It’s getting pretty close to that annual time of the year (actually winter) when many of our area residents begin to suffer the earliest symptoms of that dreaded North Country affliction known as “cabin fever.” With the holidays behind us, and few left until Easter time, even some of the avid snow worshippers begin to long for warmer temperatures and glimpses of green grass.

There was a time, many years ago, when I thought living in our “Last Frontier” – that being Alaska – would be like Heaven for someone who loved the outdoors. But as I struggled through my own late-winter cabin fever one year, the thought of a six-month winter season with no or precious little daylight put things in better perspective. Even a five-month spring-to-autumn period when it never gets fully dark didn’t seem like an attractive enough trade-off for enduring a winter like that.

Thanks to my decades of being involved with the outdoor media, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to sample the various weather and seasons of many locales and regions. One thing I learned was none of them could be considered “perfect” year-round and for every positive feature they offered, there was a negative one that balanced the scale. Much like my early perception of Alaska, each region had its attractions and distractions when it came to climate and conditions.