Notes from the frozen Northwest

The first time I travelled with Peter in the U.S. was in October, 2002. The tour included a few stops in D.C. and Maryland. Some of you may remember that was the time of the sniper attacks.

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Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. The road ends long before you reach Bethel. The only ways into this town are by air or by boat. Except perhaps in winter, when the more intrepid amongst you might make the trip on snow machine. I say amongst you, because personally there’s no way in hell that I’d do it.

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The next morning we set off on the long drive to Tonsina. We drove roughly South from Talkeetna and then took a left at Palmer. After that we had about a four hour drive east, through a few valleys, over some mountains and along some glaciers. You know, the usual sort of thing.
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Peter played yet another great gig at Latitude 62 in Talkeetna. Once again he finished the show with “Goodnight Irene” and for only the second time in his career he left the stage with the audience still singing along. That’s never happened in any other room, so kudos to Nancy.
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On Sunday morning Peter, Nathalie and I said farewell to Patty Larkin in Anchorage and set off to Talkeetna and Latitude 62. We arrived early afternoon and headed straight to the office of Talkeetna Air Taxi for our flight to Denali.
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After the Chena Hot Springs we headed back to Fairbanks and called over to Alice’s house for a Hallowe’en party. This was the site of last year’s science experiment and while it wasn’t cold enough for any hard science this time round, it was still the coldest point of the tour.
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Bathing. Yes, you read that right. We were bathing. At 20 below. That’s Celcius, although at that temperature you don’t care to split hairs over what scale you’re using. Everyone just pretty much agrees that, yup, it’s cold. Especially when you’re outdoors in a swimsuit or a pair of bermuda shorts.

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Leaving Homer, we arrived in Fairbanks early afternoon. After checking into the hotel, we asked about local hiking trails - determined to walk around until we found some wildlife. Sure, Kodiak and Homer had disappointed us but we weren’t about to give up that easily.

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No, this is not a game score but rather our tally of wildlife encounters thus far in the tour.

Having failed spectacularly to see even a single bear in Kodiak, despite the fact that the bear population on the island reaches 3,000, we flew into Homer somewhat consoled by the certain knowledge that we would at least get to spend some time nestled amongst the many eagles of the Homer Spit. You can imagine our disappointment then as we drove out onto the Spit only to find it barren. There wasn’t a single bird to be seen. It wasn’t until we were driving back along the Spit that Nathalie eventually spotted two eagles in the distance.

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