River Walk

Oscarville

One of the really nice things about working at an Indian Health Service facility is several paid holidays off, certainly more than I am used to.  The most recent paid day off was President's Day.  Usually when I have a day off that Mark and the kids don't, I just roam about the house picking things up, doing the laundry, watch a movie... nothing too exciting.  But this day off would be different!  A good friend texted me Sunday night and asked if I would be up for a hike.  I said "sure!", getting out of the house and getting some exercise sounded like a great idea.  She followed up her text with another saying "I'm thinking of going kinda far... sure you're up for it?"  Well, now that just made it sound adventerous, and that much more appealing.  "Absolutely!" I texted back. We planned to meet for lunch at a local sushi restaurant (yes, we actually have a few restaurants here that serve sushi) and then walk to the next village up, Oscarville.  Oh, and did I mention, there was a wind advisory for that day, the temp would be about -35 degrees, and we were going to be walking on the frozen river!
We met the next day for an early lunch.  Once fueled up on sushi rolls we headed for the river.  The walk up wasn't bad, the wind was at our backs, in fact we both got a little warm and had to open our jackets.  Nearly every truck that passed us stopped and asked if we would like a ride.  They all looked rather confused when we declined and kept walking.  Even 2 state troopers stopped us and asked if everything was ok.  They too offered us a ride and seemed a little concerned when we declined.  I'm pretty sure they were thinking they'd get a report later that day for 2 missing white girls who were last seen walking on the river.  It's hard to get lost though when you only have the choice of 2 directions, forward or back.

We made it to Oscarville in exactly 2 hours.  We snapped a couple of quick pictures and then turned to head home.  Once we turned the wind promtly reminded us it had been there all along.  The precieved change in temperature was amazing!  Up went my face mask, which had unfortunately froze while walking to Oscarville.  Apparently, the moisture from my breath as I exhaled really built up on my face mask and created quite a bit of ice.  The googles that had been on my head on the way up had a sheet of ice on the inside.  This made visibility difficult, but again, it's hard to get lost when you only have one way to go.  (For those of you who are thinking "but what if you wander off the road?", the road has been plowed so there is a wall of snow on both sides.  To wonder off the road you would have to climb over the bank.  It was pretty easy to tell when you were on the road and when you had wandered away.) 
As we walked, we did manage to stay pretty warm.  The wind was brutel at times, we pretty much walked the whole way back with our hoods up and our heads down.  Despite my googles, my eyelashes still managed to get ice crystals on them.  As my eyes watered the water froze and the crystals kept getting bigger and bigger till my eyelashes fell from the weight of the ice.  I'd have to pick the crystals off and then the whole process would start again. 
It took us exactly 4 hours to walk the 11 miles to Oscarville and back.  Most people thought we were nuts, and maybe we were a little bit, but we had a great time.  I think we both felt about 100 years old that night, and I had a blister the size of a quarter on my heel, but I'd still do it again!