|
|||||||||||||
|
TOURS
ADVENTURES
WINTER ADVENTURES
Trip
Enhancements
Frequently
Asked
|
Day 1 Our adventure starts at 9AM, meeting in downtown Anchorage at your previously arranged B&B or hotel. Here we'll make a quick check of gear. We'll then make a stop if necessary at REI, an outdoor gear supplier, if anyone decides that they might need additional items. Before we head out of town, we'll make a stop at the Millennium Hotel, the official headquarters of the Iditarod Race. Located on the edge of Lake Hood, the world's largest seaplane base in summer and home to many that equip their planes with skis and operate from there in the winter. As things build toward the Race several days away, preparations are evident as the phone banks are installed, radio communications set up and of course the Official Iditarod Store doing a brisk business. Afterwards we'll head out of town hugging the edge of the Turnagain Arm, between the Chugach Mountains and the sea. Crossing Turnagain Pass in the Kenai Mountains we'll take the 16 mile cutoff to the tiny end-of-the-road town of Hope. The oldest gold rush town in Alaska, (far older than Anchorage) this sleepy little village of 150 souls still has a definite frontier flavor with most of the buildings of log, from the old Social Hall still used for weddings and most town functions to the old church. We'll overnight here in log cabins overlooking Bear Creek and after dinner, have our first introduction to mushing. Day 2 After an early breakfast we'll head through the Kenai Mountains and along Cook Inlet to Homer, overlooking beautiful Kachemak Bay. Here we'll visit the infamous "Eagle Lady" at the end of the Homer Spit and have a scrumptious lunch at a local eatery. Driving on to the end of East End Road we'll meet Jason & Kelly, owners of Outback Kachemak Kennels overlooking the Bay. Starting off with a "briefing" and some additional tips for the trail, we'll meet the other assistant mushers and the vocal crew of dogs out back, as ready to hit the trail as we are. It takes a bit to load everything and ready the sleds, so you'll be pressed into service immediately, helping to harness the dogs and keep them from heading down the trail without us. Our gear will travel to the lodge on sleds pulled by snowmachine, or "iron dog" as they have come to be known, since in many places it is now a vital means of winter transport. Then with magnificent glacier views, it's over the snow covered muskeg and frozen lakes to the remote cabins we'll call "home" for the next two nights, taking turns driving the teams while the others glide along the trail in the sled basket. We arrive by dinner time, welcomed heartily by our hosts and a wonderful home cooked meal. After dinner, those inclined may assist the mushers with dog care or just relax by the bonfire. Later that evening the northern lights will surely see their way fit to give us a display. Day 3 With a hearty breakfast in the belly, harnessing up the dogs begins to feel like a natural part of a day's routine (the Call of the Wild is not species specific . . .). Then it's off down the trail taking turns driving your own team as we snake through the Boxcar Hills, over Caribou Lake and further into the Caribou Hills. Exploring a glacial valley, we'll stop frequently to examine stories told by the animal tracks in the snow and some of the other seasonal phenomena that are hard to put into words when someone asks, incredulously, why one would enjoy winter. Lunch is on the trail wherever the urge hits, before we mush our way back to the homestead. The rest of the afternoon is open to personal inclination, with some preferring to give skijorring a try. A Swiss word representing the sport of cross country skiing by means other than gravity or sweat, our source of locomotion will be a dog each, tethered to a waist belt and pulling us along the trails on our skis (supplied). Its great fun and always very popular. Dinner is once again a high point, after which the northern lights will have an opportunity to either top their previous night's performance, or make amends for a no-show. Day 4 A send-off breakfast, possibly with local goodies will get us ready for the trail back . . . hitching up the teams and mushing giving you the thought that maybe you could easily get used to a life of . . . someday, maybe . . . After early afternoon good-byes to new friends, both two and four-legged, we'll head back into Homer before retracing the road back to Hope. Dinner is at nearby Tito's Discovery Cafe before an evening briefing on the Iditarod itself via video, at Discovery Cabins on Bear Creek. Day 5 Breakfast is early to hit the road and get to the Race start in downtown Anchorage. The start has an atmosphere all its own as literally thousands of dogs and people are crowded into a tiny area, all focused on the event that for many, is the experience of a lifetime. You'll have lots of vantage points for great pictures or just plain gawking. The perennial contenders have their own professional determination while many others are participating for the first time, though every one of the mushers, spouses, and handlers are concentrating on the grueling and perilous 1100 miles of wilderness ahead. After watching the teams be released at two-minute intervals and taking probably dozens of photos, we'll head to Lake Hood, to board our bush ski-planes for the 70 mile trip to the remote Skwentna Roadhouse on the Skwentna River, just a few hundred yards from the first official Iditarod Race Checkpoint. Landing on a tiny airstrip here you'll see how folks live far from roads and the rest of the world. Dinner is of course sumptuous, after exploring a bit about the neighborhood on snowshoes or skis. Day 6 A great breakfast makes the morning leisurely, with plenty of time to relax by the woodstove, or catch up on your journal. If the weather is clear, Mt. McKinley, North America's tallest mountain should give proof just to the north. In the afternoon we'll wander over to the checkpoint to watch the dozens of Iditarod volunteers busy about preparations, as the dog teams race our direction. After dinner, we'll bundle up and head out by foot or snowmachine to the river bonfire and await the first dog teams, straining our eyes in the darkness for the first glimpse of a bobbing headlamp in the distance. After a short while the checkpoint will be buzzing with dozens of dog teams and mushers, meticulously checking their dogs over, before tending to their own needs. It is evident here the experience of each musher in their efficiency in checking each dog, feeding the team and bedding it down as well as themselves, in preparation for the days and days of sleepless trail ahead. It is a scene that is difficult to put into words and one that will stay with you long afterwards. Hopefully the northern lights will grace us and lead us back to our cozy homestead, with thoughts no doubt of those on the trail, the sled bag their only accommodations. Day 7 After breakfast we'll bundle up and head back out to the checkpoint to see who remains; some teams strategically resting, others in despair contemplating the end of their Iditarod dreams. Though weary, the former are often quite congenial and open to chatting about their experience thus far. Lunch is back at the Roadhouse and afterwards we'll await the arrival of our bushplane ride back to Anchorage and civilization, though not without a different appreciation for the unique world of the arctic winter and the people and passions that are so much a part of it. Stopping in at the Iditarod Headquarters for a musher update, your mind might wander to how, that while in so many ways the world has changed, in some ways and places it hasn't much at all. And now, though the trip is officially over, those staying the night might want to get together for a culminating dinner and do a bit of reminiscing. . . |
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
