Teamwork: 6 mini-trucks work together to pull a swamped vehicle out of the Kwethluk River
Looks like it’s already time to stop using trucks and cars on the River and do our traveling by snow machine and ATV. Maybe even consider using the back trails – but with caution though because with the unseasonably warm temperatures warming up the land with no reflective snow there are additional dangers to travel even on land to be aware of such as deep puddles, opening up of creeks, and potholes in lake ice made by plants, muskrat push ups, etc.
It’s been a strange winter. First a November break up that prevented travel between the Lower and Middle River until mid-January. Then weeks and weeks of mild temperatures with very little cold or snow. Ice thicknesses have been good (38″ at Bethel on 3/22)considering how little real cold weather we’ve had – but they’re still several inches to a foot below normal. And the Bethel waterfront has been troublesome to traffic all winter long.
Now with another late March warm spell, lack of snow cover on the ice, sand, and the strong late winter sun, conditions have been deteriorating daily.
A second vehicle falls through the ice in the middle of the Kwethluk River. A short time after this picture was taken the vehicle went completely under the water
The two bends below Akiak are full of water on top the ice from bank to bank. The sand blowing off the bars onto the ice has caused this area to melt extra hard on the warm sunny days we’ve had recently. The sand has also created potholes that grow deeper each day. BSAR did a river survey by snow machine through this area today. With the cooler temperatures overnight this overflow has a frozen layer then water underneath up to a foot or more deep. The new ice and light dusting of snow hide the potholes made by the sand but we found some of them to be 3 feet deep meaning that there is not very much original ice left at the bottom of these holes. Needle ice can be seen in many areas all along the River.
At this time there is no large vehicle traffic to Akiak – just a limited amount of snow machine travel. ATV travelers have to be extra careful as these machines don’t go over the half frozen water and potholes as easily or safely as a snow machine does.
ATV crashes after hitting a soft spot in the ice. The driver was pinned under the bike when he was found – but he was OK…lucky
We may see cooler temperatures over the next few days, and conditions may seem to improve, but this is deceiving. Winter is coming to an end – maybe close to a month earlier than we’re used to. A lot of damage has been done to the River over the past several days and with the strong sun, even on cold days winter will continue to release it’s grip on the River. And when it fully warms up again conditions will quickly deteriorate.
BSAR is advising no further truck or car travel on the River at this time. If you live in a village and want to keep your vehicle in Bethel for the summer, please get them here as soon as possible. Don’t wait until conditions get any worse…
…remember this has been a strange winter and we still don’t know what’s going to happen. Let’s all try to be even more on the safe side as we go into spring.
Safe travels & happy spring from BSAR.
Thank you.
Bad Idea: trying to rescue swamped trucks on dangerous ice with a bull dozer that weighs 4 times more than a truck
