We drove toward the North Slope on Friday, August 28 and camped overnight. It was a beautiful trip and we had a good time.

We saw a wolf and followed it for three miles on the road. We also saw a mama moose and her babe.

Wilbur is pointing to the Arctic Circle in both Sweden and Alaska. They are exactly opposite and we were fortunate to be at both in the last four months.

Yes, this is ice along the road in a little ditch, close to Atigun Passs.

Some of the beauty, we saw as we traveled. The reds on the mountains are blueberry plants.

It was a "real" muddy road, but well worth the trip.

Do you believe this frost? The little bird is cold too.

We will start on our way back to Iowa on Sunday, August 30. We will make a stop at Skagway, before leaving Alaska. So we will have one more post about Alaska. Thanks for following the blog. It has been fun to share our journey.

Barrow, Alaska

On Thursday, August 27, we flew from Fairbanks to Barrow. We rode in eight seater, Piper Twin Engine plane. It was a four hour ride, with one stop. Barrow is the furthest north town in the United States. It is on the Arctic Ocean. We flew at 300 feet on the North Slope as we were looking for caribou. Yes, we seen some, but they were still too far away to get a good photo.

Here we are standing at the edge of the ocean. It was in the low 40's and we were cold. We had on our winter coats.

Some photos of our trip, not the best from the airplane windows.

The Alayska Pipeline.

There was new snow on the Brooks Range.

It was a cloudy day, which they have many of in Barrow.

A typical look of city of Barrow. There were lots of newer cars, brought in by barge. Their car gas comes once a year in a big barge. They then have the same price all year!!! They use natural gas to heat their homes and businesses.



Sorry, about the dark picture, but this is where they live temporially when they hunt,kill and butcher whales. The women stay here and the men go out in boats, about 7 per boat. This is one of the skin boats that are used in fishing and whaling.

This is Larry, the dog that led his team to the last three Iditorod victories. Yesterday, we went on an excursion to find Lance Mackey, which we did and he and his wife were very gracious hosts.

Lance and Wilbur at Come Back Kennels.

This coyote was just along the road on our way from Eagle to Chicken.

Another beautiful road scene.

The leaves are really changing.

The famous Chicken Gold camp. We have camped here several times. On a gravel road.

Leaving Eagle

Having spent four weeks in Eagle, it was hard to leave last Friday. The MDS assignment went well and we have many wonderful memories of other MDSer's and the community persons. It was a community of workers, both volunteers and the community.

This was the last night we were in Eagle. The MDS team went to help Richard put a tin roof on his house. He lives beside a smallbut beautiful lake.

Here are a few pictures of beautiful ordinary things in Eagle. These are Rhubarb leaves.

Here is the library that I went to every afternoon to use the internet. They gave me a key and I had my own little mini office.

Wilbur, Richard, John and Harold is in the foreground.

Just a few shots taken on the last day at Eagle. All the houses are now under roof.

We ate our meals in Redmann Hall. This is also where t he social events were held.

One last look at a log home, there were many great ones in Eagle.