North to Alaska

[RB]

We stayed at a B&B in Talkeetna & our host mentioned that they ski off the 2nd storey balcony in winter-your photos have confirmed she was being truthful. She also had something like 5 different heating systems in place in case of breakdowns.



Looking forward to reading more. If anyone is heading to Sika we can highly recommend the Raptor Centre & the Aquarium (was in a broken down old building when we were there)

 

[Justinf]

I was really enjoying it now. All the frozen rivers and lakes and even some frozen waterfalls.

 

[Justinf]

A frozen waterfall.

 

[Justinf]

Some dall sheep if you look closely enough.

 

[Justinf]

Sometimes in the end, you just have to draw the line and put the camera away and stop looking at all this incredibleness through the window of an iPhone.
I ended up putting it away and actually taking the time to look at what Mother Nature had created through my eyes.
I sat mesmerised.
With darkness approaching, and knowing there wasn't much time left to just see, I just sat there in my seat and watched this glorious part of the world go by, which I did for a good 90 minutes.

With around three hours of the trip remaining, I decided that the view would be just as nice from the bar cart with a nice Alaskan Amber.



And within a short space of time, the sun disappeared behind the mountains and that was that.

 

[get me outta here]

That's the most beautiful Gulch I have ever seen Thanks for the wonderful photos.

 

[Justinf]

We sat and had a few drinks in a mainly empty dining car with a young couple from Atlanta and an older couple from Idaho.
The 12 hours flew by in truth. Being able to get up and walk around obviously makes it much different to flying. And all that natural entertainment just outside your window.
I can highly recommend the experience. I wouldn't go anywhere around the winter solstice as your viewing time would be limited with the darkness, but around mid February was great. The days get longer by about 10 minutes each day up here.

We arrived into Fairbanks at around 8.15pm with the temperature around minus 15.
We jumped into a cab and the driver said the weather was warm. "Anything over zero (faranheit) at this time of year is nice" he said.
We checked into the Westmark Hotel and had separate rooms. The room was fine, although the bathroom had that annoying shower room with the washbasin outside. Importantly, after our experience at the Grand Anchorage, temperature control was excellent.









Fortunately our hotel had quite a good bar - the Red Lantern - and we just went there after we checked in.
I had some chicken wings and SIS had some Alaskan salmon and called it a night around 10pm.
Tomorrow we were walking with reindeers and getting picked up at 11.15am so we had the opportunity to have a nice sleep.

 

[Major]

Just love Buffalo Wings...I have my own recipe

 

[TomVexille]

Just love Buffalo Wings...I have my own recipe

So good

 

[love_the_life]

Just love Buffalo Wings...I have my own recipe

Yes, so do I - maple syrup and sriracha sauce feature prominently (oh and dark rum)
Made them just the other night.

 

[Justinf]

Those wings in the pic were freaken delicious but I made a mistake. I had these at Lavelle's Taphouse in downtown the following night. Duh! I didn't take a pic of what I had at the Red Lantern as it was just a burger.
To reiterate, these wings were scrumptious.

 

[Pushka]

I'd like a buffalo wings recipe

 

[Justinf]

I'd like a buffalo wings recipe

I'd like some buffalo wings now.

 

[Justinf]

I slept really well. Thank Westmark for having terrific temperature control.
A quick look at the forecast showed a top temp today of minus 15. This was one of the things I was looking forward to most. Extreme cold. You know how I said I like things that i can't normally have? This was one of them.
The forecast showed the days progressively getting colder to minus 20 and lows of around minus 30.
As we prepared for our ride out to Running Reindeers, I went outside to test the waters so to speak. Yeah it was cold. I kitted up with thermal 2XU compression tights and jeans, thermal Heatgear socks, long sleeved Skins top, T-shirt, a kathmandu fleece and my Paragonia 800+ loft down parka. Also a beanie and I took another one as well and gloves and a pair of mittens as well as a balaclava.
Out to the reindeer ranch and we met the reindeer. The tour was fully booked today so they allow for others who missed out to come and meet the reindeer and pat them about half an hour before the tour.









It was 0 faranheit out on the farm, which is around -18 celcius. Yeah it was cold.

 

[Justinf]

The tour started with a briefing indoors. Jane, the owner, was lovely and the demographic of our 16-person party was west coast USA and families with young children who were all impeccably behaved.
We then went out on a short walk with the reindeer who all have different mannerisms and personalities.

 

[Justinf]

The walk itself was short but challenging due to the cold. My feet started getting really cold. There was time for a few pics with Olive the lead reindeer with Buttercup deciding that she wanted to be in on the action as well.





After that, it was into Jane's house where she had hot drinks and homemade cookies that she had baked that morning. I was well and truly ready to go inside by then. Jane then spoke for what seemed like a bit too long. The first half of the talk was interesting about the reindeer and their antlers (she handed around some antlers - you are not allowed to touch the reindeer on their antlers), but then it dragged on a little. BY the end I was ready to call it quits.
Don't get me wrong...I enjoyed the tour. Was it worth it and would I recommend it? Yes. But in hindsight we should have used that day to go out to Chena Hot Spring to maximise Aurora viewing opportunities. I can recommend the tour though, especially if you have young kids - they will love it.
Back to Fairbanks we went - a drive of about half an hour.






When we got back to the hotel, I checked the aurora forecast and it wasn't good news. Full cloud cover that night meant aurora viewing would be 'poor'.
We went out to dinner at Lavelle's where I had those buffalo wings previously. The 10-minute walk from the hotel to Lavelle's in -22 degrees was painful. Literally painful. **** it was cold.
We got a taxi back. Thankfully cab drivers are used to very short trips here.
Tomorrow we were going dog sledding and were getting picked up at 11.30am so another good opportunity for a sleep but we both resolved to get up at regular intervals and take shifts in checking the aurora forecast as we wanted to be able to get out of town if the aurora flared up and the clouds cleared.

 

[love_the_life]

I'd like a buffalo wings recipe

Will send you one
Oh heck, here's a link to the recipe I use

Buffalo wings with blue cheese sauce

 

[Pushka]

Will send you one
Oh heck, here's a link to the recipe I use

Buffalo wings with blue*cheese sauce

Tomorrow it is.

 

[Justinf]

I slept well, but there was no aurora. We were getting nervous that we would miss it.
I did a 40-minute run on the hotel treadmill and before long we were getting picked up by Nita from Sirius Dog Sledding.
The beautiful Suki had joined us for the ride out. Temp a lot colder today. Around -22 and feeling every bit of it.







It was a nice 35-minute drive out to the property, which was off the grid and simply stunning.

 

[Justinf]

After getting kitted up in some pretty serious heavy duty cold weather clothes, it was time to mush.



By now the dogs knew what was going on and they were getting pretty excited.





I was very nervous and apprehensive as I was the lead and our start involved me having to remember several things - half break on when going down the first hill and remember to crouch and swerve.



I came off immediately, but Nita couldn't have been more understanding. For someone who is good at ball sports and has good hand-eye coordination, I took this fairly personally that I came off the sled immediately. I didn't come off again.