River Snowmachine Trip

Some friends of ours have a bush cabin nearly one hundred miles off the road system.  For the second year in a row, Andrew has been able to help make the first run to put in the trail.  Andrew and our friend take sleds full of food, fuel, and supplies, so that our friend and his wife can go right back out and have everything they need to stay for the next six weeks.

After sixty miles of trail through the woods, they follow a frozen river channel the rest of the way.  The river is a normal Alaskan river, with a braided channel system.  The river bed is sometimes 200 yards or more across, but the main channel is only 10 or 20 yards across, and maybe a foot or two deep.  In the photo above the entire braided channel is filled with overflow ice, and has been windswept of snow.

In wind protected places, ice crystals form some amazing feather and wing shapes that may be two inches across! 

Headed up river.

The ice is so smooth, you never know when to expect it...

To fall in underneath you!!!!  Our friend was in the lead and crossed what appeared to be a safe snowbridge (you can see open water RIGHT there beside it!!!), but it was weaker than it looked!  Luckily forward momentum carried him out the other side, and Andrew found another bridge to cross.

As the river channel meanders from bank to bank, you must cross it many times, and this was the first of two very close calls.

More overflow ice coming down from a feeder creek.  This formation appeared to be at least ten feet thick!

In the photo above you can see fresh overflow ice, and the damp spot in the foreground where our friend's machine hit some slush.

Crossing a dubious snowbridge.  Typically if it will hold a human, it will hold a snowmachine and sled.

This one appears to be safe!

Well formed overflow ice, smoother than any ice rink!

Close call number two!  Andrew was riding close behind our friend on what appeared to be good solid ice, when suddenly our friend punched through and once again a miracle carried him up and out the other side, and Andrew was able to swing around the hole at the last second.  He said his left ski was in the air over the hole as he barely missed falling right into the river!  Notice the snowmachine track in the now floating ice in the above picture....yikes!

It happens in an instant, and can take HOURS to recover from if the machine's skis had gone under the lip of the ice instead of over, and had gotten stuck in the river.  SO lucky on both occasions that all was o.k.

Down in the jumble of broken river ice, Andrew found the most amazing formations!  A recent warm spell brought temps in the upper 30's melting the ice blocks on the top side.  In the shadows under the blocks it was still below freezing, helping the most wonderful icicles develop!

The contrast made for a difficult photo, but these icicles are the diameter of straws, and some are over two feet in length!