Blogs from Fairbanks, Alaska, United States, North America - page 18

We had some extra time this week so we made our way to the city of North Pole, Alaska (not the real North Pole). It was -40 or colder with a stiff wind but I decided to see how tough I was and ran out to the sign to take a picture. I was outside for all of 2 minutes and I froze my tail off...don't try that at home kids. The Ice Carving World Championships are about to start to we went by for a preview. The Single-Block competition has already begun and I've included a pic of a Ram since it was the only one already finished. It has remained pretty cold here as is evidenced by the Global Warming picture. Really, the environmentalists can't have come to Fairbanks and actually think it's getting ... read more

Welcome to Alaska, land of the Aurora Borelis A few flights later and a lot of waiting in airports, i arrive in Fairbanks. Mission Alaska Mission Target: Aurora Borelis (Northern Lights) Objective: Successfully photograph the phenomenon known as Aurora Borelis So after a few rainy days in Vancouver I make my way across. Fairbanks, the people here seem to be friendly and go out of their way to help you. Sometimes you forget your actually in the United States, since this one ain't so united. Day one was a night in a luxury hotel, followed the next day by a charter flight accross the Artic Circle to a small remote town called Bettles. This town is about an hours flight north of Fairbanks and sits right below the lights. Unfortunately the weather could have been better ... read more

Today we made our way to Denali National Park, a huge area dedicated to 'wilderness', quite uneventful apart from the rude, obnoxious lady who owned the mini bus shuttle bus we used to get there - but I am not going there. It was also a 'sussing' out day, finding out about the park's history and existence, what we could do there and so on. The park is absolutely huge (bigger than the state of Vermont they keep telling us, if anyone knows how big that makes it). There is a single road into the park which is closed to private vehicles. Everyone has to go in on the park's shuttle bus service. And then if you want to go into the real wilderness you just walk in any direction. No trails, no facilities, no nothing. ... read more

Having already spent a day wandering the long streets of unexciting Fairbanks, we decided to hire a car and explore. Our boy racer, dodgy handbrake car was from 'Rent a Wreck' with an advertising slogan "Don't be fooled by the name" - we just had to try! We made it to 'North Pole' a town 15 miles from Fairbanks. The entire economy revolves around the fact that anything posted there gets an official 'North Pole' postmark. This means everything relates to Santa Claus and Christmas. It was quite disturbing just what levels of tackiness can be reached when that's all they ever do. We are just pleased that it is still July and we cannot carry much more stuff as you would all have had something very tacky!! The main reason for the car was so ... read more

Monday, June 5th. I hate the car. I hate the car. I hate the car. And that doesn’t even begin to explain the contempt I feel. We woke up early, YES, actually early, 6:30 to be exact. The first thing I saw was the mountains and the sun, it’s my favorite way to start the day. We were on the road about an hour later. Smither BC is located in south central BC, we drove all the way through the province and we are now in Watson Lake, which is in the Yukon Territory. Upon map questing the distance we discovered that the estimated time between the two was ALLEGEDLY 17 hours, we did it in 11 hours. Needless to say, Laura was a passing bandit. I believe that the final count on the number of ... read more