Breaking Up

BREAKING UP. Lest any of you begin to truly worry that the strength of our marriage is in question, fear not. After a combined total of fifteen years dating, being married and having a kiddo, our life-buddy status remains both solid and loving. Phew.

The same can not be said for the rivers of Alaska. Spring Break Up has begun.

Break up beneath the Kenai Bridge.

In case the picture is not all-telling, Spring Break Up is when the frozen rivers thaw enough to begin moving at their surface again. The importance of this for Alaskan communities is huge. There are negatives, like flooding and accidents, but epic positives as well. Along with the chunks of ice comes forest debris washed down and out... millions of cords of wood charging down from Alaska's mountains and out toward the sea. As John McPhee points out in his amazing tribute to this great state, some coastal villages farther north in the tundra have no trees in their surrounding area and the break up brings them their only wood with which to build and use for fuel. These are native people that for ten thousand years received the mysterious gift of wood floating down the big rivers, without ever having seen a single tree standing and growing from the ground. Wow.


THE GAMBLER. "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em..." Know when the ice will break, know when it'll run... Yes, there is a lot of betting going on right now. Alaskans living in towns farther up rivers have town betting pools on when the ice will start moving. They set up big tripods on the ice with wires attached to a clock on the shore. When the ice moves enough to tighten the wire, the clock is tripped and the exact time recorded. Winning guesses (date and time) have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars! For you science geeks out there, here is a link to a Stanford University article about the important data about climate change hidden in the betting records of this Alaskan tradition:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2001/october31/alaskabet-1031.html

POST BREAKUP. Beyond floating wood and lucky bets, Break Up also signifies the true end to winter and a quick transition from snowy ground to lush greenery. So now that Spring has sprung, at least a little, Team Leslie has begun our glorious trip planning for Spring and Summer. Words like kayak, halibut, wildflowers, float plane and SUN are replacing words like cold and snow, and our calendar is happily filling with wonderful Alaska Adventures with friends and family.

What follows is an email quote from a local friend regarding a Spring ski trip J has planned in the coming weeks. I thought it was just so very Alaska Adventure, I had to include it:

"He thought we would still likely encounter snow bridges that we would have to climb over if we were pack rafting. He said bears dont usually show up on the marsh grass till about the 20th of May, but he has encountered newly emerging bears in West Glacier creek around that time we will be there and said they were not happy. he recommended we take a gun.  He will be clam digging in chilitna bay on the 27th of april and will give us a snow report then with some pictures. He recommended we pick up with a boat or plane from Wayne's cabin which is the first one on the north shore on the spit closest to West Glacier Creek. He said Wayne died last year and no one is living there now."

Snow bridges, rafting, bears, guns, clam digging, boats, planes, dead-guy cabins? Bring it on!