# Ice Road Claw



## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I'm about to head off on vacation!  It is traditional during the cold of winter to head for balmy tropical climes, so naturally I am doing the opposite, and heading to Alaska and going above the Arctic Circle.  Wednesday (March 7th), I will fly to Fairbanks, Alaska, arriving just after Midnight on the 8th.  The 8th will basically be a rest and get organized day, on the evening of the 8th the group will have a welcome dinner and we'll meet each other and get organized.  Then March 9th to 11th, we will sightsee around Fairbanks.  Highlights will include seeing some dogsled races (though not the famous Iditarod) and one of the world's big ice sculpture competitions, as well as visiting an Arctic wildlife research center that I understand has musk ox.

March 12th, the highlight of the trip will begin, we will get into vans and proceed northward till we get on the Dalton Highway, the service road that roughly parallels the Alaska Pipeline.  It will be a full day trip, taking ten to twelve hours (though including some stops) till we get to Coldfoot, Alaska, which will be our headquarters for the next few days.  Coldfoot is a service town for maintenance and transportation on the pipeline and associated highway, and I understand many of those people will be staying in the same hotel and eating in the same hotel restaurant (the only one in town!).  Supposedly this road and this town featured on some episodes of Ice Road Truckers, but I never did get around to watching that!  The town is well above the Arctic Circle.  We will spend the next four days exploring the area around Coldfoot, including wildlife and landscapes in the Brooks Mountain Range, a dogsled ride, and other stuff.  Hopefully we will see spectacular aurora, but the weather and the Sun will have to cooperate for that to happen!

On March 17th, we will return to Fairbanks, taking another long drive down the Dalton Highway.  We'll have one more day in Fairbanks, then I'll fly home, again with the flight arriving at approximately Midnight.  I'll have one day of rest before I go back to work!  But at least it will be down to a three day week by then.

I should have internet access in Fairbanks, and will hopefully update and even post some initial pictures here occasionally, though internet is not going to be the primary thing on my mind while I am there.  I will be incommunicado in Coldfoot.  Not even any phones in the rooms.  I understand there is a pay phone in the hotel restaurant! 

My Kindle is going along, and while on the plane, I hope to use it to catch up on my 80 books reading, which has fallen behind!


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

I am so jealous, and looking forward with great glee to hearing of your adventures!!!


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

How exciting for you, Claw!
As an avid watcher of Ice Road Truckers, I'm so jealous. Take lots of pics and have a great time.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Have a safe and wonderful trip, Claw.
Happy viewing !!


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

NapCat said:


> Have a safe and wonderful trip, Claw.
> Happy viewing !!


Hey NapCat, where ya been? Did the napcats give up shopping?

Claw, I hope you have a wonderful time in Alaska. Wow, cold, brrr, but beautiful, I'm sure!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Snowing hard in Fairbanks, with seven to eleven _(now updated to nine to fourteen)_ inches expected by Wednesday morning! I fly out after lunch on Wednesday, and arrive about Midnight. Fortunately, this is a conducted group, and the people who will be taking us around are used to this. I've got the clothing to keep warm, so if we can get around, everything should be fine.

http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/17755448/article-Heavy-snow-snarls-Fairbanks-traffic--more-snow-on-the-way?instance=home_most_popular6


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Can't wait to read more!

Betsy


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Can't wait to read more!
> 
> Betsy


and see pictures!


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## loonlover (Jul 4, 2009)

Can't wait for pictures.  Have a great trip, Claw.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

There is an ice art competition going on right now in Fairbanks. We will see it. Short article with nice photos of one of the sculptures here:

http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/17760452/article-Single-block-winners-in-2012-World-Ice-Art-Championships-announced?instance=home_lead_story


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Have a safe and wonderful trip! I am also looking forward to reading about and seeing photos of your trip.

Have fun!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I am at my home airport and on my way! I amot nervous that the winter storm warning in Fairbanks has been extended into tonight. Nothing like an adventure...


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

Have fun!  I can't wait to see pictures!!!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I am safely at my Fairbanks hotel room with no problems except being tired. It is two degrees below zero outside, but really didn't feel that cold. Tomorrow is a rest day for me till a welcome dinner. Off to bed!


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

What a fun adventure! I'm glad everything is going well so far.


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

With the solar flair, you should be getting some spectacular northern lights!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

This morning when I woke up, it was a snappy seven degrees below zero in Fairbanks! I slept in after the big travel day, but got downstairs in time to have breakfast before the buffet closed. The 2012 World Ice Art Championships are in progress now, and the "multi-block" (in other words big) ice sculpture teams are finishing their work. I went down to have a look, and while I was there, the sun went higher in the sky, and the temperature rose to a balmy seven degrees above zero! I was surprised how little the cold bothered me, I walked around for two hours looking at the sculptures and watching some of the teams that aren't quite finished. Here are some photos:




























I took many more photos, but they weren't too photogenic, things aren't on display yet, and there were construction barriers and tape all over. But at least the Sun is out.

I'm resting up in the hotel room, but we will meet and have dinner and a briefing tonight. I'm kind of hoping we go out and look for aurora, though Fairbanks is not my ideal place for that, too much artificial light!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

No aurora last night, after being clear all day, sky clouded up solid at sundown.  Today was the first actual day of the organized tour.  We started out by going and listening to a lecture on aurora by Neil Brown, who is author of one of the aurora books I purchased before the trip!  Very interesting, and I learned some new things.  Then a trip to a University of Alaska research center that specializes in large Arctic mammals.  We saw caribou and musk ox.  I got to pet a musk ox, something that I surely will never do again!  Of course this was a calf.  I'm told it weighed less than two hundred pounds, which is little in musk ox terms!  Our guide at the research center had been one of the people who had bottle fed this one, which had to be done every three hours, day and night.  So this calf is relatively acclimated to humans, though it was still nervous.
in
We had lunch with several elders from native american tribes in the area.  One woman described growing up as her family moved around and literally lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle when she was small.  She described the first attempt to formally school children in her area....A missionary couple visited, had all the school children brought out and set them in a line of chairs, and they .  were told to absolutely not speak their native language.  Unfortunately for the missionaries, none of the children spoke English. The wife of the couple got up and held up a picture of a bird, and asked them what it was.  The kids were all silent.  Eventually her brother held up his hand, and told her what it was, but in their native language.  The teacher grabbed a long ruler and grabbed her brother, and all the other kids fled.  They knew she intended to spank her brother, but had never been spanked, and were terrified of it.  She said they never went back to the "school".

Finally, we visited a small museum in the cultural centetr.  We're now back at the hotel for a rest before going out for barbecue in a few hours, and then we will go out to see the Ice Art Sculpture contest in the evening, when they light the sculptures up with spotlihgts.

Fun fact....Moose do show up in the town of Fairbanks, and I am told that when people leave Halloween pumpkins out on their porch, if a moose happens to see it, he will eat it!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

By the way, it is snowing lightly, quite overcast, and nine degrees above zero outside, and has been that way all day!


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

I am hanging on every word of your trip......Thanks for Sharing

Here is what I am using as a background during your adventure......hope you see something similar soon.










_ ~Frederic Edwin Church - Aurora Borealis [1865] 
_


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

She's braver than I am! A staff member at the mammal research center plays Pied Piper and leads the musk ox to us. We were safely behind a fence.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I have seen aurora. Just a single dim beam, and no photos. Back to bed.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Brrr! It is minus eighteen degrees outside. The first highlight of the day will be dog sled race, followed by a museum, which has the good point of being inside.


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

Just WOW!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

At the end of a clear sunny day, the blazing solar heat has driven the temperature all the way to a searing one degree above zero! are hoping for clear skies and aurora tonight....


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

keeping my fingers crossed...


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Wishing you Purrrrrrrfic viewing tonight !!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Skijorer comes in for the finish at the sled dog track today.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

In fairbanks, the food of choice is obviously Thai, right? Some of my buddies had this fried whole tilapia for dinner tonight.

For my dessert I had a fried banana with coconut ice cream.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

NapCat's version of you dinner !!!


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

I don't eat sugar and I'd have to go with your fried banana and coconut ice cream for dinner if I were present at that meal.


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

Very cute Napcat, but I think it's high time the napcats did some shopping...


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Cool assemblage, NC!


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

corkyb said:


> "...I think it's high time the napcats did some shopping..."


Have no fear ! The shopping cats are currently scouring the north country seeking aurora for our friend Claw....it would be a shame if the only Northern Lights he sees on this trip are on the Internet ! Ha !


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

I knew you would be back to shopping sooner or later.  Drop in to AA and tell us what u got.  Claw I hope you had a wonderful site in the sky last night.  Cannot wait to hear your next adventure.  I thought maybe that guy in the dog sled race was you!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

No aurora last night, but this morning we again saw the professor who studies aurora, and he is sure enough of good condition the next few days that he is going to the same area we are headed to, so he can try to photograph aurora. Heard a presentation on local history and now eating lunch before going back to the ice park. Then a quiet night tonight packing for the big road trip to Coldfoot tomorrow.


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

Hey, Claw, how many people are on the little yellow bus with you?


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

spotsmom said:


> Hey, Claw, how many people are on the little yellow bus with you?


"little yellow bus"?


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

We started out with nineteen people, but dropped to eighteen. One casualty when a woman slipped on the ice and broke her wrist. She has gone home, but the rest are pressing on! Tomorrow we drive up the Dalton Highway to Coldfoot, and spend several days there. We'll take an excursion further north to Atigun Pass, ride dogsleds, and look for Aurora. Unless I get back to KB later tonight, I will be incommunicado until next Saturday night, and I may be too bushed to post then! In the meantime, pray for Solar storms!


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

You are such an adventurist (is that a word?)


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Claw's Ice Road !!










Looking for you......hope you are back in Fairbanks tonight in a nice warm jaccuzzi with a hot toddy in your hand !!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

We are back in the hotel in fairbanks. Successful trip and lots of aurora! I have to get downstairs and have pizza for dinner but more later.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

The Hooded Claw said:


> We are back in the hotel in fairbanks. Successful trip and lots of aurora! I have to get downstairs and have pizza for dinner but more later.


PICTURES!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

The aurora pictures will take longer, as my good camera doesn't play as well with hooking up to my phone and the Internet. In the meantime, here is a photo of me fending off an attack by a vicious Arctic wolf! Well, actually it is one of our sled dogs, but he did want to jump up on me and lick me to death! Having a muscular sled dog energetically jumping on you is disquieting, even when the dog is friendly.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

pretty puppy....


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

Awww, he wants to hug you, can't you tell?  Those eyes have it.


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

What a great dog!!!  sorry I missed you in chat.  Post more photos!!!  When you can.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Dogsledders getting ready to go!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

At the ice sculptures contest. You can tell she is an Alaska babe because of the boots.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Okay, here is an aurora picture! Not the best, but a pretty good one, taken at Wiseman, Alaska on Wednesday night. You can see the constellation Cassiopeia (spell?), a W-shaped arrangement of stars to the right of center, just above the trees. Truth in advertising, the colors show up better on the camera than in real life. I could barely see the tint with my naked eye.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Gorgeous!  So sorry I didn't get to chat last night to hear about your ongoing adventures.  Can't wait to see more pictures when you get home.  Continued safe travelling.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

You must have missed NapCat's Ice Sculpture entry....










Thanks for the chat update and photos. Have a safe trip home !!


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Hey Claw, great trip - thanks for sharing this with us.
Looking forward to any further pics.
You always get such great shots (you and Scarlet).
Keep safe, buddy.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

thanks for posting that shot, boss.  looks gorgeous!

the piranhas say hi.


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

NapCat said:


> You must have missed NapCat's Ice Sculpture entry....
> 
> 
> 
> ...


clear winner there NapCat!


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

Well, Claw, that is a gorgeous picture.  Sounds like you had a great trip. I hope we get to see more pictures.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

While dogsledding on Thursday morning, I turned my camera around and took this picture of myself and my musher Victoria standing behind me. Note the frost on my eyebrow, muffler, and even the edges of my hood!

Breaking for lunch after hearing a talk by a worker on the Exxon oil spill, then more dogsled races this afternoon.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Even in remote Coldfoot, Alaska, it wasn't all hardship and adventure. We had this great strawberry shortcake for dessert one night....


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Here's a shot from the dog races this afternoon. One team has passed another, which is standing still. There's a story, and more pictures behind this. I'll post them when I get home.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

NapCat said:


> You must have missed NapCat's Ice Sculpture entry....


I saw it, but everything except the grin disappeared before I could get a photo!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I am in Seattle on my way home, got to change planes again in Salt Lake City. Back to the real world!


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## ellesu (Feb 19, 2009)

Safe travels! I've enjoyed your pictures and that strawberry shortcake looks delish!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Home and off to bed.  I actually turned down $400 if I'd have volunteered to be bumped in Salt Lake City.  Delta would have paid for a hotel, but I wouldn't have gotten back to Oklahoma till after 1 PM, and I decided I need my full day of rest tomorrow so I can be ready to go back to work Wednesday.  But it was tough to board and walk away from that four hundred dollar voucher!

And Ellesu, the strawberry shortcake was excellent.  Especially north of the Arctic Circle.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Welcome home, Claw!  I'm glad you made it safe and sound.  Get rested up so you can spend time sorting pictures to show and to tell us about your wonderful adventure.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

If you're not the lead sled dog, the view never changes....


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

The Hooded Claw said:


> If you're not the lead sled dog, the view never changes....


so true...


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/17929724/article-12-times-a-champion--Ellis-Express-celebrates-another-ONAC-title-run?instance=local_sports

Above is a local news article about the GCI Open North American Championship (the sled dog race we watched Sunday, that is featured in the photo in post #60 above. Do you think that the other mushers might get depressed that the same guy has won it twelve of the fourteen years it has been run? 

The sled dogs _LOVE_ running. As they are getting hooked up, they bark and howl with excitement. They are bouncy when being taken over there, out of excitement, not out of trying to get away or distress. Once hooked up, they continue to voice their eagerness, and will strain forward on their harness and even jump up and down with all four legs off the ground in excitement. While we were dogsledding ourselves, up in Coldfoot, we were warned in advance that once all the dogs were hooked up, we had to go at once, as otherwise the dogs would get confused why they weren't running, and some would try to run anyway, some would try to wander off, and some would start to play with each other and things would become a mess of tangled harnesses and dissarrayed dogs.

The dogs have a heat problem, unless it is quite cold. Racing dogs are much lighter-coated than the working dogs we were with up in Coldfoot, or that you read about in books, but even the racing dogs have to shed heat during a race. If you look at the photo in post 60, you will see dog's tongues hanging out to shed heat, even though the temperature was about zero degrees.

Finally, the sled dogs I saw were without exception extremely well-behaved and friendly. When I was peeking down on race preparations from my hotel room in Fairbanks, even dogs from different teams didn't make trouble, despite being keyed up and bouncing around eagerly.

Dog team owners in the interior of Alaska have a big disadvantage over owners on the coast--Availability of cheap salmon near the coast (and a few rivers) makes feeding a dog team much cheaper than in the interior.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Tools of the ice sculptor's trade.










Maneuvering a piece into place during the ice sculpture contest.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Another aurora picture. Yes, those are moose antlers you see....


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Just what you wanted! More aurora.


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

Beautiful!


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Just what you wanted! More aurora.


finally.


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

OH wow!  Wonderful.


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

Very cool! (pun intended)
The aurora color in the last two photos, is that close to what you saw with your eyes?
If so, is that the usual amount of color you can see?

I saw the aurora one time from Wash. State, absolutely amazing. I remember it as being a definite green undulating curtain. I stayed up until about 3am watching it from the deck of the house I was house-sitting out in the back of beyond where there was no light pollution. Have not seen one since. (maybe my memory bumped up the color! LOL. It _was_ almost 30 years ago. )


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

sherylb said:


> Very cool! (pun intended)
> The aurora color in the last two photos, is that close to what you saw with your eyes?
> If so, is that the usual amount of color you can see?


Photos don't recreate the actual experience, they are both better and worse. The color in all my photos was a lot more intense than it appeared in real life. I saw only a greenish hue, not as dramatic as what you see here.

BUT...In another way the aurora are much more visually impressive in real life than in photos. When they are going good, they are HUGE! A couple of times, more than half of the sky (from the horizon in front to the zenith directly overhead and a little past it, and past my shoulders on both left and right) was filled with ripples of aurora! Even in lesser moments, the amount of sky covered was big. The photo I posted this evening is taken with quite a wide angle lens--Notice how the trees are bowed to the left and right on both sides of the center. This is from tilting a wide-angle lens upwards to get the photo. They are amazingly large and impressive.

Finally, the aurora move. They don't jump around, but subtly flicker and shift around continually. It is barely fast enough to notice, but it happens all the time, and it adds to the magical effect.

We didn't see really spectacular aurora, but we did have three nights of steadily improving "good" aurora. When it is really spectacular it must be amazing.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

A scene on the Dalton Highway, shot out the front window (you can see the front seats sticking up into the photo). This segment of the Highway is known as The Roller Coaster, located at Mile 76 of the Highway. This is approaching it from the North, headed towards Fairbanks.










The video in this Youtube is NOT mine, but it conveys the feeling. The Youtube video is shot coming from the South, headed away from Fairbanks, and I agree with the Youtubers that it is steeper downward coming the other direction (as in my photo).






There are a couple of more dips on The Roller Coaster, I believe a total of three, but the other two are less scary than this one.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

My second (and only other) shot of The Roller Coaster, taken a moment before the one above.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

In Fairbanks, we stayed at Springhill Suites, which is quite a nice upper-crust hotel. In Coldfoot, we stayed at the best hotel in town....in fact, the only hotel in town! We were housed in a hotel assembled from prefab units that were used to house construction workers during the pipeline construction! Location is everything, since the hotel is seventy miles north of the Arctic Circle, so luxury has to take a second seat. I referred to the place as "Motel 6 without the spacious rooms!" The closest thing to a concession to luxury is that we did have private bathrooms. But everything was immaculately clean, though the only "maid" service was to change out towels each day. On the plus side, the beds (two single beds per room) were adequate, and the food was truly excellent! Everything is powered by their generator, supposedly they have three generators for redundancy. There's a big tank for diesel on site.

Here's a shot of my room. This is with a fisheye lens to get everything in, so it is highly distorted and appears larger than it is, but you will see two single beds, with my coat slung on one of them, a space at the end of the rightmost bed with just room for a simple chair and my two dark roller bags, with a sink and a miniscule "closet" at the far end of the room. On the other side of the door, everything past the bed is taken up by the bathroom.










And speaking of bathrooms, here it is:










You can see my chest down at the bottom, I'm crammed in the corner looking down on the toilet, and there is barely room to stand between the toilet and the shower. You brush against all four walls when turning around in the shower!


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

HC,

Thanks for sharing with us!


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## ellesu (Feb 19, 2009)

Ummmm....not too different from our 5th wheel.    But at least it has everything you need.  And good food can go a long way to make up for a bit of inconvenience any day....


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

That shower reminds me of the bathroom in my husband's first apartment.  If you dropped the soap, you had to get out of the shower to pick it up!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Reminds me of some places I have stayed but without the private bath.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

One day we went on an excursion from Coldfoot for the furthest North extension of our trip, to Atigun Pass. Atigun is a pass through the Brooks Range, and it is a Continental Divide, every waterway North of it flows into the Arctic Ocean, everything South of it flows into the Pacific and/or Bering Sea. It's quite far north, but still over 150 road miles from the Arctic Ocean. While we were stopped in the pass, this truck came by, and I was struck by how small it seemed.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

The Hooded Claw said:


> I saw it, but everything except the grin disappeared before I could get a photo!












Gosh, but I got a giggle from your response !!

Thank You so much for sharing your trip with us.....what a wonderful adventure !


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I am loving all these pictures and explanations! It's making me think I should put Alaska on the list of places I want to visit someday. Thanks for sharing!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

The truck proceeds past us, Southward into Atigun Pass. I like this shot.


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

Lot of snow!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

The Arctic Circle is just a line on the map, but there is a rest stop there, complete with big touristy sign! I felt I had to show my Kindle affiliation, so had a friend snap a shot of me with Wiggins (my K4). I'm sure not the most northern Kindle around (I'll bet there are quite a few up at Prudhoe Bay and maybe in Norway or Arctic Russia), but still quite an excursion for a Kindle! My "official" Amazon green canvas slip cover is sticking up from my jacket pocket.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

We saw only a single feeble beam of aurora during our five nights in Fairbanks, but the situation changed completely when we arrived in Coldfoot. We arrived in Coldfoot just in time for dinner, about 5:30. Less than six hours later, I took this shot, at 11:06 PM. This is done with a fisheye lens, so is VERY distorted--You can see how the horizon bows and the lights of the hotel window at far left are distorted like a drug hallucination, but the field of view on a fisheye is VERY wide, and it let me capture the whole sweep of the auroral arc across the sky.

For the curious photo buffs among you, the stats on this shot are 13 seconds, F/4, ISO 1600. As usual for my aurora pictures, the color in the photo is more vivid than reality, and this whole shot is brighter than it actually appeared while I was watching--I brightened it up to make the curvature of the horizon obvious.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

It is a little-known fact that after the ending of the Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy got his hair dyed and moved to Alaska to fulfill his dream of being a sled dog. Now his secret identity is being revealed to the public for the first time....


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

I love all your photos.  Keep 'em coming!!!!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I am tempted to break into Christmas carols and start singing "TRUCKin' in a Winter wonderland...!"










This is well south of Atigun Pass, where there were no trees. Trees become scarcer as you move along the Dalton Highway to the North, and eventually disappear entirely.


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

What fabulous picture that last one is!!!!!!!!!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

A moose cow eyes us suspiciously over her calf near the Alyeska Pipeline. We did not see a lot of wildlife on this trip. The trapper we visited with claimed that in winter, it takes 5.2 square miles of wilderness in this area to support one moose, it just is not very productive land. So large animals can't be thick on the ground.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

When sled dogs are harnessed and waiting to race, they get VERY eager and excited!


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Just discovered this thread today and went through it all.  Thanks so much for sharing your trip!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

For those of you who aren't yet sick of Alaska pictures, especially dog pictures, here's another shot from my dogsled ride. Some of the curves were pretty steep and I definitely had to lean on them....


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Cobbie said:


> Great picture! I'll never tire of them.


ditto.


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

More, please!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Love the photos and the comments!


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

I think Claw just wants to see us beg!


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

PLEASE STOP !!! You have broken my jealousy meter and I am just green with envy !!


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

More photos, Claw!  We all love them!!


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

more people seem to like your alaska photos than my NY ones, so you better keep posting.


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

scarlet said:


> more people seem to like your alaska photos than my NY ones, so you better keep posting.


I like your pics too scarlet!


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

sebat said:


> I like your pics too scarlet!


Me three! I think folks forget to check or don't realize there is a KB Photo Gallery forum.

p.s. More pics please, Claw!


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

if you like my photos, an occasional ego stroking post would be nice.  or i will go into my corner and pout and no photos for anyone...


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

scarlet said:


> if you like my photos, an occasional ego stroking post would be nice. or i will go into my corner and pout and no photos for anyone...


I start to feel stupid saying pretty picture over and over!  I'll try to remember to do it more often.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

sebat said:


> I start to feel stupid saying pretty picture over and over!  I'll try to remember to do it more often.


once every month would be fine.....


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

sebat said:


> I think Claw just wants to see us beg!


bwaa haa haa! My evil scheme is working!

Glad some folks are still interested, I'll keep posting as long as I can find pics that are reasonably good and non-repetitive....


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Okay, time for another aurora shot! This is very similar to the very first aurora shot I posted, with two differences....It is a bit better-framed, and in the other shot I tried to make the cabin show up better by illuminating it with a flashlight. In this one, I didn't add any artificial light, so nearly all the light you see here is from aurora. You can also see that in this one, I edited out a red light on a radio tower! The other one was sent from my phone, and I couldn't edit it.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Alaska has the nickname "The Last Frontier", but even in The Last Frontier, paperwork has reared its ugly head. The official rules and entry form for one of the mushing races we attended.


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

I never get tired of looking at the posted pics. (Includes you too Scarlet!)


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

sherylb said:


> I never get tired of looking at the posted pics. (Includes you too Scarlet!)


*hands sheryl a chocolate*


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Not everything on our trip was outside in subfreezing temperatures, there is a big museum at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and we saw this traditional-style Indian dress made of moosehide on display. The decorations of course, are not exactly traditional.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

The Alaskan Arctic is a big place. Here's proof:

Check out this photo. Look carefully at almost dead center, just below the gully that runs from left to right, and you'll see two small blotches that are slightly vertical.










Here's a closer view, and we can see that this is two cross-country skiers towing sledges.










And here's a one hundred percent crop of the two lonely travelers.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Not everything we did was outdoors, but some of the indoor stuff was rustic. This is inside the town museum of Wiseman, Alaska. Wiseman is a tiny place with thirteen permanent residents. It gained a certain amount of fame when a visitor from the East Coast befriended everyone in town about 1930, learned all their secrets, and then put everything into a book called "Arctic Village"! The townsfolk were outraged, but were mollified when the author shared the royalties with everyone who had been in the book. This is a small museum with a few artifacts, and lots of old pictures, newspaper articles, etc. on the walls of a very old cabin. It was put together by a volunteer in the 1990s. The person in the camo jacket speaking is Jack, one of the leading citizens of the town, who lives a subsistence lifestyle running a trap line, hunting, and gardening. He picks up a little cash by giving talks to tourists and selling necklaces he makes from animal teeth! I was IMMENSELY impressed by Jack, he is a very articulate and well-informed guy, fascinating to listen to.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Initially I didn't like this photo because some of the nice doggy is too close to be in focus, but on second look, I rather like it. One of our friendly sled dogs jumping up on me.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Dog race preparations as seen from my hotel room. Before the big race in Fairbanks the last full day of the trip. The dogs were EXTREMELY excited, most of them barking excitedly, and some literally howling over and over again. But they were well behaved, no fighting, and a minimum of high spirited skylarking.


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Dog race preparations as seen from my hotel room. Before the big race in Fairbanks the last full day of the trip. The dogs were EXTREMELY excited, most of them barking excitedly, and some literally howling over and over again. But they were well behaved, no fighting, and a minimum of high spirited skylarking.


Hey Scarlet, nice photo! Thanks for posting.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Oh no, another Aurora picture!


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

My, my. That's a pretty one!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Wow!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

A skijorer and dogs lunge out of the start line. The next racer is already moving up close behind as race officials stand by.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

We visited the Alaska Dept. of Transportation regional station that maintains part of the Dalton Highway, and one of their workers explained to us such mysteries as how they unclog a culvert that is plugged solid with ice. Of course we also got to check out some of their vehicles....


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Really great pics - and narrative.
I enjoy when others post pics and text of their vacations because it allows me to learn something without actually going there.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

geoffthomas said:


> Really great pics - and narrative.
> I enjoy when others post pics and text of their vacations because it allows me to learn something without actually going there.


Thanks, Geoff! Unfortunately, I've posted most or all of my really spectacular photos from Alaska now, so we are devolving into the more mundane or merely curious ones, but I'll keep posting as long as I can find stuff that at least mildly interesting and not too repetitive from my stock of over 2000 pictures on the trip (more than a third of 'em are repetitive photos of Aurora of which y'all have already seen the best, though).


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

The musher gives the thumbs-up signal as two of my peers are about to head off dogsledding.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Cobbie said:


> I'm sorry if this has been discussed and I missed it, but looking at your last picture it occurred to me that riding in a sled on the ground behind a pack of dogs going who knows how fast could be scary. Did you find that to be at all frightening?


Hasn't been addressed, and it is a good question! We went about six or seven miles an hour on the dog sled, so I didn't find it frightening for the most part. One thing that really surprised me is that it is not even close to a silent experience, the sled makes considerable noise dragging over the compacted snow.

I only had one moment where I was nervous (not quite frightened...). It was on one of the curves, not sure now if it was the one I photographed or not. They told us the musher might tell us to lean, and said that they had had the sled turn over one time. On one of the curves, we went up high on the inner wall, and I leaned sharply over on my own, and it felt kind of tottery! I don't have experience on dogsleds, but my instinct is that if I hadn't leaned when I did, we'd have flipped. Going six or seven miles an hour, I don't think it would have been a disaster, but it wouldn't have been fun! The other turns I leaned, and my musher never did say anything about it, or about needing to. I guess she figured I was doing okay. But mushing was a fun way to see scenery, I'd love to do a long trip this way.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

In Coldfoot, we had to walk across the parking lot of the truckstop to get from our hotel rooms to the hotel dining room. This was a nuisance since the snow that was compacted by all the trucks driving over it could be slippery, but at least it gave us a good chance to see the trucks and sometimes their drivers. One day while walking to dinner, I saw this large poodle getting out of a truck, and the driver taking care of the poodle's needs. I always carried a pocket camera to dinner for just this sort of shot, so I got their picture, though I didn't have the nerve to approach the driver and talk to him. Nevertheless, I learned that the poodle is named Bruce, he reportedly ways 88 pounds, and regularly drives with his owner on the Dalton Highway!


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