Perspective

Recently, for Dakotah's Birthday, we spent three days at the Manitoba Cabin in the Summit Lake area of the pass. For anyone who doesn't know, it's a little compound consisting of a main cabin, yurts, outbuildings, and sauna; that grant you access to the trail up Manitoba Mountain. In the summertime you can hike it, and in winter you can backcountry ski or snowboard (as long as there's snow).

We booked the place in August. You have to book well ahead of time to get a spot. Distance from Anchorage is quite close and folks make the jaunt and fill up the place pretty regularly. Making a reservation for January, one would assume to expect loads of deep snowpack in the mountains. Right? Well, on any given normal year in Alaska; yes. This is not exactly a normal year. Don't get me wrong, it's not always fluffy powder we're anticipating. When we saw the 28" of snow in the forecast, we sure as heck didn't expect it in the form of rain.

But hey, a cozy off grid cabin in the woods, with friends, sauna, and healthy supply of already split wood... how can you go wrong? You play more games and talk with your friends into the wee hours of the night. It's a chance to get to know people deeper and bond in a way that's hard to do in "normal" life.

We did get out on our skis every day. Our night excursion, assisted by headlamps, turned into a super soaker. Luckily the stove was stoked, the cabin warm and drying things out was easy. We got to stretch our legs and the dogs got to romp.

The last day, we made it to the top of tree line. It was colder and the snow was significantly better at higher elevation. But the storm brought with it 100 mph winds and either compacted the snow or blew it away. Avy danger was high so we stopped once we heard a whoompf. We ate some snacks and headed back down. We got in a few turns and called it a day.

The last night of our reservation a couple more friends showed up from Seward. We were planning on driving back early the next morning to open the shop, but given the snow conditions (and quite honestly the condition of the mattress) we decided to drive back that evening.

Overall, it was a good trip. Also, a good reminder not to hold too tightly to your expectations. Hope for the best but be ready and able to adapt to what you get handed. Not to mention some perspective on gratitude. Which Alaska has a tendency to show us around every corner.