Race Info

Here is a new section: “Race Info”. It will be a mean to communicate from time to time on the itinerary and the options ahead.

It's been more than a week since I arrived in Fairbanks. And itinerary-wise, I haven't moved that much. “You were supposed to start in Prudhoe Bay, right?” Indeed! That was the initial plan. But sometimes, life is not that easy. Specially here. There is a 800-km road that lead to an oil field. The road is closed to non-authorised people and truckers are not taking any hitch-hikers for insurance reasons. So I'll have to give up this option. Anyway, I already experienced polar night last year in Swedish Lapland and wonderful days here in Fairbanks.

So let's go southward! But here again, you can't just decide it. Two options ahead. The first one would be the Yukon Quest. The Yukon Quest is a dog-sled race (1,600 km in 10 to 16 days). No, I'm not going to race but offer help to handlers. As it ends in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, it would help me continue from there. But nothing is confirmed yet. And even then, in Whitehorse, it seems pretty difficult to carry on. But we'll see.

Second option is to reach Anchorage. It seems that Fairbanks-Anchorage is the only inter-cities bus line operating during this season. Once in Anchorage, I would have to take the ferry to the Alexander Archipelago, where Juneau (State capital) is located. And there, I don't exactly know how to go out and I am at risk to skip an important part of Canada.

The difficulty of this immense and empty territory is that more of its inhabitants move with their car or even by plane for remote places in the North or West. As I don't have any car and don't want to take a flight, the only option would be to buy dogs and a sled! “What about skiing?” Too mountainous to cross-country skiing and not even enough place to rest every night.

“Did you expect that before leaving?” Yes and no. I knew it would be hard to move here, compared to the rest of the itinerary. Especially in these temperatures, it is impossible to hitch-hike. I hardly found information on the Internet prior departure, but it was mostly on Alaska during summer time. As I do not intend to wait for thawing, I have to keep posting ads on website and asking around. We'll see. But this is also part of the adventure!