The Slushes of October

Beverly and I have threatened to go out to Talkeetna repeatedly this fall. She booked me off a week and I was determined to go. While she was driving up with Rebecca, I told her we were going and so, this past Monday we spent the day finishing up details and getting ready, and...way to late in the day...we left. I wanted to be gone by noon, but so many things come up and we finally were underway by 5PM. The disadvantage of leaving late is that you also arrive late, and this late in the year, late means dark. The drive was uneventful and we were the only vehicle in the parking lot, so we got unloaded and loaded into the 6 wheeler and we took off up the trail. It didn't take 100 yards for us to find that the trail was going to be wet. We had rain, then snow, then melt on top temperatures just below freezing which resulted in lots of standing water on the trail. Some of the water was a foot deep and a hundred yards long. Because the water is on the verge of freezing, there is a floating mud/snow/slush combination which is pushed along in front of the 6 wheeler like a tidal wave, and flowing along the sides and over the floorboards. Each time coming out of the water, I would have to sweep 6 inches of slush off the floorboards. As time went on, it would build up under the gas pedal and the brake making it impossible to push down on the gas or let off on it. After a while, the cooling system in the 6 wheeler started to fail and 6 miles into the 10 mile trail, it overheated with antifreeze spouting out the top of the reservoir. I put my thumb over it and scooped the snow out from around the fan, and it eventually cooled down, and we drove on. The snow was pretty deep the further we went and if you could see behind us, you would have seen the tracks of the differential in the snow. The 6 wheeler handled amazingly well and we drove right to the cabin, unloaded and chipped some of the caked-on ice off the 6 wheeler, and settled in for the night. We arrived just after 9 PM, which is about normal-4 hours door-to-door. We finally went to sleep and relaxed the next day (Tuesday) until I decided to go out and see how the machine had fared. It started right up, but the front axle wouldn't engage which meant it wouldn't back up very well. I finally got it turned around and eventually it warmed up enough for the axle to begin working and then I drove up the trail to see what it looked like in the daylight. About 8 inches of snow had fallen in the night and it was still snowing hard. I drove up the trail, pushing snow the whole way with the front bumper and thinking that much more snow would high-center us and we would be tromping snow in front of the machine the whole way out. I returned to the cabin and told Beverly that we needed to leave. She was thrilled. Not really. We both love being out there and it was quite an ordeal getting there. We wanted our two-day vacation, but turning it into a 6 month vacation with no way out wasn't that attractive and option, so we packed up, loaded up, and started out. We pushed snow the whole way, except when we were slogging through slushy water. The engine overheated again, but I discovered that if I kept the engine speed up, it would be OK. It just got hot if it was left idling. This meant Ihad drive faster than normal, but the trail was a little smoother with all the snow. I'm glad we hadn't waited another hour, because the snow was building fast. When we got to the parking lot, I had to shovel about 8 inches off the trailer before I could load the 6 wheeler, but the truck started normally and we headed for home. We stopped in Wasilla and had dinner and then came on home. On the way up to our driveway, we hit an icy patch and not only could we not go up, but we slid back down, so I eased it into a spot on the side of the road with a little room to go around, unloaded the 6 wheeler and the stuff, and came home with the 6 wheeler. Today I will go put chains on the truck and bring it home. Another Alaskan adventure! What could be more fun?