"Pot Hole" Season

Ahhh! Spring time in Alaska! Or in "Sourdough" (person who has lived in Alaska a long time) terms: "Pot-Hole" season!

Our road system in Alaska is very limited; we have very few paved roads. Most are graveled. In the winter the gravel roads are great; the snow packs down on them, and levels them out.

But!!! When spring arrives, the snow melts. Firstly anyone who had been around Spring-time, any place it snows knows all about the slushy muddy mess on unpaved roads and walkways. You do not dare stop or you will sink into deep thick mud.

And then, when the mud finally starts drying up, what’s left of the roads are huge potholes, ridges from tires that dug into the mud, and wash boarding, (many cross ridges in the road, making it a very bumpy ride).

We have to be careful, it can look very deceiving, you’re driving along, minding your own business, and there are some puddles in the road,

You can’t drive around them; because of the huge 12 to 16 foot ditches on each either of what some may call a two lane, (that’s pushing it) gravel road.

Then wham! You’re stuck! Inside one of those innocent puddles lurks a huge pothole that grabs your tire, and sometimes the whole front of your car ends up in the hole.


I know what you’re thinking! How can you not see a hole that big? I’m tellin’ ya! You would be surprised!

The water in the puddle/pothole is so muddy; it blends into its surroundings of other ridges, bumps, and puddles, causing a delusion. And when you are traveling faster then 10 miles an hour, your brain does not associate the puddles you see, with depth!

Once everything is finally dry from the ice and snow melting, then the rains start! Of course on the very dry days, you can see someone coming from miles away, because of the dust in the air.

And as for our paved road (s)! With the annual frost heaves, it would take a whole “nother” posting to describe, but I can give you a hint of what it is like.

Quoted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_heaving

Frost heaving (or frost heave) occurs when soil expands and contracts due to freezing and thawing. This process can damage plant roots through breaking or desiccation, cause cracks in pavement, and damage the foundations of buildings, even below the frost line. Moist, fine-grained soil at certain temperatures is most susceptible to frost heaving



Okay! I don’t want to sound completely negative about our roads, so the one positive thought I could come up with...our service stations benefit from annual front-end alignments.

CU