Chillaxin in the Arctic

I've been lazy of late to blog as well as to keep my journals up. Life has slowed down alot around here, the tour season has been down, so I've been working less and thus taking longer weekends for fun stuff.

I went into Gates of the Arctic National Park just outside of Anaktuvik Pass, hiking out of a native Eskimo village and meeting up with my pilot buddy Jason along one of the creeks. We had radios and GPS to coordinate our meeting up as he'd already been hiking out there. In poor visibility and compasses that are thrown off heavily by being so close to the North Pole, it still proved difficult to find one another in the rain. It was well worth it despite the rough boggy terrain that slowed me to a mile an hour. The scenery around there was epic, as well as the company we enjoyed... Mosquitos. I counted around 50 on each shoulder of mine, just at the angle I could see. I estimate I had around 500 swarming my body, thus making my bug netting jacket worth its weight in gold.

I also took another weekend in Fairbanks, doing the "city" thing. It was fine, enjoyed a good beer festival in the true German style, and had a little float trip with my urban Alaskan friends. It was rather bland to me though, as we passed houses and hotels all along the Chena river through downtown Fairbanks. I'd rather be up here in the North where seeing anyone else is basically impossible. Isolation can be quite wonderful at times, then again, I do enjoy the ability that towns provide for me to bike to get Asian food. Thats always nice.

I have also started flying a bit up here. I've decided to get my pilots license. On the 4th of July I zipped a plane through a tight mountain pass hitting tons of typical mountain turbulence. It was exhilirating to say the least. I felt sooo very alive in that moment as I approached for landing, that I knew it was something I had to do. Well land the plane of course... but also become a pilot. Maybe I'll even do that for a career someday. Afterall, not alot of Anthropology factories are opening up in this economy.

Still have to figure out what I'm doing post-Alaska. I know it'll involve spearfishing. I need some beach bumming time. Really thinking about Papua New Guinea. Who knows? Such a big world, and only one life to explore it. Pity. I'll still never quit staring into that new horizon.