Today was my trip up north of the Arctic Circle to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.

I caught a taxi at 8.38am to the Northern Alaska Tour Company to book in. The maximum luggage we were approved for the trip was 20 pounds (approx. 9.1 kilograms). The tour includes a bus from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, and a light plane flight back. Which I assume is the reason for the luggage weight limit. However despite my best efforts, I could not get the weight below 24 pounds. Even leaving my 100-400mm L Series lens at the hotel L So I just hoped that the 24 pounds would not be a problem.

We were advised that there would be no shops between Fairbanks and Coldfoot, so would stop off at a shop in Fairbanks on the way through to pick up enough for our own meals etc for the day. We headed off at 9.45am in a mid sized coach which was pretty comfortable. At the time, the temperature was minus 30 degrees Celsius. It was minus 38 degrees Celsius in Coldfoot – where we are heading. Joe, the driver, gave us an overview of Permafrost, of which there is a fair amount across Fairbanks – and the problems it causes with building of roads, houses etc., and how many of the locals live up in the hills around Fairbanks, rather than in the city itself, due to the Inversion heat effect, which means it is warmer up in the hills.

Our second stop (after the shops) on the trip was a remote General Store (now closed) which the travel company leases off the owner to use as a stop off, toilet break facility. The toilets were like our camping style toilets with no flush long drops, like you’d use in most Australian National Parks. Although a lot colder so you need to be a lot quicker. According to Joe, our driver, the owner of the General Store was given 20 acres of remote land in the 1970s (this was an offer to Alaskans) on the basis he lived on t for 5 years and upgraded it. So he built the general store. Sadly, more recently the owner’s wife has become unwell so they have had to move to Fairbanks closer to the hospital for her needs. Herewith a very brightened up photo of the centre and a shot of the long drop.

We then stopped at the commencement of Dalton Highway. This is the road used to transport all sorts of goods by truck from the very north – Deadhorse at Prudhoe Bay, down to Fairbanks. This road and the Coldfoot Camp has been seen on the TV show “Ice Road Truckers”. We learnt that DOT (Department of Transport) mixes gravel and sand with water and use it to spray down on the road to ensure stability.

Our next stop was a photo opportunity at an area close to the 800 mile TransAlaskan oil pipeline. There is so much history around that pipeline, and it is a significant economic driver for the Alaskan people. But given some of the things I’ve learnt about it, I believe there are some potential economic problems ahead for Alaska. Anyway, will try to do a bit of an overview of the economy, the history of gold and the oil pipeline in a later blog entry.

I got some good photos of the scenery from the bus, although with the usual problems because the bus is moving and the only way to get photos without reflection is the camera lens being directly flush with the window. Which reduces the angle I could get for what I wanted to take the photos of. Which in the scheme of life isn’t a big deal.

Our next stop was going to be at the mighty Yukon River (now frozen). The idea was that we would have our lunch first (at around 2.30pm) and then pop down to the river for photos. However it looked to me like the light would be starting to go down before we got there and so I decided to eat my lunch on the bus, and then go straight down to the Yukon River as soon as we got to the site. I had bought a container of macaroni salad for lunch but had forgotten to buy any cutlery. Luckily, I had bought a packet of small ginger biscuits. So I got out a few of them and used them to scoop up the macaroni salad. I could get three scoops out of each biscuit before it got soft and I had to eat it. In the end I got through the salad, it was pretty tasty.

So when we reached the site, I headed down to the river to take photos whilst most of the others on the tour went to have lunch. I think it would be a magnificent river when it is flowing. I also took some photos of the café / roadhouse and the little boats around it.

After everyone had taken all of their photos, we jumped back onto the bus and headed off to cross the Arctic Circle. The temperature was going up on our trip, with it being at 25 degrees Celsius leaving Yukon River. It was then 56 miles to the Arctic Circle.

Given it was relatively dark, we got to watch a short video “The Alaska pipeline” It was quite educational.

By the time we got there it was dark, but we got out and took some photos of each other in front of the Arctic Circle sign.

It was approximately minus 39 degrees Celsius. Then we waited for another tour group coming down from Coldfoot to swap over. There were 5 of us on the tour from Fairbanks who were doing a 4 day 3 night tour up to Coldfoot, and about 5 doing a one day tour. There were also some people on a multiday Coldfoot tour who had flown up by plane and were returning by bus. So our 5 were swapping buses with the tourists coming from Coldfoot, and they would all head back down to Fairbanks. So the bus arrived, we all swapped over (ours was now a smaller 10 seater bus) and we then headed off to Coldfoot. When we arrived we got our keys to the Inn and then I unpacked and then rested until our trip out to Wiseman to watch for the Aurora Borealis.

Coldfoot was a gold mining camp from around 1900, which in 1902 had multiple roadhouses, stores, saloons and a gambling house, as well as a post office. Currently there is one café, one inn and a post office, as well as a visitors centre open in summer (and a small one open a few hours three times per week in winter). Wiseman was developed later (around 1908) when gold was found there and Coldfoot people moved to Wiseman.

So we headed out at around 11pm to the cabin in Wiseman. It was VERY COLD. But our host lit up a fire outside and put the gas heater on inside. It was a great experience of a real cabin experience. It had a whole lot of old knick knacks, including an old Kodak camera (the same as my first ever camera when I was a kid).

I went in and out of the cabin to take photos. It was really interesting that even though I could get some picture of the lights in the sky, I could not see it very well visually. It’s the camera that makes it look great.

Anyway, after a while, we didn’t get to see much more (it comes and goes) so we decided at 2am to head back to the Inn. We got back at 2.10am. It was apparently minus 42 degrees Celsius – and the coldest start to winter in a number of years according to those who live there. So I rugged up and went to bed!