T - Minus 30 and Counting

ALASKA! 

Just the sound of it conjures up all sorts of images for most people.  Whales breaching, snowy mountains, polar bears and frigid temperatures to name a few.   When you tell the average Jill or Joe from the lower 48 that you plan to visit Alaska in the winter, they seem to be both in awe and bewildered why a seemingly rational person would do such a thing.  

For the folks who know me and wonder why I chose to spend a month in the sub-arctic this winter, this blog will try to answer the question.  For my dog musher friends who know that there really is no question to answer about why Alaska in the winter, this blog will try to keep you up to date on the IFSS World Championships, the Limited and North American Championships, the Iditarod and anything else that seems like it might be of interest.  The blog will be more photos than text and I will try not to bore you with the twenty-first century equivalent of watching someone else's vacation slides.

Wasilla in 2012.  Yes, that WASILLA!

30 days from departure

Since I am writing this 30 days before I depart on this little adventure,  this blog is going to start with a little bit about logistics.  Next time, we can get back into the whys of the trip rather than the hows.

So far, I have pretty quickly arranged a cabin for the month, a reasonably priced car (no small feat), looked into using frequent flier miles to get to Fairbanks, checked and tested my cold weather gear, upgraded my computer's operating system, found a wonderful place for my dogs to stay while I am gone, arranged to get the mail picked up, taken care of the cat, started laying out things to pack, started a BLOG and a few dozen other things. 

By far the biggest challenge was getting my snow bike to Alaska.  Taking a bike as excess luggage is pretty simple, unless you have a stop someplace on the way for a day or two.  My local bike shop suggested the usually simple and not very expensive UPS or FEDEX ground shipping.  Unfortunately, a fat bike fits in an unusually large bike box.  So large, that shipping round trip was going to cost nearly as much as the bike.  A bit more research and I learned, with the help of expert researcher Collin at SpinDoc Santa Fe, that if you want to  ship a bike to Alaska, particularly a fat bike, it is going to take 3 boxes and a bit more disassembly than normal.  

Somehow, it was all doable but it wasn't going to be easy or reasonably priced. 

Plan B - find someone from whom I could rent a fat bike for a month!  I called the ONLY place in Fairbanks that rents fatbikes to see if they would consider a monthly rental rate.  My thanks go out to Josh Spice at Far North Fatbikes for the very fair rental rate!  

T minus 29 days ... There is still a lot to do before leaving for Fairbanks.  The biggest task remaining is to write a short memorial statement to be read at one of the IFSS Championship ceremonies to honor the late Robert (Bob) Levorsen one of the founders of the IFSS and my long time friend and neighbor.  

First fatbike ride - at 17 below!