Fairbanks to Chatanika and the end of the road...

Well, It's been a few days because, I've been deep in the interior of Alaska with no Internet access (and hardly any human contact)!

I left Fairbanks to drive north as far as I could go but, not before a black bear lumbered across the highway in front of me unfortunately, too fast for me to catch a picture of him.

Along the way I passed the Alaska Pipeline and a couple of moose (meese)? that tried running onto the highway but, when confronted with the fast moving traffic, decided otherwise.


I finally made it to the end of the paved roads north and since I had a rental car, this was as far as I was going. It's not advisable to drive on the dirt tracks for fear of snow in these mountain and no way to get help.

I was in the Chatanika valley and the home of, the F.E. Gold Camp. An old gold miners camp turned into an inn with a bar and restaurant recently taken over by a guy named Mike and his girlfriend Tammy along with their new puppy, a chocolate lab named Nugget.
They are trying to make a go of it way up here where there aren't many visitors in the winter months but, quite a few tourists that come through for the summer fishing. In the winter they get a few locals and hunters coming in for a beer or some of the best food this close to Fairbanks. Mike has hired a great chef by the name of Dennis who has come to help out along with his two children.

I walked into the place and there was no one there except the owners. They set me up in a room and then I spent the rest of the night in the bar talking and getting to know them. They turned out to be great people and we became good friends.

The food was out of this world and very gourmet!

The place consists of a main building where you have the original mess hall and kitchen downstairs with about 6 rooms for rent upstairs with a shared bathroom. Across from this is another building which was the bunk house for the miners and several other buildings all for different functions during the mining, most of which are no longer in use but, have possibilities of being re-used as cabins for guests someday.

We spent a lot of time together and I was accepted by them as a "non-tourist" since they, as most Alaskans, are sick of what they call "Princess" tourists in the summertime. I later learned that this referred to the Princess cruises which bring in boat loads of tourists to some of the towns which, is on the one hand a good thing for the economy but, a bad thing for the locals that appreciate their privacy.

As some of you know, my main objective for this trip to Alaska was to head as far north as possible to photograph the northern lights or as locals refer to them the Aurora. Well, each night we waited for the clouds to clear, with no success!

I was disappointed to find out that the Saturday night before I arrived had been a great display of the lights, that my new friends were able to enjoy from their wonderful spot away from any city light pollution. They all shared their stories of what they saw with me as I listened with jealous excitement.

I did my best to make my stay enjoyable despite my not seeing the lights and they did their best to make me happy knowing what I came there for.

So, they treated me to some special evenings like, cooking me up some freshly shot moose meat! What a treat!
And, brought in a friend of theirs from Fairbanks, Earl Hughes , a bluegrass musician who played guitar, fiddle and banjo. He gave us a little concert even though, there were only 4 of us there.
To my delight, he played a song named "The Northern Lights Waltz".

My new friendships made the trip all worth it and maybe even better than seeing the lights after all.

It was a sad goodbye but, they made me promise to come back so, I plan another visit this winter in hopes of seeing the Aurora which, I'm told is more likely in the colder and clearer winter months.

I left Chatanika for the long drive back to Anchorage to catch my flight home. It turned out to be the clearest and most beautiful day since I arrived, a possibly good night to see the northern lights but, I was going to miss them again.
I took advantage of the clear weather and drove back by Denali for one last view of Mt. McKinley and, what a view it was!

I also took this chance to stop by Stampede road where "Into The Wild" took place and Chris McCandless spent his last days alive.

Thank you for reading my blog and until the next trip...Goodbye!

Louie

Denali and Talkeetna

I'm back!

After spending the night in Anchorage, I moved on north towards the town of Talkeetna (the town used as the model for the tv show Northern Exposure).
Then on to Denali (or what non-Alaskans call Mt. McKinley) and eventually to Fairbanks for the best views of the Northern Lights.

Driving north from Anchorage, it gets very back country and what they call the "bush". Lots of birch trees with turned yellow leaves, creating a beautiful landscape with the snow capped mountains in the background.
After hours of no signs of life, and almost missing it, a black bear lumbered across the road in front of me and back into the woods. Unfortunately, he was so quick, I didn't have time to get a picture.
Actually, I have been very cautious of stopping along the road to get pictures, not knowing if one is going to jump out from behind a tree and bite me in the ass! It's quite scary being out there all alone, they say to just make lots of noise and the bears will stay away so, I sing and whistle a lot.


I eventually got to the road that leads off the highway to the small town of Talkeetna but, just before you enter town, there is a pull off with the best views of Denali. As the locals say, it was almost completely obscured by clouds when I arrived. They say you're very lucky if you ever get to see the whole mountain, let alone the whole range. Some say they live there and very rarely see it.

I ended up meeting this woman artist who lives there in a van. Most of the towns people are hippies with the men all wearing very long beards. Kind of like the old miners and trappers that settled the town in the 20's.
We talked for over an hour about everything. The people of this town are just like the folks in the tv show and they are very bitter about It since, the Hollywood people came up there and spent months in the cafes and streets talking to the people and getting to know their way of life and then going on to copy that for the show but, refusing to give them any kind of credit for it.

After talking all that time, the clouds eventually moved away and the whole range was exposed, everyone at the pull off (which were locals mostly since there are very few tourists here at this time of year) all began clapping because, it is so rare to see the mountain.
It was a beautiful site and needless to say, I spent the next hour shooting as many pictures as a I could, until it became dark.

I then headed to town to look for a hotel and get a bite to eat. I ended up in a log cabin inn with a bar and restaurant. The room had no phone or tv so, you are forced to communicate with people!
It was mostly hunters and trappers and some local people hanging out in the bar. All very nice people to chat with.

I spent the next day in town taking lots of photographs and meeting people.

In the afternoon, I headed out of town.

Along the way I came to a trading post where this guy was selling all this junk he had collected.
And, along with the antiques and junk were some very weird things indeed, as you'll see by some of the pictures here and believe me, there were many more shots that I got!
He actually had a pet reindeer on a chain!

From there it was on to Denali National Park where everything was boarded up and closed for the winter, no signs of life anywhere and I was out of gas! I had thought the gas stations would at least be open for travelers along this lonely stretch of road but, nada!

I started to get a little freaked out and saw that in my handbook of Alaska, there is a very small town called Healy, 11 miles north of Denali. I kept my gear in neutral as I descended the mountains in hope of conserving what little gas I had.

The scariest part was that it was getting dark and my handbook said that I was right near the road that leads to where Chris McCandless (the subject of the famous book, Into The Wild of which Sean Penn has just made the move version of) starved to death in a burned out school bus.

All of a sudden I came upon Healy and the first thing there was a gas station. I went to pre-pay for my gas and the guy said that they are doing testing on the tanks and It would be quite a while before I could pump! I got all wide eyed and said, no, you have to give me gas! You don't understand, I'm on empty and I have to get to Fairbanks by nightfall!
He was very nice and stopped the testing for me. Phew! what a relief, I felt so much better in my warm car with a full tank as it got dark. I was still and hour outside of Fairbanks and eventually made it into town and got a hotel.

So, now that I'm here, It's time to see the Northern Lights!

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to pouring rain. So, I'm sitting in a coffee house on the campus of the University of Alaska typing away. I'm hoping it stops and clears up tonight?

Keeping my fingers crossed so, I can hopefully send you pictures of the lights.

Until next time.....

Alaska Tripping

Welcome to my first blog! (sorry for the primitiveness, I'll get better)

So, here I am in Alaska. Yes, I finally made it to this beautiful state. I suppose this being my first time blogging, it will take me some time to learn the ropes so, please bear with me.

On Sept. 20, I left the bay area for Anchorage where I rented a car and set out for a one week tour eventually, heading to Fairbanks in search of the Aurora Borealis.

As I settled in and tried to get my bearings in this strange little town of Anchorage, I was trying to think of a place that it reminded me of and all I could come up with is Reno? Yeah, it's a very small town with just a few high rises but actually, spreads out to be much bigger than I thought. The downtown is basically just about 8 blocks either way and one "main" street called 4th st., where the hip cafes and bars are. Most of the buildings are new as of 1964 when the town was leveled on Good Friday by a 9.2 earthquake that lasted for 5 minutes! (and we thought the 1989 SF quake was bad).


On Friday after leaving my hotel, I drove south towards the Kenai Penninsula. Along Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, I stopped to see beluga whales playing along side the highway. My first stop was the town of Girdwood, home of Alyeska ski resort. It reminded me of Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe.

Next, was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Reserve. It was my chance to see moose, brown bears, caribou and elk in a natural setting without getting eaten by one!

I eventually ended up in the town of Seward. This small port town was quite nice. Very quiet and relaxing. I got in late so, decided to stay the night.

The next day I was catching a cruise boat out of the town of Whittier to view 26 different glaciers in Prince William Sound. But, I didn't realize that to get to this town of 300 (80% of the residents live in one 14 story building), you have to go through a train tunnel, when the train isn't going through! It is one car width wide and not much taller than a train. You get one chance each hour to go through it and the same coming back out.

I have to say that the glaciers are much more dramatic and beautiful than I ever expected and I don't think that I can convey it in photos but, I'll try.
I did get to see actual calving on one of the glacier and even caught shot of it. On our way out into the sound, we had a pod of dall porpoises swimming around our boat. I was able to get a video of them too.
We also saw many sea otters relaxing on the ice floating around, they look like little stuffed toys.

I came back to Anchorage for the night and now on Sunday morning, I'm headed up to the town of Talkeetna (the town used to model the TV show Northern Exposure).



...I'll be back!