Woke up around 7a--Mindy was already up. Made myself presentable. George has a sore throat. Breakfast is bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast.
We suited up (including George) and went out to learn how to snowshoe. The hardest part is getting them on--it takes another person (who preferably isn't already wearing a pair) to strap you in. We were all expecting a variation on tennis rackets, but like all sports, it's all EXTREME and day-glo metal. The actual walking part was easy--think walking in huge flip-flops--but exhausting. George and Martha dropped out quickly (I thought it was game of them to attempt it at all) while Mindy and I and another midwestern woman went down a trail. We went about 10 minutes more, thought we might get lost if we went further, and turned back. I was drenched with sweat by the time we got inside.
Lunch was a salmon burger and bean soup. After some rest, we went over to the visitor's center run by the Park Service. Ranger DaleLynn told us that the "Gates of the Arctic National Wilderness Park" is the second largest in the system--8.4 million square miles, no roads, structures, trails, or paths, formed in 1980 due to the pipeline. We watched a Nova video on the park--kept falling asleep after the morning's exercise. Went back for a nap, then dinner--chicken and pasta.
We thought we would get another nap, but then someone shouted--lights! We rushed around, got our gear on, and ran out to see--not much, although there was definitely something there. Some people were oohing and ahhing in what had to be positive thinking or hallucinating. We went back in to wait for better lights--at least it was clear. A second attempt yielded about the same level of success in about half the time. We hunkered down in the lodge, checking every half hour or so. The guy running the weather station dropped in--he works midnight to 8a, and downed two mugs of coffee while taking back two more in cups. He had just come in that day with a new snowmobile, dragged behind another one on a sled. He's got another one still at the depot, 30 miles away--you don't want to be without transportation here. Mindy went to bed, and I checked in with her every hour until 1a, when it became clear we had seen what we were going to see--imagine a rainbow going from horizon to horizon, then turn the rainbow dark grey. Well, we will get two more chances in Chena.
Beard Day 6: Me am clean shaven (comic book joke).
