Photo Story # 7 – Quirky Stuff
I’m nearly at the end of my photo stories, except that there is just one more post I need to publish….
…to share all of those unusual and random sights and experiences from the trip.
So, what follows is an eclectic collection of photos, all of which make me smile, as I create my final story.
In Nome, there seemed to be something else to grab your attention everywhere you turned.
These cute and colourful ravens are on the majority of the lamp posts throughout Nome. They were created as part of an art project to celebrate the mischievous character which features prominently in Alaskan Native folklore.
Being north of the Arctic Circle means that there are no trees in Nome. But that doesn’t stop this innovative town from having their own “National Forest”.
The “National Forest” sprouts each year around this time, when the Bering Sea Ice Gold Classic takes place. Yes, we played gold on the frozen sea!
You may have many questions about this? For example, how did we find the golf ball in the snow??? Well, despite the fact that they were brightly coloured, many were simply lost when they dived deep into the snow!
This is the view from the place I hit my first ball. (Yes! I actually managed to hit the ball. But, sadly, the ball was never to be seen again.)
As for the green, you can see for yourself how difficult it was to get the ball into the hole! (I confess that there was a great deal of cheating going on!?)
Did I mention how cold it was? The temperature sometimes went down as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.
The secret to keeping warm was to wear multiple layers. In these cold temperatures, I would wear about 3 merino layers, then an Icebreaker merino puffer jacket, and then a North Down Arctic jacket on top. On my head I wore a balaclava, a hat AND the hood of the down jacket.
Did you know that the fur around the hood, in addition to looking rather stylish, actually assists in protecting you from the cold by creating a little micro climate to keep the cold wind and ice away from your face.
In addition to the warm clothing, I also wore spikes on my shoes, so that I could walk along the icy footpaths with confidence that I would slip over. These trusty pieces of gear have multiple names; micro spikes, cleats, crampons. You put them over your boots; the spikes are attached to small chains, which are in turn attached to a rubber contraption which you stretch over your shoe.
My advice, though, is to make sure that you test them out on your boot before your buy them, just to make sure that you can get them off and on easily. Most of the shops and restaurants require you to take them of before you enter, and they don’t always have somewhere handy to sit down while you wage war on your footwear! (Of course, having some assistance helps immensely)
It’s difficult to tell from this photo, but this is my water bottle. We were at the White Mountain checkpoint, and the water in my drink bottle froze! My soothing lip gloss also froze – who would have thought that this would be possible??
While we are still talking about White Mountain, my few hours there were a highlight of the trip (as was the visit to the Rainy Pass checkpoint).
It was hard to imagine that this frozen place has a summertime existence involving water activities! However, the evidence is everywhere…
More about the cold… to get to these remote checkpoints we flew in a small plane. As you can imagine, there was not much heating in the aircraft (if any). So, the windows would not just frost up, they would freeze up… on the inside! You couldn’t wipe off the ice to see outside. One way to remove it was to hold your hand on the window and let the heat of it melt the ice. The result was a little hand-shaped window pane you could look out of. Of course this was terribly inefficient. So the other method was to use a plastic card (a credit card) to scrape the ice off….
At the checkpoints, the aircraft were sometimes parked in the same area as the snow machines..
This made it convenient if the runway was some distance from the village. A sled was hooked up to a snow machine, and a few of us would hang on for dear life as we were towed across the rugged track!
I won’t forget drinking a cocktail out of an ice glass, while in an ice hotel..
And everywhere we came across humorous reminders of how the cold impacted everyday life.
I guess that Alaskans get used to this. But it doesn’t stop them from seeing the funny side of their situation sometimes. Below are some photos of art in the Anchorage Museum.
And then there was my visit to the Safety Roadhouse, the last checkpoint before Nome. This was quite the place…
I’m going to finish with this photo of a delightful piece of artwork in the Anchorage Museum.
It is aptly named “Freaking Yoga”.
