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camwynI still haven't been eaten.
Yesterday I got up at 6 AM to go to the airport for an all-day drive up to the Arctic Circle and back. Yes, it is only a line on the map, not even painted on the ground; I do not care. The trip represented many hours of seeing Alaska, and that was what I wanted. And oh, I got it and then some! I will talk of it in more detail at another point, I think - there are many people here and I do not know if any of them want the computer, which I must needs give up in ten minutes anyway - but we drove mostly on the Dalton Highway.
Do not let the name deceive you. The road in question is more accurately called by its old name, the 'haul road'. It is unpaved, save in a few sections; it was never meant for anyone but truckers on their ways to and from Prudhoe Bay, on the northern shore of Alaska, where the oil is.
We passed through spruce and birch forests galore, but again, do not let the name deceive. In this climate a tree is lucky if it reaches two or three inches in diameter over the space of fifty years. These were tiny, skinny, slightly warped and skewed trees; it's just that there were MILLIONS of them. Or at least hundreds of thousands. We saw the Trans-Alaska pipeline, too, since the Dalton mostly runs within a mile of said engineering feat. Got out at one point and saw the pipeline up close.
We did not see much in the way of wildlife, because Alaska is BIG and wildlife is NOT STUPID. If you were a moose, and it was two days into moose hunting season (which it is), and you had the option of being a) near the highway full of humans or b) being somewhere else in Alaska, which would you choose? (Actually, if the moose had sense they'd stay near the highway - state law says you can't hunt within half a mile of the road - but the moose do not read law books, so.) We did, however, see the terrain suddenly and sharply change from boreal forest to alpine tundra, which is code for 'trees' became 'no trees' became 'oh my God it's the cover of a Jean Auel book only no prehistoric people'. I took pictures, but I don't know how far I trust my camera. going to Safeway to-day to get them developed at a one-hour place, we'll see if they're any good.
I will tell you the details later, including the silence. For now let me simply say that I returned to the Hostel around 11:50 PM - the buses got us back to the airport at 10:40, they gave us our Arctic Circle certificates, then drove every body back to lodgings - and found SOMEONE SLEEPING IN MY BED. I think he was Japanese. I did not bother waking him up, instead sleeping on a very very small couch - only to be awakened at 4:30 AM by the hostel owner, who'd just arrived from something or other and apologised profusely for my straits. Wound up sleeping the next five hours in the private room. I have since put quite a lot of my stuff on a bunk and hopefully will have that to use tonight.
Now I am going to go to a coffeehouse and get a proper morning drink, possibly a spot of early lunch, and then head to downtown. It's small, I figure I can cover it in a few hours, then come back, get food, and go to Mary Shields'. Assuming I don't get food in town or something.
Yesterday I got up at 6 AM to go to the airport for an all-day drive up to the Arctic Circle and back. Yes, it is only a line on the map, not even painted on the ground; I do not care. The trip represented many hours of seeing Alaska, and that was what I wanted. And oh, I got it and then some! I will talk of it in more detail at another point, I think - there are many people here and I do not know if any of them want the computer, which I must needs give up in ten minutes anyway - but we drove mostly on the Dalton Highway.
Do not let the name deceive you. The road in question is more accurately called by its old name, the 'haul road'. It is unpaved, save in a few sections; it was never meant for anyone but truckers on their ways to and from Prudhoe Bay, on the northern shore of Alaska, where the oil is.
We passed through spruce and birch forests galore, but again, do not let the name deceive. In this climate a tree is lucky if it reaches two or three inches in diameter over the space of fifty years. These were tiny, skinny, slightly warped and skewed trees; it's just that there were MILLIONS of them. Or at least hundreds of thousands. We saw the Trans-Alaska pipeline, too, since the Dalton mostly runs within a mile of said engineering feat. Got out at one point and saw the pipeline up close.
We did not see much in the way of wildlife, because Alaska is BIG and wildlife is NOT STUPID. If you were a moose, and it was two days into moose hunting season (which it is), and you had the option of being a) near the highway full of humans or b) being somewhere else in Alaska, which would you choose? (Actually, if the moose had sense they'd stay near the highway - state law says you can't hunt within half a mile of the road - but the moose do not read law books, so.) We did, however, see the terrain suddenly and sharply change from boreal forest to alpine tundra, which is code for 'trees' became 'no trees' became 'oh my God it's the cover of a Jean Auel book only no prehistoric people'. I took pictures, but I don't know how far I trust my camera. going to Safeway to-day to get them developed at a one-hour place, we'll see if they're any good.
I will tell you the details later, including the silence. For now let me simply say that I returned to the Hostel around 11:50 PM - the buses got us back to the airport at 10:40, they gave us our Arctic Circle certificates, then drove every body back to lodgings - and found SOMEONE SLEEPING IN MY BED. I think he was Japanese. I did not bother waking him up, instead sleeping on a very very small couch - only to be awakened at 4:30 AM by the hostel owner, who'd just arrived from something or other and apologised profusely for my straits. Wound up sleeping the next five hours in the private room. I have since put quite a lot of my stuff on a bunk and hopefully will have that to use tonight.
Now I am going to go to a coffeehouse and get a proper morning drink, possibly a spot of early lunch, and then head to downtown. It's small, I figure I can cover it in a few hours, then come back, get food, and go to Mary Shields'. Assuming I don't get food in town or something.
