Blogs from Anchorage, Alaska, United States, North America - page 6

Today the ceremonial start of the Iditarod took place in downtown Anchorage. This is tradition and the teams start on 4th street and go 11 miles. The actual start of the race is in Willow - usually. This year parts of the trail doesn't have enough snow and they moved the start to Fairbanks (Monday, March 7th). The temperature in Fairbanks is minus 35, so I'll stay in balmy Anchorage where today's top temperature was 16! I caught the "volunteer's" shuttle to go downtown, arriving at about 7:30 a.m. I think it was minus 2 degrees. I walked around looking at the teams. I was surprised that the dogs are small. My impression, thanks to Hollywood, is that the dogs are bigger. These dogs were so excited and ready to go. There are lots of volunteer ... read more

I'm here in Anchorage. The flight was spectacular and the views of the mountains incredible, thanks to the cold, clear air. The mountains around here seem endless. They don't allow Lyft or Uber here - bit of shock when I arrived. Took cab to house I'm staying in - cute little place. My host, CJ, is at work. My room is cute, and the German Shepherd, Jazzi, welcomed me. I walked over to the Lakefront Hotel where I will be volunteering. Of course they had Iditarod souvenirs for sale and I shopped. I had my training with about 70 people. Most of the volunteers are from Alaska, but there are people here from all over the US. Some of them are assigned to a trail checkpoint - which means they keep track of when mushers arrive ... read more

May 2016, we head back to Davenport to retrieve the RV and take it north to Alaska. After loading food and filling the water tank, we headed South to Corvallis OR to visit with our oldest son and his children. The weather was a bit warmer than we would have liked (85-90f), but we managed to make good time down the Columbia River via 90 south and 84 west. The skies were beautiful and the views even better, traffic was good and the wind was to our favor. We stopped from time to time for a rest and to clean the bugs off the windshield, which was more than Bob would have liked. Stopping in the Dalles to fuel up and laugh at the service attendant struggle with cleaning the windshield on a class A. Without ... read more

I've been in Anchorage Alaska for two whole days now. If I was staying longer I would hire a vehicle and head out into the surrounding countryside, but alas my time is short. Tomorrow I commence my Cruise from Whitter to Vancouver through the Inside Passage. But I've made good use of my time here ... my feet are worn out from pounding the pavement around the downtown Anchorage hub, a real tourist retail centre. This is definitely NOT where the real Alaskans live ... the place is full of restaurants and eating places, hotels, tour companies and gift shops. Oh, and Fur Traders. My original intention was to stop off at a supermarket and grab enough supplies to feed myself economically without eating out, but alas, the nearest supermarket is well and truly out of ... read more

Geo: 61.2176, -149.858After a final wander around Denali village to buy that all-important magnet, we headed back to the train station where we were met with some of our first real proper rain of the trip. However, it had that tropical quality to it, and we could tell it would soon dry up. It did, and once we boarded the train, we were in much sunnier territory with blue sky peeking through the clouds and allowing us good views of the scenery as it whizzed by.The scenery was the same as on the outbound journey (see The 'Terrific Train Travel' entry) - vast plains, huge mountains and rushing rivers. Steep sided gorges dropped off below the tracks and we searched Bain,y for more wildlife as the train thundered on. However, the seating was not. Our carriage ... read more