Location: Unalakleet

Time: 8:30 PM

Hello from the Norton Sound!

Here we are at the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, on the west coast of Alaska.  We began our journey this morning, leaving McGrath at about 10 AM, and heading out to the west through the interior.  We were hoping to stop at Anvik and Grayling, but the weather looked very bad in that direction so instead we went directly to Eagle Island.  Check out our map so you can see what I mean.

We could not land at Eagle Island, because there is no runway, so we just flew over it.  We could see several teams approaching it, several there, and several leaving.  It is an island, by the way, right on the Yukon River.  The Yukon is huge!  Remember that it is the largest river in Alaska, running from east to west.  It looks to be about three-fourths of a mile wide.  You should still be studying fractions this week, so I know you’ll understand!

We went on to the next checkpoint, Kaltag, where we were able to land.  It was much colder here than in McGrath, and there was a lot of snow.  We walked around the village (population 250), and saw the school(it’s Saturday, so it was closed), grocery store, and post office. 

We also saw an octagonal building and found out it was the Native Community Center.  We learned that the native peoples here are Athabascan Indian, and they had a “Stick Dance” Festival that began last evening, and will continue every evening for a week.  This is a ceremony held once a year to honor those that have died during the past year.  They use a tree that is about 12 feet tall and wrap it with ribbons, and dance around it.  There is chanting, but no music.  They dress in special clothing complete with feathers.  They have a potlach (potluck) which consists of lots of fish, bear stew and other items.

We went to the checkpoint, and found out it was complete with a jail!  No, I didn’t go into it like I did in Belmont, but I did take a picture.

Next we flew to our destination for today – Unalakleet.  You can see from the photo that it is larger than the villages we’ve been in.  There are about 800 people here, and 185 are in school.  They are 90% Yupik Eskimo. 

Do you remember what I told you I would have to eat here?  Well, we unpacked and went straight to “Peace on Earth Pizza!”  It was super!  I took a picture of Brett, the chef.  He had been closed for the winter but just opened today for the Iditarod. 

A group of children came up to us and asked for our signatures.  They have an assignment from school to get as many names of visitors as they can, from outside of Alaska.  I heard that we will be signing our names for lots of kids tomorrow at the checkpoint as the teams begin to come in. 

By the way, I found out why another of the mushers scratched.  Rob Carss’ team had an encounter with a moose.  He got out his gun to scare it away, but by then the dogs got all tangled up.  By the time he got them untangled they were all too shook up to continue.

Well, today is the first day I have no dog or musher pictures for you!  But, tomorrow morning, the leaders of the pack will begin arriving here in Unalakleet.  I’ll keep you posted. 

Love from Mrs. McClintock