The magic of the aurora borialis......WOW! What a night! I met up with my guide and aurora expert, Peter, to set off on a wonderful adventure....everyone else having called to say they couldn't make it!
We headed North on the Glenn Highway to just past Eagle River and turned off on to a road to a lake. The first thing I noticed as Peter turned off into a parking lot to see if he could see any activity," was a sign that said "Dog Sled Trail." There I encountered by first unexpected treat....a man with a sled with his dogs still hitched to it. He had obviously finished the trail and was preparing to unhitch them and load them in the trailer he had on his truck. It was dark but I could see them waiting and the sled behind them-what a treat!
Peter felt that there was enough activity to warrant traveling on down the road to the lake (there was doubt because of the growing cloud cover). How beautiful. As we drove down the road the trees and bushes on the side of the road twinkled when the headlights hit them like they were covered with thousands of tiny diamonds! The snow sparkled like glitter had been sprinkled on the ground! It was breath-takingly beautiful.
Then we arrived at the lake and I got my second treat-I got to walk on water. Well, not really water but a frozen lake. I was warned that the ice would make a creaking or cracking sound but not to be concerned-the lake was frozen solid and that is just the noise of the ice moving. I was disappointed because it did not sing at all while I was there.
And the final treat-the lights. Peter was disappointed and told me that it wasn't that good because of the cloud cover but I, having never seen them at all, thought it was great. There was a luminous pink color which was streaked across the sky and could be see pulsing. That actually was in the south....the northern sky was cloudy but later the clouds seem to raise off of the horizon and you could see a strip of really, really bright white light on the horizon. It was just beautiful!
And, of course, all of this was viewed while standing in the middle of a lake surrounded by trees with the mountains to the east-their snow covered tops looked like a big white wave across the eastern sky. And the huge falling stars!!!
And accompanied by conversation pondering the BIG questions of life-what is the big question? Standing in the middle of a frozen lake watching pink pulsing lights in the sky seem to beg consideration of life's questions....who am I....how do I fit in all of this?
I can answer one of life's questions: don't put your chocolate in the same pocket as your hand warmers!