you have spread that Alaskan hospitality across the country. You’ve asked us to be loyal to you, and we have – even when it meant spending a few more dollars to travel with you as opposed to another carrier. Alaskans understand, perhaps more than most, that there are costs associated with doing business, and that times are tough. And don’t get me wrong – this isn’t about $15. It is about treating your friends and neighbors like… well… your friends and neighbors. The message you send by charging $15 for the first bag is that really, you’re just like the rest of them. It won’t be long before Alaskans realize that if it is really only about getting between here and there, then any old airplane will do. We’ll cram everything we can into our carry-ons. We won’t check bags, we’ll fly Continental’s red-eye to Seattle and take Southwest the rest of the way… because that will be the cheapest way to go. If you need the $15, then raise your fares $15. Alaskans will stick with you. Just please, don’t tell us that you’re just like the rest of them.

On the tail of every one of your planes is the beautiful face of an Alaskan. It is the face Alaskans fought to keep on your planes back in 1988, and it is a symbol of Alaskan hospitality across America.

Imagine what it will look like without a nose.

Back when I started Alaska Vacation Store, I had to embark on the chore of finding vendors who were interested in working with a new tour company. One of the first that I found was Mike and Sharon Renfro, owners and operators of Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat, located on the shores of Kenai Lake about 20 miles north of Seward.

Summer view of Kenai Lake near Renfro's Lakeside Retreat

View of Kenai Lake from Renfro's Lakeside Retreat

One of the things that made Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat such a good fit for Alaska Vacation Store is that Mike and Sharon share a lot of the same beliefs about what is important when it comes to taking care of your guests. I believe that Alaska is not just another vacation destination – certainly it wasn’t for me when I first came to Alaska in 1985. Alaska was about a lifetime of dreaming and planning, and when you spend that much time thinking about a one or two week visit, your expectations are very high.

What made the difference for me when I first came to Alaska was the wonderful people that I met… and while Mike and Sharon were not among those first Alaskans I met almost twenty-five years ago, they were certainly cut from the same cloth. To be sure, Alaska is an incredibly beautiful place, but more importantly, Alaska gets into your blood, and the place changes the people.

A few years back, Mike and Sharon decided that it was time to take some time and entered into retirement, and sold their place. The new owners took over, and we continued to send guests there… But it didn’t seem the same.

This past winter, my phone rang, and it was Sharon Renfro. She was calling to tell me that retirement wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and that they’ve taken ownership of their cabins once again. It was definitely the best news of the winter for me – Mike and Sharon were destined to take care of their guests on the shore of the lake, and now they were getting back into it!

Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat really combines all that Alaska is about: Mike and Sharon are the quintessential Alaskan hosts, committed to making sure that you have an amazing stay with them. But combine that with the beautiful cabins on the shore of the turquoise-blue Kenai Lake, and there are few places that I’d rather send my guests.

I really missed Mike and Sharon, and I am sure that their guests did, too. So as we end March, 2009, Mike and Sharon are getting everything just-so for the next season of summer guests.

I couldn’t be more excited!

And we’re whiners, too.

Since the end of October, we have had an almost unprecedented streak of sunny and clear weather. One of the things that comes with clear weather is falling temperatures. We’re getting about 17 to 18 hours of darkness at this time of year, and between the clear skies and several inches of snow that has been here since our last snowstorm back before Halloween, each night’s low temperature is a bit cooler than the night before. Cloudy skies and snow generally mean warmer weather with temperatures in the 20’s or even 30s. But for now, we’re suffering with the severe clear. Yesterday we added a new weather feature to the mix: wind.

The complaints were almost universal. Nobody could walk into a building without commenting on the biting cold, with temperatures in the single digits and 40 mile per hour winds. It was actually very unpleasant, but this is Alaska, and all in all, cold is the norm in the winter. This isn’t the usual Alaskan weather, but we certainly get a few days of this every winter.

So yesterday morning I was in one of the local convenience stores, and the manager was commenting to me about the weather, and I said to him that I could go for a little snow right about now… and he immediately shot back that he was glad that it wasn’t snowing, because he didn’t have to have the parking lot plowed. I thought to myself, “Which is it? Is it too cold, or too snowy? You can’t have them both!”

Not everyone is complaining about the clear weather. My friend at Talkeetna Air Taxi was loving the clear weather, but lamenting the lack of flying customers. Clear weather is something of a rarity in November, and any opportunity to fly is a good one this time of year.

Here is where the lying part comes in. If we were enjoying day after day of snow and 28 degree weather, we’d be complaining about that, too. Alaskans don’t really dislike the winter weather, they prefer to complain about it instead. So when you hear one of us talk about the wind, or the snow, or the rain, the proper response is, “You’re a lying whiner! You like this, and you like the alternative, too!”

That is when they’ll insist that they don’t.

Almost everyone that contacts me about coming to Alaska has Denali National Park on their “must see” list. It is no surprise, considering the tremendous number of images and advertisements that one sees that include Mt. McKinley and the spectacular wildlife that lives within the park. In addition, there has been some considerable publicity in recent years about the wolf packs in the park, and their habit of wandering outside the park boundaries, where several Denali wolves have been taken by trappers. Everyone seems to know about Denali, and they all want to visit.

Unfortunately for most visitors, the experience within Denali National Park is not as great as it once was. My first visit to the park was in 1985, and even at that time there were reasons for the visitor to leave Denali feeling that the visit did not live up to expectations. In the 21 years since, the annual number of visitors to Denali National Park has doubled, and there is no sign that the number of visitors is going to level off any time soon. A number of the larger tour and cruise companies have undertaken large construction projects in the past year to add hotel rooms at the entrance to the park. The growth in popularity of this already popular park is taking its toll on the visitor experience.

This is not to say that there isn’t something to see and do in Denali National Park. There are few places in Alaska that are as readily accessible as Denali that offer such great wildlife viewing opportunities. The park is notable because of both the numbers and variety of wildlife that a visitor can hope to see here.

However, all of this beauty and wildlife comes to the visitor at a price; dealing with hundreds or even thousands of other visitors in the park at the same time. This may seem like a false panic in a park the size of the state of Massachusetts. However, for almost every one of those thousands of visitors, the path through the park is the same. Virtually all of the park visits originate at the park headquarters in the town of Denali Park, and almost all visitors enter the park either on a guided tour, or on the park’s shuttle system, known as the Visitor Transportation System, or VTS.

Whether on a tour or on the VTS, the experience is similar: the day starts with long lines of people waiting to get onto one of the buses. Once you’re on the bus, you travel along the 90 mile Denali National Park Road, watching for wildlife and enjoying the scenery. If you’re on one of the tours, you don’t have the option to explore the park on your own. You do get off the bus periodically to stretch your legs and to take a bathroom break. The VTS offers a lot more flexibility; once you pass the Savage River, your driver will stop the bus wherever you like and let you off to hike, or do whatever it is you want to do within the park.

I strongly suggest to my guests that they choose the VTS over the tours, for a number of reasons. The most important is that the VTS allows you to decide what you want to see and do, and how long you want to stay in the park. In contrast, the tours are a fixed length, and if you want to see more of the park, or if you’ve had enough and want to go back sooner, you don’t have either option available to you.

Winter picture of Mt. McKinley taken in Denali State Park near Trapper Creek. This location is about 100 miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park.

The VTS is not the perfect alternative, either. While the drivers are knowledgeable and will answer your questions and provide a basic narration along the way, it is still just a bus ride, and you’re best suited if you get off the bus and experience the park on foot. I am not the most eager hiker, and my first visit to the park was a bit intimidating, both because of the tremendous size of the park (a treeless vista of mountains, tundra and rivers that goes on for dozens of miles) and because of the small but nonzero chance of a wildlife encounter. I remember thinking that the view from my seat on the bus would be almost as good as the view from outside, and I didn’t need to wander through the tundra singing to keep the bears away. For that reason, and many others, a lot of other VTS guests choose to stay on the bus instead of getting off.

I make it a point to follow up with my guests about their visits to Alaska, and I am proud to say that almost without exception, they rave about their experiences here. When I ask them for specifics, and they get to the part about Denali National Park, the raves are replaced with ‘OKs’. If there is a complaint, it is the experience with the crowds and the limited access to the park that is most common. This is unfortunate, because Denali really is a spectacular and special place. There just isn’t a good solution for most visitors that want to experience the park.

Which leads me to the secret. In late April, early May and mid September, the park road is open to private vehicles as far as the Teklanika River, provided the road conditions allow safe passage. You’re welcome to drive the park road in your own car (or a rental car), stop anywhere you like, and enjoy the park on your own terms. If you have a bicycle, you can take the road past this point by bicycle. Unfortunately, there is nothing guaranteed about the road conditions; snow can occur in any month of the year, and as you might imagine, it is rather common in these shoulder seasons. However, in most years, you can generally get a day or two in the park by road.

I have made several trips into the park in April and May, as well as in late September and early October and I’ve seen bears, caribou, moose, fox, golden eagles, ptarmigan and other wildlife along the road. The park is interesting at those times of year for other reasons, too. In the spring, there are still patches of snow everywhere, and it is a great way to experience what winter in alpine Alaska is like, without having to brave numbing cold. The wildlife viewing is generally quite good, with caribou and ptarmigan being the most common animals. A couple years back we were driving through the park and watched a golden eagle as it hunted in the park. While bald eagles are the birds that most people are intent on seeing here, a golden eagle is an impressive creature, indeed – they are considerably larger than bald eagles, and they tend to take on larger prey.

Last fall we drove through the park, and while we didn’t see a ton of wildlife, the day itself was rather spectacular, with frost adorning all of the trees. We had heard rumors of bears around the Teklanika River, but we didn’t see them.

The shoulder seasons are not without their challenges. There are no guarantees about the weather, and of course, wildlife doesn’t stick to the script either. However, the park is amazing, especially when you’re able to do it all on your own, rather than with a couple hundred of your closest friends. Because everything is iffy in the park in the spring and fall, it can be tough to plan a vacation around the shoulder seasons in Denali. But it might be worth a shot, if you want to explore on your own… and for some people, the shoulder seasons are when they can be here. For them, Denali should be a “must-see.”

Tundra near the Savage River in Denali National Park, September 2005.

Immediately east of Anchorage is the Chugach Mountains. The first ridge that overlooks the city has peaks to about 3500 feet; head deeper into the mountains and the peaks get taller, and eventually you reach the glaciers of the Chugach Mountains.

About this time of year, we’ll get a rainy, foggy day, and when we get up the next morning, the tops of the peaks will have a fresh coating of snow. Alaskans call this “termination dust”, which is a reference to the end of summer. Termination dust comes and goes several times in late August and September, before the snows settle in here at sea level, usually on a Saturday morning, when we have some outdoor chore, or even worse, a fishing trip planned. The phenomenon is the same in other parts of the state. In Fairbanks, the White Mountains just north and northeast of town will gather a mantle of snow a few weeks before the snows reach the floor of the Tanana Valley.

In Denali National Park, the situation is a little different. The mountains there are quite a bit taller, and most of the park, including the area along the park road is around the 3000 to 4000 feet, so when there’s termination dust on the Chugach Mountains, there’s snow on the park road in Denali. This is an important thing to remember when you’re out in the elements in Alaska; especially in the fall, but in fact, it is important anytime. When it is raining on you, it is snowing just a few thousand feet above your head, and in Alaska, a nice sunny day can become rainy very quickly, and an unexpected heavy shower might have a few hailstones, then a few more, then a few flakes of snow, and before you know it, you have a cold, wet mess.

I was on a moose hunting trip a few years back. We traveled by boat for about 15 miles, and we spent the better part of the month of September at our camp. We hunted the last day of the season. It was a beautiful fall day, with temperatures in the low 50’s. We went into our tents that night, ready to break camp and go home the next day. I woke up around 7 AM, and I heard some dripping on the tent.I was eager to make some coffee and some breakfast, so I started to get dressed and go to our campfire and get the fire started. I unzipped my tent, and was greeted by the sight of six inches of snow.

First snow of the year at Kashwitna Lake near Willow.

I made my coffee, and we broke camp, and rode in the boat for 15 miles in the cold and miserable snow all the way back to town.

Any day now, the Chugach Mountains will get another coating of snow, and Alaskans will moan and complain about how summer was short, and winter is coming. The truth is, winter comes when it wants to come, and summer is really just on loan to us, and we’re going to have to pay that loan back… Any day now.