Journals of June Creek: Cold on a Mission, This Snow, Can't Touch This

Break it down...

My time in the heart of the interior is almost up. It's been nice spending the week in a house that has real running water and is warmer than 55°, however I am pretty excited to get back to my little cabin in the woods. I wonder how much snow I'll have to shovel just to get to the front door?

Since my arrival about a week ago, the weather has really took a turn for the warm. As I type this it's a little over 20° ABOVE 0! Crazy. The forecast for the next week doesn't put the temperature below 0 AT ALL. I wonder if that's it for the extreme cold? It may sound strange, but I'm a little disappointed to not have experienced the -50° in my cabin. What's it like to take my daily constitution in the outhouse at such temperatures? I might never know!

One of the interesting things about a city that regularly drops to extreme low temperatures in the winter, are the outlets around town to plug your car in...

I guess it would be pretty nightmarish to have a parking lot full of dead cars:) This also helps keep the parking lot free of TOO many cars just sitting idling while their owners shop. Even so, this town has an air quality alert more days than not.

Maizura left a puzzle half finished, luckily for her the weather cleared up and I got out of the house so as not to finish it for her...

I got myself a pair of cross country skis and tried to hit the slopes!

The trails I picked to try out my new skis happened to be hosting a Nordic Competition. I started with the "warm up" trail hoping not to embarrass my nube self too much. However, less than fifty feet down the trail, three kids sped by me. I figured most Alaskan's are pretty pro at Nordic skiing, but this was definitely not the best confidence boosting experience to be sure! It was a little below 0 while I was skiing, so I didn't stick around for the race, as my toes were pretty much freezing off. I can't wait to try these skis out on the Park Road in Denali. I doubt there'll be too many people to humble me there:)

That's about all from the town where you can buy whale baleen in a Safeway parking lot...