Posts in the “alaska” category

Every year about this time — late winter, early spring — I have to fight the urge to move back to Alaska. If you ever happen to drive up there you might come across this “North to Alaska” sign.

If you like cold weather, this photo was taken at the airport I used to live next to in Talkeetna, Alaska.

Five weeks ago.

~ a Facebook post from November 9, 2015
(sorry, I don’t know the original source of the photo)

Here’s a good Twitter thread about flying in the Alaskan bush.

Downtown Talkeetna, Alaska, February 5, 2020. An “oilified” version of this photo by the Fairview Inn.

February, 2017: A woman in a bar in Nome, Alaska challenged female Iditarod sled dog racer Aliy Zirkle to arm wrestle her. As they arm-wrestled, the woman’s arm broke. Lesson learned: Don’t mess with Alaskan sled dog racers. The story is here on adn.com.

This is a series of Facebook posts from an adventurous day in Alaska, December 31, 2010:

1) Hmm, more bad weather today. Adding “tire chains” to the grocery list, and I’m out the door. Driving to Seward to celebrate the new year!

2) Famous Alaska saying: “There’s old pilots, and there’s bold pilots, but there ain’t no old and bold pilots.” Meaning I’m stopping in Anchorage tonight. (More soon.)

3) So ... I was trying to get to Seward tonight, but got stuck in a steep, icy parking lot in Wasilla for a while. I finally decided to drive-slide the car to the edge of the parking lot where there was a small strip of frozen dirt and grass that went up the side of the hill. I got the tires on the right side of the car on that strip, built up as much speed as I could, and finally got my car up the hill. It took more than an hour to get out of there. After that I tried even harder to find tire chains but could not, so I decided to stop in Anchorage. They started the fireworks at 5pm (because of the whole darkness thing), and various shows went on all night, which was a really cool way to spend the evening.

When training an adult polar bear, it’s important to let their cub eat on your leg.

(I don’t remember the original source of this photo.)

Dateline January 25, 2011, Palmer, Alaska: “Recent deaths here: Hitting a moose; Avoiding hitting a moose; Snowmobile (snowmachine) into telephone pole; Exposure walking home from school; Neighbor shoots neighbor. It's been a busy two days.”

The cabin I lived in, in Talkeetna, Alaska. This time of year — late winter — I always find myself wanting to move back to Alaska.

This is a view of some mountains (whose official name I don’t know) from my apartment in Palmer, Alaska, in January, 2011.

Back on January, 20, 2011 I came across this moose statue inside Krazy Moose Subs, Wasilla, Alaska. Seems fitting to go along with my previous moose in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Slid sideways through an icy intersection just in time to see a helicopter lift off from the ground with a sunlit mountain range as its backdrop ... pretty awesome.

(A Facebook post from December 19, 2010, when I lived in Alaska.)

“If you try to drive through Canada in the winter with those summer tires you’re going to end up as a statistic.”

~ A nice RCMP person, after looking at my car, March, 2010. She was very close to being right, as I got stranded for five days in Dease Lake, British Columbia.

Chris Stevens, on Northern Exposure: What is it about possessing things?

An Alutiiq petroglyph tattoo. From this Alutiiq Facebook page.

Back in April, 2016, a wolverine bound for Alaska from Norway tried to make its escape in a New Jersey airport. (Reminds me of Honey badger don’t care.) The wolverine story is here on adn.com.

For many years, Denali was “officially” named for a U.S. President who never visited Alaska. Fortunately that was finally corrected in 2015.

This is a photo from the drive I once took from Fairbanks, Alaska all the way up to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay.

I forgot all about this, but at some point I posted large photos of my 2007 drive from Fairbanks, Alaska to Prudhoe Bay. As you can see in those photos, it’s dirt roads all the way.

“Gonna have that song stuck in my head”

~ from the Tundra Comics 2019 calendar