March 7, 2003

• I really enjoy getting questions for which I have answers.  Keep ‘em coming!

  
  

  SeanHarrington asked:

  
  

  
  

  Is “Cripple” Cripple Creak from that song? “Up on Cripple Creak, she sends me, if I spring a leak, she mends me….” Was that The Band?

  
  

  The Band did record that song.  It was written by J.R. Robertson.  But the “Cripple Creek” in it is not the Cripple River where there is a checkpoint for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.  Nor does the song refer to the Cripple Creek in the Fairbanks, Alaska area.

  
  

  

  
  

  The photo at left is the Cripple checkpoint on the Iditarod trail at Cripple River.

  
  

  The song’s creek is in the Colorado Rockies and was, in the ‘seventies (and could be even now for all I know, having been out here on the edge of the wilderness for so long), a mecca for the hip subculture and a burgeoning artists’ colony.  From the web, I’ve learned that it is now a gambling resort, so any hippies left there are probably dealing blackjack, pumping gas, or cleaning hotel rooms.  My source regarding that song is the late Linda Goodman, a former resident of Cripple Creek, CO, in a book of hers I read years ago, probably Star Signs.  I was in that Cripple Creek a few times while I lived in Colorado before coming to Alaska.

  
  

  WINDY~~~~~~~ WEATHER~~~

  
  

  I have ample material for race updates today, but anyone who wants them can find links in my last few days’ blogs that will take them to websites where they can get more info than anyone ever wanted to know.  Today, I’ve got weather on my mind.

  
  

  One of the things I like about snow is the quiet.  When there is an insulating blanket of snow on the ground, it tends to muffle sounds.  As snow falls, all sounds are absorbed.  Nothing is so quiet and peaceful as snowfall on a windless day.  Few things are as disturbing to my peace as noisy weather.

  
  

  I mentioned a while back that rain had washed away our snow, and that I was weary of the sound of dripping rain.  When a high pressure system moved in, the rain stopped and the wind began.  It has roared through the trees night and day for days and days.

  
  

  There are several plastic shopping bags snagged on tree branches, whipping in the wind.  We’ve been seeing video on TV of roofs blown off a bit farther down this valley, where the mountains close in and create a wind-tunnel effect.  Yesterday, blowing dust impaired visibility and caused a 4-vehicle (3 trucks and an SUV) pile-up.  This area has a lot of glacial silt and volcanic ash lying around.  It doesn’t take much wind to stir it up.  The current winds are more than enough.  There are air quality alerts for this entire region of Southcentral Alaska, because of the blowing ash and silt.

  
  

  Two days ago, Greyfox placed enough confidence in a forecast for diminishing winds to go to Talkeetna and open his stand.  The winds increased.  Knife boxes blew off his table.  He got a fiery wind burn on face and neck, and got chilled clear through.  He witnessed a lot of drive-by tourism:  people cruising slowly up and down Main Street, with someone hanging out a car window with a camcorder.  Nobody stopped to shop at his stand, but in midafternoon, when one of the locals who want street peddlers banned from Talkeetna stopped by to harrass him, that did it.  He packed up and came home. 

  
  

  Today’s forecast is for 50 MPH winds.  If we don’t blow away, I’ll be back with more race news or whatever….

  
  

  

  
  

   

  • 2:31 pm
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