When you’re in Tok…

When it’s your first time in Tok and you’re broke and just limping down the line And it’s forty below and you know that they know that you’re a hopeful from Outside And people speak distinctly as if you’re foreign And you forgot to plug your car in And you’re clearly overdressed, even for winter And your self-assurance slowly starts to splinter Oh it takes a little effort to keep...

2013 Events in Tok from Tetlin Refuge

From Tetlin Refuge – upcoming events: Wed. Jan 9 – TNWR Book group discussion on “The Golden Spruce” @ the refuge office 7pm … everyone welcome Thurs. Jan 24 – Family Film Night at Fast Eddy’s…order food @ 5:30/films @ 6pm Sat. Feb 2 – Intro to Art Techniques wkshp, 1-5pm…taught by Chris Bentele,,, must register w/ Mary…$10 fee Fri. Feb 15 –...

Driving in -51 degrees in Tok Alaska

In Tok, when the weather drops below – 45 degrees, everything around you really starts to get surreal. Tires freeze, all car fluids including oil, brake and steering fluid freezes into thick gluey substance, inside of the windshield frosts up. Probably best to stay inside. But when you have to get to where you’re going, you drive. What’s the coldest weather you’ve...

-22.8 F in Tok. Feels like -23.

So does that -.2 degree difference really make a difference??? Tweet

End of Summer

So here’s an end of roaming On eves when autumn nighs: The ear too fondly listens For summer’s parting sighs, And then the heart replies. –AE Housman, XXXIX (from Last Poems) They say you can see a signal of the end of summer in Alaska when the flowers on fireweed reach the top of their stems. As long as the flower is in mid-bloom, you’re in the middle of summer. Once the flowers reach the...

Scenes on the Tok Cutoff

The Tok Cutoff  is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 125 miles (201 km) from Gakona Junction on the Richardson Highway, 14 miles (23 km) north of Glenallen, to Tok on the Alaska Highway. The road was built in the 1940s and 1950s to connect Tok more directly with the Richardson Highway. It was called a “cut-off” because it allowed motor travelers coming north on the Alaska Highway to...

The Aurora Above Tok

Last night, the aurora was active around 10 o’clock at night. If you’ve never seen the Aurora Borealis, depending on how clear and intense it is, it can look like a glow stick has been emptied into the dark night sky and is flowing across the sky, back and forth, up and down, around, in and out. It can have an otherworldly feel to the way it moves, like alien lights, alive and dancing. Here’s an...

Wild Game and Greens

Typical dinner around here: Caribou steak (broiled in the oven with salt and pepper), sauteed greens, corn on the cob. Tweet

Things Under the Ice and Snow

As the warmer weather begins to melt the ice and snow, lost items from last summer are revealed. Found in the vegetable garden bed. What are you finding under the...