Wainwright, Alaska – Tundra Village on the Arctic Ocean
The Cessna Grand Caravan that I flew from Barrow to Wainwright was split down the middle: Passengers on the right, cargo on the left. At least I knew for certain that all 7 of my bags and cartons made the flight.
Wainwright is a village of about 500 folks – it seems a bit smaller than that. I’m sharing an apartment with a guy named Tex. He’s never been to Texas. The school is just 100 yards from my door, easiest commute in my life. Our living room window has a fair view of the Arctic Ocean, about 1/4 mile away.
Since the beach is so close, it’s the first choice for an after school walk. Sometimes some of the younger Inupiat kids join us. On the first day of school we had an assembly. While waiting for all of the students to file into the gym, I did a few simple tricks for the grade school kids. I am now known as Mr. Magic.
Dog teams have been replaced by snowmachines and 4-wheelers, but most folks still keep a few dogs around, but haven’t come across anyone that has enough of them to pull a sled.
A neighborhood family getting ready to head out to pick berries.
This morning I took a 10 mile hike to the DEW military installation with a couple of other teachers, Rusty and Emily and her 3 year-old son, Henry. Rusty brought along a gun in hopes we could bag a caribou. No such luck. As Em and Rusty had thought about camping at the now-abandoned base, they carried backpacks, and I was the lucky guy who carried Henry. We hiked along a lagoon before we had to cut across the tundra and came across this carcass of a seal that was shot in the head and left to rot.
Although we didn’t spot any caribou, someone in town had some recent success.
Tags: alaska, arctic ocean, Travel, wainwright alaska
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