I departed SFO in bright sunshine for my trip to Alaska. It was forecast to be nearly 80 degrees in San Francisco and nearly 22 degrees in Anchorage. Hmm… something is wrong with this picture. Russian naval Captain Alexei Chirikov and his Danish partner, Vitus Bering, landed in Alaska in 1741 and were greeted by a native population of Eskimos and Aleuts. In 1880 the population was 33,426 (all but 430 were natives.) The gold rush of 1898 brought an additional 30,000 people to Alaska almost all at once. The total population as of the 2000 census is still only 626,932.
In 1867, US Secretary of State William Seward bought the land from the Russians for $7.2 million. So many Americans thought the acquisition was a mistake that it was known as “Seward’s Folly.” Seward had paid just 2 cents an acre which sounds like a sound real estate investment to me. Unbeknownst to me, Alaska Day, a state holiday that commemorates this event is October 18. It’s not as if I don’t do research but I was surprised to show up on a holiday weekend. Um…Planned it all along!
My original plan for this trip was to ride the ferry (Alaska’s Marine Highway) through the inside passage. The more I learn and more people I talk with about the Alaska Ferries the more committed I am to this adventure but I reluctantly postponed my cruise in the rough due to a plethora of reasons and went in search of plan B. My landlocked option: fly to Anchorage, spend two nights, take the Alaska Railroad to Fairbanks and spend two nights in the interior was just the ticket. One of the difficulties with the ferry trip was timing. I was trying to book for early September, not fully realizing September is the beginning of winter. Well, trust me, by mid-October winter is firmly entrenched.
Anchorage is an industrial city on an otherwise pristine coast. The city is tucked in the Cook Inlet. Whichever way I swivel my neck glacier-topped peaks loomed in the distance. A few inches of snow dressed up the otherwise uninspiring heart of the city. Almost half of the state’s residents reside here but you wouldn’t guess that by looking at the sidewalks of downtown. Anchorage was established in 1915 as the construction headquarters for the Alaska Railroad and much of the downtown was destroyed by the 9.2 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. The architecture reflects this tragedy. Entire neighborhoods were rearranged and some slipped into the Cook Inlet making classic buildings few and far between.
When you come to Alaska TAKE THE TRAIN! I repeat… TAKE THE TRAIN!!!! This was terrific! The 12 hour Alaska Railway journey departs Anchorage in the pre-dawn 8:30 am. I walked the minute and a half through a parking lot and down icy steps to the Train Station. The operation is well run: I easily checked in and boarded a bus that shuttled us behind the building to the tracks. The panoramic views captured me within minutes. The cost was comparable to airfare, $150 Anchorage-Fairbanks, not inexpensive but well worth it.Our first stop was the Matanusksa (Mat-Su) Valley’s Wasilla, about an hour north. I’ve never heard of Wasilla before August but now we all have. Even the San Francisco Chronicle featured Wasilla as a travel destination (eerily on the on the day I passed through city limits). It’s difficult to assess a location by looking out the window but it looked like a charming livable community. The Mat-Su was settled by families from the mid-west as a part of a New-Deal relief program in 1935. We were advised that the area is a prime moose hang out but someone forgot to tell the moose. The town is home to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in addition the Palins.
Chugging up the track I was entertained by the running commentary of Steve the conductor and slack-jawed at the scenery. Moose oh moose, where for art thou? My vigilance was rewarded with a wolf and two coyote sightings but it was the pristine terrain out the window that consoled me. Pockets of cabins appeared sporadically but I would by no means describe the area as built up. It’s important to remember that I was transiting through an area that is considered developed by Alaska standards. The train offers a vital link to the residents along the tracks and a major highway also can whisk vehicular traffic north to Fairbanks. The drive is a mere 6 ½ hours and the train and highway parallel each other for much of the journey. I can’t even grapple with the open space of the rest of the state. The very memorable film, Into the Wild kept flashing back to me. I’ve not read the Jon Krakauer book but highly recommend the Sean Penn film version.
This train is also a flag train for locals. Steve tossed papers to trackside cabins. In Talkeetna, a staging town for climbers attempting Mt. McKinley, several people and dogs piled on with luggage that would give TSA palpitations. I’m not certain of much of the contents but there were snowshoes, rifles and a mattress set that I easily identified. We stopped as they disembarked one by one, frequently with a dog by their side. Dogs are very popular here. I wonder, does anyone have a cat? Or are they just snacks to the local wildlife?
There were several fresh bear tracks sighted and one of the newspaper recipients had her bear spray at the ready but no bears were seen. A news report this week told of a sow and her two cubs breaking into a garage, ripping the top off a chest freezer and proceeded to gorge on the icy goods within. A helpful hint: people here frequently hang their doors so they swing out making it more difficult for bears to barge in. Sadly the bears returned the next night and things escalated resulting in the bears being shot. I can’t quite imagine how they escalated… I picture mercenary bears in camouflage armed and surrounding the garage, the homeowner inside with a bullhorn… too many action movies, I know.
The weather was overcast and I felt so akin to many mountaineers to travel to Denali and was denied a glimpse of the highest peak in North America, Mt. McKinley from Talkeetna.
We emerged from a pass of the Alaska Mountain Range and suddenly THERE WAS A MOOSE!!!!! Oh, I was having fun now! We had officially entered the “interior”. This wasn’t a wimpy southern slope moose this was a let’s get serious about the wilderness moose. You’d never see her wandering into town and lumbering into your swimming pool! The weather here comes straight from Siberia, unlike the balmy(??!!) Pacific breezes that waft up from Anchorage so there probably are few swimming pools in the area for moose to frequent.
The train was uncrowded and part of the fun was the camaraderie with other passengers. There were a few that could have used better social skills, but they probably don’t get much practice. One particular cell phone screamer reinforced my objection to cell phone on airplanes. Egads! I do find it odd that cell phone reception was so strong for much of the day. Steve the conductor answered my query “that while there are no electricity or phone lines, they have placed several communication towers along the tracks.” Again I’m reminded this is civilization for Alaska.
We arrived in Fairbanks in darkness. Steve had radioed ahead to the station to have them call our hotel shuttles. There is a concentrated effort to minimize the chance of a tourist getting lost in the 6 degree (yelp!) darkness which I greatly appreciated. Fairbanks is renowned for its annual ice sculpting contest: The World Ice Art Championships. The average daily high in January is -2F, that’s correct HIGH, as in that’s how warm is gets. When you are living in a freezer, ice art makes perfect sense.
The Museum of the North at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks is a neat iceburg shaped building. They have several exhibits and presentations about the area and its people. I considered renting a car to drive to North Pole about 15 miles out of town and venture a bit farther north to enter the Arctic Circle but felt there was plenty for me to see in Fairbank on my one day. Frankly, I was a bit intimidated to drive the iced roads. When I return I will most definitely venture out. One thing I really regret was not booking a dog sled ride. I looked into it and naively thought there wouldn’t be the minimum amount of snow required. Dummy!
My Alaska song is Anchorage by Michelle Shocked. My Alaska read was The Man Who Swam with Beavers by Nancy Lord, a collection of short stories inspired by Native legends and myths. While I didn’t love, every story, I thoroughly enjoyed the premise of the collection and was grateful to be, once again, reading something that I probably wouldn’t have picked up if not for the recommendation from the Columbia Spectators 50 States of Literature series by Melanie Jones.
www.ferryalaska.com
http://www.dced.state.ak.us/oed/student_info/student.htm
http://fairbanks-alaska.com/september-fairbanks.htm
www.uaf.edu/museum
Flag train: http://www.akrr.com/arrc18.html#51
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Swam-Beavers-Nancy-Lord/dp/1566891108/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/182-8142873-3696256
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/29255
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