Frozen Toesies Wiseman, AK

Wiseman, AK

I think everyone was so tired that they slept fairly well, LJ stayed up too late with the laundry but he survived. We went to the cafeteria for breakfast and to fix our to go lunches. There was a full breakfast buffet, fruit ready to make smoothies, and we all found something to eat. We played the Tetris game of packing the car back (no Orb still but at least no rain!) and we were off. We were quickly greeted by two caribou bedded down very near our “lodge”. What a great way to start the day!

Public access is not allowed to the Arctic Ocean. We booked our shuttle tour several months in advance and had to submit our drivers license information for a security background check before going. You can’t just show up and jump into the Arctic even if you wanted to!

We went to Deadhorse Camp to get on the shuttle and checked in for our tour. FLJ (Female LJ was on our tour with her three guests, there were two men from from Mexico who had ridden motorcycles all the way from Mexico and then there was Jim, the man who loved birds and knew a lot about them. So there were eleven of us on the bus with Maynard, our tour guide. He told us a little about the area and the oil wells and drilling. He said the workers were on either a two or three week on and then off rotation.

There is a security gate we go through to get out to the area where the ocean is, as well as more of the oilfield operations. We parked and off the bus we went to stick our feet into the Arctic! Woo-hoo! WHOA!!!!!! It’s cold… I mean really cold… I mean toes are in pain just standing on the rocks waiting for LJ to get the camera shot ready (and he still hadn’t taken off his boots!). Melora and I were a little premature in removing our shoes and socks; Sara smartly said to give her a ten second warning. In we went… well, I should say gently we tiptoed. Brrrrr… LJ set the timer and click for the photo. He wanted to check the pic and I said – one is it on this one! Whatever it is captured the moment; So over the next 20 minutes or so we wandered around the beach area taking photos and going through intense burning sensations in our feet and then feeling okay. It boils down to this… I really love the cold weather – when I’m properly attired!

We were all back on the bus except for LJ and Jim. Maynard said, I’m going to have to honk the horn, aren’t I? I told him that LJ always has instructions just to not be the very last one on the bus and yes, it would be fine to honk the horn because he could take photos all day!

Jim was very pleased with the birds we saw and we were super excited to see three foxes on our drive back from the ocean! It was a mom with some older pups and this was the closest we had been to see them except running quickly across the road.

Back to Tropicana and then southbound with a final destination for today of Wiseman and the Arctic Getaway again. Soon we had rain and yuck. Sara made it about 80 miles in four hours, navigating through the potholes and weather. We ate our sack lunches in the car as we went. I had old school PB&J.

We found the muskox today again but they were not as close to the road as the day before so we didn’t get photos. Melora had the eagle eye for spotting the bear. He was very busy digging up roots or something fun in the ground and eating it and we spent about half an hour watching him and taking photos and video.

I drove the second half of the day which included the trip over Atigan Pass. Guess what? SNOW! Of course, that meant a snowball fight for Sara and I while Melora and LJ were taking photos at the pullout on the mountain. It was nice to finally be in snow in Alaska. We were grateful it hadn’t stuck on the roads, navigating them without snow was challenging enough.

We motored on towards Wiseman and again went to bed without any supper. Hopefully someone feels at least a little bit sorry for us. We made it to the cabin in actual daylight, even though it was late.

This cabin was a little bigger but I again decided to stay downstairs. We played a game of Rummy which (surprise) Melora won. She is kind of dominating on the competition side of this trip and it’s getting annoying! We were fading fast (mainly me) and then we decided to call it a day. Tomorrow – back to Fairbanks!

Tropicana Drivers – Sara and Bev split the day driving

Bingo winner – Bev

Final Count for Tuesday

• 48 Passenger Vehicles
• 68 Tractor Trailers
• 4 Helicopters
• 9 Motorcycles
• 67 Waves (please refer to the drivers shown above to explain the increase in waves we received today)
• 19 Caribou
• 3 Fox
• 25 Muskox
• 1 Bear
• 1 Snowshoe Hare
• 12 Parkies (arctic ground squirrel)
• 1 tractor trailer honk
• 11 orange cones
• 44 tires
• 1 snore