14 mar 09 The Middle Fork


On Friday afternoon I found the antidote to the work stress that had been steadily increasing all week. My friend Jo-Ann suggested that we drop a car at Glen Alps and ski down the Middle Fork trail to a car we'd leave at Prospect Heights. With a couple of inches of fresh snow, the conditions on the exposed and often windy trail might be just perfect. And they were. The fog that shrouded our houses didn't reach to Glen Alps, and amazingly, there wasn't any wind there.

Jo-Ann after climbing to the east side of the valley of the South Fork of Campbell Creek

The Middle Fork is also one half of a nice loop between Prospect Heights and Glen Alps. With such perfect conditions, Paul and I returned on Saturday to ski up the Middle Fork and down the Powerline Pass trail for a 2.5 hour tour. Clouds formed, dissipated, and moved across the peaks, and sometimes I just stopped to watch the change in light.
Paul welcoming in Lucky Cat fashion at the Middle Fork of Campbell Creek

Currently in our study of Buddhism, Paul and I are reading about the Middle Way, the eightfold path of self-discipline, self-development, and self-purification that leads to a cessation of suffering. On Friday and Saturday, I found the Middle Fork was another path to the cessation of stress. It might not get me to Nirvana permanently, but the Middle Fork and perfect Anchorage 'spring' weather took me there for a few hours this weekend.

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