21-22 October: Winter Camping course goes to Chena Recreation Area!

This weekend saw the first of two trips away on the Winter Camping & Snow Travel course I'm doing at UAF.

We got to the trailhead for Angel Rocks (out on Chena Hot Springs Road) about 1pm on Saturday, and filtered lots of water for cooking from the stream, while having lunch. Mark and Kari, the leaders of the course, drove one of our Ford Expeditions to the end point, where we'd see it again on Sunday. Others on the course are Kari "2" from Saskatchewan (the course leader being from Alaska), Mark who looks like David Beckham, Rosie aka Alice from Newcastle, Lene (?) from Brittany, Emily from Quebec, Katie, Roby from Venus, Patrick and Christinalena from south-west Germany, Mike from California, and the unknown girl. Garrett, also on the course, didn't make it this weekend.

The snow began as we arrived, and never stopped the whole weekend. It was never intense, but a good 4-6 inches fell in all. Thank goodness, as this is a Winter Camping & Snow Travel course! The temperature though never got particularly cold, probably no lower than +15 F. Cold enough to get frostbite though if you weren't careful.

I had a huge 110 liter backpack, with a -20 F sleeping bag, which more than made up for the thin sleeping mat. Clothes-wise I had lots of layers, and plenty of spares in case anything got damp. In the first hundred yards or so the backpack was making my lower back go into spasms, but the fit got progressively better as the trip progressed, thanks to Mark and "Beckham". The first couple of miles were steeply uphill, testing Mike in particular, whose smoking-affected lungs were burning.

The tent arrangements had been made in advance, and in my absence, and my tent partners were Kari (the course leader) and Lene. We set up camp around 5.30pm a little before mile 3, just looking for a reasonably flat area without rocks away from the trail. The tents were simply - a groundsheet, three poles, and a fly. After staking them down with pegs and rocks, the next job was to set up a cooking area, well away from the tents. The chances of a bear giving us trouble were remote, given that we were 14 people, but its worth taking precautions and anyway it was good training. So apart from individual snacks we each carried, all the food was in bear-proof canisters. Mark, Lene and others got some water on the go, while everyone else got involved with erecting a lean-to and furnished it with sleeping bags, to keep us out of the wind and insulated from the ground while we ate. Dinner was an impressive pasta dish, given this was camp food, and hot chocolate and tea were also on hand. The biggest surprise was finding that what felt like a perfectly normal bedtime was in fact only 9pm!

The next morning Mark and Kari got up at 6am and started boiling water for breakfast. I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't even noticed Kari leaving the tent, and the first I knew about it was when she came charging up to the tent and shaking it around 7am waking Lene and I up for breakfast. A couple of packets of instant oatmeal and I was ready to go!

Our tent was down by about 8am, but by the time all the cooking stuff had been packed and all the tents down and everyone ready to go, it was well past 9. It really didn't matter, because as it turned out we had less than 6 miles of travel ahead of us.

I led out the first section, spotting the cairns, but was too lazy to navigate with a compass. Beckham and Christinalena led out the next two sections, and others took a hand also. We stopped for lunch at a cabin at around mile 6, and I was surprised to see between us we had a vast array of food. We had more food than we needed - and more clothes too - but all would have come in handy had we met worse weather, been travelling more slowly, or had someone become injured. As it was everyone was fine, and I took the opportunity to add some calories as I'd had little to eat the previous 36 hours. I'd also had little to drink - probably only a litre of fluid since the trip began, but that was a deliberate ploy so I hadn't had to get up in the night to pee!

In the final mile or two of the trail, Beckham and Patrick started throwing snowballs, but what promised to break out into a big snowball fight never really got going. Mark and I threw some back, but it pretty much ended when Rosie, an innocent bystanding, got a snowball from Mark right in the face!

Before long we'd arrived at Chena Hot Springs Resort. I hadn't brought my swim stuff with me and neither had most of the others. But there were one or two spares, so Roby, Beckham, Patrick, Christinalena and I had the outdoor hot pool, while Mark and Kari went off to pick up the other vehicle and then Kari drove the others back to Fairbanks. Meanwhile we stayed about an hour in the hot pool and jacuzzi. Just before we departed Mark's girlfriend arrived from Fairbanks to tell us that town had also had about 4 inches of snow!

More photos from the trip can be seen at:

http://kiska.giseis.alaska.edu/input/glenn/personal/wintercamping/

Four more days have gone by now and Fairbanks is still coated in white everywhere, and the temperature is dipping to 15 F in the mornings and never getting as high as thawing point. The first day I got back my new car - the Subaru Legacy - wouldn't make it up the hill on Basin Street and was clinging to the ditch. Fortunately, my housemate Andi and her boyfriend Kyle towed me out with her truck! I then went down to "Giant Tire" in town with my office mate Jamie and got a set of "Blizzac" snow tires. Since then I haven't skidded once!