It is pretty much as "middle-of-nowhere" as you can get without driving a long way, north two hours by car and west an hour by snowmachine. I LOVE riding on the snowmachine and haven't been able to go out much this winter. We haven't had a good amount of snowfall around here until recently. Up north, they have quite a few feet of snow, though a lot of it has been compacted from the warmer temps and wind.
We left early on Friday to go out, gathering all of our stuff to load into the snowmachine sled, and off we went. It is a beautiful drive, normally, but grey skies filled our driving view. Clear skies were in the forecast, so it was only slightly disappointing that we didn't get a good view of the mountain.
Halfway down the off-road, the sky became crystal clear. It was amazing how within just a few miles, the sky could go from the dreary "ruin my good weekend" to "hello blue skies." We, then, even got a small peak of the top of Denali (Mt. McKinley).
The ride in was not bad, as we both had on enough gear to probably sustain us at about 30 below. Even with temps in the positive, if we happen to run into wind, with the wind chill it could drop the temps to 5 or 10 below, which is cold riding on the back of a snowmachine!!
Our friend's cabin sits on a nice lake about 50 miles off the main highway that runs north to south here in AK. It is a nice little two room cabin about 40x40 with a loft, kitchen, and a nice large hoopable living room (look for the cabin hooping clip in my up-and-coming 1 year Hoopiversary vid). Being so far off from the main highway, the cabin is completely off the grid and self sustainable, no running water or electricity. And yes, that means so toilet or shower. Hell-o outhouse :). When you go out there to stay, you tote enough water in jugs that will last for the length of stay. The cabin is heated with a wood stove that keeps the place nice and toasty; way warmer than even our heating system at home (and cheaper!!). It is, however, furnished with a generator for if you want to watch the TV and propane for the stove and non-powered lights.
It was great to go out and not have to worry about anything, just the two of us. There is only two other cabins out on the lake, so we weren't expecting any company. The guy who has a house across the lake is also a friend, but he wasn't there. He actually lives out there in a real house and not a cabin. He is also completely sustained on a wind turbine that generates his electricity and charges up these huge batteries that turn on the generator if he is using more power than the wind turbine is creating. His place is AMAZING. He has a complete view of the Alaska Range out of his living room window. Since this lake is out in the middle of nowhere and only accessible by snowmachine or four-wheeler, he owns a plane in which he flies back and forth into town when he wants. He invented this thing called Mr. Funnel which extracts water from gas in air crafts and has become a multi-millionaire off of it, hence how you has all of this stuff.
We came back pretty early because the temperatures were supposed to be in the negatives and we wanted to make sure our old truck was going to start up. Anytime a temp is in the negatives, it takes a lot more energy to start anything, including the snowmachine, and with my hoop jam going on today, we didn't want to get stuck being there is no cell service out there.
With this new job I just got, I thought this may have been the last weekend we could do anything if they started putting me on the weekend. My BF might be having some out-of-town jobs which would keep him away during the week and only home on the weekends. Hey, at least the new job is closed on Sundays, so I will always have that day I can spend with him. He enjoys working in remote locations, so as long as he is happy, I am happy.
The days are starting to get longer (it is actually light when I get up and when I get off work!!) and I can just taste the spring coming. I. cannot. wait. There is much to do this summer and I can't wait to get started.
So the Hoop jam is today and I am so excited. Hopefully I will have a good turn-out. I also have pics from the Iron Dog I am going to post. Next weekend is the start of the Iditorod and I will definitely have some pics and good information on dog mushing. Have a great week everyone!!
That is such a huge cabin! I love the welcome sign. Is it painted on the door?
ReplyDeleteMy family has a cabin out in the middle of our woods, but it's tiny tiny and always full of mice. We would ride the tractor up the hill to it and have camp outs and wiener roasts. There's a wood stove inside of it, but we only went in winter a couple of times. Mostly a summer thing. Your post makes me want to go out there and get all cozy with a fire and bring the horses out to the snow covered fields. Ahh I miss it!
What is a snowmachine? Is that what we call a snowmobile or skidoo? Or is this some large winter contraption I have never heard of? :D
PS- thanks for your comments on my blog! (I think you're the only one who reads it, lol) I'm glad someone else was as excited and mesmerized by the glow stringing as I was ;) The wraps and breaks or whatever they are called are my favourite part. It looks so intricate.