10-11-2024, 08:14 AM
This post was last modified 10-11-2024, 08:18 AM by FlyingClayDisk.
First time I saw the Northern Lights it freaked me out, because I didn't know what it was. Then, when I figured out what it was...it still freaked me out, because it wasn't what I expected at all!
I was fishing at the time on the Kenai River in Alaska. We'd been fishing for a long time and I'd kind of lost track of time. I kept getting this feeling like I was hungry, but I ignored it because I was super into the fishing. At one point I looked down at my watch, and much to my shock it was 1:30am (last time I'd eaten was breakfast the day before). It had just started to get dark, and I noticed as I was looking at my watch that the light was sort of flickering kind of. My first thought was I was getting dizzy from not having eaten. Then I looked up. Above me were these clouds, or what I thought were clouds, but they looked somehow electric, like they glowed sort of. I just thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but as I stood there and watched them they started moving all over the place. They were changing positions and shape pretty rapidly. I felt like I'd taken some kind of hallucinogenic or something. It took my mind a few seconds to realize and digest where I was, and what the phenomenon was that I was seeing.
After the initial shock of seeing the blue-green and orange hues writhing around in the sky and realizing it was the Northern Lights (and not clouds). I was like..."WHOA!! How cool is THAT??" Then this wave of fear came over me; I don't know how to describe it. It was almost as if I was thinking the sky was going to fall or something. I was just there all alone in the twilight on this Alaskan river, and I wondered if I'd be okay. Nobody had ever told me how you were supposed to react when you saw the Northern Lights (so I didn't know. Where you supposed to take cover, or what?)
I know this all sounds silly, but before that the only glimpse I'd ever had of the Northern Lights was in pictures. I didn't realize they moved, and especially didn't realize they moved that fast! Pictures don't move, and these things were jumping all over the place. I stood there and stared at them in awe for a long while. In fact, I stood there and stared so long that after a while my BIL had to snap me out of my trance. "HEY!! WAKE UP!! It's getting dark, we should probably go get something to eat." Right at that moment I hooked a giant Dolly Varden and at the same time a bear showed up on the far bank a ways upriver. My mind immediately switched at that point to reeling in my fish and not becoming breakfast for a hungry bear. I didn't remember the light show until I got back to the truck, and by that time the lights had tapered way off.
Saw the Northern Lights many, many, times in my travels in Alaska for years after that, but I'll never forget the very first time I saw them. That was quite an experience!
I was fishing at the time on the Kenai River in Alaska. We'd been fishing for a long time and I'd kind of lost track of time. I kept getting this feeling like I was hungry, but I ignored it because I was super into the fishing. At one point I looked down at my watch, and much to my shock it was 1:30am (last time I'd eaten was breakfast the day before). It had just started to get dark, and I noticed as I was looking at my watch that the light was sort of flickering kind of. My first thought was I was getting dizzy from not having eaten. Then I looked up. Above me were these clouds, or what I thought were clouds, but they looked somehow electric, like they glowed sort of. I just thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but as I stood there and watched them they started moving all over the place. They were changing positions and shape pretty rapidly. I felt like I'd taken some kind of hallucinogenic or something. It took my mind a few seconds to realize and digest where I was, and what the phenomenon was that I was seeing.
After the initial shock of seeing the blue-green and orange hues writhing around in the sky and realizing it was the Northern Lights (and not clouds). I was like..."WHOA!! How cool is THAT??" Then this wave of fear came over me; I don't know how to describe it. It was almost as if I was thinking the sky was going to fall or something. I was just there all alone in the twilight on this Alaskan river, and I wondered if I'd be okay. Nobody had ever told me how you were supposed to react when you saw the Northern Lights (so I didn't know. Where you supposed to take cover, or what?)
I know this all sounds silly, but before that the only glimpse I'd ever had of the Northern Lights was in pictures. I didn't realize they moved, and especially didn't realize they moved that fast! Pictures don't move, and these things were jumping all over the place. I stood there and stared at them in awe for a long while. In fact, I stood there and stared so long that after a while my BIL had to snap me out of my trance. "HEY!! WAKE UP!! It's getting dark, we should probably go get something to eat." Right at that moment I hooked a giant Dolly Varden and at the same time a bear showed up on the far bank a ways upriver. My mind immediately switched at that point to reeling in my fish and not becoming breakfast for a hungry bear. I didn't remember the light show until I got back to the truck, and by that time the lights had tapered way off.
Saw the Northern Lights many, many, times in my travels in Alaska for years after that, but I'll never forget the very first time I saw them. That was quite an experience!
