What Santa get's to see

I guess that is what Santa sees when riding his sleigh.

Caribou at Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay

No Mosquitos

I am currently at Homer Spit on the the Kenai Peninsula in South Alaska. Beautiful sunshine, a nice wind blowing and best of all - no mosquitos.

Alaska is beautiful - even with, but more so without them.

A magic ball - making me happy

I sit at the vistors center in Denali National Park, together with my friends Nadja & Marcel we have joined one of the tours heading for Wonder Lake. We stop at the Visitors Center as we head North-West. It is our lunch stop. After having enjoyed one of Nadja's delicious Sandwiches, I am just sitting there, relaxing, warming up from the rather cold bus trip. All of a sudden a little girl belonging to a group of tourists from india, probably just about four years old walks by. Her beautiful big, dark eyes look out under the warm hood of her windjacket as she stops just in front of me. I bend foreward just a little to have my eyes on the same level as hers. "Hi!" - "Hello" she says. I am asking her what she holds so carefully in her hands. "A magic ball" she answers "when you hold this ball you will get all happy, that's why it is magic" she shows me a dark red unevenly formed ball made of candle wax with her little finger prints covering it all over. She presents it on her flat little hand, just to quickly embrass it again with her fingers as if she wanted to make sure the happiness would not escape her. But quickly she offers me to get happy too. "Do you want to hold it?" - "Of course" I strech out my flat hand, all carefully the cute girl places the wax ball, all warm from her little hand into mine and closes my hand with her little fingers. "Do you feel it, now you are all happy!" she smiles. - I am.

Dirty old man

"Man! You are all full of mud!" says the guy who runs the small museum at McCarthy. A small village within the boundries of the largest National Park of the United States, Wrangell-St. Elias. To get to McCarthy and up to the Kenncott mines and further on to the Glacier you have to park your vehicle and cross the McCarthy footbridge and take a tour from there. Me, not being to keen on organized tours, decide to ride my bike instead. About six miles up the Hill to the mines, another probably 3 or so to the glacier. The last couple of miles I hike, just no way to ride the steep slope. In the evening I ride my bike down the hill. As the Ranger said up at the Kenncott mines: "you'll have the best part ahead of you."

However, that best part included to get very muddy too. So by the time I roll into McCarthy where I stop to scare the guy running the little museum I am covered in mud. Eventually I arrive at the blue truck, very dirty and very happy with another fantastic day of my trip almost behind me.

McCarthy Airport was not too busy when I passed by.

Excuse me!

Forgotten brother of the blue truck

Finally a Caribou that didn't run away...

...when I took a picture.

...but I guess it didn't run away when the wolfs came around neither.