IN NOME, THEY FISH FOR KING CRAB from snow machines. Local resident Carl Emmons has a pet reindeer who hops in back of his pickup and rides around in it like a dog. After the holidays Nomeites stick their Christmas trees in the frozen surface of Norton Sound and put up a sign that reads…
Absolutely no seal oil is permitted in the vehicle, or an extra charge of up to $200 may apply. —Car rental agreement, Nome FRIDAY WE PICK UP Peggy Fagerstrom, who describes herself as “our trusty Native guide” to everyone she introduces us to, to the great hilarity of all, and we drive east down the…
Where the river is windin’ Big nuggets they’re findin’. North to Alaska, They’re goin’ North, the rush is on. —Johnny Horton, “North to Alaska” IT STILL IS. In the spring of 2003, a Nome miner found a nugget the size of a man’s clenched fist worth $75,000. Nome sits on the southern coast of the…
ON FINGER LAKE, JUST this side of Rainy Pass in the Alaska Range, a hour by Cessna 206 from Anchorage and splat in the middle of the Iditarod Trail, is a little slice of heaven called Winterlake Lodge. Here, world-class chef Kirsten Dixon, and her husband, Renaissance man Carl Dixon, hold open house year round…
O Lord give my dogs / the strength to continue on / and me the knowledge to survive. —Richard Burmeister, “The Musher’s Prayer” QAEY WILLIAMS HAS BEEN standing in line in front of the Fourth Avenue Theater in Anchorage since eight am. It is the first Saturday in March. She is armed with a folding chair, a…
Dana Handeland already has one lodger, a Norwegian tourist and “I get five people tomorrow, four volunteers who are working their way up the trail and a guy who says he’s a stand-in on NYPD Blue who is bringing a lot of camera equipment.” “The Iditarod traveler is a different kind of traveler,” Dana says.…