People who depend on river travel to remote cabins, as well as trails for mushing and snow machine use, have had to be very patient this year in the Upper Susitna Valley.
Iditarod dog musher of Sundog Kennels, Jerry Sousa, was recently surprised by the warmth of the sun in February, when there are usually sub-zero temperatures.
“For us here locally, I’ve never seen the Talkeetna River running wide open in January. It wouldn’t surprise me if it opened back up in March.”
Sousa says the warm weather can lull people into a sense of complacency.
“I was out snowmobiling yesterday, wasn’t really prepared for getting stuck, and then here I am in a foot of overflow and pretty doggone stuck.”
That complacency can extend to not bringing the proper gear, says Sousa.
“They’re kinda insulated, but they’re still just cotton jeans. I had a couple of jackets, an extra pair of gloves, and a lighter. I wasn’t expecting to go that far out, then I get this wild hare, want to go…do this, then go do that. Next thing you know, it’s getting late in the day and I had to call home and say it’s going to take me quite awhile to get out of this.”
Fortunately, Jerry was able to dig out his snowmachine, which was heavily laden with ice, and return home safely. He said the experience reminded him of the need for caution in a warm winter.
“It’s kind of a wake up call. I think people need to be really careful, especially running up and down the rivers or crossing the river this year. We’re used to having it nice and frozen, and I think it’s just really dangerous for us to try to get out there any more.”
Jerry Sousa says the November 30th earthquake has had an impact on the ice along with warmer temperatures.
“We had a little bit of cold weather, then we started getting all this snow….The earthquake occurred and cracks the ice, and the weight of the snow is on top of the ice. All that water is sitting there, and I bet in quite a few places the ice is probably pretty thin. It can be real troublesome.”
Sousa says the tough conditions are making life difficult for people with remote cabins.
“There’s a few people…having difficulty getting in. A lot of them are working together to make overland trails. They’ve got to cross some beaver dams and cross some water that’s supposed to be frozen.”
The instability of river ice has been particularly dangerous this year. On the other side of the Susitna in Trapper Creek, longtime resident Kathy Ernst has seen impacts as well.
“In the last couple of years things just are not predictable. We’ve seen temperatures way below zero, and the next day they’re sixty degrees warmer.” Ernst said the new conditions are a big departure from the way things used to be. “We used to routinely start being able to travel back and forth from Talkeetna to Trapper Creek by Thanksgiving.”
Watching the river ice on the Susitna from the end of Main Street in Talkeetna has been very different this year. At some point it did freeze over, but warmer temperatures caused it to open up again. Kathy Ernst says that has put a damper on cross-river travel.
“I’m not aware of anyone being able to go across the river easily at this point, or at all….We had some good freezes, then we have warmth, which gave you overflow. It’s made river travel much more dangerous for sure.”
While there’s a lot of winter left this year, two things to remember to pack in your to-go back are prudence and patience.
