john henry days

so, I've tried a few times to write this particular post.  

I haven't really been able to put anything together that didn't degenerate into ranting and a string of expletives.  so I'll try to keep the writing to a minimum and let the pics do the work.

the basic story:  early days of "The Big Melt", no one in the area save Mike and DK, and the sole focus for the first few weeks is to haul as much wood as possible into the lodge before we lose the snow altogether.  

3 tasks within the "get wood" framework: 

Task 1: yell "timber", fell tree, trim tree of branches, cut tree into 17 foot logs, drag logs to lodge.  

equipment for task : 2 chainsaws, 2 snowmobiles, 1 sled, 1 rope, 1 stick with a hook on it 

(this last tool is referred to as a "peavey" in the timber industry, after it's 1857 inventor, Joseph Peavy.  "you see that stick with a hook on it Joe's using?  what's he thinking?".....seriously though, you really can't go a-loggin' without one.)

end result: 54 logs in 5 days, 1 broken back 

(not really......but this is what I was referring to....when I try to go into detail, I start bitching about snow, and pain, and 12 hr days, yadda yadda....and right at this moment I'm looking out the window at sunshine, the snow has disappeared, the world is 

becoming truly verdant, and I want nothing to do with the demons of  days past....also, we never do yell "timber"....)

so, this is what a bunch of logs in the back yard looks like:

task 2: drive snowmobile around the woods in what appears to be aimless wandering, but is really spotting burls;  harvest said burls;  drag burls back to lodge.

equipment for task: 2 chainsaws, 2 snowmobiles, 3 sleds

end result: a sh*tload of burls....300 or so, I lost count on day three....they do look pretty cool piled up though....

which brings us to task 3: re-stock the woodpile.  

this particular task obviously ranks much higher on the "basic human survival needs in the AK" scale than the previous two.  it's also usually accomplished with 4 or 5 people.  

equipment for task: 1 Chainsaw, 1 snowmobile, 1 sled, 1 Ten-Pound Maul (this is the axe in the very first photo, used to split the log sections into firewood, the "10 Lb." refers to the weight of the head...that photo was taken on Day 3 of wood-splittin')

the basic workflow: Mike drops tree, cuts it into sections w/Chainsaw, goes to next tree....DK hauls sections to woodpile, splits them w/Maul, goes gets more....repeat....repeat...repeat....repeat...for SEVEN DAYS.....

here's what it looked like midway through day 1:

the tarp-line is where we started from....the woodpile holds 19 rows, each row is about 2.5 cords of wood, it takes about two trees to fill a row...when we started, there were three rows left in the pile....we also had to shovel out space as we went, as the snow had not melted yet...good times. 

the photo below is during Day 4.....signs of progress....and signs of madness setting in.

you really need to stay Zen throughout the process....one more axe-swing, one more axe-swing, one more axe-swing....."getting mad at it" would burn you out long before the task was done, and trying to measure progress/gauge how much was left to do would just depress you into immobility....

this might be the point where you ask, "don't they make hydraulic & mechanical log-splitters to do this?"  and while this is true, one that could effectively split the size & quantity of logs we're processing would be prohibitively expensive....

and besides....ain't no machine made gonna beat a steel-drivin' man.....one more axe-swing, one more axe-swing, one more axe-swing....

which will eventually bring you through the mountain....or kill you.

in this case, it brings us to the Day 7  mug-shots below:

it's a lil' bit of wood.  

and I'll ramble on about it no more.

as I mentioned earlier, my world looks a whole lot different today than in the photos above - no snow, everything's green, the swallows returned from Capistrano yesterday, the first float-plane will drop in soon...."The Big Melt" is over.  

good f*cking riddance.

and if anyone needs a dramatically effective exercise regime, I've got just the thing.....

my neighbors stopped by today....

this is how it began...

so….as I alluded to in my last post, we are in the middle of “break-up”.

this is the portion of my year I like to call “The Big Melt”….and for me, the first true sign is when the trees reclaim the patches of ground they have been sheltering from wind, ice, and human travel all winter.

but “break-up” is the term ingrained into the minds of the AK populace (in reference to the frozen rivers “breaking up” the millions of tons of ice that had them locked down for too many months, and ushering in summer)…….and as hep as I am, I don’t think I’ll be able to get “The Big Melt” into the vernacular……c’est la vie.

for the inhabitants here on Trail Lake, there are two defining points to the official beginning of “break-up”….. when we declare the lake no longer useable as real-estate, and thus, landing a plane on it is not a possibility….combined with the fact that we can no longer travel farther than a mile or so from the lodge on snowmobile (and even that mobility will disappear in a few weeks…the snow on the ground will be gone, and the only mode of transportation will be my dancin’ shoes…..in the ’09, that particular point was today.)

at the core, this means:  I can get to no where & no one…..and perhaps more importantly, no one can get to me.

when break-up begins, I know that for the next month or so, there is no way I’ll see anyone else except my fellow lake inhabitants…..and that, for all practical considerations, any situation outside of a 1 mile radius of where I am standing on the planet at the moment is a moot point. 

it takes about a week or so for this to truly both physically & mentally sink in (mind and body must be one, grasshopper)…..but when it does, the freedom this allows is…. fantastic….and impossible for me to properly describe…

but pig fever has no part in the equation, I can say that.

sunrises get earlier and sunsets later….until in a few weeks, they both will be rendered moot points as well.

labor, both mental and physical, is confined to that one mile radius….and thus can be directed only on the problems, projects, and opportunities at hand.

and all problems can only be solved with the resources at hand….so a bit of extra care is taken around chain-saws and their ilk.

360 degrees of snow melts away….at one point, the world becomes the consistency of water-ice (imagine walking through a 100 million gallon tub of Rita’s Lemon Ice, except this really doesn’t taste delicious..…ahh, Rita’s…I do miss you so…)….and then, spots of sweet terra firma appear. 

new species of bird are returning to the lake by the day…cranes, redpoles, woodpeckers, swans, gulls, geese, swallows…loons soon enough….a 7 am that was dark, cold, and silent as the grave two weeks ago is now sunlit and awash with an absolute explosion of sound.  some might liken the sounds to a cacophony, others a symphony…..but it is an explosion, without debate. 

for this guy…it is truly a joyous noise made unto DK.

bears are coming out of their dens hungry and beginning to roam, we anticipate seeing one wander through here any day now….and later, when the world is even warmer and more mellow, my personal favorite denizen of the AK, the porcupine, will stroll through….at the most relaxed pace a living being can have.

 

in The Big Melt version 2.009, the inhabitants of Trail Lake consist of the woodland creatures, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 21 chickens and a total of two human beings….myself and my brother-in law, Mike.

my sister flew out on the 17^th of April, as she had to be in civilization for the next month…we needed to find a summer apartment in town, her daughter would be graduating from UAA, our sister would be graduating from UAF, and our mother would be arriving in the AK to witness said events and hang out for a month…so she had things to do.

interruption for a solar update – Helios just set as I was typing this, 10:01 pm

we had already lost snowmobile travel at that point, and that was the last time a plane actually landed….the lake was getting sketchy, but still useable for a bush pilot with experience.  and cajones.  

so a friend of ours who had both (and a plane, obviously) popped in and whisked her away.

we didn’t officially declare the lake finito & pop the break-up champagne until the 20^th of April, when it was clear that no one would think of landing on that mass of slush…...so 4/20 was a good day…..go figure.

but in reality, since the 17^th, Mike and I have been the sole scientific observers for this part of the globe. 

that will remain so until somewhere in the middle of May, when the lake is ice-free and suitable for float-planes.

so….

two men, all alone in the wilderness….what shenanigans might occur?

 

I’ll answer some of that question in the next missive…. disturbingly similar to the love that two men in an 8X9 cell together can share, the first couple of weeks could be described with two words ….Wood & Pain……but no worries, kids…..this is the emerald forest, this ain’t OZ….

sittin' on my stoop, drinkin' a 40....

two-headed boy

why is this man smiling?  

because this pic's taken on the third straight day of 45 degree temperatures, clear skies, and golden sunshine 'till after 9 pm......and he's out pulling trail markers.  

this means we are effectively declaring our trails kaput for hauling.  

which has been a long day coming.  Over the past three weeks, we've made runs into town at a ludicrous pace, bringing in a years supply of fuel,  2 months worth of groceries, furniture, construction supplies, etc. etc.....more on that later....

this day was a glorious day.  the shot above was taken on our trail to the Susitna River, about 6 miles out from the lodge.  

the shot below is from about 10 miles, a different viewing angle (by about 45 degrees) on Mt.Susitna than I normally get.  

so it's sunny, warm, beautiful views, the world's melting around me, and I am whistling a happy tune (actually, I'm listening to the Black Keys in the "moose" shot) as I slow-pedal my ass down the trail.  

Why is this man smiling?  

Because this day is the last time he's going to be driving a snow-mobile this far down the trail.  

After 4 days on, 1 off, 5 days on, 1 off, 3 days on.....of riding up and down these trails, 84 mile shots at a time....going to bed at 1 am after a day of some at times absolutely brutal riding, thinking, "what am I doing tomorrow?.....that's right, another 84 miles.....".  

I won't lie to you, it's a gorgeous 84 miles....and there wasn't a single day of running that I didn't feel awe at least once as I looked at the world around me....but as the trails fell apart (about two weeks early, due to that handy volcanic ash all over the place) it became like riding a mountain bike in a quarry for 84 miles.  Not to mention the at-times ludicrous loads we were pulling around said quarry....I'll get around to you, loads...

why is this man smiling?  

because this day was a good day.   Riding gently along this trail on this day, pulling markers as I go, means that there is too much sunshine for far too long, too many warm days, too much green bustin' out, for the snow (and this trail) to exist much longer.  It means that Spring is truly upon us, that Winter is dead where he stands....and I can laugh as I watch him fall, in anticipation of dancing on his grave.  Which makes pulling markers feel like plucking hi-viz orange flowers of victory out of the snow's feeble grasp.

And f*ck me if it wasn't a beauty day to take a ride.  The below shot is overlooking Alexander Creek (and the mountain again (from a slightly different angle), about 5 miles out of the lodge.

so...all of the dark, crusty areas in the photo above are where the volcanic ash is getting medieval on the snow, really accelerating the melting process....good on ya, ash!  God bless ya, Mt. Redoubt, as far as I'm concerned.  F*ck you, snow.   

except that...the darker circle of ash in the lower left-hand corner of the shot is actually carbon-based, rather than volcanic, in nature.

During one of the races this winter, a race volunteer (we'll call him X) told us that his long time friend had recently died.....and had asked X (prior to the actual act of dying) to scatter his ashes on the Iditarod trail.  

Which go and scatter them X did, after asking us for suggestions on picturesque spots.

actually, I'm not sure if "dumped", rather than "scattered", might not be more appropriate verbiage, judging by the spray pattern captured in the photo.  

regardless, a mitzvah was done.   

And it's certainly not a bad spot to hang out in for eternity.  the shot below is from the Dust's angle/point-of-view.

a week ago, that Dust was covered by a few feet of snow, and in another week, it'll be in the soil.  So the day held sights & surprises of good timing. 

Why is this man smiling?  

because this day means that the days depicted in the shots below are over and.....with a teary tip o'the cap to Harry the K....outta here.

So, above is the sled hauling in empty 55-gallon fuel drums, below is a shot of full drums returning from town.  The top load weighed about 150 lbs, the load below around 1500.  

Besides the weight factor, there is a slight adjustment in mental attitude when transitioning from pulling a bunch of empty plastic jugs around to hauling a bomb.

We ended up bringing in 17 drums of diesel fuel; 8 drums of regular gas; about a dozen 100 lb/ half a dozen 40 lb /and two dozen 20 lb bottles of propane (the 20 lb bottle is your standard gas grill size).  

I'm yanking 1500 lbs of explosives around every day, all over the F*cking AK...with a snowmobile...on a g*ddamm frozen river...WTF??   

above is the "Fuel Point"....so we only have one big crater, rather than a dozen little ones, on the estate....

yeah, that's a riding lawnmower......my life is ridiculous....

So why is this man smiling?  

Because this day unshackles the mind to anticipate days that are only a few weeks away.....days that some friends have expressed concern/disbelief as to their actual existence....days like the one below...days when the lake's in blue, the whole world's in green, and me in my summer-time clothes....  

this interlude brought to you by Polly Jean Harvey....

So,  PJ Harvey was on "The Tonight Show" last week....normally, I'm not watching TV at this hour, but we had just returned from town after a run, and my sister had it on...I came in as they were teasing the performance, going into a commercial break.  

As the commercials played, I turned to my sister and said, "Y'know, I just realized I've been watching this woman go insane for almost 20 yrs* now....I wonder where she's at..."

don't get me wrong, I love the kid.   her first couple records are in my pantheon as a most perfect representation of primal female rage...eternal, blood-soaked sounds.    Stab-you-in-the-heart passion, just great stuff, she absolutely rocked.   

You knew then she was crazy, but this was a craze of heartbreak and destruction that all humans know to some extent.

Since then.....she seems to be drinking a cocktail of multiple personalities - I've dug some stuff, didn't others....but each new rekkid did feature different tweaks of sound, as well as seeming to unhinge a different portion of her....

...and then the commercials ended and the "Tonight Show" performance began......wow....I'm still not certain what I saw, but I know what I saw was f'*@ing nutzo....I just wish it had been Carson hosting so I could've watched him drop dead.....

PJ Harvey & John Parish- Black Hearted Love - Jay Leno
Uploaded by spektorholic

ahhh, god bless ya, Polly Jean.  

50 years ago you would've been institutionalized and spat out like Nicholson at the end of "....Cuckoo's Nest".   In my century, you're platinum....

(*17 years, to be exact.  Dry came out in 1992.....17  f''*@ing years....)

waiting for spring