** Old Blog - Chatanika Days from a couple months ago **

Back in March I had been hearing things around town about the interesting celebration in Chatanika, a "town" if you can call it that... haha... about an hour's drive north of Fairbanks. The celebration I'm talking about is "Outhouse Races"... now the name right there peaked my interest and I knew I had to check it out. So as the weekend quickly approached I talked with a few grad students in the department, and Ashley was game to join me on this crazy adventure in Chatanika. First of all when you pulled in there was a mini parking lot for snowmachines... yes snowmachines... not snowmobiles... you've got to use the proper terminology when you're up here or you'll be considered one of those "crazy lower 48'ers..... haha. And yes "lower 48" is another term you'll hear used quite freqently up heree.

Back to the races now... they're held at the Chatanika Lodge which is basically just a cafe with about 10 small guest bedrooms attached to a wing of the building that sits just off of the main freeway to the north slope of Alaska. The inside walls are covered with old antiques you'd find in your grandma's house, and the bar area has dollar bills with signatures and messages stappled to the ceiling. The walls are also filled with countless wall mounts of bear, moose, deer, caribou aka reindeer and more. It's the perfect "Alaskan Lodge"

The video and article below show a lot of the fun that was had during the day in Chatanika... human bowling, the bucksaw contest, snowmachine tug-o-war, and of course outhouse racing. I'm hoping to get the grad students together to build and enter our own outhouse in the race next spring. Enjoy!!



FAIRBANKS — In Alaska, nothing is off limits when looking for a new way to have a good time. The annual outhouse races held at Chatanika Lodge are a perfect example of what many say “could only happen in Alaska.”

“It started as a birthday party for about nine people, one of whom was my wife. After a few adult beverages someone said, ‘I saw some outhouse races on TV. We should do that,’ and we’ve been doing them ever since,” said founder of the 30-year tradition, Gene Hansen. “It was really just a joke at first, and it just boomeranged.”

Hansen could hardly contain his chuckling while discussing the races which have brought mushers, tourists, construction workers, even the occasional scientist, to Chatanika Lodge to compete in the now infamous event. The only rules, he explained, are that each five-person team puts one on the seat, which must have a hole, and four “pushing, pulling, steering or otherwise moving” the contraption; the outhouse must be at least 5 feet tall and no wider than 6 feet. And the rider has to wear hard hat. Everyone has their own strategies, Hansen said, and he’s seen some pretty interesting approaches in the last three decades.

“We had one team that won six years in a row. They built their outhouse on a bicycle frame with a single ski to steer and a canvas siding,” he said, again laughing at the memory. “One year we had a group of MIT engineers who were up at Poker Flats doing rocket shoots come down and designed one out of an aircraft fuel tank.”

One of the strangest outhouses he recalled used a 6-foot step ladder set up on skis with canvas surrounding it.

In the past, the annual gathering included an all-day picnic, skydiver demonstrations and helicopter rides. Because of insurance costs, activities have been scaled down a bit but the main gathering — the races — still draw a crowd.

“On a bad day, we get 500 people out there. We usually get close to 1,000,” Hansen said.

While races have been as long as one eighth of a mile, this year the course will be a 150-yard sprint ran in timed events. Awards will be presented for first, second and third place winners, as well as the prettiest outhouse, voted on by the public.

“Yup, we’re even having an Outhouse Beauty Contest,” Hansen said, again laughing. “Only in Alaska.”

Things have changed some since that first race in 1978, when five houses entered the race. Now the competition draws about 10-12 teams, and has had as many as 22. The event has even garnered international and mainstream attention.

“We’ve been on TV twice on the ‘North To Alaska’ program. This year, we will be filmed by the History Channel,” Hansen said proudly, adding Japanese film crews also have shown up periodically over the years.

Asked why the tradition has maintained such a following for long, Hansen said, “stupidity is a good part of it!” But he noted it is all just good old fashioned fun.

“We’ve tried to quit a few times, but people tell us we can’t. They look forward to it,” Hansen said.

Hansen and his wife, Mebble, have become the honorary “race marshals” because of their continual planning of the event. Chatanika Lodge also has become the home for the races, which will be held Saturday and Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. There will be live entertainment from Girls with Guitars and Larry “Raindog” Raines, as well as games, food and contests.

2 Earthquakes in less than a week!

The 3.7 Magnitude Earthquake about a half hour ago

So as was mentioned in the previous blog post... I awoke to a 3.8 magnitude earthquake to start off our Memorial Day roadtrip. Now sitting in my chair watching a movie tonight shortly after 9 PM we had another earthquake! This time 3.7 magnitude. It was enough to shake everything in the room... picture frames, my desk, my bed, the chair I was sitting in. It's a really weird feeling because it starts with this really low rumbling and then gets more intense. It only lasted like 10-15 seconds, but it's a weird feeling... haha... Anywhoooo... hopefully things settle down for a while now, or at least stay less than a magnitude 4. Haha...


The 3.8 Magnitude earthquake last Saturday morning at 5:30 AM

Memorial Day Weekend Roadtrip

So the week before Memorial Day Ashley and I were talking over lunch and we realized that neither of us had plans to enjoy the long weekend other than possibly going into work... which sounded pretty lame... and we had both been doing work over the recent weekends. This brought us to the idea of a weekend camping at a local spot. A couple days later this turned into a full blown weekend road trip adventure to Anchorage, Alaska (about 7 hours south of Fairbanks).

The weekend roadtrip started on Saturday morning with a wakeup from mother nature... haha... in the form of a 3.8 magnitude earthquake originating about 7 miles from my house!! Okay... so it really wasn't that big... but it was enough to wake me from a sound sleep at 5:30 in the morning with my bed shaking and objects on my desk shaking! A very interesting way to start the day for sure!


Ashley and I at the Park Entrance


Me at the South viewpoint... Denali behind me...

After that fun I drove over to campus to pick up Ash and we got on the road by 6:30.... very very early for me on a weekend.. haha... but I'm very glad we did. It was a Beautiful day and the mountain range was breathtaking along the entire drive!! And we made lots and lots of stops along the way to Anchorage taking our time to stop at interesting viewpoints along the way including a half-hour stop at Denali National Park, and lunch in Talkeetna. We pulled into Anchorage in the evening and set up my tent at the campground before checking out town. It was while walking around downtown that we came up with the brilliant idea to go on a glacial tour the next morning! So we got some info and went back to make dinner over the campfire at the campsite. Dinner included roasted corn on the cob, my special sliced potatoes cooked in tin foil, and hotdogs over the fire.... dinner was served with wine and cheese "Alaska Style" aka wine in styrofoam cups and string cheese... haha..... And to conclude an amazing 1st day we enjoyed Smores before climbing into the tent for the night.... (well twilight anyways... the sun doesn't really set up here)


Ashley Cooking up her Hot Dog dinner... Yummo!

The next morning we woke up without an alarm clock around 5:30 am again... haha... We made a very tasty breakfast that included bacon and eggs fries in a pan over the campfire and then packed up for the day and drove along the turnagain arm of the Gulf of Alaska from Anchorage to Whittier.... even more breath-taking views the entire way! We stopped quite a few times for views of mountain ranges, moose, grizzley bear, and more. Eventually we made it to the tunnel to Whittier... it's a 2.5 one-way tunnel that was blasted through a mountain to get to the town... they switch the direction that's allowed to pass through about once an hour.


Lenticular Clouds!!!! Woohoo!


Ashley and I in a glacial bay outside of Whittier

So now onto Whittier.... what an Amazing little town!!! It was picture postcard perfect! Exactly what you would imagine from seeing Alaskan movies or pictures of small fishing towns! Lots and lots of local fishermen were running around backing up their sea boats for Halibut fishing... and not a cruise ship in sight! Thank goodness! So we headed over and booked our trip...at 20% off... Woohoo... because it was really early in the season and the cruise ship crazzies weren't in town yet. We lucked out as the boat only had about 30 passengers of a possible 140! Before jumping on the boat we wandered around the port and checked out the little shops. Ashley and I enjoyed lunch at a local cafe. I had fresh Halibut... and it was Sooooooo Good! Yummo!


Welcome to Whittier, Alaska!! My new favorite town!


Picture Perfect!

So then came time to board the small ship.... we had an amazing and very entertaining captain, conservation officer that explained the sights, and fun crew. It was the perfect day to see glaciers! 2 out of 3 days it rains in Whittier and we had nearly clear skies... all of the rain had fallen the day before... which was actually great because it made the glaciers produce an Amazing show! One of the glaciers we visited was calving off Huge chuncks of ice because of all of that rain!! It sounded like thunder as the huge ice pieces came crashing into the ocean below... followed by waves 20-30 feet high! One of the most amazing sights I've seen in my life! We were also able to see sea otters and sea lions on the trip... and on the way back to port... another amazing and rare sight so far in the Prince William Sound... 2 humpback whales!!! It was truly an incredible day and I'd love to return sometime yet this summer or next.


Video from the Glacier Trip

That night we returned back to Anchorage and had a wonderful dinner downtown at Glacier Brewery. I was able to try out Alaskan King Crab for the first time and boy is it ever tasty! That night we ended up crashing early because we were so exhausted! We woke the next morning and joked about how tasty a smore would be since we hadn't had one the night before and decided to start with one for breakfast... haha... then we also made up the rest of the breakfast food we had packed before breaking camp and heading back north to the interior.

On the way home we were cruising and made one brief stop at the south viewpoint for Denali. It was so funny because while we were there I hear "Becki!" and I was confused! I was like who knows me in Alaska?!? haha It turned out that one of my colleagues was heading south to Anchorage and just happened to be pulling over to stop at the exact same time in the exact same spot along this 350 mile stretch.... haha. Anyways I decided that was a sign that I'm now a "local" in Alaska... :)

We pulled back into Fairbanks around 6 pm... making the trip from Anchorage in about 5 1/2 to 6 hours... not too shabby... and the Corolla did just fine with only 1 minor problem as a stupid car kicked up a rock and put another spider crack into my poor windsheild.... oh well... it's Alaska... now my car fits in better in the parking lots... haha.

And so that concludes another Amazing Alaskan Adventure!!! The countdown to Svalbard is now on!!! I fly out on June 12th... so the countdown is 15 Days!!! Woohoo! Stay tuned!