Getting Newcomers Hooked on the Whites – A Fun Wolf Run Trip

Post by Corrine

Eric and I love doing cabin trips in the White Mountains National Recreation Area. But after several years, the trips no longer include the same excitement of discovery. On a recent trip to Wolf Run Cabin, we got to experience that vicariously, and it reminded us how lucky we are to have the wonderful BLM recreation area practically at our back door.

We usually do cabin trips by ourselves, but this time we decided to invite company. At first, we invited two friends, Nikki and Eyal, who are also fatbikers (or skiers if conditions are soft). Like us, they love doing cabin trips in the Whites and were excited. But then they both bailed. Nikki because she had to take her husband to the airport Sunday morning (the cabin reservation was for Saturday night) and Eyal because he had a better offer of two nights at Cache Mountain Cabin. 

Oh well. On a whim, I decided to see if my work partner, Nate, and his wife Christi wanted to join us. I’d been pestering Nate to come on an adventure with us for a couple of years, but he usually had some lame excuse. This time, though, he said yes! Neither Nate nor Christi have fatbikes but they snowmachine, and Nate had just gotten a chariot to tow Dizzy, their (obviously spoiled!) one-year-old Bernedoodle (a cross between a Bernese Mountain Dog and Poodle). Nate and Christi had snowmachined in the Whites, but they had never spent a night at one of the BLM cabins. It would be fun to introduce them to cabin life in the Whites!

It was good we invited them, otherwise Eric and I might not have gone to the cabin. Some may think that Eric and I are tough, but we really aren’t. If temperatures are forecast to be -20F or lower, we will cancel our plans. Super windy, forget it. You will find us staying at home by our woodstove. We had already cancelled our December trips due to inclement weather. (The Wolf Run reservation was a rebooking from one of those trips.) Before we asked anyone along, I checked the forecast, and the prediction was for temperatures of -10F to +5F with winds less than 10 mph. It was a little on the cold side but not below our cut off. But we knew the conditions might be worse out in the Whites.

It was a little chilly on our bike ride in to the cabin

Eric and I left early Saturday morning. The temperature at our house was a balmy +10F, but on the way to the trailhead we watched the car thermometer fall in the valleys and rise on the summits. At the trailhead, which is in a low spot, it was a chilly -18F. Fortunately, it wasn’t windy. And the trail slowly climbs, so we knew we would warm up once we started biking. 

The trail was in good shape, and we made good time until we got to the open area before the climb to the ridge. The trail was windblown with drifted snow from some earlier winds, a portent of things to come. We rode over some drifts, but others were too soft. We were constantly on and off our bikes and our pace slowed.

In this area, Nate and Christi caught up. (They had left town a couple of hours after us.) It was great to see them, but their snowmachines made the trail softer and slower to ride. (Overall, snowmachine traffic packs the trail nicely for fatbiking, but it takes time for churned up snow to set up again.) 

Notice the chariot behind Nate where Dizzy the dog gets to ride in comfort!

Shortly after they passed us, we hit the big stairstep climb to the ridge. Several of the hills require you to get off and push. We warmed up a lot with the pushing and the temps rising as we climbed. But we also noticed the slight breeze, which had started earlier, becoming stronger. 

By the time we had crested the high point, it was blowing a good crosswind. We descended the other side and turned straight into that 10-15mph headwind where the trail turns to the northeast. (The Colorado Creek Cabin, less than a mile away down the Big Bend Trail, seemed really inviting right then!) 

Brrr! That much wind was definitely not in the forecast! My face felt flash frozen. I quickly pulled up my neck warmer and pulled down my hat to cover most of my exposed skin. Unfortunately, Eric, who had unzipped his outer layers on the climb, forgot to zip back up quickly. His jacket zipper froze open! Fortunately, his outer vest zipper still worked, so he could cover up enough. (Later, in the shelter of some trees, he was able to fix his jacket zipper.)

Rerouting around the collapsed bridge

Along this stretch of trail to Wolf Run, the views open up, but we didn’t stop to take many photos. We wanted to get to the cabin as quickly as we could. Give me cold over wind any day. The trail was solid, and we should have been fast since we were trending downhill, but that headwind slowed us down. Luckily the wind lessened as we dropped down to Beaver Creek, and by the time we got to the creek, just before the cabin, the wind was much better. But the temp was about -12F and we were chilled.

This is when we really realized the advantage of inviting cabin partners who get there ahead of you. It was heavenly to open the door to an already warm cabin! Nate and Christi had hot water and warm stroopwafels ready for a snack! A little while later Nate and Eric headed out on a snowmachine and gathered more firewood using a chainsaw. This was the first time we had traveled with snowmachiners, and we could see the benefits.

Ahh!  Warm cabin.

The mid-January darkness came early, but with the dark came auroras. And, boy, did they come out! Even as early as 6 PM there were wisps of green in the sky. Christi was so excited. They have too much light pollution at their house to have good aurora views. She kept telling us to come outside and look at them. Eric and I have gotten a bit blasé about auroras unless they are really dancing, but at around 10 PM she convinced us to come look. They were spectacular! Swirling and dancing in the sky. We hadn’t seen them that good in quite a while. Even though it was cold we stayed outside enjoying the light show. 

Aurora viewing out the window -Photo courtesy of Christi Buffington

Since it was their first time in a cabin (and they had their friendly-but-spoiled dog), we gave Nate and Christi the bottom bunks while Eric and I decided to sleep in the loft. The upper bunks in the BLM cabins can be narrow and usually have no railing. I feel like I’m going to fall out of bed if I turn over. I probably wouldn’t, but it feels that way. Unfortunately, the loft had its own problems. 

I told Nate and Christi that it was the job of those on the bottom bunks to keep the fire stoked. Guess we shouldn’t have left that to first-timers. They were a little overzealous and the cabin was pretty warm by the time we went to bed. In the loft, it was downright hot! The loft had a window, but it was frozen shut. Eric and I felt like we were in a sauna. We slept outside of our sleeping bags in just our underwear for most of the night.

In the middle of the night, I heard Nate open the woodstove.

“Nooo!” I hissed down at him.

“Huh?”, he answered.

“Don’t stoke the fire. Let it go out. We’ve been dying up here. It’s finally starting to cool off.”

No!!!!  Don't stoke the fire!!

He seemed a little reluctant but went back to bed without stoking the fire. I didn’t get into my sleeping bag until about 3 AM and didn’t zip up until it just before it was time to get up in the morning. When Nate got up, he stoked the woodstove and we could feel the loft heating up, so we got up quickly. 

Outside, the skies had clouded up and the temperature had risen to about zero, but the wind had also picked up – probably 15-20 mph with gusts. Fortunately, it would be a tailwind. 

After breakfast, Eric and I packed up and hit the trail while Nate and Christi went for a snowshoe. With that strong tailwind, Eric and I felt like we had e-bikes. Wheeeee!!! I’m pretty sure we rode faster going uphill on that trail than we did riding it downhill the day before. 

Christi, Nate and Dizzy snowshoe to the top of the hill behind the cabin- Photo courtesy of Christi

When the trail turned northwest, our tailwind became a crosswind and drifts covered the trail. We were on and off our bikes for a bit, but after we got through the exposed areas, it was pretty much downhill on good trails all the way back to our car. And we lost the wind when we descended to the valley. 

Even with the cold and the wind, it was another great weekend in the Whites. The auroras were a big plus. And it was fun to introduce our friends to the joy of BLM cabins. Nate and Christi are hooked. Maybe next time we can invite them and get them to carry all our camping gear, too! 

Bike in to Wolf Run Cabin

Staying Busy and Having Fun in 2022

Sometimes life seems busy, but when you have some quiet time to reflect…you realize it has been even busier than you thought! We didn’t realize how much we had done in 2022 until we started to add everything up. 

Outdoor Adventures and More

As is often the case, we had a lot of big and small outdoor adventures. We had three week-long or longer vacations and about 15 smaller all-day or overnight adventures and we camped out a total of 26 nights. And between the two of us, we competed in about 20 local races(skiing, snowshoeing, running and biking). We definitely kept with our MO of being physically active outdoors. 

But there is more to our lives than just being outdoors. Corrine continues to work 40-50 hours/week as a family physician. She plans to retire in just a little over two years. Her patients are already beginning to worry who will take care of them when she leaves. She reminds them that she has great partners, so they will all be in good hands. She also continues to make quilts although she sewed a few less this year than usual. 

Quilts that Corrine made in 2022 - not to scale

Eric, meanwhile, has ratcheted up his volunteering. He stays busy advocating for trails and getting people outdoors. He continues to do social media and other work for both the ski and cycle clubs. He has taken over as treasurer for the cycle club. He fits in other volunteering as well, including helping with a big drainage planning project for the neighborhood and doing a bit of work for climate change. He continues to edit a book for his friend, Ned, while still finding time to work on his own writing. (He also got a second woodshed built for us.)

Here's our past year in more detail (with links to our blog posts about these adventures). 

January

Once again, we headed to Hawaii at the end of the month, this time to the Big Island, for a medical conference for Corrine. When not at the conference we hiked and biked and explored the island and, of course, watched many sunsets. Corrine did another sea-to-summit challenge by biking from the ocean up to the top of Mauna Loa. Having a mid-winter break with sunshine really helps us make it through the long winters.

February

Riley and Sam got engaged in Hawaii in June - they plan to get married July 2023

We had planned to ski the American Birkebeiner (the largest ski marathon in the USA) with Riley but he had to come to Alaska, to the village of Venetie, to work on an aurora research project. While he was there, his fiancé Sam (yes, they got engaged this past summer) had a seizure back in Iowa and was subsequently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Fortunately, Corrine already had time off for the Birkebeiner, so she flew down to help while Riley worked on getting home. Sam has since had surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, received six weeks of radiation, and is now getting monthly chemotherapy, all while helping organize a large physics student national conference, continuing to work on her master’s in science teaching and planning a wedding. This woman is amazing! 

Riley, meanwhile, is finishing up his PhD in space physics and will graduate this next May. He just accepted a job at the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they will move after the wedding.

March

We love March in Alaska. We did a multi-day bike trip in the White Mountains National Recreation Area (just north of Fairbanks) once again for our birthdays, we both did the 26-mile Chena River to Ridge race on skis, and Eric skied the Sonot Kkaazoot ski marathon (taking his own path) while Corrine did an overnight bike to Borealis Cabin in the Whites. It was a great month for getting outside and enjoying spring conditions in the snow.

April

This was another great month for spring snow conditions. We had an amazing weekend biking on a trail off the Denali Highway and on the Stampede Trail. And we finally made it to Richard’s Cabin, the last cabin in the Whites that we hadn’t been to. Eric also flew down to Arizona to see his mom who turned 90 this year. 

May

May is a transition month from winter to summer. Corrine’s biking friend, Linda Gryczan, came up for a visit while her spouse did an Alaska cruise. Corrine was able to show Linda some of our favorite biking spots including the Ferry Road and Denali National Park. Corrine then did the Denali Bottom bike race (a 120-mile bike race on the Denali Highway) on a glorious day over Memorial Day weekend.

June

Corrine did another overnight bikepack to Ophir Creek in the White Mountains as part of her training for her July attempt of an Individual Time Trial on the Cross Washington (XWA) route. (A grand depart for the route – bikepacking speak for “race” – happened in May. Corrine had hoped to join that, but heavy late spring snows and then rain convinced her to try later in the summer.) We also did a quick overnight bike to Mastodon Cabin in the Chena River State Rec Area.

July

Corrine spent a week doing the XWA, racing 700 miles across Washington while Eric visited with his friends, Eric and Lorraine in Port Angeles, and then explored spots across Washington, while occasionally meeting up with Corrine. As usual, the bikepacking “race” was harder than Corrine expected. She persevered, after having to make a big 27-hour push at the end, so that we could make it back to Seattle in time to catch our flight home. Later in the month we did an all-day hike on Sugarloaf Mountain near Denali National Park. Corrine also did another overnight, biking to the Upper Angel Creek Cabin. Eric meanwhile did a couple of trail running races.

August 

In August, Montana came up for a quick visit. It was great to see her. Montana continues to live and work in Missoula. She has been busy with her music and has finished several new songs this year. Check out her YouTube channel. She has been working on a new music video (we got a sneak preview over the holidays) and we can’t wait to see the final product. She and Eric meet by phone weekly to work on Spanish lessons and help her figure out how to promote her music.

September

We had a great Labor Day weekend on the Taylor Highway. Eric drove support and did some hiking while Corrine biked with our friend Nikki. The weather wasn’t great, but the fall foliage was outstanding. And neither of us had ever been to Eagle before, so it was fun to explore a new place.

October

We had the trip of a lifetime floating the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon with a fun group of 24 people and seven amazing guides. We got to run rapids, hike up narrow canyons, swim through waterfalls, camp under the stars almost every night, and even see a flash flood. We really enjoyed our 16 wonderful days of being off the grid.

November

Corrine did an early season solo bike trip to Moose Creek Cabin while Eric stayed home, nursing an injury. Thanksgiving weekend we headed down to Hatcher Pass to explore. We got to ski on new trails and explore more of the Mat-Su Valley.

December

Winter weather foiled most of our plans for December. Due to frigid temps, we cancelled the cabin trip we had booked for our 30th wedding anniversary and instead celebrated by skiing 30 miles in a week and re-creating a photo from the year we got married. And then, due to the big winter storm in the Lower 48, our friends, Jill and Beat, had their flights cancelled and couldn’t make it to Fairbanks for our annual holiday cabin trips. The horrendous weather got even worse with strong winds on top of the cold temps, so we bailed on a couple of planned cabin trips and instead had a quiet Christmas by ourselves.

Bad December weather didn't ruin one outing. We participated in a public reading for the book Wheels on Ice: Stories of Cycling in Alaska, in which we both have an essay. About 80 people showed up for the reading! 

Reflections and Looking Ahead

The quiet Christmas did give us time to look back on the last year and look toward the upcoming year. We have several big adventures planned, including doing a ski marathon (Birkebeiner) with Riley and 10,000 other skiers in February, biking across Iowa (RAGBRAI) with Riley and Sam on their honeymoon in July along with 20,000 other people, and doing a hut-to-hut bike trip from Durango to Moab in the San Juan mountains in September. What adventures do you have planned for 2023?

We are excited about 2023 and what it will bring!

 

Thankful for What Alaska has to Offer – A Thanksgiving Road Trip

 post by Corrine

As Eric and I started unpacking our skis at  Denali National Park, I panicked. Where were my poles? I know I packed them. They must be here. But they weren’t. How could I forget my ski poles? 

Eric, standing quietly behind me, spoke up. 

“You could use my classic ski poles and I could use my skate poles. They will be a little long for both of us but will probably work. If not, we can always buy poles in Palmer on Friday.”

Ugh, shopping the day after Thanksgiving. No thank you! It was a solution, but luckily one that we didn’t need to use. The slightly longer poles worked for both of us all weekend. I’m so thankful to have a husband who is willing to sacrifice. And even when it was clearly my own dumb fault.

Thanksgiving Trip to the Mat-Su

It’s common for people to give thanks on Thanksgiving and I certainly have a lot to be thankful for. Starting with a four-day weekend! 

With the kids living out of state and no other particular plans, we decided to head down to the Mat-Su Valley. A winter trip to Hatcher Pass had been on our list for a long time. We had done it once many years ago, long before the ski club down there started grooming trails. We wanted to go again and check out the trails. And then there were all the trails to go fatbiking. We thought about checking out the start of the Iditarod Trail Invitational. Or maybe head into Anchorage and ride the many singletrack trails. Lots to be thankful for down there! 

But November can be iffy for travel in Alaska. Anchorage had just had an ice storm. Would the roads be okay? Would conditions be good for biking? Was there enough snow to ski? We had seen on social media that Hatcher Pass had good ski conditions, so I made reservations at Hatcher Pass Cabins just outside of Palmer. We took both fatbikes and ski gear, figuring conditions would dictate what we did. I’m thankful that we could be flexible!

Thanksgiving Day – A Nice Denali Park Ski

We headed out early Thanksgiving morning, stopping at Denali National Park, two hours from home, to check out some new trails that the park service had started grooming. That’s when I realized I had left my ski poles at home. (I wasn’t thankful for that!) 

Eric skates on freshly groomed trails at Denali NP

Although Eric’s poles were a little long for me, they worked fine. I was thankful that Eric wasn’t any taller than he is! The trails were freshly groomed and fun to ski. We love exploring new trails. We didn’t have a map so we just let the trails take us where they would. Some trails were wide enough to skate, which Eric did, while other narrower ones wound through the woods. We skied under the train trestle and through part of the Riley Creek Campground. It was turning into a beautiful day, and we had glimpses of the vistas through the clouds.

Skiing under the train trestle

We skied most of the groomed trails before getting back into the car and driving another four hours to our cabin. Thankfully, the roads were good for driving. And, thankfully,  we made it to our cabin before it started snowing that night. Our cabin was small but cozy. We settled in and had a quick dinner of turkey soup before turning in for the night.

Small but cozy Hatcher Pass Cabin

Thankful for Groomed Ski Trails

We woke up the next morning to 3-4 inches of new snow and warm temps in the 20s. The owner of the cabins, out clearing the walkways and driveways, told us that the Moose Range – a great place for skiing and biking - was easily accessible by bike from our cabin. After breakfast we went to check it out. The biking was a bit tricky on the unplowed roads and there was definitely too much snow to ride on the trails, so we headed back to the cabin and switched out bikes for skis.

Even biking on roads was tricky

Back on the Moose Range trails (and thankful for an AWD car), we tried skiing. It was okay, but those rutted trails needed more snow to smooth them out. We did a short 3-mile ski and discussed what to do next. The day was overcast with low clouds and the forecast called for a good weather the next day. We decided to save Hatcher Pass for the good weather. So, what to do instead?

Ungroomed trails in the Moose Range were slow going

We knew the Government Peak Recreation Area was nearby and that the Mat-Su Ski Club groomed the trails, but would they be out already? Only one way to find out. We had biked some of these trails in the summer but had never been there in winter. We arrived about noon and were very happy to see groomed trails and only a few people. One more thing to be thankful for! 

Aaah!  Groomed trails at Government Peak Recreation Area

We skied all the trails that were groomed – about 15K total. What fun! Lots of ups and downs and swoopy turns. We even did a little loop through a neighborhood at the end of one trail. I was thankful for the sign that warned about an upcoming whoop-di-doo, but I still face planted. Oh well, the new snow made for a soft landing (thankfully), only my pride was injured! We gave thanks (and a small donation) to the Mat-Su Ski Club groomers for getting out there early and grooming the trails. 

At least the landing was soft!

Grateful for Glorious Hatcher Pass

The skies cleared Friday night and the temperature dropped into single digits, but we still got up early to head to Hatcher Pass. We figured it might get busy later and we knew there was limited parking. We were thankful we did that. We arrived at the Archangel Road parking lot at 9 AM and there were already several cars there. Two hours later the parking lot was nearly overflowing. 

Looking back down Archangel Road at the sunrise

Archangel Road is an old mining road that heads up a beautiful valley. A little over 6 kilometers of road had been groomed. The first 3 kilometers were gently uphill while the next 3 kilometers got a little steeper. Nothing difficult but a good work out. It was a spectacular ski. We got to see the sun rise behind us. The morning light on the mountains was amazing. We kept having to stop and take photos. We saw a few moose off in the distance. Several other people were out on the trail but not too many, especially farther back. We were so thankful to be out there skiing. The downhill back to the car was fun and a lot faster although we both got a little cold. 

Next, we headed up to Independence Mine near the end of the plowed road. We skied the little loop up to the mine and around the old buildings. It was a spectacular bluebird sky day. The sun warmed things up nicely and lots of people were out enjoying the views. After our ski, we parked at a lower parking lot, and ate lunch in our car while watching skiers skin up a mountain and carve curves back down. 

I stop to take a photo at Independence Mine

It was only about 1:30 and we weren’t ready to go back to our small cabin. We had seen online that some of the trails in the east part of the Moose Range had been groomed so we headed over there. The Moose Range has over 40 miles of multi-use, motorized trails and the ski club grooms some of them. Eric found the trails on an app, and we explored some that had been groomed and snowmachined. Several people were out on snowmachines or skis enjoying the day. We wanted to make a big loop but were running out of daylight and neither of us had brought a head lamp. 

Beautiful light on the mountains in the Moose Range 

We stopped for dinner in Palmer at a nice Mexican restaurant, then headed back to our cozy cabin. We had done three separate ski outings that day for a total of over 30 kilometers of skiing. The weather was perfect, and views were spectacular. We were tired but happy, and both thankful to have a spouse that loves to explore new trails.

Pink alpine glow on the mountains as we head back to our car

A Talkeetna Pit Stop

The next morning, we headed home, but we wanted to break up the drive, so we stopped in Talkeetna to do some biking. On an earlier fall trip, we had biked a fun singletrack loop around X Lake and we knew from Strava it was in good shape. It was only about 3.5 miles and we wanted to do more, but it was also a long way back home. We packed up the bikes, thankful for the break from the car, and headed north. On the drive back, we had great views of Denali with the sun shining on the surrounding mountains. 

Denali from the Parks Highway

Short on Time, Long on Thanks

There was so much to be thankful for on this quick weekend get-away. We had good road conditions for the drive down and back. We had great weather for getting outside. We had new snow to make skiing even more fun. And we got to ski on some outstanding groomed trails. We live in a great state with amazing trails. 

I’m thankful for all that, and for having an incredible husband who loves to get out and explore and ski and bike as much as I do.