Don’t get caught out on thin ice

According to the calendar, spring began last month. In Alaska, though, the spring — or vernal — equinox gets a lot less attention than its grownup cousins, Summer and Winter Solstice.

While solstice marks the two days of the year with the most hours of daylight — Summer Solstice — and the least hours of daylight — Winter Solstice — these biannual equinox events mark a time period each March and September when the sun is directly over the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal worldwide.

Instead of a season of fragrant blooming flowers and greening lawns, here spring is a long, muddy season of waiting. After too many months of winter, we’ve grown anxious to wet a line, plant a garden, hike the trails and get our boats back in the water.

Although we have to wait a bit longer for spring to arrive in force, the coming sunshine, gardening, fishing, hiking, camping and boating is worth the wait.

But Alaskans know that despite summer days of seemingly endless light, the short season is to be savored. As such, we spend spring getting ready for summer.

We sprout our gardens first in a south-facing windowsill. It’s when we ready our boat and tackle boxes. Spring also is the time to get new fishing permits and reserve a backcountry cabin for a weekend of camping with family and friends.

However, Alaska’s hours of sunshine, warming weather and spring winds spell trouble on local lakes, rivers and other waterways.

If you ask Cliff Silvers, who heads the Mat-Su Borough’s Dive Rescue Team, the best way to stay safe is to stay off the ice altogether. But then again, he might be overly cautious; he’s the guy whose rescue team responds when a person puts their car, snowmachine or self through the ice.

The most important thing to know about these rescues is — for the most part — they are preventable. No one has to drive on the ice to get to work; though it may be shorter to use Big Lake’s ice roads. No one is required to snowmachine on local rivers.

Though, collectively, if we choose to wait it out, it won’t be just the Dive Rescue Team that benefits. The real winners will be the families whose loved ones are home safely planning their summer fun instead of dead at the bottom of a local lake.