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Hello all!! I've been racking
my brain for some more tales from the north that might be of interest. I could
tell you how at forty below zero if you throw a hot cup of coffee in
the air it will make a loud cracking sound and freeze in mid-air, no joke!!! I
thought about the time that I was being tracked by a bear while hiking by
myself at 1:00 in the morning (I never saw it but could hear it growling,
thrashing through the brush, almost more terrifying!!!). Then there was the time
I was charged by an angry moose on the trail. It was worn out that winter after
trekking through 10 plus feet of snow. However, I decided to tell you about one
of the most hair raising experiences of my life.
It was spring 2000. I
had just come from a warm weather snowmobile ride on the Chena river (for those
of you unfamiliar with what exactly a snowmobile is, I have included a picture
taken in the Alaska Range near Mt. McKinley).  I walked in the house and told my
wife, Dawn, that I was able to do some good water skipping. Water skipping on a
snowmobile is not all that uncommon especially during the spring when the rivers
open up here in Fairbanks. "Skipping" is not all that hard it just requires a
lot of speed and some planning to get from the ice to the open water and back
again. If you get it wrong, you and your snowmobile could end up at the bottom of the
river. I told Dawn to grab the video
camera and film me riding on the open water, I wanted to show it to my friends
later. We strapped our daughter, Alyssa (then 15 months) into the stroller and headed for the
river. Dawn took some great footage. After making a few passes we decided to
pack up and head for home. Just then I noticed two snowmobiles heading for the
same stretch of open water I had just been on. The first person made it across
but I noticed that the rider hit the water awfully slow and just barely made it
to the solid ice on the other side. Just as I was about to mention this to Dawn,
I saw the second snowmobiler attempt to cross going WAAAY too slow. The
machine immediately started sinking down into the water. The rest sort of
happened in slow motion as I saw the rider of the second snowmobile struggling
to get out of the water and not having much luck pulling up onto the slippery
ice. This was when I knew I had to take action. I jumped on my snowmobile,
crossed the same stretch of open water to get to where they were. I found a
larger woman struggling in the water and her very petite friend (the first
snowmobiler) not having much luck pulling her out. I told the smaller woman to
hold my legs and I crawled out on the ice (a technique used to distribute your
body weight over the ice) and adrenaline took over. I pulled her out with
ease. This surprised me, since she was much larger than I was and also the
added weight of the water in her snowsuit and helmet. Much to her resistance, I gave her a ride back
across the open river. She thanked me and headed into a local restaurant to warm up,
dry out and tell her husband what happened. Meanwhile, Dawn was so panicked
that she forgot she was holding a video camera and didn't film one of the most
harrowing experiences of my life!!!
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