WEAVER FAMILY: Barrow Alaska - Now We Did Run Out of Land.

June 27 (Barrow, AK)

We waited for the weather to clear this morning and checked out of our hotel in Deadhorse by 11 this morning, fueled, and after eating one last big lunch in the mess hall and checking the weather in Barrow one more time, we took off, heading to Barrow. The clouds are pretty well always sort of there, and often quite low here along the coast. Fog also comes in off the water, so Roger kept checking all morning when the clouds would lift a bit and we could go. The sun doesn’t set, but you don’t really see it directly very much either because of the cloud cover – it’s just sort of gray all the time. Anyway, we stayed pretty low the whole almost two hours of flight. By low, I mean between 200 & 800 feet! Frankly, I feel more comfortable higher than that, but when the ceilings are low you’ve got to stay low! The visibility underneath the clouds was usually very good. Also, of course, it’s better to be low if you’re looking for animals, and we saw some caribou again, but no more bear. It was all tundra, which is very flat and isn’t really solid ground, but has a lot of water all around. If we went down in it, it would most likely be ‘survivable’, but the plane might flip over, according to Roger (isn’t that nice to know??). We saw all the oil wells scattered all over the area for about the first 50 miles. We did not go over the ocean at all, but are assuming they are also out there. It sure is a large oil field.

Here in Barrow we tied the plane down, fueled and got a taxi to the place we’re staying at tonight – the Ukpig Nest.. It’s ok, nothing special except the price. When we drove up to it, it looked like a pretty run down place, but inside the room is ok, at least it’s clean. Barrow is actually bigger than I expected it to be, but seems a bit run down – buildings need paint, etc. Most buildings are also built up off the ground a couple of feet and Roger asked someone why. She said because of the permafrost and also because of water flooding in buildings when the ice melts in the spring. There are a lot more native Alaskans living here than the last place, which was built only because of the oil fields.

We’re both pretty tired tonight, and they even have really dark curtains at the windows here, so it should be easier to go to bed when it’s time. JOLENE

We found out we missed the celebrations last night. The last night of celebrations is Friday night, but we don’t want to wait around two more days. They do Eskimo Blanket Tosses and other cultural games and activities. It would have been fun to be here. ROGER