The Northern Lights

The excursion in search of the Northern Lights was a four hour ride on snowmobiles with a group of ten others through narrow forest trails, across frozen lakes and down the wide ice-bound Torne River, approximately 25 kilometers of driving. The temperature should have been -30 but it was maybe ever a max of -2. Very comfortable. Vince was the driver, as my license has recently expired – that said, the machine looks pitifully simple to operate - Stop. Go. Hand warmers on. That sort of thing.

The sky was clear and the stars and sickle-shaped moon lit up the snow without any competition from city lights. The loud roar of the snowmobiles cut through the peace and silence, and there was a powerful smell of diesel along the forest trails, but revving up the engine to 60-70 kilometers per hour along frozen rivers made it all worthwhile.

We finally stopped in a clearing. Above us the Northern Lights seemed to flutter like strands of pale blue ribbon. At first they were not very impressive, and we were just getting ready to leave when BAM! A ‘finger’ of cloud stuff swooped accusingly down on us, and as we gasped a melody of dancing colors surrounded us, so close you felt like you could just reach up and grab them- pinks, teals, greens. Just color itself playing in the sky and showing off. Stupendous. No photos can do it justice. After about 20 minutes the show died down, and we got back on our speed-machines and zoomed off to dinner in a wilderness hut of salmon sandwiches, moose soup and more lingonberry juice.

That night we slept like the warm dead.

XOXO