October 18, 1997 ...There was a fiddle dance last night. Fiddle music was brought to the Native villages in the late 1800s by the explorers and traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Hudson's Bay Co. came as far west on the Yukon River as Fort Yukon where it set up a large trading post. From there, fiddle music spread up and down the Yukon River into the Athabascan villages. These days, fiddle music is a big favorite in many of the Athabascan and Eskimo villages throughout the state.

I just made reservations to fly into town for Christmas. We board a small single engine air plane in Tuluksak for the flight to Bethel. If the weather is bad we may have to go by snow mobile which would take us about three hours going down the Kuskowim River and across the tundra. Then we can board a larger twin engine plane for the hour and a half flight to Anchorage. The 400 air miles we will travel out of the wilderness will bring us back to civilization. Cars, stores, movie theaters, people...what a novelty.

Tuluksak is a small Yupik Eskimo village of a little more than 300 people. It is located on the Kuskokwim River between Bethel and Aniak which can be found on the map below. Between Tuluksak and Anchorage lies the Alaska Mountain Range. There are no roads in or out and travel is by small plane. The Alaska Road system goes north from Anchorage to Fairbanks, Then east to Northway and Canada, it then goes South and West back to Anchorage with a leg down to Valdez and another down to Homer. Other than that, there are no roads. Many people have trouble realizing that there is such a place where there are no roads. When I was in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race I met people who lived in Anchorage who didn't realize that, once we left Anchorage, we mushed our dog teams through 1163 miles of wilderness, including three mountain ranges and a few rivers, to Nome. The roads stop outside of Anchorage.

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A PAINTING BY MONET

July 7, 1997 ....The Alaska state flower is the forget-me-not. Although the forget-me-not is pretty and can be seen in clumps here and bits there, the real flower of Alaska is the fireweed. It grows everwhere, throwing up tall spires of purple that cover hill sides and roadsides, front yards, back yards, parking lots, empty lots and any where else it can get a toe hold. Don't plant it in your garden as it will slowly but surely grow every where you don't want it to and it will be with you for life.

In spite of that, it is beautiful. My son and I were just driving to Denali National Park for a weekend of camping and the road sides were covered in fireweed. Whole sections of purple spires with an occaisional late yellow dandilion thrown in for added color. The fireweed reached into meadows and wet areas where it mixed with Alaska cotton. The whole scene was like driving through a painting by Monet.

Mt. McKinley was covered in clouds and not visible which is common this time of year. The times I always seem to see the mountain is in August or during clear periods in winter. We did see beaver, mountain sheep, moma and baby moose, and a variety of birds and squirrels.

Had to put on clean clothes for the drive home, don't want mom to suspect that we were anything but safe. Did we really climb up those rocks and hike around in bear country. We have to keep her sensibilities happy. She's an Alaskan mom though and I think she really knows these things.

This page will continue to have seasonable features as well as items of interest (at least to me) that are off the beaten path...and some on the beaten path also. Come back often to see what's new! Let me hear from you with your ideas and questions that you would like to see covered. For more insight into what life on the Last Frontier is really like, go to the page titled NORTHERN EXPOSURE THE REAL THING.