Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Where have I been? I’ve been right here, enjoying the beautiful fall season in Interior Alaska! With each passing day, the trees become more golden and leaves slowly drift to the ground below. Our yard is carpeted in yellow and gold and there’s a definite glow when I glance out the door. Sometimes I just stare through the glass for long minutes, amazed at the beauty.

The week hasn’t been totally joyful. I had a few emotional meltdowns, no doubt a result of sadness about my mom. I’ve also been missing my kids, lamenting about my own mortality, and even wondering how much time I have left on this earth. Not the most upbeat of thoughts, but I’m sure we all have these less than happy periods in our lives.

A few days ago, In the midst of a personal “pity party”,  I climbed into bed with Steve, who was sleeping after a 12-hour night shift. I tried to be quiet as I cried, but he heard me and woke up.  (OK, so maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough)

“What’s the matter, Sweetheart?”

“I’m sad.”

“Why are you sad?”

“Because I miss my mom, and I miss my kids, and summer’s over, and I’m worried that I’m not living life to the fullest, and what if I don’t have very many days left on this earth?”, at which point I burst into fresh tears.

He hugged me close and allowed me to wet his t-shirt as I sobbed. I know he was tired, and I felt terrible for waking him…

“What can I do to make you feel better?”, he asked.

“I don’t know. I just feel so sad.”

“Do you want to drive up the Steese to the White Mountains and see the fall foliage?”

“But it’s already 3pm. We won’t get home until way after dark.”

“So what? Maybe we’ll see a nice sunset on the way home.”

It is moments like these, when the love I have for Steve fills my heart and makes my chest ache with the joy of sharing my life with him.  He lifts me up when I’m feeling down, and is willing to do whatever it takes to bring a smile to my face. I am so blessed to have him at my side.

And so, at 3:30pm on Thursday afternoon, we loaded the truck with my camera gear, water bottles, and warm jackets (just in case) and took off driving.

The access road into the White Mountain Rec Area is at mile 57 on the Steese Highway (Davidson Ditch). The Steese Highway starts in Fairbanks, passes a pipeline viewing area north of town, and then takes a sharp right turn in the town of Fox.

Steve drives the Steese when he goes to work. But he gets off at around mile 20 and then drives an additional 6 miles or so to the mine site.  The Steese continues on for another 140 miles, to the towns of Central and Circle. It winds over rolling hills; crossing many creeks, as well as the Chatanika River, along the way.  It’s not heavily traveled once you get past Chatanika, so despite the modern marvel of paved roads, it’s easy to feel totally alone in the world when making this drive.

At Davidson Ditch, a well-maintained (gravel) road winds seven miles into the White Mountains and intersects with Nome Creek Road (also gravel).  From there, you can choose to make a right and drive 4 miles to Mt Prindle Campground, or a left and continue 12 miles to Ophir Creek Campground.  We opted to drive all the way to Ophir.

Throughout the drive, the foliage was absolutely jaw-dropping stunning. I’d bet that it was very near peak color. The birch and cottonwood trees glowed yellow and gold amongst the dark spruce. Small groupings of aspen were interspersed with the birch, and they glowed with an orange-red color.

Because we started our drive late in the afternoon, the sun was lower on the horizon and didn’t wash out the colors. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, and we saw highs of 65F while driving.

We came across quite a few hunters, as it is moose season. They sat on their four-wheelers, binoculars to their eyes, and shotguns slung across their backs or strapped to their vehicles.  We didn’t see any moose at all on our drive, and I joked to Steve that the moose know when hunting season starts, and are hiding.

On the way back to Fairbanks, we drove a few miles down the mine road to get a nice view across the valley. The sun was quickly going down, and the landscape was painted with a beautiful red glow.  We sat there for a few minutes watching the colors change.  It was awesome!

It was well after 9pm when we finally arrived home.  Steve went up to bed a little while later and I stayed up until after midnight checking for the aurora. Unfortunately clouds rolled in, obliterating the night sky.

Here are some photos I took on our Steese Highway drive:

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On Friday evening, the aurora was again predicted to be active, so I stayed up late looking for the green bands of light. It was very dark in my front yard, and I soon felt the heebie-jeebies. I’ve always been afraid of the dark, and when there’s no moon to light the way, the trees can look like huge monsters, and every little crackle of leaf or branch in the woods makes me imagine mean moose, or hungry wolves.  Yes, I tend to have an active imagination!

I put my camera on my tripod, and experimented with settings, while my lens pointed straight up to the sky. As my eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, I began to see even more stars twinkling in the inky black sky. A little while later, my eyes began catching movement in the heavens - moving *stars* making their way slowly across the dark expanse. Were they planes? Satellites? UFOs? Falling stars?

I’m not very knowledgeable about space and the “stuff” that’s up there.  I always assumed that satellites were not visible to the naked eye, but apparently I was wrong. During one long exposure (20 seconds), I kept my eyes turned upward and saw a moving light in the sky. I assumed it was a plane, but the light was a steady stream and not blinking as most planes’ lights do. Just as it got almost overhead, it flashed a very bright light!

OK.. so that was totally unnerving! I continued to turn my camera to other areas of the sky and to take more photographs. I looked forward to downloading my memory card to see what sort of things I had captured.

A friend of mine identified the bright light as an Iridium Flare/Flash! (Read about the Iridium satellite here) How cool is that?  I photographed several other satellites moving in space that same evening. More knowledgeable friends of mine enlightened me to the fact that we have quite a bit of *junk* floating in space and orbiting earth. I never knew.

Here are my night sky photos. The first photo was taken at dusk. The long exposure captured the stars, but also captured the pink clouds of sunset too.  The photos with a satellite or other moving object are also enlarged to show the line of light in the sky.

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My bird feeder condo is now attracting the attention of hairy woodpeckers in addition to downy woodpeckers. Both downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers look almost identical in plumage, however the hairy is much bigger than the downy. The hairy has been a regular visitor lately. I think she scared the downy away.

Here are some more photos of my feathered friends enjoying the bounty I provide for them:

Dark-Eyed Junco (not starving, as you can tell by his/her girth!)

Hairy Woodpecker:

Sloppy eater:

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Steve and I are very excited about this weekend, and our trip to Denali Park. (Thank you again, JOHN!!!!!!) We have decided that we are going to drive down in the truck on Friday afternoon, so we can pick up our pass the day before our drive. We’ll most likely drive to Savage River and do some hiking that day (weather permitting).

We plan to ‘rough it’ and sleep in the truck. Steve has fitted the covered bed of the truck with a platform that rests on the wheel wells. We will place an air mattress on it, so we’ll be comfortable sleeping back there. We’ll also have cold weather sleeping bags (it’s been dropping into the 30s at night), and whatever other items we deem necessary. We’ll take a cooler with sandwich stuff, poptarts/energy bars, etc.  - and his small army campstove. We need the campstove to boil water so we can have our morning coffee. Without coffee, any day is ruined. *grin*

We’ll drive into Denali on Saturday, and then make our way to the Denali Highway (which goes from Cantwell to Paxson). We’ll camp again in the truck, and then continue home on Sunday morning - enjoying the scenery along the Denali Highway and the gorgeous views along the Richardson Highway.

It’s been awhile since we’ve roughed it, but I’m sure we’ll be just fine. We used to tent camp before we bought the camper - and we survived. Sure, we’ve become accustomed to modern amenities - like a private bathroom, a microwave, and a place to plug in the coffeepot (are we spoiled or what?!) - but two nights sleeping in the truck won’t kill us. OK, so maybe it will give us backaches, but we’ll deal with that.

There are very few hotel rooms left in the Denali area, and what rooms there are, are overpriced specifically for this weekend. I can’t see spending more than $150 for a room that we’re only going to spend a few hours sleeping in. Besides, the chilly overnight weather will give us a great reason to cuddle.

Also, the northern lights are predicted to be active on Saturday night. By camping along the Denali Highway, we’ll be able to see the lights unhindered by light pollution. That, in itself, makes it worth it.

I’m sure I’ll have a gazillion photos. I just hope I don’t run out of memory cards. I have 17GB of cards, but it’s easy for me to fill one, especially if we see any bears or wolves (which are rumored to be quite active in the park right now).

I’m so excited!!!

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Before I end this entry, I wanted to mention two things. The first is in response to those of you who have asked how my brother Mike is doing. Mike and his boys have made plans to go on a cruise to the Bahamas the week before Christmas. They’re going all out with a nice suite with balcony, and are looking forward to their getaway. I know that December is going to be a sad month for them - not having Lisa here for Christmas - so I am thrilled that they are taking a cruise to warmer climes. And taking it together makes it even more exciting, as it will afford them special moments as a family.

The second thing I wanted to say is THANK YOU! to Liz. Liz is a reader of this blog and recently visited Alaska for two weeks. While here, she visited The Stash. When I went into the store to drop off more inventory, I was told that one of my biggest fans had come into the store and bought up all my notecards. I was flabbergasted and extremely happy of course! I had no clue who this fan was at the time, but Liz left a comment to my last blog entry telling me that she did it! Thank you so much Liz for supporting my photography passion, and for enjoying my work. I am thrilled that you have taken a piece of *me* home with you to remember your visit to Alaska. I do hope that you’ll come back again soon, so we can meet for a cup of coffee (or lunch) and a chat.

I don’t know if I’ll be making another entry before Friday and our departure for Denali. If not, you definitely won’t hear from me again until next Monday at the earliest - and that will be after downloading and sorting and resizing photos from our trip.

Thank you to all of you who follow this blog, and comment or email me! Many of you have been with me since I began journaling about my life in Alaska, and have offered so much support and kindness along the way. Hard to believe it’s been more than 5 years already. I hope there will be many more years of sharing Alaska, through words and photos, ahead.

Until next time…