While in Alaska

Anderson Bluegrass Festival

// August 4th, 2009 // 2009: Adventuring

Wednesday, July29th, after fighting to get the next 4 days off, Kevin, Cory, George, and myself embarked on a road trip to the Anderson Bluegrass Festival, a 9 hour drive. So much happened between then and now so it’s highly likely that I’ll forget to mention a lot of things. We borrowed a coworker’s car and packed it with sleeping bags and one two person tent. After only going about 10 miles down the Dalton, we stopped so George could check on a friend. George has lived up here in Coldfoot for 4 years so he knows several locals. We stopped to see Victor, a former Florida resident who for an unknown reason traveled to Alaska in January and has been living up here by Coldfoot in his van. The state allows people to camp on Dalton Highway pull offs for up to 14 days so every 14 days, he finds a new pull off to live at. I can’t imagine leading such a lonely dangerous life. When winter comes and temperatures consistently reach -40F, living out of unheated panel van may prove deathly. I think it would be intriguing to know why he’s chosen to live the way he does.

We made it about ¾ of the way from Coldfoot to Fairbanks on the Dalton Highway and decided to camp out on a pull off on the side of the road. We collected firewood and started a nice little fire. I ended up sleeping in the trunk of the Nissan Xterra. It was far from comfortable but I expected that. In the morning, we set off to Fairbanks. On the way, we stopped in Joy. It was simply a small store with some lodging in the back.

Joy

After Joy, we stopped at the Hotspot, the best burger spot on the Dalton. We stopped for a burger and chatted with some travelers from Brooklyn.

Hot Spot

When we made it to Fairbanks, we stocked up on food and beverage at Fred Meyer. The amount of smoke from forest fires in the area was overwhelming. Several people in Fred Meyer wore masks to protect themselves from the smoke. As we grew closer to Anderson, the smoke became even worse. July was one of Alaska’s driest months ever. It seems to have hit the Denali Borough the worst. In fact, when we were there, they flew in the world’s largest supertanker, a 747 converted into a firefighting aircraft. It’s a $50 million plane and holds 20,500 gallons! After a couple hours on the Parks Highway, we arrived in Clear, formerly a highly secret US nuclear defense base. From Clear, Anderson was only a short ways down the road. Anderson is a very unique place. With a population under 400, they have a bar and Inn and a very nice looking school. Other than that, there isn’t much in Anderson. We scouted out our camp site and found a very nice spot by the river. Having arrived at the festival a night early, there were still several nice camping spots left. We set up a nice little fire pit and found wood to construct ourselves a bench. We made our way down to the bar and restaurant and had a bite to eat. It turns out the bartender used to work for Northern Alaska Tour Company (NATC), a subsidiary of Sukakpak, the owner of Coldfoot Camp. Things like this tend to happen all the time in Alaska. It may be the biggest state in the US, but it’s easy to find people connected to you in some way.

Thursday night, I decided to test out the backseat in the Xterra instead of the trunk. Equally uncomfortable. Cory and Kevin slept outside with their sleeping bags. It was drastically darker in Anderson than back in Coldfoot. It made sleeping a lot easier and was kind of strange to be honest. We woke up and there were several more cars surrounding us. Three, four and sometimes up to five cars jammed into each camping spot. We purchased our 3 day pass for the festival and it ended up being far cheaper than we had thought… $40! Music played all day and night. We went from campsite to campsite, meeting new people. Later on in the night on our way back to camp, we stopped to see a couple of people hoola hooping rings of fire! Several bongo drummers accompanied this little sideshow.

Hoola Hooper

The festival itself struck me as very Woodstock-esque. A lot of extreme hippy apparel and everyone had a carefree peaceful attitude. I chose to stay outside that night on a sandbar across the river. It was much more enjoyable. I used the sleeping pad that Cory had borrowed and got a great night’s sleep.

Saturday was the most bustling day of the festival. Even more cars jammed into the few campsites available. The main bands played that evening and were quite impressive.

Stage

Vendors

There were also fireworks. Too many fireworks for my liking. I went to sleep in the same spot on the sandbar that evening and awoke to fireworks flying towards me. It was about 4AM and our neighbors, likely highly intoxicated, decided to shoot fireworks at me. That same night, a truck drove through the river, and was just inches from running me over. Apparently, I had picked a dangerous spot to sleep. It was a war zone. The bongo drums and shouting and yelling made the fireworks attack even more dramatic. I crossed the river and luckily escaped unscathed!

The next morning, we had breakfast and immediately set off back to Coldfoot. On the way back, we popped a tire just miles into the Dalton. Popped tires are very common on the Dalton. We put on a spare and were good to go again. We stopped at the Yukon River Camp, located at mile marker 55. We had a nice free meal, as the Yukon Camp is also owned by our parent company. From there, we made it back to Coldfoot. By that time, my hair had been matted into what appeared to be dreadlocks. I had dirt under my eyes and my sleeping bag was chock full of dirt. It was without a doubt the dirtiest I’ve ever been. We slept outside for 4 nights without a shower. My shower back at Coldfoot that evening was one of the best showers I’ve ever had. Not to mention, it was absolute bliss sleeping in an actual bed, despite the fact that it’s growing colder by the day here at Coldfoot. It’s getting down to high 30s during the night, around the same temperature as when I arrived in May. Upon our arrival back to Coldfoot, we discovered that a coworker had been fired and one of our managers had switched from lodge cleaner to waitress. Also, a new coworker arrived. Sarah, who has worked at Coldfoot in the past came in to take the spot of the fired waiter. We leave for 4 days and camp changes drastically! So for the rest of the season, it will only be 5 of us in the lodge cleaning department. Our schedule is a bit mixed up now but we don’t have much time left here.

I woke up for work the next morning and throughout the day my stomach felt very uneasy. After work, I went right to bed. I threw up several times and later in the evening felt very weak. I only was able to eat a muffin the whole entire day. I slept from 3:30PM yesterday until 9:30AM this morning. It was clear that I had food poisoning. I’m guessing the burger I had at Yukon River Camp was the cause. It’s my understanding that they’ve had problems with their freezers. I took today off from work and rested most of the day. I’m feeling a lot better but am still not able to eat much. I’m sure it will pass soon!

Despite the post weekend sickness, it was an incredible experience. We met several very interesting people, roughed out sleeping outside for 4 nights, and enjoyed some great music. 20 days from today, I’ll be on a plane back to Boston. It’s really hard to believe and I won’t be surprised if these finals days fly by.