Winter Scenes

I am always entertained by the number of people around Homer who 1) do not have driveways or 2) do not have driveways in the winter and have to walk, snowshoe, snowmachine or ski to get to their homes.

The area by Lookout Mountain on Ohlson Mountain Road is one great example (and where all of these pictures were taken on a recent weekend).

Near the cross-country ski trails the pictured sign is posted, requesting that people please not park along the road, as that is their "driveway!" The cross-country ski trails weave in and out and around some of these homes. They are what I consider truly Alaskan homes: cabins, log, old, and a bit crazy perhaps. Most have outhouses, many are tiny, and all have lots of character. Some are quite a ways from the main road, and I wonder what kind of person would want to live so far away from people and put up with the extra challenges of getting to their home during the winter (and during spring break-up too, as the mud would be more challenging than the snow).


Some people actually do try to have driveways, and the result is what you see in the above picture--a narrow alley between walls of snow that probably gets blown over every day. Some of these people must be recluses, because a vehicle will get buried in the snow and not get dug out for a week or more.

There are homes all over the area that don't have driveways to the house, including our next door neighbor who has to walk by our house, across a bridge, down a hill, and across another bridge to get to her house! She has been hauling stuff all that ways for 15 years now! It just makes me shake my head. I am not going to say I would "never" do that, because it seems like every time I do I end up doing what I said I would "never" do! I might! ( :