[Note: I see where a very few responders survived the taste-content “filter” on this here blog site. Congratulations!

Cat_train2 and Nopenhagen: I suspect you guys are “working men” (just a guess). I wish you and your fighting spirit had been around when businesses began sending American jobs overseas during the Clinton-era with no provision for the lost jobs; when the (Great) Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act was repealed allowing our financial wizards to run loose; and when we entered our most recent useless and very costly wars. You could have saved us all trillions of dollars!

Geoff: I think I get it---it’s sort of like with guns. Guns don’t kill people---only people with guns kill people. Likewise, Christianity and Islam, being “abstractions,“ don’t kill people---only Christians and Muslims (and Atheists) kill people. - RW]

TRAIL SENSE -

I see where our famous and beloved Alaska musher, Lance Mackey, is featured in a public service TV ad urging people to be safe and sensible on winter trails. That’s a good thing.

At one time or another, every Alaskan will need to go outside at night on foot---even if just to walk the dog. The Mackey TV spot depicts potential machine versus Human encounters. That’s my personal concern in winter---getting hit by snow machines. Walking at night in Alaska is like flying---long periods of peace punctuated by moments of sheer terror. But instead of the perils of take-offs and landings the danger is machinery suddenly speeding out of the darkness. As Lance Mackey says in the ad: “You never know who you may encounter.”

With our short periods of daylight it is nearly impossible to enjoy Alaska winters outdoors without moving around in the darkness. For me, the outdoors seasons blend seamlessly and I routinely travel by boots, skis, ski-dog or snowshoes. I love traveling outdoors at night any time of year and would normally prefer to do so without artificial light.

I’ve been dodging snowmachines in Alaska long enough to make some general observations. Also, I have some observations about flashlights and headlamps that anyone might find useful.

Most snowmachiners are courteous and considerate---you couldn‘t meet nicer people. Whenever I encounter machine riders---especially in wilderness areas---we stop to discuss navigational directions, ice conditions on lakes and stream-crossings, moose on the trail, avalanche dangers and snow conditions in general.

I realize that snowmachine and off-road groups preach safety and respect by machine operators. These safety programs need to be emphasized. As usual, a minority of careless and reckless riders and indulgent parents are spoiling things for the majority of careful riders.

Motor vehicle drivers should make an almost exaggerated effort to show pedestrians and muscle-powered outdoors-persons---on or off roads---that they are trying their best to avoid hitting them or passing too close or too fast. Most riders do this. If they can see you.

Yet, snowmachiners have also run by me and my dogs as close and as fast as they apparently dared. I once pulled a gun on a young varmint who was obviously and repeatedly harassing me and my dogs with his snowmachine---a few years later this individual crippled a young girl by literally driving a pickup truck over another vehicle and striking a four-wheeler. That’s the rare extreme.

Once I had two snowmachines approach me at over sixty miles an hour, at night, with one machine on one berm on one side of Hatcher Pass Road; the other riding the berm on the other side of the road; and me and my dogs in the middle. I did not like this at all. There was nothing I could do but freeze and hope those reckless little varmints knew what they were doing skill-wise.

I live in what is, effectively, a lawless area and everyone who rides knows this. There is no effective enforcement presence. Given that Alaska is pretty stingy with it’s budget for State Troopers we cannot expect officers to give a high priority to complaints of negligent riding by fast, unidentifiable, off-road machine operators most likely long gone. But if things ever spun out of control there is always the danger that the complainant would get blamed for not letting the authorities handle the situation.

VARIOUS FORMS OF INTOXICATION -

For some snowmachiners I know, drinking, smoking pot or otherwise indulging when they ride is all part of the fun. Those little stowage compartments are perfect for beer-packs. And I’ve found many an empty flask of that horrid peppermint schnapps along with the beer cans and bottles on some snowmachine routes. Alongside snowmachine trails I have also found full cans of beer which I take home---and even a pipe and a bag of pot which I don‘t smoke. [Mackey’s use of medical marijuana? Let him have it!]

BAD ATTITUDE -

There is also an attitude. Illegal riding occurs constantly in my area. Whenever machine riders are informed that what they are doing is dangerous, destructive, illegal or obnoxious, they get all Constitutional and self-righteous: “I have the right…” “I have freedom…”

I know---”riding” is all about “freedom” and the “last frontier” and all that stuff. Unfortunately, the last frontier is getting too crowded for fast machinery to simply race around wherever without annoying, if not striking, others who are also in search of last frontier freedoms, albeit a bit more modestly on foot.

Even for normally mild-mannered souls, there is often an arrogance that comes with fast machinery. An Iditarod musher once told me that, when she is riding a snowmachine, “It seems like I have the right to ride right into someone’s front yard or anywhere I want to go.”

When I ride the off-road machines I can feel this attitude of power and agility. When I pull on the throttle of a snowmachine I can feel my brain cells being sucked out. But eventually, feelings of vulnerability take precedence---I can sense the dangers to myself and to others in my path.

SURVIVAL---A HEIGHTENED SENSE OF AWARENESS -

In view of my experiences I have concluded that muscle-powered outdoors-persons and pedestrians can never assume anything and must live by their wits. The goal of pedestrians is not to hear someone say: “I didn‘t see you.“ Or, “I didn’t mean to hit you.“ The goal is to survive without getting injured.

In a perverse way, the ever-possible threat of snowmachines speeding at me out of the darkness has heightened my general alertness and awareness---it keeps me on my toes. Reminds me of when I was a kid dodging traffic and street-gangs in New York.

Given the reality, I realize that it is up to the muscle-powered outdoors-person to evade the machines. Therefore, I use techniques of avoidance and, at night, employ LED headlamps and flashlights.

BAD LIGHTS ON FAST MACHINES -

I and my dogs have come very close to getting hit by speeding snow machines. One young man turned his machine broadside twice at the last second when he came upon us in the dark during a snowstorm in deep snow on a roadway where he was riding illegally.

The same skills he had developed while racing wildly through local neighborhoods also helped him stop within a few feet instead of hitting us. He thought my dogs and I were a moose because the lights on his machine were inadequate. In fact, he actually flicked his lights off so he could get a better look! In the meantime I was trying to get my dogs out of the way and barely got my own flashlight switched on.

What faked me out in this instance was that I had just heard snowmachines in the area where very young neighbor kids were riding in their yard. However, two teenagers then came along at blazing speeds, accelerating out of a corner right for us. The kid who almost hit me was running his father’s machine which was whisper-quiet and going like hell. [I hear concerns that pedestrians are getting hit more often these days by electric/hybrid vehicles because they approach so quietly.]

Aside from chemical/hormonal incapacitation, riders have limitations to their visual and other senses. The headlights on snow machines (or four-wheelers) are not always the greatest to begin with---especially for such fast machines. The lights bounce around and the rider is looking through a plastic visor and/or a plastic windscreen. Also, machine noise and helmets make it more difficult to hear. I always assume that a machine rider will not be able to see or hear me.

So, at the first hint of the presence of snow machines I get the hell off the trail or road. At night I get out the brightest light I have, stay alert and prepared to dive into a snow bank or hide behind trees in case nothing else works. Being on skis or snowshoes and having dogs tied to me sometimes makes this a clumsy move.

THE TECHNOLOGY -

Speaking of moose, these modern headlamps and flashlights have some weird optical spectrums and properties (which are not good for Human eyes by the way). I once spotted a moose and fired up my new twin D-cell Krypton bulb flashlight for a better look. The brilliant light beam showed absolutely nothing---the spectrum of the light was completely absorbed by the moose fur! That’s probably why the kid who almost hit me had flicked his snowmachine lights off for a better view.

BEACONS IN THE DARK -

I usually don’t need and don‘t care to travel at night using artificial lighting but now I always have some illumination handy. At even the slightest hint of the presence of snow machines I get off the road, trail or open space and turn on the brightest light I have. Since snowmachines can approach very rapidly I don‘t waste any time getting out of the way.

I notice in the Lance Mackey public service ad that headlamps were shown as a means to make one’s self visible to machines---but one person in the ad also held a bright flashlight. I’d go with the bright flashlight.

Some LED headlamps can be really bright but most are not particularly noticeable as warning beacons---just little dots of light. Last week I stepped off the roadway at night with my dog and switched on my headlamp well before eight snowmachines approached from around a corner. Machines passed by until one rider in the middle of the pack either could not see the headlamp I had pointed and waggled his way or was just curious---he drove his machine off the road into the deep snow where I was standing and came right toward me. Then he turned back on the roadway and belatedly gave the “slow down” signal to the riders behind him. So, even with an LED headlamp, one may not be sufficiently visible to a person on a machine.

An LED headlamp is obviously way better than no light at all as a warning beacon. But I always wonder about that musher who was killed up north by a drunk-stoned snowmachiner---even after the lady riding in the dog sled said she had flashed her headlamp at the machine coming up from behind.

I have one very bright headlamp I use for spotting distant ridges when navigating in the mountains at night, but for most winter travel a really bright light (or any light) is not always necessary for someone on foot because of the reflective snow. For use as a beacon, however, I do like the brighter LED flashlights which seem to give sufficient warning---short of mounting a strobe-light on my head.

Frankly, I am thinking of carrying that high-powered 50-lumen headlamp just in case---it does have a lower-power and a red setting for ordinary use. Even low-powered LEDs are way better than nothing for most purposes.

Perhaps it‘s a function of lights dimming one’s night-vision---but once I start using a light I often feel the need for more brightness.

Speaking of night-vision: The reason I travel without lights is that I can usually see over a far greater expanse without artificial lighting---including the stars. I can sometimes see tracks and signs under drifted snow that become invisible when lights are directed to the same spot. It’s amazing what one can see without a light.

Those red “night-vision retaining” settings on headlamps are dim but work adequately well with some concentration. Here’s a tip: Close one eye when exposed to bright lights so the other eye will retain night-vision.

GET HIGH QUALITY LIGHTS -

LED lights need to be well-built and well-designed with quality materials (such as gold) so the switches and other electrical contacts will function properly. I don’t buy cheap junk flashlights or headlamps. For emergency use these things need to be reliable and dependable. I don’t care for those fussy little sequential switches on most headlamps, either. On all my lights I prefer large, simple, sturdy on-off switches to those you have to twist on and off or fuss with in any way.

FRESH BATTERIES -

LED lights are extremely energy-efficient---the batteries last a long time. However, they tend to grow dim when battery power declines, so I keep fresh batteries installed at all times for important purposes such as wilderness navigation and warning beacons.

So, heed Lance Mackey‘s advice---be watchful, careful and alert at all times.

- Rudy Wittshirk