Snow in August (Termination Dust)

Well, summer is winding down here in Alaska.  August is generally the beginning of fall, a time when it’s more rainy than usual, you see the first frost, and blue berries appear.  The continual sunshine is over, each day we lose about 5-6 minutes of sunshine.  So far, sunset is around 10:30 pm, and it is actually getting dark.  Hopefully I will see the Northern Lights before I leave.

For the past few days we’ve gotten a dusting of snow in the Talketna Mts (called Termination Dust as it predicts the end of summer).  Since we are at 3,500 feet, the temps are cooler here than in the Mat-Su Valley (home to the towns of Palmer and its unattractive neighbor Wasilla).  There in the Valley, high temps are only in the upper 50s, low 60s, whereas at the Independence Mine we’ve experienced flurries and freezing rain.  The snow is more substantial near the peaks at 5,000-6,000 ft.  I’m still doing some hiking, but getting wetter and colder.