The Snowboarder's Journal - frequency 17.2
FEEDING THE DREAM CHASERS
Words and Photo: Colin Wiseman 2019-10-21 18:49:49
It’s a bluebird April morning and the Thompson Pass, AK parking lot is borderline chaotic. Rows of rental RVs line the west wall, all manner of personal homes-on-wheels the east. Jamie Lynn’s got a hobo lair setup in the alders, complete with standard blue tarp and a five-feet-across red biplane model dangling in the wind. Head-high snowbanks line the gravel-and-mud expanse, while a few snowmobiles perch above it all toward Highway 4. The Alaska Snowboard Guides compound hems in the north side: a few Quonset huts, several helicopters in various stages of readiness. Guides and groups shuffle around getting ready to ride Chugach dream lines. Most of them stop at a little red trailer adorned with a scripted sign: Magpie’s on the Fly.
Inside, Margaret “Maggie” Nylund procures espresso, eggs benedict, breakfast burritos and more for the needy horde—a definite upgrade from the PB&J and spaghetti fare usually associated with extended vehicular accommodation. She moves quickly around the tiny space, producing healthy meals to fuel the daily grind. A former baker, she’s been making the pilgrimage to the pass for almost a decade.
“I started with a little booth at Tailgate Alaska in 2011,” Maggie tells me once the commotion has ceased, “and I began delivering sandwiches to the guides up here in 2014. Then [ASG guide] Dan and [his wife] Maggie Caruso found me in the grocery store the next April and said, ‘We need you. Come up and feed us.’”
A biochemist by training and a self-taught cook who’s also busy producing an embryonic vaudeville show, Maggie complied. She bought a little trailer sight-unseen from the lower 48, had it delivered, and retrofitted it for her needs. Figuring out how to cook for an extended family of itinerant souls through a lot of downtime and inclement weather required hardiness and experimentation from this native of Glennallen, AK.
“I love scientific incorporation of anything,” Maggie said. “So, learning how to cook has been an adventure because it’s not always as scientific as I’d like it to be, especially up here in Thompson Pass, when the winds get kicking, and your steaks are cooking different because you have a storm outside, and it’s not as hot as it needs to be. But my cooking is healthy. I’m not too creative with flavor, but I do try to make sure that we incorporate all the vitamins that are needed for athletes. So, my baselines are: What are my customers doing with their bodies? What needs do I have to feed?”
She takes pride in watching the likes of Eric Jackson, Jamie Anderson, Cutis Ciszek, Austin Smith and beyond chow down before heading out to film lines. And Maggie, who lives in Valdez, is a boarder herself, which doesn’t hurt—she’ll sneak out for a sled-access lap when she has time, maybe get an occasional heli bump. She thrives on the vibe of the pass.
“Riding the Chugach is a life-changing experience,” Maggie says. “I regenerate my energy for the year off the two months that I get to spend with such excited humans. I call you guys ‘the gypsies and the dream chasers.’ Because what you do [for work] is your life. And I wanted to be part of that.”
A week later, when we return from a week on a nearby glacier (see page 68), the parking lot will be all but deserted. But Maggie will be waiting. She’ll serve us a vegetarian yellow curry over brown rice to soothe over-amped nerves. She’ll stay in that lot as long as we’re there and ready to ride. We may not have bathed in a week, but we’ll surely be well fed.
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