Fun at 50 Below Zero

As you probably know, the weather here in the Interior of Alaska has been down right brutal! For the past several weeks we have been locked into temperatures that have gone down to 52.8 degrees below zero. Now our outdoor thermometer only goes to 53 below zero and then it shows blanks. This morning, it showed blanks. So, who knows how cold it actually was!

Along with the bitter cold has come a strange fever. It comes and goes. It can attack out of nowhere. It can cause typically sane, normal people to do very strange things. It's almost like delirium. Yes, it causes average adults to act delirious, maybe even crazy! It's called cabin fever and it's highly contagious during long periods of cold weather.

Well, cabin fever struck the Calvin household this afternoon. After what has seemed like months of sub zero temperatures, Mike and I couldn't stand it. We had to get out! We had to get out of the house and breath some fresh air, no matter how cold it was!

With delirium taking control of our brains, Mike and I decided to bundle up, go outside and start a campfire on which to roast marshmallows. Covered from head to toe, we ventured out to chop the wood and get the fire started. It's amazing when it's this cold how easily wood splits. With the wood split, Mike started the fire and soon had a roaring blaze. Camp chairs were then strategically placed so that we could roast marshmallows without catching all of our winter gear on fire.

I lasted all of five minutes. At that point, I had lost the feeling in my toes and fingers. Right after I went into the house, Dave, our neighbor, came over and kept Mike company. The two of them were marshmallow roasting fools!

Apparently, the cold air was enough to freeze the delirium from our brains. Now I sit at my laptop typing this story while Mike is in the kitchen making a pizza for dinner. See, we are back to our normal selves, whatever that is!

Mike splits wood for the fire.

Blow, Mike, blow! Get that fire going!

Oh, yeah, that's a great fire for roasting marshmallows.

That fire looks nice and toasty!

Kristie tries to stay warm at 50 below zero!

Marshmallows roasting on an open fire....

Jack Frost nipping at your nose....

Those are some good lookin' marshmallows.

Mike's 40th Birthday

Mike celebrated his 40th birthday on Saturday. God's special gift to Mike was very cool. Okay, you may be asking, "What cool gift does God give someone for their 40th birthday?" Well, it was a gift in terms of weather: 49 below zero temperatures!

Mike had wanted to go downhill skiing or snow machining for his big day. However, since the thought of putting Mike on a snow machine that can reach 80 miles per hour was not appealing to me, I decided I would give him the gift of downhill skiing. Not that the thought of Mike zipping down mountains on freshly waxed skis weaving between big trees and massive boulders was any more comforting, it did seem like the lesser of the two evils.

I don't think that I've ever said, "Thank you, Jesus, for the cold weather!" At least not until today! With that said, the two ski "resorts" in the area close when it is colder than 20 below zero. So....Mike decided that he would like to go bowling, instead.

After a short drive to Nugget Lanes (on Ft. Wainwright), Mike plugged in the car and we went inside to bowl a few games with the other 724 families that had the same idea. I never knew that Mike shared his birthday with so many kids under the age of 10. There were pink balloons. There were race car balloons. There were princess themed parties and Star Wars themed parties. There were more parties than you could shake a stick at (I'm not exactly sure where that particular phrase originates, but I have heard at least three people over the age of 81 say it at lease ten times). Okay, I've digressed, now back to the story.

Mike and I were assigned one of the few lanes left open. We carefully picked our bowling balls and proceeded to hurl the balls down the lanes toward the carefully placed pins at the end. When all was said and done, Mike won two games and I won the last one. Personally, I think the ONLY reason I won the last one was because Mike's arm was tired and starting to swell from the holding and throwing 12 pounds of spherical mass.

Leaving the bowling alley was one of the best ideas, as it was swarming with screaming kids who had had entirely too much sugar. After warming up the frozen car, we headed home to cook ribs for Mike's special dinner!

Oh, I forgot to mention that not only was it 49 below, it was EXTREMELY foggy!

I wonder how much vitamin d we will get on this sunny day!

Mike plugs in the car to keep it from freezing.

Mike looks for just the right ball.

Mike is exciting to be bowling and not skiing down

a hill in 49 below temps!

He aims......

He throws.....

He gets.....

Nothing!

Okay, it wasn't Mike who got nothing, it was me!

Sundogs and Birds

December has been an odd month for temperatures in the Interior of Alaska. From December 1st through December 20th, it was one of the warmest December's on record. Since school was dismissed for the Christmas break on December 21st, North Pole has experienced below normal temperatures of 20 below and colder. As a result, Mike and I were able to witness a cold weather phenomena, sundogs.

Sundogs are made commonly of plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, by ice crystals called diamond dust drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection

Along with the sundog we were able to view, Mike and I have been watching the birds in our backyard who have been trying to keep warm by eating copious amounts of bird seed!

New Year's Hike to Wickersham Dome

Mike and I have a New Year's Day tradition that we began two years ago. Regardless of weather, we have spent New Year's Day snowshoeing up to Wickersham Dome in the White Mountains! However, when we awoke this morning and saw that the temperature was 44 below zero, we seriously questioned whether we should risk getting out in such cold temperatures. Immediately, I fired up my laptop to check the NWS's forecast for the day. I was determined that we should not give up so quickly. When I pulled up the NWS's website, the forecast stated: Partly Cloudy. Okay, so far, so good. I read on: Highs around 35 below zero in the valleys. Okay, we weren't going to be in the valley, we were heading up into the White Mountains. So, I continued: Highs 15 below in the hills. SOLD! We were heading to Wickershamm Dome!

As we gathered our cold weather gear, we also put together emergency supplies, just in case we were to get lost after dark. Not that we planned on being out in the Alaskan wilderness after dark in sub-zero weather, but one can never tell. So, we pulled out all the essentials: matches, head lamps, emergency blanket, extra water, extra socks, and chocolate covered pretzels. Once the backpack was packed with the essentials, we loaded the car and headed out.

As Mike and I backed out of the garage, we watched the thermometer drop from 47 inside the garage to 22 below (that is as low as the thermometer goes on my car (it could be 50 below, but it would still only register 22 below)) in a matter of five minutes. I started getting a little nervous that it would not warm up. I mean, how many times have the NWS's meteorologists actually gotten the forecast right in the last, say, three years we've been here. If the meteorologists in Fairbanks were a football team, they would probably be like the Indianapolis Colts, 2 - 14, a pathetic record.

Anyway, I was a wee bit concerned about the temperatures. I was also concerned by the ice fog that was so thick we could hardly see beyond 1/2 mile. This sure wasn't looking good. Finally, as we passed Hilltop Truck Stop, the last gas station heading out of Fairbanks on the way to the Arctic Circle and the best place to get pie between Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle (oh, wait, it's the only place to get pie between Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle), the ice fog abated and the skies cleared. The car slowly climbed up the winding road into the mountains and the temperature jumped to 20 below zero! When we pulled into the parking lot at the trail head, the thermometer registered 18 below zero. Mike and I were in business!

After parking the car, I headed to the little girl's outhouse and Mike prepared a gourmet lunch. Returning to the car, Mike had two steaming cups of noodles ready to eat, along with a piece of butter cream and pecan fudge. Yumm! We devoured our lunches, as we were eager to get out on the trail (that and we were running out of daylight). After putting on all of our gear, we were ready to head up to Wickersham Dome.

With snowshoes on and poles in hand, Mike and I headed up the trail. There were no signs of other snowshoers, just cross country ski tracks that were probably at least a week or two old. As we climbed, the terrain was absolutely gorgeous. The snow blanketed every branch and limb of every tree. As the sun's rays fell softly across the ground, a pale pink glistened on the snow. It was the prettiest alpenglow I've seen in a very long time.

Mike and I only hiked about half-way up to Wickersham Dome. Daylight was quickly coming to an end and we decided it would be best to turn around and head back to the car. Timing couldn't have been better. Just after we made the decision to head back, both of my snowshoes broke. My left foot went completely through the bottom of the snowshoe and my right one was hanging on by a thread.

Hobbling back down the hill, it was tough going. Every step I took, my feet would go right through the snow. Many times, I found myself thigh deep in snow. Of course, you know me. I was not about to let it get the best of me. I whimpered and begged Mike to help me. He was able to pull me out each and every time and we got back to the car without any major trouble. We were able to watch the sun set at precisely 2:58 p.m.

At the present, you will find Mike asleep on the couch with Zoee snuggled next to him. The NY Giants and the Dallas Cowboys are playing the background (Go Giants!). And, I'm sitting on my chair weaving another story about our Alaskan adventures.