So, the plan was to meet up Sunday evening. We decided since roads were kinda icy that we should bring both cars. One vehicle has 4 wheel drive (vehicle A), but the other (vehicle B) only has 2 wheel drive, no winter tires, and no anti-lock breaks. Both cars did fine on the main road. We got to the road the cabin would be on, and it wasn't plowed yet (that area got about a foot of snow on Friday... we know it was plowed as of Thursday). We still decided to take both cars.
It wasn't TOO long (maybe 1.5 to 2 miles) before vehicle B got stuck. It ended up getting stuck 4 or 5 times before it was all said and done. Thankfully the driver of the other vehicle had a little shovel and some kitty litter... that's what got the other vehicle out (along with us helping to rock the car back and forth to get out of the rut that had formed by spinning tires). We had abandoned vehicle B at one point at a little pull off, and then walked a mile and a half back toward where vehicle A was. We all get in vehicle A and proceed on... but then the tire tracks that were on the road ended. Vehicle A made it a little farther, but ended up getting stuck in the slushy snow before long too.
At this point we're about 3 miles from our cabin. It's almost midnight. We had planned to only be walking 0.2 mile to the cabin, so we didn't pack as lightly as we could have. After discussion, we decided to abandon that night and go get a hotel room. But first we had to get vehicle B back out of where we abandoned it. Thankfully that vehicle only got stuck one more time... and we were all so glad to get back on pavement/plowed road.
The hotel we ended up with was about 45 minutes away from where we got back on the highway, and we had to knock on the night manager's hotel room door to ask for a room. It's now 1am. We got a room, all crashed, and got up the next morning and didn't even shower... just got packed up, ate breakfast, and got back on the road. We were all expecting to be staying in a rustic cabin, after all!
We went to Kenai since we were so close... it's right on the coast of the Peninsula and there are some great views there. I hadn't been there before, so this was my first view of the area.
Now, this cabin would be on a lake, but (we were told) a mile walk across the lake. They knew for sure that road going to the lake was plowed. So we headed out there, decided we'd need to make 2 trips since we couldn't carry everything in one, and headed across the lake (snowshoeing). Well, the cabin wasn't where we thought it was, so we were wandering aimlessly in a foot or so of snow on top of the lake for about an hour and a half before one of us finally called the Refuge office again and asked for better directions. We're told the cabin is CLEAR across the lake... I was losing my patience and good attitude very quickly. But we had to get there. OK... let's push on.
There were some ice sculptures in Soldotna that were pretty neat, so we had to stop and get a few photos. These sculptures were all over the place, but there were a couple we really liked.
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| Yeah, not an ice sculpture (clearly), but still pretty cool! |
Then we went to the Kenai Wildlife Refuge Park HQ office and talked to them (they own the cabin we were trying to get to) and asked if that road has been plowed yet. They were JUST getting to plow it right before we left the office, but in the mean time we asked to just transfer our reservation to a different cabin.
Well, there were spots with overflow... so it was slushy on top of the ice but under the snow. Very messy and hard to snowshoe through. It was also about 40 degrees outside and sunny. At one point I left one of my bags because it was too heavy to carry anymore. At another point down the "road", I got off balance in the slush and fell. We ended up continuing (I needed a little encouragement after that fall... ice meets knee doesn't feel very good!), and it DID get better (THANKFULLY!!!) and we made it to the cabin. We got settled and then the other two went back to the car to get the rest of what we needed... and to bring back stuff we didn't need so we wouldn't have to worry about it the next day. I stayed to tend the fire that we got going in the wood burning stove, and after they got back we cooked food, melted snow, and played some cards. It was really fun once we got settled... but we didn't have a ton of time to relax like we had hoped.
Once we knew where the cabin was, it was only a 35 minute walk across the lake to it, and there was a fairly established path that we could walk on. So the trip back to the car on Tuesday morning wasn't too bad. The good thing was that we really worked very well together doing all the problem solving we had to do in those couple days. We each had our moment(s) when we were exhausted, defeated, etc., but we worked through each thing and got the job done. We are 3 very different people, but it worked out well. We all agreed that we had fun, and we MUST go back to this cabin. The fact that we all ended the trip wanting to go again... I think that says a lot.
I didn't end up bringing my big camera to the cabin, but I did get a few photos:
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| Our cabin is a public use cabin. It was very comfortable once we found it! This cabin is only accessible by boat in the summer and by ski/snowshoe in the winter, and it backs up to wilderness area. Very quiet and peaceful! |
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| Looking from the cabin across the lake... the trail you see would take us back to the boat landing on the far side of the lake (beyond where you can see the trail goes here) where our vehicles were left. |
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| This is from the cabin just after sunrise... it was a beautiful morning! |
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| We're ready to leave the cabin and head back to the vehicles. We ended up seeing the next night's renters on the lake. Good timing! |
