521

Today is 521.

I am just leaving Denali, and going to fairbanks. My trip is almost coming to and end with the final destination. I am on the train, and feeling quite sleepy.

Today I first went on a Jeep tour. The Jeep tour was to pick me up at Princess Hotel and 7 am. It was freaking early and so hard to get up and I got up at like 6:59 and then hurried to finish packing my things. I went to the hotel lobby and I could hear the tour guide calling my name, and I didn't even check out or drop luggage, which I had planned to do, before leaving and going on a Jeep tour. Fortunately, though, the checkout went successful.

The Jeep tour is extremely expensive, like 184 dollars. Everybody got to drive a Jeep of their own, and those couples usually sit together, except for me, as I had to sit in the tour guide Myriam's car. Then we got off to the park road.

Then the tour guide explained how the rivers were all formed by glaciers, and salmons will die in those rivers so inland, since the rivers are rich with silt, which comes from glaciers, and we can judge how the river flows from how brown the color is. The Park Highway went like along Nenana River, the one just down Princess Hotel.

Then someone saw a moose and we all slowed down, and I managed to get my first picture of a moose here. Then we went to see some caribou, which is like reindeers. I saw those caribou from a binocular provided in the Jeeps, and there were 3 of them, eating grass. We drove on Denali Highway, where it turned out to be a dirt road, and to camp settlement and had a stop there, it seems as an entry to the mountains. Then we had snacks provided by the tours. It was a spot to overlook spot where I could see those snowy mountains, and the tour guide explained Denali is like 18000 ft from base camp to the top, very impressive, still growing at .5 mm everywhere becuase of those plates clashing together.

On the way back we passed some RVs, a crazy motorbiker, ATVs, and some normal cars. Then I got very sleepy and slept for half an hour. When I woke up there was 2 caribous in sight. Then we went back to the highway. It just seemed like a normal drive, and I ended up paying so much.

Then I went back to the hotel and stored my luggage, then headed to the horseshoe lake trail. The trail was a piece of cake for me and I ran first half. Then I saw a beaver's dam, and I crossed it, getting my shoes wet. It isn't hard to cross it, though, the trees and leaves are all loose. Then there was a rock cliff like in the side of the lake, and I attemped it twice. However, everything was loose and I couldn't even get past like 30 feet before feeling too dangerous to go on. Anyways, I am like 18 years old and don't want to risk losing my life. Then I saw some road in the tundras and attemped it, and it seems smooth at first. However, there are too many dead trees falling down on the way and those branches got in my face. I tried very hard to reach the other side of the park road, but it was a steep climb and there was just too much tree branches, so I ended up quitting it anyways. The way down is no easier than the way up, and I crawled on all fours and tried to slide down the tundra. But there are so many dead trees and branches and mosquitos, and they always flew around me. It was annoying but I managed to go down safely.

Then I ate some food in the restaurant Morina Grill and then went back to pick up my luggage. People here kind of work in all different states, and many come here only for the summer, which is cool. I thought about finding jobs every year in different places and it seems tough but fun at the same time. Then I boarded the train to Fairbanks. Denali is the highest mountain in North America, and I haven't explored much of this place yet before leaving it. I hadn't even gone on the denali bus tour or the savage river shuttle. But anyways things went fine. I slept half of the journey.

I found that the land became greener and grenner as I was going north-summer was coming there first. In Seward after 500 ft or so everything was covered with snow, and in Denali there was only little snow on top of the mountain, then as we are going to Fairbanks on this train everything seemed so green, that it didn't look like 67 degree north latitude at all. Trees are growing just everywhere, and no trace of snow could be seen by eyes. I thought that on the train from Shanghai to Hefei it was more bare than this. Then I arrived and called the hotel and they came pick me up.

There was only me staying in Golden North Inn and the man picking me up was a fourth year student in University of Alaska Fairbanks, who is working in the hotel. He is kind of dressed in woman's clothes and is very nice. He talked about how he had only C grades and had attempted computer but failed, and I thought I was fortunate not having to work while studying. After settling into the hotel I grabbed a map and went right out to hike. I planned to go downtown and went along Cheny River. I saw a group of people who thought I was Japanese, and a woman acting very strange and talking to me in words I can't understand. Anyways, I left and went for downtown.

It was pretty late at about 10 pm at night, and it is quite empty. I kept along Cheny River. I went to Pioneer Park, which seems like a children's playground, and there are some women doing bike flips, which seems very interesting. Then I went to Growden Park, and there are a group of people, mostly kids and teenagers, playing volleyball. Some of them are half naked and barefoot they were having so much fun that I wished I could join. There are also some other people skateboarding there in the park. It was beautiful there at night. In Denali and Seward most people are tourists hiking around while in Fairbanks they seem to be living normal lives. Also, the more north I traveled the hotter it gets. In early May, it was like 5-10 C in Seward, in Anchorage it was like 10-15 C, while in Fairbanks it was like 15-20 C. Now as I look around the trees and mountains are deep green, and there are no signs of Arctic weather or coldness, just spring and life everywhere.

There are few people on the streets in the evening and it did get lonely, then I thought like hiking with another person. But then again, like 2 people aren't necessarily safer, if a wolf or bear comes out and attack no one can escape, and I think it is just as safe hiking alone as 2 people because I tend to be more careful when I am alone. Anyways, I figured it was mostly mental support, and maybe by traveling in groups makes the trip sounds more reasonable, instead of like mindlessly wandering, which was what I had done. I gotten so much good photos that I had a hard time deleting the mediocre ones.

Then I went to Kiwanis Park, which is much more deserted. I walked around then quickly went out of the park to downtown. There is an elementary school and I could hear people playing in the school, and it was like 10:30 pm. I thought I had gone to bed earlier than this in elementary school before becoming half a night owl now. Anyways, it was a hard walk and my legs are beginning to feel sore. I could see the mountains and a red sun just setting down, and it looked so beautiful. Downtown Fairbanks looked very worn down, and there are merely a few buildings, and few people. It was actually a little bit creepy, and those people doesn't seem to look very decent. There was just old houses on either side of the street. I walked to City Hall, and there wasn't much to see. Anyways, it was like 11 pm, and I was getting tired, and the wind was becoming cold. I walked around a little bit more, and up to Cheny River again. In the red setting sun the bridge was so beautiful, and I took some pictures, and there was a statue about WW2, and there was a polaris sculpture. I saw some people sitting outside, and they are probably homeless, so I wanted to go back as soon as possible, and I called a Lyft, and it came after 20 mintues. I then went back to the hotel.

Fairbanks is much smaller than Anchorage in both population and size. It is very beautiful, and a quite populated city as north as I could get. In less than like 40 hours I would be in Berkeley again, and my luxurious trip is coming to an end. I totally enjoy this trip.

Fairbanks has the "warm but not too outgoing" perspective, you walk around in fairbanks you feel with your heart the greenness and summer, and you see the sun at the horizon almost all evening till the next morning, and you walk around, and but it's nothing like the southern summer excitement and bustling, it's just kind of still. You feel relaxed and contented, but not excitement and bustling.

You see children in the park, you see midnight ball games, you walk around looking at the never setting sun, and they add somehow to the stillness, like how those parks are constructed, with massive flat spaces, and far more space everywhere than occupied.

You walk around little children in scooters, who play around even in 11 pm. You feel more friendly and contained and not in danger, and you feel kind of like in a community yet not so involved and just this never changing and quiet feeling, and you walk around in those houses and every one of them have a RV, and people here seem friendly but still just distant, and you are roaming around everywhere, yet kind of like nowhere.

Jeep Trip

Horseshoe Lake

Fairbanks

Growden Park at 10 pm

Chena River

Midnight

Alaska-Siberia Statue

City Hall

522

Today is 522 and I am leaving Alaska.

I slept all morning and got up and ate breakfast at the hotel. Then I took a lyft taxi to North Pole, and there was a big statue of Santa Claus, and the driver even helped shoot a photo of me with Santa Claus.

Then I walked around North Pole, and it seemed a small and old town. I could hear a few dogs barking so I was scared. I walked around and there were some parks, but the roads aren't well constructed. Then I went to the North Pole elementary school, and I didn't even realize I went into a school. I saw many kids, while the whole population of North Pole is like less than 3000, so I figured that there are less than 50 kids in one grade. Then I looked it up in the map and there was the elementary school. Children are climbing up and down and swinging, and seemed to have fun, which made me want to have fun with them, but I walked away. No one stopped me from entering the school though.

Then I went to a shopping mart, and rested a while, and walked to a bus stop, and took the bus back to Fairbanks, then took a Lyft to the hotel, then took the shuttle to the airport. Then I went into the airport and my trip ended.

Santa Claus Statue

Santa Claus Store

Library and School