The Alaska Series...Winter in North Central Alaska, an Introduction

In my previous blogs about Alaska, I spoke of traveling to Alaska in the wintertime and some exciting weather experiences.

Well, I am continuing on with that same theme now and will be talking about what I experienced during my FIRST winter in Fairbanks, Alaska.

If you have ever been to Fairbanks, it is quite different from what you usually see in the pictures on travel catalogs and it isn't anything like Anchorage if you are looking for a comparison. At least it wasn't when I lived there and that was a few decades ago...I refuse to say just exactly how long ago it was! Where Anchorage was kind of like the Seattle of Washington state, Fairbanks was more like the country cousin wannabee. And the problem is that the surrounding area isn't quite as breathtaking as Anchorage either. Top it off, the weather is CONSIDERABLY colder in the winter.

But Fairbanks isn't all negative either. There were things there that I would never have experienced in quite the same way as I would have in a more metropolitan area like Anchorage. Fairbanks is a larger Alaskan city that tends to stand alone...a beacon admidst all the tundra, mosquitos, cold and frontierism.

Fairbanks has a university...the University of Alaska in College, AK. Fairbanks has Fort Wainwright next door and Eielson Air Force Base just down the road apiece. Fairbanks has NOAA. Fairbanks has Blair Flats to the South, North Pole (the town) to the east with the Santa Claus House, Nenana down the other way with the great place to watch the ice breaking the spring (and making bets on it), the Yukon River to the North and some great hot spring resorts to warm up that cold body of yours.

Fairbanks has comfortable summers that are sunny and seldom cold, sunshine constantly 24hrs a day from June until fall and nearby Cleary Summit to check out the summer solstice.
Fairbanks also has some of the most cotton pickinest cold winters there are too. Too spend a winter....even one winter there, can make or break a person and there will be stories to tell for a lifetime afterward.

My first winter in Alaska was a culture shock, I admit. I arrived in the middle of January after driving there. You can read about that experience in some of my previous blogs. I never really got to SEE Fairbanks for the first 3 weeks I lived there because it was so amazingly cold (45 to 65 below zero everyday) that the city's pollution literally froze in mid air, causing a phenomena called "ice fog". Literally, frozen air pollution! By the end of 3 weeks, I was ready to fly back or die!!! I'd had enough! Then, something changed. The weather warmed up to a more pleasant 10 below zero and the sky was still relatively clear...the ice fog went away and nighttime was absolutely astounding! Clear as clear can be, the stars shown in a way I had never seen before. I could almost reach out and touch those stars. The northern lights (aurora borealis) were the most amazing sites I've ever seen...better than Disneyland. Well, maybe not, but close! If you have never seen the northern lights, it is well worth seeing it even just once if you get a really good view. Sometimes you can see them further south in the lower 48 states but they don't compare to anything like you see in Alaska.

The next time, I will talk about some strange experiences that you can only have in the coldest of climates and what happens when cabin fever hits.

The Alcan Highway

Have you ever driven the Alcan Highway? Ever heard of it?
It is that highway that takes you to Alaska. Most of it is unpaved and it is a very long 2 lane road.
The Alcan starts at Dawson Creek in northern Canada and takes straight into Alaska. Of course, if you live in the "lower 48" states of the U.S. just getting to the start of the Alcan can be a long trip in itself. Basically, you have the travel the entire length of British Columbia just to get to the beginning of the Alcan.
The Alcan is beautiful, a bit wild and it is a bit of a culture shock for most lower 48ers. You meet some wonderfully friendly Canadians along the way.The only major town after Dawson Creek is a place called Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, which is hundreds of miles past Dawson Creek. There are a few small towns in between. Be careful you don't blink though, otherwise you may miss them. Always stop for gas when you get about a 1/2 tank of gas. You never know when you'll come across a gas station next time.
You will get to see some amazing critters most of the time. Moose are fairly common, and it isn't all that uncommon to see a bear or two either. Please don't stop nearby them to take a close up picture. Bears really hate that. (No, I don't speak from experience!)
Most folk travel the Alcan in the summertime because that is generally when people come to visit Alaska. It's warmer then...duh! They get to put up with dirt and gravel roads, chipped windshields, mud and mosquitos...and mosquitos...and mosquitos.
It's at this point that I would HIGHLY recommend that you use some handmade soap with bug be gone ingredients in it if you ever plan to make such a trip. I DO make those during the summer months. They really are helpful.
Actually, the summer months are NOT my favorite time to travel the Alcan highway. I actually prefer the wintertime...YES, I said wintertime! Road conditions are easier to travel then, nice, solid road. It is generally cold enough that you don't need to worry about the roads being overly slippery and the road is VERY well sanded. Yes, it is cold, so be prepared to bring survival gear with you should you choose to travel in winter. Plan you trip to ensure that you can stop at night in a nice warm motel. Winterize your car and make sure you have some sort of heater for your engine. If there is no place to plug in your car at night to keep it warm, you may have to leave the engine running all night if the weather is getting more than 20 below zero which is very typical.
My first trip to Alaska, I travelled by car in January of 1973. It most certainly was an adventure for me. Especially since I was from southern California and had barely ever been OUT of California. However, the trip was beginning to wear thin by the time I reached the Alaskan border. I cried when I saw the temperature posted on the building at the border shack... it was 68 BELOW ZERO...and that did not include the wind chill factor. That was something I learned about from hard knock experience at that time. The wind was blowing nastily, causing your body to feel that it was an equivalent to 100 below zero. The border patrol guy told me that. That's when I began to cry. He said to get thee to Tok Junction and hole up for the night please. NO PROBLEM!!! I AM OUTTA HERE!
Welcome to Alaska!

Alaska

Lots of people have been to Alaska. They go up there on one of those cool cruises, fly, some even drive. They look at all the beauty and the sense of untamed territory that Alaska has to offer for a week or two, maybe even a month and then, they leave after taking tons of photos, buying moose dropping earrings for souvenirs (I've never actually SEEN ANYONE wearing those things), T-shirts, sweatshirts and who knows what else.

That's your tourist group.



Then, there are those folk that are part of the military and are stationed in Alaska. They bring their families with them, move on the base and live there until they get stationed somewhere else.

That's your military group.



Then there are those folk who choose to have a living adventure for a year or two or four. Maybe long enough to go to college there or they have a temporary job situation, or they just go up there and "live" for a short while until their money runs out. The longtimer Alaskans call these folk "Cheechakos" (newcomers) and they can be spotted from 100 yards off, sometimes further.

That's your Cheechako group. (Most militaries tend to fit into this category as well)



Then there are those people who perhaps moved up to Alaska, maybe with the intention of moving back to the "lower 48" but fell in love or just plain got stuck and have been there for years. They may have started out Cheechako but became Alaskan somewhere along the way.

That's your Alaskan Transplant group.



Then there are those people who actually were born there and lived there all their lives. The majority of these folk are Eskimo or Alaskan Indians but there are a small bunch of other cultural diversities that actually fit into this categories.

That's your native Alaskan group.



Why did I just categorize all these different folk into these little categories? I'm not sure since I hate categorizing, but perhaps it is to explain different people's different perspectives on what Alaska is and what it offers. Alaska is so big, it has so many things to offer and experiences that are hard to find elsewhere in the world.



So...that may bring you the next question... Why am I even WRITING about Alaska? Isn't this blog site about soap?



Well, yes and no. This blog is about someone who makes soap and things related to soap, but not about the soap itself. It is about the person who makes it. To find out who the person is behind my bar of soap, you need to know about Alaska.



I wasn't born there, I never had a desire to go there, or live there. I only knew that Alaska contained snow, cold, igloos, Eskimos, polar bears and a few other weird animals like moose and ptarmigan (took me awhile to spell that one), and those silly little lemmings that commit group suicide once in awhile.



Despite the above paragraph, I did eventually move to Alaska and lived there for several years. So, I suppose that would put me in the category of the Alaskan Transplant, but eventually moved back to the lower 48...ooops, that isn't in the above list. See? I told you I hated categorizing!



Some of my experiences in Alaska are made of a truly unique, "Alaskan" flavor. I would be hard put to find a way to have those similar experiences anywhere else. Those experiences are part of what make me who I am today. I now live in the Northwest, which is nothing like Alaska. I've had wonderful and very tragic experiences there. I choose to talk about the uniquely Alaskan experiences however and will have a series of "Alaskan Experiences" coming up. So, stay tuned for Alaskan Experiences and feel free to talk about your own experiences if you've been there an done that too...or just say that is weird, strange, crazy, a lie...whatever.