Cool advice — Dropping temperatures don’t have to mean dropping activities

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Baby, it’s cold outside. But that’s no reason to stay inside.

Thermometers on the central Kenai Peninsula have registered single and negative digits since last week. But just because the temperature drops off, doesn’t mean outside activity has to.

“We live in Alaska, you know? If you’re gonna live up here, you gotta stay outside. Otherwise, you might as well move out,” said Justin Moore, of Soldotna.

Moore puts studded tires on his bike and rides in the winter. He used to be an avid snowboarder and lately he’s predominantly a cross-country skier. He did the Gatineau Loppet ski marathon in Canada last year, and is training for the 50-kilometer classic ski Jizerská padesátka marathon in the Czech Republic and the 60-K freestyle Dolomitenlauf ski marathon in Austria in January.

He said he tries to get outside and do something every day, no matter what the weather on the peninsula brings.

“It’s better than Fairbanks. I talked to guys up there and they’re skiing in 40 below zero. It’s been 20 below every day, so we have it easy down here,” he said.

The key is to carry plenty of water to combat dehydration and dress in layers for extra warmth to match the temperature — but not too many layers. Overheating leads to sweating, which makes clothes damp and even colder.

“I’m usually overdressed, which is not good,” he said. “I always worry about falling on the outside loop or a moose catching you and you’re stuck, so I end up wearing too many layers and paying the price, I think.”

Moore said the coldest conditions he’s been out in is biking at minus 35 degrees, which was more like minus 50 with the wind chill.

“I survived, barely. It was a difficult ride. No gears would change,” he said.

On Sunday, Moore was freestyle skiing around Tsalteshi Trails behind Skyview High School in comparably balmy 4-degree weather. Skyview cross-country ski coach Kent Peterson and Skyview skiing alum Tommy Honer, now a freshman at University of Alaska Anchorage, were also out circling the trails.

Peterson said the ski team isn’t allowed out at minus 10 or colder, but the weather doesn’t keep him inside when he’s skiing on his own. He’s skied at minus 18 before.

“The nice thing is when it’s cold it’s really pretty out,” Peterson said. “… It’s kind of cool, you’re outside doing something when everyone else is inside hiding.”

The flip side is if he got hurt, there’d be no one around to help. That’s why it’s a good idea to ski with a friend. Two people can also check each other for the telltale white patches of beginning frostbite on faces, where it’s difficult to feel it happening. Dressing in layers was the skiers’ main advice, including wind briefs for guys and different thicknesses of underlayers depending on the weather. As a general rule, synthetic materials are better for active pursuits, since cotton gets soggy with sweat and loses its insulating abilities.

“They say cotton is really bad, but I still wear cotton socks,” Peterson said.
“You just said your feet were cold,” Honer pointed out.

For heads and faces, warm hats, headbands, neck and face gaiters and balaclavas are options, especially if an outdoor enthusiast doesn’t have nature’s insulator.

“I never wear that stuff when I go out and ski when it’s really cold. Facial hair helps,” Peterson said.

Keeping skin covered is important to protect against frostbite, especially in windy conditions. Skiers sometimes smear petroleum jelly on earlobes, cheeks and noses, or cover them with tape. Glasses or goggles keep eyes from getting cold in the wind, and there are products — like the oh-so-appealingly named Cat Crap — that can be smeared on glasses to keep them from fogging up.

“The best way to get warm is just go outside and do your activity,” Honer said.
Once someone gets going in an activity outside, keep going.

“The most important thing is to not stop,” Peterson said. “If you stop, you get cold, or get sweaty and then get cold.”

When someone is attached to a team of dogs, stopping can sometimes be a challenge. For mushers, it’s important to bring warm, trusted gear.

“The first thing you need is appropriate gear,” said Ashley Irmen, with the Peninsula Sled Dog Racing Association. “With any cold-weather situation you need to be well-equipped and have your gear tested and not just go out in 30 below with something you’ve never tried before and go, ‘Hey, this doesn’t work, I’m cold.’”

Irmen, of Sterling, has been mushing for four years now, after an acquaintance got her hooked on it. She’s been out in 30 below to 35 below zero before. She prefers dressing in a wool base layer, since wool insulates even when wet, and a synthetic or down parka. She brings extra gear in case of emergencies, and checks the weather before she leaves.

“Make sure you have what’s appropriate and know how long you’re going to be out and what weather you are going to face and plan for it,” she said.

That advice holds true for any outdoor winter activity. For snowmachining, there’s one important addition:

“If you’re going to go out on a machine, make sure the machine is in good shape,” said Nolan Compton, of Soldotna, with the Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers. “Make sure everything’s in good condition and just be prepared if you are going to go out in cold temperatures, it’s always good to not go out alone.”

Specially designed snowmachining parkas and gear mitigate wind chill, are durable and breathable with zippers to control body temperature, and they’re padded in case you’re riding rough, Compton said.

Having a properly fitted helmet also is key. Anything below minus 10 can be difficult for snowmachiners because it’s tough to keep helmet visors from fogging up. Compton has been out in minus 30 on a search and rescue team around Eureka and said the lack of visibility and fogging issues make the ride uncomfortable.

But as long as gear holds up and safety precautions are met, cold is no reason to limit activity.

“I’d rather it was cold than warm any day,” Irmen said. “You live in Alaska. You’re cold nine months of the year. You better figure it out if you’re going to do outside stuff, you know?”

Better together — Club members share interest in outdoor

By Clark Fair
Redoubt Reporter

When Steve Foley came to the Kenai Peninsula from Colorado in the early 1990s, he knew he wanted to meet people with interests similar to his — namely outdoor recreation — and he had an idea how to find them.

In Colorado, Foley had been part of a recreation club, a group dedicated to the idea of shared experiences in the great outdoors. On the central peninsula, he figured, the time was ripe for such an organization.

Steve Ford, who moved to the peninsula from Sitka in 1991, said that Foley (who left the state nine years ago) started putting flyers up around town, and in 1992 Ford noticed and decided to get involved.
Ford attended the fledgling organization’s second meeting, held at the Little Ski-Mo restaurant in Kenai, and it quickly became apparent that the Kenai Peninsula Outdoor Club was just what he’d been looking for.

According to Ford, “90 percent of the reason (the club) got started” was Foley’s desire to avoid the bars and other usual gathering places in his attempt to find individuals with common interests. Ford and Foley quickly bonded, and they and Dave Crosby became the founding trio of the club.

Membership built slowly. Their monthly meeting place, where they plan the next month’s calendar of events, changed occasionally. And some people moved into the area, participated for a while, and moved away, but a core of devotees remained.

Today, the club has about 60 members who receive an e-mailed event calendar each month and are encouraged to participate in activities ranging from simple to more intense during all four seasons of the year.

In August alone, the club’s calendar included a kayaking trip to Caines Head in Seward, a twice-weekly walk at Tsalteshi Trails, golfing at the Kenai Golf Course, biking trips to Crescent Lake and Resurrection Pass, a beach-side bonfire and hikes to Hope Point and the Harding Ice Field.

Throughout the year, group members have also skied, snowshoed, played disc golf, explored new places, done overnight camp-outs, gone rafting, extreme tubing and canoeing, and simply enjoyed each other’s company.

“We try to offer something for everybody,” said Todd Stone, a club member since 1995.

A highlight each year is Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Stone and his wife, Jan. According to several club members, this is often the best-attended function of the year.

“We’ve got a really good group of people who really jelled together,” Stone said. “And we come together like a family. A lot of us are from someplace else, and here we have family outside our family.”

According to Stone, the age of club members ranges from early 20s into 60s. The average age of those who participate most actively, he estimated, is about 45 to 55, partly because the core of early members were 30-somethings back then and have “moved though it altogether.”

The club now meets at the Albatross Restaurant at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month. Although club officers — Paul Knight, president; Todd Stone, secretary; Steve Epperheimer, treasurer — run the meeting, all club members are encouraged to attend and bring ideas for activities.

For each activity that goes on the calendar, the club adds a meeting site and the name of a person who will lead that activity. Then, according to Stone, “whether one person shows up or we’ve got 15 to 20, it’s a go.”

Anyone interested in joining the club can call Todd or Jan Stone at 283-8426. Membership costs $15 for an individual, $20 for a family. The dues go to help defray the cost of expenses, such as renting a condo for a weekend ski trip, making the experience “more doable” for everybody, Jan Stone said.
In addition to the monthly calendars, members also receive Todd Stone’s weekly updates that inform them of events added since the calendar came out.

The club also tries to help members who may not have all the gear necessary to participate. Ford said that many club members lend some of their extra gear to make sure all participants are dressed and outfitted properly.

Photographs from recent club activities can be found in an online photo album created by Ford’s wife, Tracie Howard. The Web address for the album is http://kpocak.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

Fishing for solitude — Lakes sweep anglers away from the crowds

By Clark Fair
Redoubt Reporter

Even when he has other things to do, just talking about fishing the lakes of the Kenai Peninsula in autumn can tempt Dave Atcheson into changing his plans.

“Fall is the best time, I think, to be out on the lakes. In the fall, the fish turn on again because the winter’s coming and they’ve gotta get full, and so fishing gets hot again in the fall,” said Atcheson, author of “Fishing Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.”

“It’s also real easy to find a lake to yourself this time of year,” he said, noting that most outdoor enthusiasts in the fall split their time between hunting for game and fishing for silvers on the Kenai River or for steelhead on southern peninsula streams.

“It’s hard to drag yourself away from all (those other activities), but when I go out to a lake, I’m like, ‘Oh, boy, I miss this.’ You realize this is pretty special,” he said.

Atcheson doesn’t need much urging to get excited about fishing. He can even begin to wax philosophic once he starts picturing himself out angling, favorite fly rod in hand.

“There’s a connection to something bigger than yourself in the outdoors,” he said. “I feel it when I’m outdoors in the natural environment. And nothing puts you in the natural environment quite like fishing, and fly-fishing in particular because you’re thinking of that whole cycle of life — the insects — you’re thinking of the way the river’s flowing or the way the lake is set up.

“And you’re trying to match that insect hatch. Or if there’s salmon, the fish are feeding on eggs; they’re feeding on the flesh of the salmon. And the bear you see on the other side is connected to that; it’s all connected, and you’re part of that because you have to think how that water’s running, how that fly’s drifting, what that fly’s looking like.

“And you’re casting well, and when you’re thinking about that stuff, everything else disappears … and you’re transported somewhere, someplace where your head’s clear and you feel a connection to all this amazing stuff.”

Listening to Atcheson, it’s not difficult to imagine why he takes such pleasure in fishing in general, and in fishing the lakes during this time of the year, in particular.

Lake fishing allows him, more than in most situations, to avoid the crowds. Avoiding the crowds allows him easier access to that “connection” he likes to talk about.

“It is hard to feel that when you’re with a thousand of your closest friends,” he said, referring to “combat fishing” for sockeyes on the Russian River.

To achieve the solace and contentment that lakes have to offer, however, one must be prepared. Atcheson offers some practical suggestions for success:

• Get away from roadside lakes if you can. Roadsides are the easiest to reach, but for that very reason they receive the heaviest fishing pressure. Consider hiking or even flying into a more remote location, or use a roadside lake as an entryway to lakes farther off the road. A couple of portages between interconnected lakes can take you to the best fishing opportunities.
• If you must fish next to a road, consider angling at one of the area’s stocked lakes, such as Johnson Lake in Kasilof. Although these lakes, too, receive heavy pressure, stocking tends to keep their numbers high.
• Try to get off the shoreline. Get out on the lakes, via canoe, recreational kayak or float-tube. Fishing from shore limits your chances. You must fight the brush and the bugs. Your “reach” is hampered by the distance you can cast. Out on the lake, on the other hand, you can maneuver around the entire lake, if you wish. You can cast in under a sunken log or out to the periphery of a large weed bed.
• Be what Atcheson calls a “fish detective.” Explore as much of the lake as you can. In his angler’s guide, he provides a diagram showing the many places fish can be found — rocks, overhanging foliage, stream inlets and outlets, steep banks, lily pads — and he suggests investigating as many such locations as possible. He recommends keeping notes, too, in case you plan to return someday. “Each lake has its secrets,” Atcheson said, and it is your job to find out what they are.
• Use light or ultralight tackle to keep things lively. Atcheson recommends a spinning outfit with 6-pound-test line, or a 3- or 4-weight fly rod with a tapered leader.
• If you’re fly-fishing, note the types of insects on or in the lake. Try to match your flies to what you see. Consider both dry flies and wet flies. Experiment. One of the most reliable flies is the Egg-Sucking Leech. With the proper retrieve, Atcheson said, the hairs on the leech “undulate, and that just drives the fish crazy.”
• If you’re using a spinning outfit, try a variety of colors and sizes of lures. Atcheson recommends Krocodiles, Super Dupers, Rooster Tails, Triple Teasers and — perhaps his favorite — the Mepps Syclops.
• Vary your retrieve — a little faster, a little slower. If the fish are there, you may find just the motion they are waiting for.
• Dress warmly and dryly. If you do go out on the lakes, be safe. Wear a flotation device.
• Finally, make sure to check fishing regulations. Bag limits on the same species can vary widely, depending on location, time of year and size of fish.