ARE WE ALASKANS YET?

Now that we’ve lived through (and survived :)) a winter here in ‘the great land’, most residents here would consider us Alaskan. On top of that we’ve been car-free and biking everywhere for over 6 months now; it has certainly been an adventure!

Me and my trusty companion in the dead of winter.

Soon after arriving in Seward at the end of September 2016, my partner and I applied for drivers' licenses – not because we had a car to drive, but because we needed IDs. While at the DMV we chatted with a fellow customer about our recent move and as we received our licenses, she said “Now you’re officially Alaskans.” Though, the lady working for the DMV quickly countered, “You aren’t Alaskans until you’ve survived a winter here.” Everyone laughed and we went out on our marry way. We weren’t exactly sure what winter would hold, but we hoped we were ready. 

Me and our tandem enjoying the view of Exit Glacier.

I’m happy to report that not only have we survived, but we actually enjoyed and learned a lot during our first winter season in Alaska; which by the way, was one of Seward’s snowiest and coldest in years. One local told us “I’ve been here since the ‘80’s and I haven’t seen this much snow and for this long since those days!” The city declared a state of emergency in January because over two feet of snow fell over a weekend, paralyzing city’s resources. We heard that part of the reason the city wasn’t prepared for this was because the last few winters have been so warm that they decided not to budget as much for snow removal and road treatment.

From one of B's many adventures on his fat bike, which does very well in snow. 

Lucky for us, right? We moved to Alaska just in time for a real winter :). My partner was certainly very happy! It took me a bit longer to get used to it, but in the end even I started to enjoy the challenge…mostly out of necessity :).

In winter especially things you probably don’t think much about if you’re driving a car start to matter a lot more on a bike. When you’re precariously balanced on two wheels, biking on slippery snow and ice can be challenging by itself, but then when you add high winds (average daily maximum wind speed in January in Seward is 22mph), cover of darkness most hours of the day (our shortest day was 5 hours 50 minutes), single-digit temperatures, and bicycle path closures, it can quickly become an overwhelming experience. We might have encountered one or two of those conditions at the same time when biking back in Maryland in the winter, but this past winter in Seward we’d regularly have to deal with them all at once. We certainly met our match.

Once I reminded myself (over and over again sometimes) that we moved to Alaska to experience something different, and that our dear multi-use path wasn’t going to get plowed because there were more important places to plow first (debatable from our point of view), I started to trust and embrace my body’s incredible capacity to recover from discomfort and pain at a moment’s notice. I can honestly say that I even started to enjoy the daily adventure of adapting to and surviving the weather conditions.

And to top it off, we were definitely not the only people who biked through the entire winter. There are people who have been living here car-free for years. Seeing others out there in challenging conditions (and we do see cyclists every day) definitely helped inspire us to get out there and bike.

The snow was approx. 2 feet deep here. This was taken on our way to an overnight bikepacking trip. I ended up turning around because my bike couldn't get through the snow. B had a fat bike that worked very well in these conditions.

Excited to take our recyclables to the recycling center!

~ And so, when the snow piled on and the ice started appearing everywhere, we adapted by outfitting our bikes with winter tires and our bodies with lots of layers from head to toe.

~ When 20+ mph wind chills became common and our bike path became covered under feet of snow and ice, we mustered the courage to ride on the roads. Thank goodness adequate shoulders exist in most places, Sewardites are nice folks, and this is a small town!

~ When the darkness of the winter fell, we lit up our bikes with bright lights, and also adjusted our schedules to try to get outside when there was some daylight.

~ When the snow kept pummeling our sweet little Seward for weeks on end, we adapted, through sheer perseverance, and got used to riding in all sorts of conditions.

After all, this winter experience in Alaska confirmed for us the truth of the saying: "There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." And I would add "...and inappropriate bike gear." :)

Happy Spring!

~Modern Akhmatova