Arctic Circle

One of the things on our bucket list was to “stand” on the imaginary Arctic Circle. Well it happened this past weekend. My original thought was that I would really like to bike to the circle but let’s be honest biking in Alaska while the break up is going on is pretty wet , muddy and cold ordeal especially on the road which is littered by crazy truck drivers. After all, I also did not have the time to do it by bike so I chose to go by car.

I believe, the only drive able route to Arctic Circle in Alaska is via the Haul road or officially Dalton Highway. It’s about 550 miles from Anchorage and about 200 miles north of Fairbanks. Our plan was to leave Friday right after work and just drive as far as we could that day and see what happens.

Well the first hole in our plan was that we did not leave Anchorage until 8pm on Friday, which caused that by Denali National Park I was ready for bed (my usual sleeping time is 10 pm-I know, I know very boring). I was so tired that we just stopped and slept in the car until 6 am on Saturday. J (the second J out of JJ) woke me up screaming that there is an animal digging a hole next to our car. I just brushed that announcement of by something between the lines as “let the animal dig” while trying to catch couple more minutes of sleep and thinking it’s probably a small tree moving in the wind or something of that nature. Well J was very determined to wake me up and take her seriously so I peeked out of my sleeping back and there it was about five feet from the car, fox digging a hole!

Off we go to Fairbanks, surprising a herd of caribous crossing the highway. Here is the hole number 2 in our plan, there is no gas service or any kind of service past town named Fox, which is about 10 miles out of Fairbanks. So we had to go buy two 5 gallons canisters for extra gas to make it back from the circle. Once we reached the Dalton highway (about 85 miles out of Fairbanks) that is where the adventures start. 

Haul road is heavily used by truckers to haul crap to Prudhoe Bay oil fields and these guys just don’t give a single shit about your little Subaru. They haul ass on the mostly dirt road up and down the hills like nobody business and it’s up to you to not get mowed over.

The drive itself is very entertaining as you are crossing several mountain ridges and going from the forest to tundra, while following the pipeline. The Arctic Circle crosses Haul road 115 miles in. There is a sign and little deck to take the views in, Ohh and also two outhouses! Who does not want to take a dump above Arctic Circle!

We traveled with 2 dogs so we took quite a bit of stops to throw some ball with them, which I really liked. It made the trip very chill and less exhausting than if we would be driving without any breaks. The temperature differences were noticeable as we went from 50 degrees in Anchorage to 20 degrees on the ridge tops on Dalton highway. The actual temperature at the circle was 32 degrees and sunny. It was helluva weekend in my books.

Boring early spring in my book!

Not much happening in my world lately, mostly just planning this summer out. Also it seems like that we are having early breakup here in Alaska so everything is wet and muddy which does not give you much options for some good fun outside.

We did some camping with friends around Seward and Girdwood, but it was more of a glamping than camping. Also we participated in a "running with the reindeer" event, which is part of the Fur Rondy celebration here in Anchorage. 

And yes you actually run with reindeer. 

Oh also we got 6 inches of snow last weekend so i took the fatbike out and it was a bog of a ride but still better than sit by a TV.

Little Su 50K alias leg burner

This past weekend I had a privilege to race the little sister of the Susitna 100 race called Little Su 50K. After long week of fucked up random acts of a human scumbag including stealing my car along with my bike, I thought that the race is lost and the pleasure of riding in Alaska backcountry with about 125 of the finest bikers, runners and skiers is not gonna happened. BUT! my bike was recovered in full glory and I was at the start bright and early on Saturday morning at 11 am.

The weather was balmy around 28 degrees along with the sunshine and the pace was fast until about mile 8 when the beautiful hard snow was changed to sugary leg burning pain. That is where I lost contact with the front group and suffer by myself for about another 8 miles. Lucky enough the trail switched back to nice and hard surface so hurrey! I go turning and churning the cranks to the finish. Last 3 miles was in the name of a cramps but who cares when is so nice outside and you are on the bike.

Anyhow, I finished  top ten and had a freaking blast. Afterall, the whole week was just so screwy that even if it would be shitty weather and I had to walk out due to defect I would still be happy.

Where the Funk is that Hut!

Its Thursday afternoon and I'm planning my weekend out with some looong fatbiking on local trails to get ready for next race called Little Su 50. While I'm going through all the possible routes I got a note from my girlfriend that we are going on the overnight trek to Talkeetna Mountains with our friends.

Damn it! biking is ruined. Hurray!! Adventure weekend! We packed our overnight camping gear along with snowshoes and we embarked on the overnight fun early Saturday morning.

To be exactly specific the plan was to hike 8 miles on the Gold Mint trail in Talkeetna Mountain to the Mint Hut up in the mountains, settle in the hut have some nicely cooked dinner, some happy beverages, watch the full moon and hopefully northern lights. Well that is not really how it went down.

In the backpacking world less weight in a gear is a king, well when you hike/snowshoe in Alaska winter in the middle of nowhere into a hut without a wood burner you better bring some extra gear to be on the safe side, especially when you have never been there and you do not know where exactly the hut is.

So we started with backpacks along with the sled being pulled behind. I would say overall we had probably 200 pounds of gear :-), which promised a good, warm and cozy night up in the mountains. The valley which we went through is just piece of true Alaska nature very rugged and just spectacular views. The weather was on our side as well, partially blue sky, some snow showers here and there and temperature around 15 Fahrenheit. The trail was not too steep but the gear got fucking heavy and the snow got deep. We ditched the sled and put all the gear on our backs and kept chugging along.

We had probably 0.5 miles left to the hut and environment dramatically changed from this gradually uphill hike through the valley to pretty much full blown climbing terrain in this almost canyon like valley with a high risk of avalanche and shit ton of snow. The bottom line is we could not make it up there to the hut. We were already pretty exhausted so couple options pop up. The obvious one, to go back 7.5 miles out of the valley, dig ourselves nice snow shelter and stay overnight in the current spot (not too smart due to possibility of avalanche) or walk back 2-4 miles and camp out in the wide open valley.

We arrived back at the parking lot around 8pm after 10 hours (we left at 10 am) and 15 miles of exhausting hike in the snow totally beaten up, but full of good memories. We did not know how good decision we made to hike out of the mountains until 1:30 am on Sunday when 7.1 earthquake struck Anchorage. If we stayed in the mountains we could possibly end up under the avalanche in the middle of the sleep.

It was a day which we might remember for long time and the full moon was just ready to be howl on!