We're Gaining Daylight. Yahoo!

[mcnerney]

This morning as I was fixing my morning coffee, while it was dark outside, got me to wondering if we were gaining daylight yet and if so how much, so I Googled Weather Underground and sure enough we are now gaining 1 minute 29 seconds per day. Yahoo!

[rc51sport]

The extra daylight has been getting me super excited. Now there is still a little light left on my way home from work. It's been dark when I leave and dark when I get home. I welcome this change

[rusty 54]

Around here, we're gaining about 2 minutes a day. In February, It"ll be 3 a day. It adds up and becomes noticable every week

[jpbfly]

How do you know when the sun rises or falls?....it rains or snows all the time in Pinedale

[Ard]

Gaining 3:47 / 24 here right now and it becomes more noticeable by the 21st. I just came back from the cabin yesterday and longer days are what I need for travel. I seldom go in December because I have to leave in the dark to insure arriving while it's still light a little. The rivers are pretty rough for about 25 miles of the trip due to the warm - cold - warm - cold freezup we had, lots of ridges and berms of ice that you don't want to hit going fast. There's also some bad stretches of open water, I was parked looking at one about 100 yards long about 9 miles above the Susitna that looked like I should be fishing it. The ice bridge that crosses upstream may not hold if we have another warm trend, it makes you think as it is when you take a good look at it.

Not many people break through but it happens, I think there have been three since I started making the trips in 2006. Some people crash through and find a dry riverbed, some three or four feet of water, the three I remember were lost snowmachine and all. I drive slow because I'm on a utility sled and going slow you have the chance to spot bad situations before you hit them.

BTW, when I left it was -20 at the launch which is just 40 miles north of here, when I reached the cabin three hours later it was -10 inside the place. That thermos of hot coffee is most appreciated in such conditions. I'm headed back on Monday and won't be poking around here for a while then

[smcnearn]

Terrifying when contrasted with the snowpack we’ve got.


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[mcnerney]

Gaining 3:47 / 24 here right now and it becomes more noticeable by the 21st. I just came back from the cabin yesterday and longer days are what I need for travel. I seldom go in December because I have to leave in the dark to insure arriving while it's still light a little. The rivers are pretty rough for about 25 miles of the trip due to the warm - cold - warm - cold freezup we had, lots of ridges and berms of ice that you don't want to hit going fast. There's also some bad stretches of open water, I was parked looking at one about 100 yards long about 9 miles above the Susitna that looked like I should be fishing it. The ice bridge that crosses upstream may not hold if we have another warm trend, it makes you think as it is when you take a good look at it.

Not many people break through but it happens, I think there have been three since I started making the trips in 2006. Some people crash through and find a dry riverbed, some three or four feet of water, the three I remember were lost snowmachine and all. I drive slow because I'm on a utility sled and going slow you have the chance to spot bad situations before you hit them.

BTW, when I left it was -20 at the launch which is just 40 miles north of here, when I reached the cabin three hours later it was -10 inside the place. That thermos of hot coffee is most appreciated in such conditions. I'm headed back on Monday and won't be poking around here for a while then

Ard: I've never done much snow machine travel on frozen rivers, but those open spots make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Be careful out there!!!
Minus 10 inside the cabin doesn't sound like fun, I bet you were glad once that wood stove was going full force.

[corn fed fins]

I've noticed it. I get into a funk in the winter. Not quite Seasonal Affective Disorder, but probably on the verge. Any further north than 45* and I probably would be a clinical case. As it stands now, the winter solstice is like a weight being lifted and I know it's all psychological. Light is the one reason that outweighed all other reasons for moving to Alaska when I was younger; my brain just can't handle the lack of it but 20 hrs of it and I'm as right as rain.

[Ard]

You betcha Larry, I sat there right in front of the fire watching the thermometer for any signs of warming. When it hit 15 degrees I took off my coat. When I was at 40 it felt really good. By morning it was 60 and that was perfect. I always spot the water but the ice bridges are the worry, the one below a set of stone bluffs is the worrisome one. I run that river all summer long and even though there is a sand bar almost ten feet high that the trail climbes after you cross the ice, I know that the river channel there is the main channel. I'm pretty sure someone, maybe even me, will start looking for a way through the ice chunks so we can get way around that spot. Or not, I've seen it bad there before and the ice held all winter.

It's hard to go scout out a work around because that part of the river is terribly rough with slabs of ice thrust up all over from where it broke up then re-froze. Not having much snow complicates things too because the troth's between the bergs aren't very smooth. There are other stretches where it is smooth running for miles, it's always the few really rough and semi dangerous parts you remember when someone asks 'how was the trip'. Things are made a bit tougher because the sled is a 2013 Skandic Super Wide, they are great pulling sleds with a wide track but they are not 'bump sleds' therefore you take a beating. It's not so bad a ride if I drive the Tundra 550F long track, not a supper wide but a whole lot more rear suspension travel. My butt appreciates that part and so do the legs. Riding the Skandic I end up standing through all the bumps to help the sled absorb them and rock over everything easier. When you get up the next day you feel like you walked 10 miles through rough terrain and then someone beat your ass with a 2X4

[duker]

We've definitely turned the corner up here, but the days are still dark--and cold. Today the sun rose at 9:52, and set at 3:39. We've now had a solid week of -30C temperatures. Last night it was -38C, and the forecast is for that cold weather to stick around for a couple more days. By Monday it's supposed to be -15--that's positively tropical.

Scott