Alaska
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Alaska covers the largest area of any of the United States, but is the least densely populated. It shares a border with the Canadian territory of Yukon and the Canadian province of British Columbia, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south. Russia is west across the Bering Strait.
Known for its huge oil and natural gas reserves, Alaska is famous for its export of seafoods such as salmon, cod, Pollock and crab. It's also a popular tourist destination. |
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My Alaska is much less well known to the outside world. My Alaska is rural Alaska, most commonly called 'bush' Alaska. Hidden behind towering mountain ranges and across vast expanses of tundra, snow and ice, it is a place that tourists seldom see.
A quick photo taken before freeze.
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Me on my snowmachine.
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View from the passenger's seat of the snowmachine.
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A map of Alaska showing Pilot Station and Kotzebue, where Gary was living when I first met him.
It is expensive to access, so few do. The only way in is to 'fly or float.' However everything is weather dependent. Boat access is only during the very short window of summer. The time when ice has finally melted and before freeze-up again.
My Alaska is very popular during mid summer and fishing season, when hunters and fishermen fly in from the lower 48 and pay huge sums to spend a week or so there. Amazed at the wealth of fish and game they are eager to return. 'I have been in bush Alaska!'
Bush Alaska is traditional home for the Inupiat, the Yup'ik and Cup'ik Eskimo, the Aleut, and the Athabascans. There are few tourist luxuries available here.
Walking on Ice is about living in Bush Alaska - "my" Alaska.
My Alaska is very popular during mid summer and fishing season, when hunters and fishermen fly in from the lower 48 and pay huge sums to spend a week or so there. Amazed at the wealth of fish and game they are eager to return. 'I have been in bush Alaska!'
Bush Alaska is traditional home for the Inupiat, the Yup'ik and Cup'ik Eskimo, the Aleut, and the Athabascans. There are few tourist luxuries available here.
Walking on Ice is about living in Bush Alaska - "my" Alaska.