The mountain ranges hide unexplored treasures, an hour’s hike from any Walmart or Fred Meyer in Alaska: unnamed creeks, beaver dams, emerald ponds, nesting eagles, lumbering moose, whistling marmots, fox, lynx, and tricksy ravens.

Two Switchbacks Away

February is finally in the rear view mirror, and break up is just two switchbacks (months) away.

Definition of “break up:” the season

when silt from the Matanuska River clogs air ducts — no, I’m not talking about furnace or car filters;

when creeks bowl rocks down their whitecap lanes;

when rivers gnaw at impudent homesites;

when debris dams the icy necks of waterways;

when potholes pock our streets and great, black puddles douse angry pedestrians;

when fuzzy willow sprouts climb branches, and Alaska children scale white birches.