The Sound of Running Water

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
~Robert Frost~

Spring in Alaska is as much a feeling as it is directly experienced. The sound of water, at first dripping, but eventually streaming, fills what had been the snow-dampened hush of winter. The orange hue of the horizon now greets my mornings as the sun quickly ascends, flooding the house with intoxicating warmth - enough to lure a lazy cat from torpor. The admittedly still close-to-freezing temperatures suddenly feel tropical enough for shorts to appear along with the buds of new leaves. And, the air smells again, reminding me of my first spring in Alaska two decades ago, the smell of earth and rain. I'm sure the sensory deprivation of winter makes this all the more special, and for right now, spring is a utopian place before the interior's heat, fires, and bugs of summer.

All around our house, the voles and squirrels scurry. A few of the redpolls and chickadees remain, but the winter hub bub at the feeder is just a memory. A hairy woodpecker came through the birches yesterday finding lost caches of chickadee food. I look around and find myself wondering if last year's red fox survived the winter, and will slink past the house again this summer?


Perhaps the bears will come out soon and feed on the road-side grasses?


Last weekend we sought time away from the confines of town, heading to the Castner Glacier in the Delta Range, a few hours drive south of Fairbanks. Snow shoes - my least favorite thing to put on my feet - were needed to head up the glacier due to the deteriorating snow pack, but the views were well worth the effort...

The next day we hiked Donnelly Dome on baking tundra, welcoming the spring, and marveling at the wintery expanse of the Alaska Range.


We keep each other alive with our stories. We need to share them, as much as we need to share food. We also require for our health the presence of good companions. One of the most extraordinary things about the land is that it knows this-and it compels language from some of us so that as a community we may converse about this or that place, and speak of the need.

~Barry Lopez~