Got back last night at 11:00 from the White Mountains. Expected to see Caribou and Wolves along with Moose. Did not see any of those. Only saw one Owl, one grouse, and two Ptarmigan, period. Saw lots of Moose sign, two sets of Fox tracks, and Rabbit tracks, but no sign of Caribou, Wolves, or Coyotes.
Snow was deep, with 15 and 20 ft drifts in several places. Got stuck twice, once when trying to yield the trail to Cross Country Skiers. Got over a little too far and sunk the snow machine over on it's side. Had to dig out and get it back over on it's track and it then pulled itself out. The other time was not good. Was riding along about 30 mph and hit a whoop di do in the trail and lost control. Went off to the right and started sinking. Knew the sled I was towing was pulling me down. Stopped and jumped off, big mistake. I was in a drift, and went in over my head. I wallowed around for a bit, till I was able to reach up and unhook the sled. I beat snow down till I got the sled part way down into the hole with me. I climbed upon the sled and put my snow shoes on. I then climbed up onto the top of the snow. With the snowshoes on I walked around to the front of the machine and beat down a path back to the trail. Got onto the snowmachine and it pulled itself out of the hole and I drove it back to the trail. I went back to the sled, got a rope onto the hitch and worked the front around to where it was pointing up out of the hole. I tied the rope to the hitch on the snowmachine and puller the sled back to the trail. After that scare I was a lot more cautious.
Met lots of people on skis, many had dogs towing them. Met a few people on snowmachines. All snowmachiners were headed out. Skiers were at all the cabins, and many were camping out in tents. Weather was beautiful, light snow, temp in the high 20s during the day, in the teens at night.
Tuesday I met a couple who were skiing in, about two miles from the Borialious cabin. The man was not moving well, and he mentioned he had fallen and hurt his leg. Said he was crossing overflow and fell, felt like he pulled something. I gave him a ride across Beaver Creek and up the steep hill to the cabin. The cabin sits on a hill overlooking Beaver creek, don't know why it's called a creek, it's bigger than a lot of rivers. Went back and got his wife also. They had the cabin reserved for the night, with the cabin at Caribou Bluffs reserved for Wednesday night. The lady told me after she got her husband inside she was not going to the other cabin they would be leaving Wednesday morning for the highway. She was concerned about her husband, he was in no shape to ski farther into the mountains. I knew once he stopped moving his leg would stiffen up and he would not be able to walk, let alone ski 24 miles across a rough trail, up and down mountains, back to the highway.
I spent the night up on a bluff overlooking the creek about two miles up stream. I built a small shelter of spruce boughs and had a comfortable night. Tried howling several different times during the night, but got no answers. Yesterday morning I headed out and stopped to check on the couple at the cabin. The guy could not walk, he was in constant pain. The woman was prepairing to ski to the highway for help, and her husband was arguing against it. I dug into my first aid kit and gave him a percocet. I suggested he lie down and we fix breakfast then talk about what we were going to do. After we had something to eat, the pain pill had taken affect and he was not hurting so bad.
I suggested we rearrange my gear in my sled, where he could ride in it. He was all for that. I tow an articulated sled that is smother to ride on than the machine towing it. She could ride on the machine with me. Instead of the regular two hour trip out we took eight hours. Places where I would have just blasted across overflow. We would get off and snow shoe a trail around it. That took time. When we got to the highway, the lady loaded her husband and headed back to Anchorage. You know, they never did give me their name, not did I give them my name. Think I'll go south next week, at least I know there is wildlife down there. This was the third time I have been into the White Mtns and seen nothing.
