Alaska - Arctic Circle Air Adventure

Starting off the trip stepping out of my comfort zone. I like to challenge myself on these trips both in trying new foods and trying new experiences. This trip's new experience was to take a flight over the geographic Arctic Circle. This was a Princess excursion and the reason we flew in a day early. It is an extra cost since it is one of the "optional" tours offered through the lodge and is quite the investment currently being offered at $609 per person. Click here to view Princess' description of the tour. This is one of the big differences between Alaska cruise tours and the other cruise tours Princess offers. Because the hotels on our trip were all Princess owned properties, they featured optional tours you could book in addition to the ones included in our Connoisseur cruise tour booking.

Our plane - we entered by stepping up from a stepstool and then essentially up onto the edge of the wing. Definitely not for the mobility challenged but we did have older couples who managed. 

As with many flight based excursions, there is a weight limit. In this case it's 340 lbs. We did have to check in at the front desk and report our current weights so they could pass it on to the flight company. There were others at the flight company office this day who'd planned to be dropped off above the Arctic Circle and go camping so they had to have themselves weighed and then their bags. Due to their extra bag weight, they were bumped to another flight after ours. There was 6 of us not including the pilot that gathered today to take this flight. The seats were all single seats on each side of the plane and we did get seated according to our weights prompting Dad and I to be assigned the great seats right behind the pilot. Didn't think there'd be a perk to being the heaviest in your group, huh?

While we were all getting checked in at the airport, an option to purchase a boxed lunch was given. We chose to decline as the only option was ham sandwiches with mustard.

On this initial flight, our pilot kept us flying low under the clouds so we could see as much of the landscape as possible. I admit there were a couple moments of sideways glances from me as I was close enough to see the controls flash warnings about being too close to terrain. The pilot caught me staring at the message a couple times and would chuckle as he pulled back up ever so slightly to make the message clear. As we covered miles of beautiful areal views, our pilot pointed out whenever we came across something notable like the pipeline, a village just for workers, and lakes.

Pipeline (to the right of the road)

When we reached the geographic coordinates of 66° 34' North, everyone passed up their cameras so the pilot could take a picture of the dashboard noting our location. You almost expected to see a "You Are Here" sign in the sky marking the spot. If you think about it, for that brief second as we continued on, half our plane was above the Arctic Circle and the other half was still below it.

After crossing the Arctic Circle, we landed safely in what I affectionally refer to as "the truck stop town" of Coldfoot, Alaska. Yes, that really is the town's name and they offer plenty of novelty items in the truck stop's gift shop mocking their own town name. 

I wanted to get a shirt that said the Arctic Circle coordinates but they didn't have one in my size. Dad picked up this shirt for himself:

We all took turns posing with the pilot in front of the plane:

The truck stop (yes that really was the only building in the area) featured bathrooms and shower facilities as well as a restaurant and the gift shop. Once everyone had used the restrooms and made their purchases, we met a new guide who would take over our for the land portion of our tour.

We all piled into her van where she handed out the boxed lunches to those who'd ordered them. They enjoyed their own personal Alaska drive thru lunch as they had to eat with the boxes in their lap while she drove 10 minutes up the road to our next town of Wiseman, Alaska. 

Here we met a gentleman who was native to Alaska and he and his family lived completely off the land. They had a cabin set up from one of the earliest and most notorious settlers in the area on the property. We all sat inside this one room cabin left as its original owner kept it while this gentleman told us all about what it was like to live off the land. 

No that's not where they keep the trespassers. This trap door in the floor was for nature's cold storage of their food.

We were then led to a shed on the property where the gentleman had filled it with decades worth of animal bones and carcasses from his hunting successes. He continued to give lectures on the different types of animal hooves as he proudly showed them off. It soon became a little much for me to listen to and I stepped back out into the fresh air.

Now this sign just outside the shed took on a new interpretation:

Let's just say a lot of us were glad we'd taken the opportunity to use the bathrooms back in Coldfoot. Here's the facilities we were offered in Wiseman:

We were driven back to Coldfoot where we reunited with our pilot and boarded the plane to come back across the Arctic Circle to Fairbanks. During the flight back, the pilot checked with everyone to confirm no one minded that we stay above the clouds now for a smoother ride back. 

All in all, it was a great experience that I was glad we had taken the time to fly in a day early to experience. When we landed back at the small airport, the company handed us each certificates with our names celebrating that we had officially crossed the Arctic Circle. 

I did have the second worst ear pain/pressure that I've experienced from a flight after this trip. I remember trying everything from moving my jaw around to blowing my nose but my ears would not pop until that evening. If you're susceptible to that when flying, bring precautions or follow one of the preventative home remedies like chewing gum while you're flying.