Petersville & my old cabin..

A spur of the moment trip up to Petersville! My friend Judy called Friday afternoon as she was driving up asking me if I wanted to join her on Saturday. So tempting. I really want to go and to check in on my beloved cabin that I sold a few years ago. But not sure that my van can make down the 2-mile potholed dirt road. Plus there is supposed to be a big storm and rains. For sure I don’t want to get stuck on this road. But we got it figured out! I’d park the van at her house and drive her other car up! So Saturday found me on my way. So nostalgic. I’ve done this drive a million times in 28 years going back and forth to the cabin in all sorts of weather with dogs on board in the dog box or trailering snowmachines or just loaded with supplies in the summer. Our cabin was home. It held our hearts. We lived there in every sense of the word. The logs were chinked with memories: Iditarod training, planning & training for the Mount Vaughan Antarctic Expedition, our wedding, visiting friends galore, Northern lights nights, crazy neighbors, the midnight sun on Denali, cozy fire, blowing snow storms, the fireweed. A true sense of place. After Norman died and I started working with Doctors Without Borders, it was clear that I could no longer maintain it in all its glory. Log cabins need a lot of TLC. So I sold. Ripped my heart out. Sadly the person I sold to did not appreciate its history nor continued to pamper it with TLC. It was in disrepair and then sold again. I was anxious to see the state that she was in. So I welcomed the chance to go up. Judy’s cabin is down the road and gully from “mine.”

The new owners weren’t there but I walked around and petted the logs savoring the moments of our lives there. Not a lot has changed since the new owners bought but they did put in a new badly needed driveway and are going to be jacking up the cabin to put in a new badly needed foundation. There is an excavator in the yard and a new outhouse. I’m told by the neighbors that they do appreciate the history and are planning on fixing it up. It’s bittersweet to go back. It took me 2 years to admit to anyone that I had sold it. To me, it is still “mine.” But life has also changed so much up there that living at the cabin would no longer be the same. Gone are the days of the teams of dogs all training for the Iditarod. Now it is snowmachines in the winter and 4-wheelers in the summer. And crowded. Used to be the closest neighbor was a half mile away. Now it is every 5 acres.

Judy’s cabin is more remote and down on the river. We spent a lovely evening around the dinner table & wine catching up on our lives and those of mutual friends. Sunday we tended to a few chores and then cleaned up, loaded up, and headed out by 4-wheeler to the cars and home. It was so good to be back but sad that it will never be the same as it was. The good old days….never recaptured but always vivid in my mind & heart.

(NB: In pics below 1st one is as it is now. The rest are the way it was surrounded by Normans beloved fireweed.)