At the Arctic Circle. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
At the Arctic Circle, Alaska, 2002.
There is a story behind this enigmatic photograph. About 20 years ago (and I may not have the exactly right date above), three of us rode our bicycles about 1100 mile through a good section of Alaska as part of a group connected to our kids’ high school and middle school. The middle school science teacher (Hi, Mr. Hodges!) had run a hiking/biking club for many years, and every year the group mounted an expedition to some fascinating and historical place in the west. For the final trip before he retired, he outdid himself and organized this 1100 mile bicycle tour from Skagway, over White Pass, through part of BC and The Yukon, up to Fairbanks, and finally to Anchorage. It was the trip of a lifetime for many of these kids.
We did a short non-cycling layover in Fairbanks and took advantage of this to hire a school bus (!) to drive the group to the Arctic Circle. This is a bit of an odd trip — especially in a school bus — across miles and hours of gravel road through wilderness to arrive at… a wide spot in the road with a sign marking the approximate location of the Arctic Circle. It is some strange combination of astounding (nothing but incomprehensible wilderness between you and the Arctic Sea) and the banal — a road sign and this bit of a red rug with a dotted line that someone had thoughtfully placed to mark “the line.”
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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I’ve been to Skagway twice. One time we went to backpack the Chilkoot Trail. We got shuttled to the starting point in Alaska, then hiked over it (a long story that I won’t recount here) and ended up in Canada, where the plan was to catch that trail back to Skagway. It was hard to see a lot of the terrain on the train ride as the weather wasn’t too good, but it seemed pretty rough.
The other time was for the start of the long bicycle trip that took us to Whitehorse, then through The Yukon and into Alaska, to Fairbanks and ultimately to Anchorage. My recall of the specifics of the first day of the ride out of Skagway and over the pass are a bit sketchy at this point, but I don’t remember it being all that difficult. I recall a road that was well graded and in pretty good shape. I think we road all the way to Carcross on that first day.
Dan
Skagway over White Pass!!!!! WOW!
We did the famed narrow gauge RR years ago when we had a SF to Alaska cruise, Skagway up to White Pass. I can’t imagine in on a bike.
…Richard B