I learned that seasonal employment is not limited to college kids wanting to see the world. For many, it is a way of life. Many choose to work for part of the year with hardly any expenses if any at all. They seek out places like Coldfoot where the food and housing is free. They’ll work 4-6 months a year and then vacation for the remainder in places like Hawaii or Mexico. It is a very nomadic lifestyle full of single-serving friends. At the same time, it is a life with few worries. Bills are a rarity for many of these people. For others like myself, it is an opportunity to broaden my experiences through seeing new places and meeting a unique group of people. And then there are those who are “finding themselves.” Those who have experienced a rough time in their life or wish to start anew by seeking reason through nature. The diversity of employees coupled with the incredible land and wildlife makes for an unforgettable experience.

My home for the summer, which I may or may not miss living in

Saying goodbye to all of the people I spent so much time with was as hard as you can imagine. Luckily, sites like Facebook exist that will allow me to stay in touch with everyone. Cory and I wrote our names in the saloon where many before us had visited and left behind their names and origins. The saloon today is inactive. It is rumored that the camp lost the liquor license after suspected prostitution. Now, it is simply a piece of Coldfoot history. It’s hard to find a place on the wall where there isn’t a name, a town, and a date. Hundreds upon hundreds of people from all over the world recorded their visit to Coldfoot in the saloon. Even the Ford Cold Weather testing team took a visit!

The saloon in all its beauty

Our goodbye message and names in the saloon

Chad, the camp manager, hosted a going away party for Cory and me. There was quite an impressive turnout! A few of us stayed up until breakfast! I wouldn’t have it any other way. I couldn’t ask for a boss better than Chad. His job at Coldfoot is an important one and he did it enthusiastically and professionally every day. If you ever find this blog Chad, I’d like thank you again!

The crew on one of our final days

On my final flight out of Coldfoot, I was fortunate enough to fly in the co-pilot’s seat. One of the props failed to start at first. I thought it was a sign and that I’d be stuck in Coldfoot. The view of the mountains was obscured by clouds but flying right up there next to the pilot with all of the instruments was something else.

I arrived in Fairbanks Sunday evening and walked part way to the hostel until someone from the NATC office gave me a ride the rest of the way. The hostel was particularly interesting that evening. There were people from Austria, Israel, Belgium, and all throughout the US. I even met someone that had lived in Saco, Maine where my sister used to live. I played a few games of ping pong with a younger guy from Austria. He recently graduated from The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. We talked economics and he discussed his plans for the future. Later on in the evening, I was cooking myself some dinner in the hostel kitchen and a long haired middle aged gentleman came into the kitchen decked out in camo gear. He talked about his life and he reminded me of the type of person you often see work as seasonal workers. He retired when he was 29 and since then has traveled to every continent. He showed me a necklace he had with turkey talons and he told me that’s what he uses to keep away “Barbie.” I didn’t understand what he meant by that but he explained that he meant women who were gold diggers that might be scared of such a primitive piece of jewelry. Very very strange guy. Speaking of strange, later on that evening a couple of Alaskan natives who appeared to be in their 70s, stumbled into the kitchen evidently drunk and asked for a piece of the pizza that I had just cooked. I obviously refused. They were falling all over the place. They eventually fell asleep on the deck of the hostel, hiccupping as loud as can be. They weren’t even staying at the hostel. A lot of times, the residents of the dry native villages come into Fairbanks and have their fair share of substance abuse. They clearly had more than a fair share.

The next day, I got in touch with David Offer, the former editor of the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal, the newspapers that serve the Waterville and Augusta areas. He is now a professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He had known my grandfather who worked 50 years at the Sentinel. He took me out to the Silver Gulch, a local Fairbanks restaurant. It was very nice. After dinner, he and his wife then took me to the airport where I waited for my 1AM flight. From then on, it was Fairbanks to Seattle to Denver to Dallas to Boston! I arrived in Boston at around 10:30PM the same day where my sister waited to drive me home. Unfortunately, they lost my luggage along the way. I filed a claim and they Fedex overnighted it to me here in Waterville. It was a relief that I received it in the mail so soon. Props to American Airlines for the quick recovery!

This is likely my final post. I would like to thank everyone who read my blog this summer especially those that made my camera replacement possible. I have met a lot of great people through writing this blog and I’m very glad that I took the time to record my journey. I hope that I inspired readers to visit Alaska or even travel a bit more! I know that my experiences this summer have prompted a desire to travel more frequently. Farewell Alaska and farewell whileinalaska.com!

P.S. I haven’t forgotten about the picture gallery. It will happen, trust me!

We made it about ¾ of the way from Coldfoot to Fairbanks on the Dalton Highway and decided to camp out on a pull off on the side of the road. We collected firewood and started a nice little fire. I ended up sleeping in the trunk of the Nissan Xterra. It was far from comfortable but I expected that. In the morning, we set off to Fairbanks. On the way, we stopped in Joy. It was simply a small store with some lodging in the back.

Joy

After Joy, we stopped at the Hotspot, the best burger spot on the Dalton. We stopped for a burger and chatted with some travelers from Brooklyn.

Hot Spot

When we made it to Fairbanks, we stocked up on food and beverage at Fred Meyer. The amount of smoke from forest fires in the area was overwhelming. Several people in Fred Meyer wore masks to protect themselves from the smoke. As we grew closer to Anderson, the smoke became even worse. July was one of Alaska’s driest months ever. It seems to have hit the Denali Borough the worst. In fact, when we were there, they flew in the world’s largest supertanker, a 747 converted into a firefighting aircraft. It’s a $50 million plane and holds 20,500 gallons! After a couple hours on the Parks Highway, we arrived in Clear, formerly a highly secret US nuclear defense base. From Clear, Anderson was only a short ways down the road. Anderson is a very unique place. With a population under 400, they have a bar and Inn and a very nice looking school. Other than that, there isn’t much in Anderson. We scouted out our camp site and found a very nice spot by the river. Having arrived at the festival a night early, there were still several nice camping spots left. We set up a nice little fire pit and found wood to construct ourselves a bench. We made our way down to the bar and restaurant and had a bite to eat. It turns out the bartender used to work for Northern Alaska Tour Company (NATC), a subsidiary of Sukakpak, the owner of Coldfoot Camp. Things like this tend to happen all the time in Alaska. It may be the biggest state in the US, but it’s easy to find people connected to you in some way.

Thursday night, I decided to test out the backseat in the Xterra instead of the trunk. Equally uncomfortable. Cory and Kevin slept outside with their sleeping bags. It was drastically darker in Anderson than back in Coldfoot. It made sleeping a lot easier and was kind of strange to be honest. We woke up and there were several more cars surrounding us. Three, four and sometimes up to five cars jammed into each camping spot. We purchased our 3 day pass for the festival and it ended up being far cheaper than we had thought… $40! Music played all day and night. We went from campsite to campsite, meeting new people. Later on in the night on our way back to camp, we stopped to see a couple of people hoola hooping rings of fire! Several bongo drummers accompanied this little sideshow.

Hoola Hooper

The festival itself struck me as very Woodstock-esque. A lot of extreme hippy apparel and everyone had a carefree peaceful attitude. I chose to stay outside that night on a sandbar across the river. It was much more enjoyable. I used the sleeping pad that Cory had borrowed and got a great night’s sleep.

Saturday was the most bustling day of the festival. Even more cars jammed into the few campsites available. The main bands played that evening and were quite impressive.

Stage

Vendors

There were also fireworks. Too many fireworks for my liking. I went to sleep in the same spot on the sandbar that evening and awoke to fireworks flying towards me. It was about 4AM and our neighbors, likely highly intoxicated, decided to shoot fireworks at me. That same night, a truck drove through the river, and was just inches from running me over. Apparently, I had picked a dangerous spot to sleep. It was a war zone. The bongo drums and shouting and yelling made the fireworks attack even more dramatic. I crossed the river and luckily escaped unscathed!

The next morning, we had breakfast and immediately set off back to Coldfoot. On the way back, we popped a tire just miles into the Dalton. Popped tires are very common on the Dalton. We put on a spare and were good to go again. We stopped at the Yukon River Camp, located at mile marker 55. We had a nice free meal, as the Yukon Camp is also owned by our parent company. From there, we made it back to Coldfoot. By that time, my hair had been matted into what appeared to be dreadlocks. I had dirt under my eyes and my sleeping bag was chock full of dirt. It was without a doubt the dirtiest I’ve ever been. We slept outside for 4 nights without a shower. My shower back at Coldfoot that evening was one of the best showers I’ve ever had. Not to mention, it was absolute bliss sleeping in an actual bed, despite the fact that it’s growing colder by the day here at Coldfoot. It’s getting down to high 30s during the night, around the same temperature as when I arrived in May. Upon our arrival back to Coldfoot, we discovered that a coworker had been fired and one of our managers had switched from lodge cleaner to waitress. Also, a new coworker arrived. Sarah, who has worked at Coldfoot in the past came in to take the spot of the fired waiter. We leave for 4 days and camp changes drastically! So for the rest of the season, it will only be 5 of us in the lodge cleaning department. Our schedule is a bit mixed up now but we don’t have much time left here.

I woke up for work the next morning and throughout the day my stomach felt very uneasy. After work, I went right to bed. I threw up several times and later in the evening felt very weak. I only was able to eat a muffin the whole entire day. I slept from 3:30PM yesterday until 9:30AM this morning. It was clear that I had food poisoning. I’m guessing the burger I had at Yukon River Camp was the cause. It’s my understanding that they’ve had problems with their freezers. I took today off from work and rested most of the day. I’m feeling a lot better but am still not able to eat much. I’m sure it will pass soon!

Despite the post weekend sickness, it was an incredible experience. We met several very interesting people, roughed out sleeping outside for 4 nights, and enjoyed some great music. 20 days from today, I’ll be on a plane back to Boston. It’s really hard to believe and I won’t be surprised if these finals days fly by.

Last week, we had a ping pong tournament. It was very official for Coldfoot standards. We even had an elaborate bracket. Ping pong has become the official sport of Coldfoot. Kickball has faded out, apparently. Cory and I have been playing a lot and we’re getting pretty good or at least better. Cory even advanced to the finals. Ian, the chef is quite the ping pong guru and we figured that he would take the crown. He ended up handily beating Cory but his comeback was worthy enough to celebrate. I think we are going to try and make this a weekly thing.

Our “Ping Pong Table”

In other Coldfoot happenings, Mark hosted Philosophy Friday last week. It was essentially a forum for a host of different world issues. I attended for an hour but became tired of the argument. It seemed every topic of discussion encompassed the central argument between the right and left. A fair amount of coworkers here have had experiences that have driven them to become very socialist minded. Many have lived and volunteered in third world countries and their experiences have shaped their overall beliefs. Others argued for the sake of free market capitalism. I’ll likely attend the next Philosophy Friday simply to listen to the interesting experiences of our coworkers.

Mark, the host of Philosophy Friday walked a marathon along the Dalton a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, he decided to run a full marathon. It seemed like a rather spontaneous decision for such an arduous task. He completed it in 3 hours and 36 minutes. That’s around 8 minutes per each mile! Quite the feat. It turns out that at the beginning of the season, he lost his iPod. Well, remember the iPod that I found a month or so ago? It wasn’t the one that he lost but I ended up giving it to him. I know how it feels when you lose something so expensive so I thought it would be a nice gesture to let him have it.

Thursday night, Kevin, Cory, and I decided to climb Coldfoot Mountain. That same day we experienced the biggest hail that I’ve ever seen.

Hail on the porch of our tent

It continued to rain into our hike. Coldfoot Mountain is the largest peak in the area, topping out at 4,380 feet. It’s no Mt. McKinley by any means (20,000 feet) but it’s somewhat comparable to Mt. Katahdin, the biggest peak in Maine. The only difference is that this mountain does not have any trails whatsoever. We initially planned to tent out close to the top. We each carried packs around 40 or 50 pounds. Cory and Kevin borrowed large packs that weighed a lot more than mine. We each had a tent and a sleeping bag along with extra clothes and food. We started out the trip around 7:30PM having to cross a river. We crossed in the same spot that we normally cross when we go swimming. Rather than have soggy clothing, we stripped down and carried our packs on our heads. It was cold but not unbearable. We made it up to first ridge where we laid our packs down. The next and final part of the climb was steep and very rocky. None of us are in the best shape of our lives so our legs became very sore by the final ascent.

Taken from the top. Coldfoot Camp can be seen close to a mile below us.

We made it to the top where a large AT&T tower stood to handle communications for all of Coldfoot and Alyeska. By the tower was a very rudimentary helipad. It’s rumored that a few coworkers who had climbed this mountain last season were climbing the tower and a helicopter flew down and demanded them to descend the mountain immediately where a trooper would be waiting for them! We didn’t stay very long on the top. By the time we got down to where our packs were, we decided not to stay the night. We didn’t bring enough water and we were very thirsty. The descent wasn’t too bad but it got a bit dark (yes, it’s finally getting a little dark here) and cold towards the end. We were all very tired and just wanted to get back to camp where we could have a nice glass of water. When we made it back to the base, we had to cross the river again. This time we did it in our clothes. It seemed 10 times harder to cross. I don’t know if the pants made it harder or if it was the fact that my legs were shot. We completed the walk back to camp in our soaked pants. At this point, the air temperature was in the 40s. We arrived back at camp around 1:30AM after 6 hours of hiking. We scurried for food. Jason, the cook who I mentioned packed me an egg for the Atigun Pass trip that he deliberately didn’t hard boil, brought out an actual hardboiled egg for me. I suppose he figured that I deserved it this time. We wanted to stay up till 6 when breakfast started but we only made it until 3. That’s no surprise to me.

One month from today, I’ll be flying back to Boston. I have a feeling that August is just going to fly by. Cory and I have our 3 day break this week (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off). We are trying to switch that to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so we can make the Andersen Bluegrass Festival. Does anyone know much about it? We may have to hitchhike from Fairbanks to the event. I shall keep you all updated on the coming events.

We saw the 70 mile stretch from Coldfoot to Atigun Pass last weekend so the first two hours of the trip was no surprise. However, on the top of Atigun Pass, we spotted some Dall Sheep. They seemed to be either younger or female sheep judging by the lack of horns.

Shortly after making it through the pass, the land became extremely baron. The farther we ventured up the highway; the tundra became vaster and flatter. We saw a lone fox in the tundra and as we grew closer to Prudhoe Bay, we saw several Caribou.

I would say that today was a big win for seeing wildlife. I’m sure it’s rather common to see such wildlife but in my eyes, we really lucked out!

Along the way, Scott told us a little about what he does. He lives on an island in Washington State and negotiates oil transactions mostly between smaller parties and large oil companies. Most of his recent work has been in North Dakota where they’ve recently discovered large amounts of oil. His trip up the highway was a rather spontaneous decision. He rented a GMC Envoy in Fairbanks and decided to make his way up to Prudhoe (even though rental cars are illegal on the Dalton without going through a special, more expensive company). He had gone as far as Coldfoot in the past but only in the winter. He said that the scenery was much more beautiful in the winter since there was greater visibility of distant mountains.

We arrived in Prudhoe Bay around 1:30PM. Brett, the owner of Sukakpak, our employer lives at Deadhorse. The night prior, he had told me that Deadhorse Camp, where he lives and also owns, is the first camp in sight on the left. We drove right past it! It looked nothing like a structure where people could dwell. It looked more like an industrial oil field yard with large vehicles and trailers on sleds. We turned around and pulled in. We were immediately greeted by the cook at Deadhorse Camp. Scott, our driver, joined us for lunch. All three of us indulged in cheeseburgers. The dining area and kitchen were all in one room. The camp, with only 5 coworkers not including Brett, is far smaller than Coldfoot . After lunch, we were shown to our trailer where we would be spending the night. The trailer was once oil field worker housing, mounted on sleds so they can be transported on cat trains through the snowy tundra in the winter. The inside had three beds, a heater, and a flat screen TV equipped with satellite cable.

The door resembled a refrigerator door; in fact it was identical to the walk in freezer door back at Coldfoot. Cory and I joked about towing the trailer back to Coldfoot to replace our tent!! After dropping off my bag in the trailer, we joined Scott in a tour around Prudhoe Bay. The tundra was littered with gravel pits where all the familiar oil companies housed their equipment and living quarters. BP, Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, Phillips Konaco, Nabors, and many other companies drove around pickup trucks marked with their company colors. The water around us appeared black from the surrounding operations. After our little self guided tour, we headed back to Deadhorse Camp where we relaxed until dinner. We had BBQ pork chops, broccoli casserole, and a few other dishes which I don’t remember. The food was just as good as it is at Coldfoot. We joined oil field workers at the dinner table. A younger crew here in Prudhoe Bay to lay down fiber optic cables, popped in a Family Guy DVD on the big screen TV in the dining room. Shortly after, we retired for the evening. It was going to be an early morning. We were signed up for a tour of the Arctic Ocean. The tour which we were going to take is one of the few, if not the only tours that could pass through the security clearance where the ocean can be accessed. Accessing the Arctic Ocean without being on one of these tours is near impossible due to their strict security policy.

In the morning, Brett took us to the Arctic Caribou Inn where we would depart for our tour. A group from a Princess tour bus joined us. We likely cleaned the rooms of these people at Coldfoot, a few days ago! Our guide, a Nana native led us through the checkpoint. Cory and I were the first on the tour to take off our shoes, roll up our pants and wade in the Arctic Ocean. We now have the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans covered, now for the Pacific and Indian! I never thought I’d go to the Arctic Ocean before ever going to the Pacific. The water was cold but not unbearable. Some people never even got off the bus to go down to the water but others followed our lead and dipped their feet in the ocean.

When we returned from the tour, Scott was waiting for us at the Arctic Caribou Inn. We started our voyage back to Coldfoot. We were incredibly lucky to find someone that would bring us both ways. A lot of people have to hitch for hours before they get a ride. We are extremely thankful to Scott!

After only being on the road for an hour, we spotted some Muskox about a half mile off the road. We parked on the almost nonexistent shoulder and walked along the tundra until the river prevented us from going further. Once again, we hit the wildlife jackpot! Around 18 Muskox stood across the river on the tundra.

After this very successful trip, I think, for the most part, the only large animals we haven’t seen here are grizzlies, black bears, and wolves. Our little Arctic Ocean trip worked out flawlessly and virtually free of charge. For me at least, it beat any trip we’ve had to Fairbanks or anywhere’s for that matter. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. I was finally able to access a card reader and transfer all of my pictures over to my computer!

We return to work tomorrow. We have about 39 days or so left here in Alaska. Like I always say, it’s hard to believe how fast the time has flown by. It’s no doubt that I’ll miss the people here and the remarkable scenery.

Eventually, I will get to uploading the pictures that are supposed to accompany the last two posts. Until then, I look forward to reading your comments!

We had originally planned to go for a fishing trip down at the Yukon River Camp but it would have been too much of a hassle to get down there especially since we weren’t positive we would find a boat. We then opted to attempt hitching to Dead Horse Camp in Prudhoe Bay. Prudhoe Bay is on the North Slope just a matter of miles from the Arctic Ocean. The trucker traffic appeared bleak Wednesday night quite possibly due to the overwhelming amounts of smoke permeating the highway. That plan also fell through. We spent Wednesday and Thursday playing ping pong, reading and relaxing. I would have liked to have done something more exciting and productive during those days but things don’t always work out.

Yesterday, we started out at 6AM to Atigun Pass, the only tour that I had not yet been on. It’s a about a 70 mile drive up the Dalton in a tour van. Cory, Kevin, Jen, and I joined two older ladies in the tour. The view up until the pass was typical and nothing out of the ordinary. However, we did catch a glimpse of Sukakpak Mountain, one of the larger peaks in the Brooks Range. We ascended the Pass and the view was incredible. We passed waterfalls and valleys and when we reached the top, we all got out of the car to get a better view of our surroundings. The temperature was around 40 degrees, about 20 degrees lower than back at Coldfoot. On the way back, we stopped at Sukakpak Mountain again. The kitchen packed us sacked lunches which we had ordered the night prior. I had requested a hardboiled egg along with my tuna sandwich. Jason, one of the cooks, thought it would be funny not to boil the egg at all. Well everyone else though it was funny but me! I got yoke all over myself! In the parking area of Sukakpak, a couple were breaking down their tent and preparing to get back on the road. They had cycled all the way from Anchorage, averaging 50-60 miles a day. Yesterday was their 16th day on the road. I would love to do something like that someday. I can see myself coming back to northern Alaska someday to ride the Dalton. While tour cycling is not always fun and games, it’s satisfying enough to meet daily mileage goals and most of all, to see and hear nature up close and personal without the noise restrictions of a vehicle. We concluded our three day break last night by organizing a whiffle ball game. A fair amount of coworkers turned out and it was a great time like always.

We returned to work today. It was a really slow day. Our fellow coworkers usually get a large amount of visitors on our days off much to our delight. In fact, they had to deal with a rather messy situation the other day. A middle aged woman had a bit too much to drink in the bar and fell on the towel rack. The morning after, they found her all bloody laying on the floor of her room. Holland America wouldn’t allow her to reboard the bus so our camp manager took her all the way down to Fairbanks to get her to a hospital. Talk about a trip gone bad! Our fellow lodge cleaners decked themselves out in protective suits and cleaned up the bloody mess.

Like always, I’m in awe as to how quickly time is flying by. As they say, time flies by when you’re having fun. It’s July 11th, less than a month and a half away from our return back to the East coast. A week after I return, classes begin. It shall be interesting to return to a land of lesser mosquitoes, actual night time, and heaps of schoolwork. Unfortunately, I’m still working out the whole camera cord situation. Until I find one I can borrow, the pictures will be on hold.

While the evening was packed with excitement, there was also a bit of unease and confusion. Right upon arriving at the event, we heard news that two of our coworkers had left for good. A waitress and a maintenance worker decided to pick up and leave Coldfoot without telling anyone. Not only is it disrespectful and inconsiderate to leave without submitting a two weeks’ notice but rather disheartening that they would leave without even a goodbye to their coworkers whom they spent so much time with over the past couple of months. Although this is my first seasonal job, it is my understanding that such an occurrence is common in this type of workplace. For many, the work is temporary and they feel unattached and unobligated to stay. If I were to offer any advice to anyone considering a seasonal job, especially at Coldfoot, definitely think a fair amount about before making such a drastic decision as leaving. I have to be completely honest, within a few weeks of being here; Cory and I considered heading home early. The work was tedious and often unexciting. And after being at school, we wanted to simply relax at home in our own beds with our families and friends. We spent an extensive amount of time discussing the situation and we came to the realization that we didn’t have the right mindset. All we thought about was home. We weren’t as open minded as we should have been and sometimes just downright pessimistic. We stopped and thought about how lucky we are to be here. Sukakpak picked 35 of us out of over 300 applicants. Since we changed our mindset and realized that we are in a very special place, we grew closer to our coworkers, attended more tours, explored on our own, and even began to have fun on the job. It may sound silly that it took us that long to realize that we’re in a unique special place but sometimes when all you think about is home, you miss the simple things. I’m not trying to say that you should force yourself to like something you don’t, I’m saying that sometimes you need to step back and think about the reason you chose to work at such a place. At the time, it’s easy to not realize that the nature of such work can teach you a lot about yourself. I’m confident that I’ll look back someday and be glad that I worked at Coldfoot for the whole season and it’s not far off to say that it will be a life changing experience. So the lesson is: before you quit, start thinking more positively and be more grateful for the unique position that you’re in.

The other night, a fellow Twitter follower stopped by the camp on his way to pick up a friend who had hiked a portion of the Brooks Range. Ken (@sdoownek ) came into the café to say hello. It’s always great meeting those you typically only interact with online. In the rare case that any other followers take a trip up the Dalton, definitely stop in to say hi. Also, a gentleman who recently toured Coldfoot on a Princess Cruise found my blog and sent me a little comment a few posts back. It really makes my day to see this kind of thing.

Today is our Friday. After work, we begin our 3 day weekend. We’re considering going down to the Yukon River Camp to do some fishing. Our camp manager told us that we might have a chance of hopping on a boat and fishing independently on the Yukon River. We later spoke to some Yukon employees and the chances of that happening are looking slim. However, they said that there is a “mountainman,” as they called him, who lives by the camp and is always looking for people to accompany him on fishing trips. It would be a tossup whether he’s around or not so we are going to do a little more investigating before embarking on such an adventure. As always, I shall keep you posted on the happenings of Coldfoot.

My camera cable seems to have gone missing. I think someone may have taken it by accident. Until I find another, this post will be pictureless. I’ll try my hardest to get them uploaded later this evening!

Hilarious sign

Some of the pipeline workers, mostly surveyors staying here in the crew quarters have some growing up to do. There are a select few of them who are very kind and respectful but most of them are whiners. We’ve had problems with them writing on our tour vans, writing in the bathroom as mentioned above, and problems with them being too rowdy in the saloon. You think Alyeska would be a little bit more selective in their hiring as they are paying them exorbitant amounts. Through the grapevine, I heard that they work 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off and earn upwards to $25,000 in that time period. My advice for jobseekers: learn some high school level trigonometry and come to Alaska to survey.

Enough ranting. Yesterday, I spent most of the day reading a book that Cory lent me, Travels by Michael Crichton. The author of Jurassic Park, Crichton wrote this autobiography to detail how travel has redefined him. I’m only about a third finished but I highly recommend it so far! Between this book and my Entrepreneur and Businessweek magazine subscriptions, I never go a moment without entertaining reading. It’s really great.

After lazing around the whole day, we helped organize a whiffle ball game. Around 10-15 people showed up and we had a great time. On “Sports Night,” you can always see the inner kid come out of everyone. Sometimes the competition gets heated but we all have a great time. The game ended around 10PM and at that point, Cory and I still had tons of energy. We chose to go on a hike. We tackled the same ridge that we wrote about a few weeks ago, Cranberry Ridge. We later found out that it’s called Cathedral Mountain. I think Cathedral sounds a bit more hardcore, anyway!

A Lake to our right

Shadows

Me trudging through the tussocks

We ascended the lowest part of the ridge and climbed the peak behind it. On the way up, we found a moose skull and teeth (it looks kind of small for a moose… we really aren’t sure). We threw it in our pack for an ornament for our porch. It seems like we are the only ones around camp without any type of bones on our tent porch! Not anymore!

The mosquitoes were probably the worst I’ve ever seen here.

Just a small sampling of the cloud of mosquitoes surrounding us

The guides lent us full nets that acted as shirts and head nets. They were a godsend. When we finally reached the peak, we slipped off our headnets and were overwhelmed by the view. We caught the sun lowering behind Coldfoot Mountain. It happened so fast that we are fortunate that we witnessed it. The descent took hardly any time at all. We hiked towards the highway where we walked 3 miles backed to camp. We returned home close to 2AM. It was a very satisfying hike. The view and our little acquisition made the trip more than worth it.

I forgot to mention a few things in the last post about our trip to Fairbanks. Firstly, on our walk to the airport at 5AM, we saw a fox run through the road. Oddly, it was the first time Cory had seen wildlife in Alaska and it just so happened to be in Fairbanks. I don’t really have an explanation for that other than the fact that you won’t see much wildlife up here at Coldfoot unless you’re out hiking everyday or you take occasional overnight trips. Although, we’ve had some moose around camp, it’s rare that animals come around the actual camp in clear sight. Secondly, while waiting for our van to depart from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, I received a call from Alaska Air telling me that my itinerary had changed. It was odd that I received the call while I was in the office, just minutes before I’d be losing cell signal. Anyways, my itinerary went from somewhat of a relief compared to my trip here to almost just as bad.

Flight: Alaska Airlines AS128
Equipment: Boeing 737-900
Departs: Fairbanks (FAI) on Tue, Aug 25 at 1:10 am
Arrives: Seattle (SEA) on Tue, Aug 25 at 5:28 am
Class: W
Seats: 20F

Flight: Alaska Airlines AS676
Equipment: Boeing 737-800
Departs: Seattle (SEA) on Tue, Aug 25 at 7:40 am
Arrives: Denver (DEN) on Tue, Aug 25 at 11:18 am
Class: W
Seats: 16A

Flight: American AA872
Equipment: Boeing MD-80
Departs: Denver (DEN) on Tue, Aug 25 at 1:00 pm
Arrives: Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) on Tue, Aug 25 at 3:55 pm
Class: T
Seats: 9F

Flight: American AA2166
Equipment: Boeing 757
Departs: Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) on Tue, Aug 25 at 4:45 pm
Arrives: Boston (BOS) on Tue, Aug 25 at 9:15 pm
Class: T
Seats: 15A

Fairbanks to Seattle to Denver to Dallas to Boston. Give me a break Alaska Air!

I finally fixed the comment problem with the blog. Now, readers are no longer able to comment on posts older than 14 days. The spammer had been commenting on a post that was a bit older, hundreds upon hundreds of comments a day. So feel free to comment away. It’s always nice to hear from my readers.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. We are heading to Wiseman for a little party. This is the first 4th of July I’ve ever gone without fireworks. It’s a small price to pay. I never was overly amused by Fireworks. As far as today goes, we will likely just lounge the rest of day. We’re off to shoot some pool in the coworker tent. Hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend.

We initially wanted to stay at the Go North Hostel to save money but we figured that their office would be closed at such an hour. Golden North was just as we remembered except $20 more expensive. We settled down in our $110 room and then made a hike to Safeway (open 24 hours!) to buy microwaveable food. After eating gourmet every night, it was a little bit of an awakening to eat microwaveable pizza and chicken nuggets but for how hungry we were and at such an hour, I think we did okay.

The next day, we bought food, pool cues and a whiffle bat at Fred Meyer. Occasionally, we have “sports night” here at Coldfoot where everyone gets together and plays kickball, basketball, and soon whiffle ball! And we do have a pool table here, a rather dilapidated one but it does the trick. We hoped to catch the 7PM flight back to Coldfoot but we didn’t have very high expectations. We stayed most of the day hanging out at Go North Hostel where we surfed the web (blazing speeds compared to Coldfoot!) and socialized with other hostel guests.

Go North Hostel

Later on, we walked a mile and a half to the airport to find out that there wasn’t room for us to fly back. Instead, they offered us a trip back via van the next morning. We walked back to Go North and reserved our two beds for the night. We rose at 5:30AM to begin our walk back to the airport where we would depart on the van. The van, also known as the “Dalton Highway Express,” carried three other passengers one of which was also going to Coldfoot. The other two were researchers, one, a University of Alaska at Fairbanks graduate student going to Toolik to research the ecosystem and the other, a very friendly older woman going to Galbraith Lake to study birds. We embarked on our first ground trip up the Dalton, what we thought would be a 5 hour journey.

Pond by Mountains

Patches in the hills where the pipeline goes underground

Sixty or seventy miles in, we stopped at Yukon River Camp, another camp owned by our employer. I had the chance to work there but opted not. There are some advantages like the closeness to Fairbanks and the great fishing on the river. As you can see from the looks of the Yukon, Coldfoot seems to be cleaner and the surroundings are more breathtaking. We helped our driver offload some supplies and set on to our final destination, mile marker 175, home sweet home.

Yukon River Camp

Yukon River Camp: Dining Area

We pulled into Coldfoot after 7 hours of driving! In that time, I could have almost made it from Maine to New York City! We averaged around 35-40 MPH. The whole time, our driver kept in communication with the truckers on CB radio, an essential for driving the Dalton. It was a long trip but I’m glad that I experienced driving the Dalton or at least half of it.

I intended to post this yesterday but due to the weather here, the internet has been down. It has rained for quite some time now. The weather when we first arrived was much nicer and sunnier. The bright side of constant rain is the lack of mosquitoes. However, a few sunny days would be nice. It’s hard to believe we only have 3 days off until our day off again. Time is really flying by here. Soon enough, we will be celebrating 4th of July up at Wiseman. The word on the street is that they will have live music! Maybe fireworks too but I doubt it. Never know though!

The following day, we actually took one of these rafting trips with a few other coworkers. The weather was very cold and rainy but the trip was neat. By no means is it a white water rafting trip. It’s really more of scenic slow float. The stretch of river from Wiseman to Marion Creek runs about 10 miles. After the trip, we helped the guides patch up a road at Marion Creek. It was a long mosquito-filled day of excitement.

Coworkers decked out in their mosquito nets

Sunday, everyone made their way down to the river around 6PM to begin the Summer Solstice celebration. Summer Solstice is the longest day of sunlight of the year. It really doesn’t make much of a difference for us because every day is complete sunlight but for Alaskan residents, it is both a happy and sad day. Sad because it marks the point in the season where it gradually becomes darker and darker until winter where it is dark almost 24 hours of the day. Regardless, everyone had an excellent evening. They grilled up moose and bratwurst for dinner. Our camp manager had shot the moose last winter. It was my first time trying moose. I had it in the form of a hot dog, or a moose dog as they called it. Moose meat virtually has no fat. To cook it, they had to add a little fat to it. Very very delicious. It’s a lot better tasting than beef. A large amount of people attended the celebration. Most of the coworkers attended along with staff from the visitor center and nearby campers. A group of holistic doctors who had been camping in the area stopped in. They called themselves healers and resembled a cult. In fact, several of our staff were convinced they were in a cult. It was an interesting crowd to say the least. We stayed by the fire drinking and socializing until 6AM. It was the first time I had ever celebrated Summer Solstice. It’s a big occasion up here in Alaska. Down in Fairbanks, there are several Summer Solstice activities including a midnight baseball game!

Some of the partygoers celebrating Solstice

View from the river of the Dalton Highway in the Distance

Unfortunately, I’ve been receiving a large amount of spam comments. There are over 1,000 comments that I’ve received and have to moderate. All of them are from different IP addresses but all have the same spammy message. So if your comment doesn’t show up, it just means that I haven’t moderated it yet. Does anyone know how to remedy this problem?

Tomorrow, Cory and I will likely make our way to Fairbanks for a little vacation to civilization. We would only be staying one night and we will likely stay at the Go North Hostel. It’s cheap and they are very accommodating there. We are going to pick up a couple of pool cues for the coworker pool table and some other supplies. It’ll be quite the luxury to use my cell phone and internet that doesn’t crawl like a snail. Getting around is the hard part about Fairbanks, though. Taxis are expensive and everything is so spread out so walking isn’t usually very fun but we end up doing it anyway. If anyone knows of any worthwhile activities going on, definitely let us know!

I shall blog about our Fairbanks adventure in the next few days. Until then, enjoy the post and pictures.

So Tuesday after an easy 8 hour work day, the shortest in 2 weeks, we caught wind that there may be spots open on the tour to the Arctic Ocean which would depart later that evening. We called the Fairbanks office to inquire vacancy on the tour and we were told that the company doesn’t like to have people “split up” the tour. The van leaves from Fairbanks and comes up to Coldfoot before finishing the final stretch to the Arctic Ocean. In order for it to be possible, we would need to fly to Fairbanks and start from the beginning of the tour. It really doesn’t make much sense and the guide himself said it wouldn’t be a problem but we didn’t want to hassle anyone.

Hours later after being shunned from the Arctic Ocean tour, we heard of another vacant tour to Anaktuvuk Pass. We signed up, along with two other coworkers, Kevin and Louis. This time, it worked out and we would be definitely going. In perfect time, my 2GB Sandisk memory card for my camera arrived less than an hour before leaving to the airstrip. Cory, Kevin, Louis, and I boarded the plane, along with 4 other guests, older folks from Florida. We had been told that the flight is the best part of the trip so I had my camera ready to snap some shots. I’m glad I did because the flight through the Brooks Range, the northernmost mountain range in North America, was simply amazing.

The flight itself took about 30 minutes, flying through miles of land without any form of civilization in sight. In fact, the village we flew to was over a hundred miles from any type of road. We touched down in Anaktuvuk, population 300, and the number of large trucks and buildings fascinated me. Every piece of infrastructure, cars and all had been flown in on large C130 planes.

I didn’t take this picture. Just shows how monstrous these planes are.

The long unpaved runway is large enough to accommodate these planes. In fact, commercial flights land in Anuktukvuk twice a day. A flight into Fairbanks for the villagers is $240 round trip. The village itself is less than 60 years old which was made evident by the number of newer trucks and somewhat modern looking shanty homes. About 80% of the homes have plumbing and electricity. The whole village has internet, telephone lines, and satellite television. I think some of the guests had the impression that this would be a native village in the sense that they were completely sustenance living people. Instead, they flew in seeing modern amenities not to mention bingo night. I expected this ghetto environment just from what other coworkers told me but if I was told I was going to a native village only reachable by air, I would expect something very different.

A villager’s home

These native people own stock in the tribal corporation. They receive dividends from these shares that allow them to live in such a modern fashion. The state also offers them substantial aid. I’m not too familiar with how such things work but all I know is that financially, most of them are doing okay. If anyone knows more about it, please do post some info.

Our tour guide, Harriet, led us through the streets of the 2 mile long village. Eight-wheeled utility vehicles and four-wheelers flew by us as we walked the streets. It seems foolish that people have trucks and cars and the village even has a school bus. Status symbol? The school itself has a pool and a brand new basketball court.

The gym at the school

It looks just like any modern built public school from the inside. The school even once had a football team and currently has a volleyball team. The village flies these athletes to other native villages to play their games. Talk about an expensive boosters club. The teachers, usually non-natives that fly in, stay in Anaktuvuk from August to May. Harriet also led us to see the Church, post office, newly built “senior center,” community center where natives were gathered playing card games and bingo games take place, the washeteria (the equivalent to a laundry mat), police office, fire station, and a variety of tiny convenience stores.

One of the main roads

After about an hour and a half tour, we boarded the plane and flew back to Coldfoot. This time, we took a different route. It mostly all looked the same to me, equally beautiful of course. All in all, I’m really glad that we took the tour. It was very interesting seeing the native way of life and a portion of the Brooks Range from air. These type of tours sell for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars so I consider myself very fortunate to be able to see these places free of charge.

Today starts our mini 3 day vacation. We don’t really have any huge plans. We will probably clean up the tent a bit, hit up the Coldfoot gym, do some running on the Dalton, and maybe a little hike. Sunday, the camp celebrates summer solstice with a raft trip, barbecue, and bon fire party so we are all looking forward to that! Will post again soon!