McCarthy AK Archives ~ Rambling ranger

I’m in the middle of the long dark now. The sun barely rises by 10:00 AM. Then a few minutes after 3:00, it’s already setting. I’m definitely feeling the effects of SAD syndrome. It feels like the long dark night of my soul, too.

The weather this week doesn’t help. It’s cold, windy, grey, gloomy, rainy, sleety, icy – pretty much everything I dread about winter in Alaska. It feels like the grimmest month of the grimmest year of my life.

Fairy Garden — Sparrow’s-Egg Ladyslippers

I need to escape. Most winters I can do this physically, like birds and whales, overcoming the dark and dreariness by heading south and avoiding it altogether. Due to Covid, that really wasn’t an option this year.

But there is a way out. A way to make my winter escape. I can travel in my mind, trading the monochrome greys outside my door for brighter, happier shades, traveling back in time through my photo files to the vibrant colors of summer wildflowers in the Wrangells.

“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.” – Joseph Campbell

Winter Escape — Wild Roses along the McCarthy Road

Perhaps you too are feeling the drain from this long dark scary winter. Is the adversity and uncertainty so many of us are experiencing right now getting you down, too? Join me then on this journey in my mind, a winter escape to a bright and peaceful land filled with the ephemeral beauty of my favorite subject, wildflowers.

Thank you, Tina of Travels & Trifles, for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, You Pick It!

For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Amy invites us to share photos taken at home. I’m one of those wayward drifters stranded by the coronavirus. I’m really far from home right now. And I miss it.

McCarthy, Alaska — Porphyry Mountain – This is the fall view to the east from my front yard.

When this emergency first started to unfold, I made the decision to tough it out by camping, relatively isolated, in the desert. That’s what I usually do in March and April anyway. I obviously didn’t realize then just how bad things were going to get.

Wrangell Mountains — Part of the view from my front porch

When all the public lands and campgrounds closed, I thought about going home to Alaska. I did more than think about it. I made 2 false starts, desperate runs north, panicked, ruled by a desperate heart.

Stairway Icefall is my favorite feature in the Park and the centerpiece of my view.

But home is nearly 4,000 miles away. The road home would take me through dozens of very remote towns and villages, far from any medical care. I felt it would be irresponsible and selfish to go home and possibly expose all those vulnerable people, a modern day Typhoid Mary, to the virus. Shelter in place means shelter in place, right? Not drive thousands of miles.

Goat Hair Ridge — In a slightly different direction…

A friend’s daughter offered me a place in her home to shelter in place. I am eternally grateful for the kindness of strangers. I really am. Words cannot express.

Kennecott national Historic District — I can see the Jumbo Mine from my upstairs window.

But this is in no way anything like home. Home is McCarthy, in the heart of the wilderness, and it’s been home for 25 years, no matter how far I might ramble. I am sheltering in place in Las Vegas, the antithesis of McCarthy. So no, I am not staying at home.

So for this post, you don’t get pictures of where I’m at. You get the view from my front porch. Home. In McCarthy. It’s the most beautiful place in the universe. It’s where my heart is. And I miss it.

(All these photos were taken from either my front porch or my upstairs window)

Tag: McCarthy AK

Winter Escape

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At Home – Where My Heart Is

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