Fall has arrived in Fairbanks

The summer season is short lived in the interior of Alaska and mushers in our small valley community are feeling the chilly air settling into our trails. Last night, temperatures dropped to 37 degrees and if you talked to anyone in our crew, the general consensus would favor these temps but would feel the pressure of winter luring. So what’s on our docket for fall?

Fall means the start of three things: 1. Fall Training; 2. Hunting Season; And 3. The Fall Scramble.

First up, fall training! This is when sled dogs start getting back in harness and shaking off the dust from their short (long for them) summer vacation. Short mushing loops will become longer and longer as the season progresses and the loose walks of summer will become a post workout reward. Mileage increases by small increments, starting at 1 mile, then 2, then maybe jump to 4 or 5. Once we start hitting higher mileage, the increments can be greater (i.e. 20 miles to 25, etc). Musher’s are excited to outfit their four wheelers with bridals and ganglines, because with exercise, the dog yard becomes much more manageable and the hole digging starts to dwindle. We wish we could exercise them like this all year-round, but hot temps hinder our ability to run the dogs for risk of them overheating. We’ll continue training on our atv’s until their is adequate snow to start dog sledding.

Second up, hunting season! Caribou, moose and grouse season is upon us! Caribou hunts are the first to open, which is an exciting excuse to pack up the camping gear and head up into the alpine. Caribou travel in small groups of 5-10, but are part of a larger herd of hundreds. If you’re lucky, you’ll see them together all at once! Our local heard is called the “Fortymile herd” because their migratory territory ranges from Fairbanks to the Yukon Territory, passing over the Forty-Mile River that is a tributary of the Yukon River.

Not only are we excited to stock our freezers with salmon and games meats, but berry and fungi season has also arrived! We’ll start hunting for king boletes, chanterelles, lion’s mane and more. We’ll sneak off to our secret berry spots for blueberries, high bush cranberries and lignon berries (aka low bush cranberries), the latter too shouldn’t be harvest until the first frost. Our secret berry patches have been discovered through various adventures and locked away in the back of our minds, waiting for the right season to venture back to reap our bounty. These secrets berry havens are shared only within our individual households.

Lastly, The Fall Scramble! This is when Alaskans realize, WINTER IS COMING and there is still much to do to prepare for the cold & snow. The weight of the small projects that have been on the back burner grows heavy—The wood shed still needs to be built, poles need to be pounded for fences and dog yards, the window needs replaced and snow machines and dog sleds repaired—The list goes on!

With the break from the heat comes the urgency of winter preparation. But regardless of the scramble, it’s the start to our favorite season, WINTER MUSHING!!