Night Moves
Among my list of things to do someday: go somewhere where the sun is up for a really really long time in June.
Well, I don't necessarily have to go to another country. I can stay within my own:
There is no place like Barrow [Alaska] to characterize the "Land of the Midnight Sun." For the next 75 days, the sun will not dip beneath the horizon. And while the sunshine means warmer temperatures, it's not exactly tropical.
Last week, it was a real scorcher. The thermometer at the Top of the World Hotel [1200 Agvik, Barrow, AK 99723 ] said 52 degrees, but that was nothing more than a cruel joke. The ambient temperature was about 11 degrees. But the wind was gusting around 35 knots, sending the wind chill well below zero. Under clear arctic skies, it was another "blustery day" in Barrow.
"This is my favorite time of year," said our guide, Vernon Amaulik. "It's right before breakup. There are no bugs, there's plenty of daylight and it's fairly warm. It's a great day!"...
Although our hotel boasted "oceanfront accommodations," there was nothing but a sea of ice visible in town. "The ice goes out for a couple of miles right now. Later in the summer it breaks up closer to town," he said.
Visitors to Barrow are treated to many versions of culture shock. Never mind the all-night sunshine. How about the houses and buildings? They're all elevated off the ground to avoid melting the permafrost....
On the Arctic Ocean, Barrow residents do not take anything for granted. There is a desalination plant that produces all the municipal water supply. The utility company drills for natural gas nearby and has a plant that provides heat and electricity.
Everything in the stores must be flown in. Barges are able to land during August and September for building supplies, vehicles and other bulk items. Since there are no roads, travelers from Anchorage or Fairbanks arrive and depart on Alaska Airlines. Several smaller carriers including Frontier Flying Service, Hageland and Cape Smythe serve neighboring communities.
There is no shortage of good restaurants in Barrow. Adjacent to the Top of the World Hotel is Pepe's, the farthest-north Mexican restaurant in North America.
Down the street, we had dinner with KBRW's Earl Finkler at Arctic Pizza. KBRW is Barrow's only radio station, so Finkler's a real celebrity. He had a chicken salad. I opted for the Indian cuisine.
In and around Barrow there are several key landmarks that peg Barrow as a town that has been populated for at least 2,000 years. Across from Arctic Pizza on the shore is a site that includes some sod house remains from the original settlements.
The tour around town is interesting and informative -- and includes a visit to the Inupiat Heritage Museum. Here, you can see a display on the history of whaling and descriptions of some of the original settlements. There are displays on whaling boats, the big European whalers and the small boats used by the indigenous whalers in the area. There also are beautiful examples of furs, ivory and baleen carvings. Don't miss it.
If you can, get one of the local tour companies to take you out on the ice to look for polar bears. There are plenty of animals out on the ice, including birds and arctic foxes. But everyone wants to see the bears -- as long as you're in the van with the windows up! If you can get past where the road ends, your guide may take you out to Point Barrow itself, where you can look to the west at the Chukchi Sea and to the east at the Beaufort Sea. To me, the ice looked just the same.
From Fairbanks, Alaska Airlines offers a one-day package to Barrow for $399. The price includes a tour, admission to the Inupiat Heritage Center and other goodies. For $450 per person, double, you can stay overnight at the Top of the World Hotel....
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