Alaska Snowmobiling 1
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For some folks, retirement means slowing down, playing golf, maybe taking time to travel. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is the Weather Notebook. As correspondent Amy Mayer tells us, one Alaska retiree has taken the idea of travel to a new level of adventure.

Roger Siglin is building snowmobile sleds in his workshop in Fairbanks, Alaska. The former park ranger designs them mainly for his own arctic journeys. He has snowmobiled across the frozen tundra nine times in the early spring, logging 13 thousand miles. This month three fellow travelers will join Siglin as he celebrates his 65th birthday during a 2400 mile snowmobile trek across Canada. He says late March is a good time to gothe days are long with lots of sunlight. The cold poses a challenge, but Siglin says it's manageable.

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But the tents don't break, and Siglin's is fitted with a woodstove. He's bundled in layers of down, fleece and polypropylene. The snowmobile will start in the morning as long as the temp is above minus 45 Fahrenheit. And the machine's more than transportation. The engine warms his frozen, pre-cooked meals, like a bacon and egg sandwich. He's adapted small metal cookers intended for open-fires.

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Siglin will be packing a lot of sandwiches to make the 25-day drive from Inuvik in Canada's Northwest Territories to Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson Bay, 700 miles due north of the US border.

That's a long way to go ! Tomorrow, find out what "drives" this Alaskan retiree to endure a month on his snowmobile in severe cold. Thanks to Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation for their generous support of the Weather Notebook.