Nome!

Before we get to the big finish of the race, Nome deserves a little attention.  Mom and Jackie left for Nome on Thursday and I finished up the work week and followed them on Saturday morning.  A little about Nome.  It is located on the southern Seward Peninsula in the Norton Sound of the Bering Sea.                                                        

There are roughly 3500 year round resident and at one time it was the most populated city in Alaska!  It is home to the world's largest gold pan, that resides in Anvil City Square outside Hanson's General Store  (where peanut butter is $5.49!).

Nome was founded by Norweigen Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom and John Brynteson in 1898 when they found gold on Anvil Creek.  Gold was subsequently found along the beaches and coast at Nome.  The name "Nome" was kind of an accident.  An early map had the annotation "? Name." and that was misread as Nome...so Nome it was.  This was thought to be the origin of Nome, however there have since been discoveries of Inupiat artifacts in the area to suggest that this was the settlement of Sitnasuak prior to the white man showing up to rape the natural resources.  By 1899 there were nearly 10,000 people in Nome looking for their fortune.  Wyatt Earp even showed up looking for his millions.  He opened up The Dexter, a saloon in town that was housed in the first 2 story buidling in nome.  By 1900 there were 30 miles of tents and buildings serving as a port for ships from Seattle and San Francisco.  Over the next 10 years the gold rush would peter out after original claims were made.  Then, in 1925 a diptheria epidemic threatened to wipe out the entire town, but several brave mushers and their dog teams ran a relay to bring the serum into Nome, thus saving the town from extinction.

Today Nome's population is a combination of Inupiat Eskimos and non-Natives.  They have 2 radio stations, cable television and Alaska's oldest newspaper that comes out weekly on Wednesdays, The Nome Nugget.

There are several roads in and out of Nome that essentially lead to...nowhere.  You can get to the neighboring villages of Teller, Council and Kougarok River but that's pretty much it.  The roads also aren't used during the winter.  If you want to get somewhere during winter you fly or take a snow machine along the rivers.  There is also a hospital in town that we go to for field clinics.  They are actually in the process of building a beautiful new hospital:  Norton Sound Regional Hospital and Nome Health Center.

Life in Nome is a little different than life down in the Lower 48.  For instance the airport.  Alaska Airlines is the onl major airline that flies into town.  There is 1 small terminal with 4 agents, 2 check in stations and seating for about 30 people.  Everybody else stands...wherever they can.  The baggage claim takes up about 20 feet of one wall.  There is no conveyor belt, it's just a hole where the luggage is gently tossed to await pick-up.  All in state Alaska airlines flights allow up to 4 checked bags for free.  This is because many people in the small towns and villages will buy things in bulk at places like Cotsco and Sam's because goods in the villages are so expensive.  There were more large, plastic storage tubs checked onto our flight than actual bags.  When it's time to catch a cab you just walk out front and for $5 you can climb into a conversion van and go on the milk run into town.  You get to your destination...eventually.  It just depends on where you want to go and how it related to where the other patrons want to go.  Kind of charming actually.  All in town cab rides are $3.  All of them.

There is a college campus in Nome, the Northwest Campus of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.  This is it.

Gas is a bit pricey, as you can see.

When I got into town, I was dropped off at the apartment we would be staying at.  Mom had called the visitors center because the 3 hotels in town fill up VERY quickly.  Apparently Mom and Jackie had to request a key to the apartment because "no one locks their doors here."  Interesting.

The next morning we made a phone call to set up a snowmachine ride out to one of the musk ox herds outside of town. 

Musk ox are arctic mammals native to Arctic Alaska.  It is suspected that they are related to wooly mammoths and actually surived the last ice age!  Pretty impressive.  They have an insulating, wooly undercoat called qiviut that is highly prized because it is extremely lightweight yet incredibly warm.  The Oomingmak here in Anchorage is a co-op started in 1969 owned by 250 Alaska Native women from remote, coastal villages here in Alaska.  Each village has a specific pattern derived from aspects of local village life that is knitted into each garmet.  They make hats, scarves and wraps and send them to Anchorage for sale.  Below are some pictures from our trip out to see them.  We could only get so close before they would start walking the other way.  We didn't want to chase them, but I was able to find a youtube video that a man took while up on the north slope working on the popeline that shows them a bit closer.

Along the snowmachine ride back into town our guide, Zack, let us stop for a few pics.  This is an old tug that is literally frozen in timw.  The structure behind it is about 50 feet from the Bering Sea coast.

Mom & Jackie loving life!

This is an aerial view of Swanberg Gold Dredge taken on my descent into Nome.  It was a working dredge up until the 1940's.  Dredging were designed to essentially sift through sediment/sand with gallons and gallons of water looking for gold.  They still dredge here in Nome, many of the newer dredges are out in the waters off the coast and have divers that go down to initiate the process.  I'm hoping to come back to Nome during the summer to see this.

Swanberg Dregdge up close and personal.  To the far left of this picture is where the dredge buckets used to be.  They would bring up water and sediment.  That's Mom in the foreground.

That afternoon, Jackie and I ran the Mini-Mukluk Marathon.  Kind of a misnomer as it was just a 5K, but nonetheless it was pretty rad to run along the Bering Sea coast!  We had cleats on our running shoes and tow warmers stuck to our socks!

Later that afternoon, while we were downtown, they were starting to prepare for the arrival of the first mushers.  The mushers travel northwest along the Bering Sea coast to Nome.  The travel on the sea ice then end up on Front Street eventually passing underneath the Burled Arch to "Finish" the race.  The arch needed to be set up and snow had to be brought in to cover Front St.  The snow needs to be at least 6-8 inches deep.  It's brought in and smoothed with HUGE bulldozers.

Hanging from the right side of the arch is a silver lantern...look closely.  This is lit when the first musher crosses the finish line.  The last musher to arrive blows it out and wins the "Red Lantern Award."  This used to be kind of a joke, but has evolved into a badge of honor for courage, fortitude and perserverence.  Nobody wants to be last in a race, but the point of the Red Lantern is that you are still respected as a competitor and lauded for the accomplishment that IS Iditarod.  I think that's pretty rad, because this is an amazing accomplishment!

The following pics are just a sampling of life in Nome.

A Nome home security system!



Most of the buildngs in  Nome are built up, off the ground like this house.  This is because of permafrost.  Permafrost is soil or rock that stays below freezing (0 degrees celsius or 32 degrees farenheit) throughout the year and forms when the ground cools sufficiently in winter to form a frozen layer that persists throughout the following summer.  This layer will have a thawed layer of soil/rock on top of it during the summer months.  It's hard to build on it because the heat from the buildings melts the permafrost layer and the buildings sink.  You can either use stilts to put the buildings on, put a thick gravel pad underneath them or use anhydrous ammonia heated pipes (like the Alaska Pipeline uses).  These are specially insulated pipes that transport heat away from the ground and into the air. There...we should all feel a little smarter now.

This is the beautiful St. Joseph's Church in Anvil Square downtown in the morning light.  The small wooden boxes in front are holding large cubes of snow that were later used for the snow carving competition.  Stay tuned to see some of the better carvings.

Just a little perspective on how far from home I REALLY am!

The Nome Nugget Inn sits right at the finish line on Front St.  Inside is Gold Rush and Iditarod memorabilia spackled to every spare inch of wall space.  It was originally the old Alaska Airlines hotel built in 1966 but the new owners are capitalizing on it's location.  Nothing has better proximity to the finish line.

Jackie got really excited at the prospect of 50cent bottles of beer...but we realized this was long gone...notice the snow packed halfway up the door.

FOR SALE:  Nome, Alaska.  Dream vacation home where you can really "get away from it all."

Lining the church parking lot are old dredge buckets from the gold dredges outside of town.  These can also be seen outside many homes.  During the summer they are used as planters.  Because of the permafrost there aren't  many plants that grow well in Nome, so if you want 'em, you gotta plant 'em.

Typical Nome residence.  Notice the hide hangning from the front porch, the snowmachines in the yard and the multiple antlers tacked to the home.  Most of the Native Alaskans that live in Nome practice a subsistence lifestyle.  This means that they hunt and fish for the majority of their food.  They will also use all of what they kill.  There are many, many artists in Nome and the neighboring villages that do handmade fur goods, mukluks (boots made of fur & skins), ivory and baleen carvings and other various forms of artwork.  We were lucky enough to see much of this at the Native Arts Crafts fair at the church.

One of my favorite snow sculptures.

I could not resist taking this little sweet pea's picture.  Her owner was outside and after asking permission I cuddled with her and took a pic.  Her name is Cayenna.  She is a future sled dog!  Had she fit in the fanny pack, I would have smuggled her home!

Mom met a young man on vacation in Nome...from Unalakleet.  They compared boots.  Hers are rabbit and his are...polar bear of course!  Earlier in the day he was also wearing a polar bear jacket but once it got above zero he had to take it off...TOO HOT he said!  His mother had made all of this for him.

Me keeping warm with some hot tea as the sun nears setting.  The wooden structure to the right behind me is used for ice fishing.

Me walking on the Bering Sea.  This was on "my bucket list!"

Looking south at twilight.This is the direction the mushers will come from.  The trail markers are on the left...the wooden rods with orange flags on them, you can even see the snowmachine tracks in the snow.

This is the "chute" the mushers will come up to get onto Front St.  The building you see is a combination Subway restaurant and single screen movie theater.  They were showing True Grit while we were there.  And no, not the original 1969 version...the Jeff Bridges/Matt Damon collaboration.

Sunset approaches on Norton Sound.  The ice in the foreground is not generally there.  Several weeks ago there was a storm that pushed the smooth, pack ice that is right at the shoreline shoving it into the shore.  Usually the ice anchors in at the shoreline and the transition to the ice is smooth.  The storm was so violent that it shoved the ice inland creating all the hagged ice mini-mountains you see.  They were about 15 feet tall.

Next post is the finish and some other fun surprises.