Even the dogs have beards.

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When most people think about life in Alaska they immediately think winter, cold and of course, snow.  However, the winter thus far has been quite mild, well, actually really mild.  I felt almost embarassed when I talked to my sister back in Ohio this past weekend and she was talking about how bad the roads were due to the winter weather. 

The uncharacteristic Alaskan weather prompted Eric and I to head up to Talkeetna on Saturday morning.  We felt it would do us some good if we had a reason to wake up before the sun – at this point, we only have 3-4 good hours of sunlight and it is really easy to sleep the day away on the weekend.  We wanted to get out of the house and find some snow.

The small town of Talkeetna (pop < 900) is located at the base of Mount McKinley.  Most people recognize this mighty mountain by this name but technically is named Denali, which means “the high one” in the Athabaskan language, and which is also the name currently recognized by the State of Alaska (in 1896 the mountain was named Mount McKinley, after the former Governor of Ohio and future U.S. President William McKinley).  This town is extremely busy in the summer with tourists, hikers, climbers, you know, the typical people that flock to Alaska in the summer.  We thought it would be cool to check it out during the winter when not many other people would be there.  It’s only about a 2 hour drive so why not – heck, we live in Alaska.

Well, the drive was fun.  As we got closer, we definately found the snow.  We had breakfast at a quaint establishment on Main Street that is known as the base for international climbers making making their way to climb Denali.  They offer accomodations similar to a hostel and overnight guests were eating in their PJ’s reading books and playing the piano.  It was definately a refreshing get away from the bustling city life of downtown Anchorage

From there, we walked around town visiting the shops that were still open and even checked out the Little Susitna River.  Overall, it was a good day.  We did notice that the men seem to all have beards though.  It may just be part of mountain life.  As we got back into the car, ready for the ride back to Anchorage we even saw a dog that had a beard too!

But just to ease the concerns of my Ohio family – it started snowing this morning and has not stopped.  A snow like this back in Ohio would cancel school and the scrolling warning across the bottom of the T.V. would shut down all activities throughout the city.  But in Alaska we just go about our lives.  We just leave for work 30 minutes earlier and continue to press on.

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Filed under Alaska, Ohio, Talkeetna, family, snow, winter