Alaska and The Iditarod

The Iditarod Trail's Finger Lake Checkpoint

and

The Winter Lake Lodge

Videos Below

It was day 4 of the Iditarod and all the mushers had made their way through Rainy pass and were heading toward McGrath. For Alice’s airplane to get though Rainy Pass the weather needs to cooperate and on this day it did not. So our travels took us to the last Iditarod checkpoint before the pass called Finger Lake.

On the shores of Finger Lake sits the Winter Lake Lodge. www.withinthewild.com

The Winter Lake Lodge is only accessible by an airplane with skis or floats. It is a culinary destination for people who love the outdoors and love food. We did not get to eat anything except for a chocolate chip cookie (which was amazing), but chef Kristin has won the best chef in America award, while her daughter, the sous chef at the lodge, has worked at the French Laundry in Napa. The aroma from the kitchen made me wish we could stay for dinner but the snow was starting to fall so we had get going or sleep there overnight.

Alaska

As I sit on Alice's basement couch, I can hear a plane landing in her back yard on the frozen Campbell Lake. That is Alaska and that is what I experienced today.

After pushing the plane out of the hanger, Alice (pilot) gracefully took off with Burkes' (pilot instructor) calm and minimal instruction... very impressive. We took a quick right turn and headed for the Chugach mountain Range. Burke took the controls and flew us into places you would think a helicopter, not a plane, could get that close to. Amazing!! The most untouched beauty I have ever laid eyes on.

We made a quick stop at the village of Willow but the race hadn't started yet. So we headed home.

Tomorrow's itinerary consists of checking out various Iditarod checkpoints, where hopefully we will see some dog teams in action. Maybe Andrew will even fly us home.