Anachronisms

There are several military bases in Alaska. In a hundred mile radius of Fairbanks it's not unusual to hear the roar of a fighter jet flying overhead. Driving east out of Fairbanks you pass

Eielson air force base and there are rows of fighters visible from the highway. The military might is impressive and harkens back to the cold war days when Russia posed the major threat to the U.S. Certainly Mr. Putin  seems willing to flex his country's  muscle but an attack on America over the pole seems a long shot.

Internet access and cellular coverage is spotty in Alaska to say the least (thus the delay in getting some of these posts up) and all we've heard in the last ten weeks have been snippets of news stories from the lower 48. It seems the violence has ramped up considerably not just in the U.S.  but overseas as well. No country appears to be immune. Still, as we drove by those multi-million dollar aircraft sitting on the tarmac I had to wonder how effective they would be in dealing with the terrorist acts that seem to be today's norm. They seem anachronistic in the modern world of IED'S and suicide attacks. Military hardware, however impressive and awe inspiring seem impotent given the current challenges. Still, military spending drives a chunk of the Alaska economy and with oil prices depressed I'm sure Alaskans would be loathe to see those dollars disappear.

On the drive from Denali to Fairbanks one passes a turn to the left. There is a standard green street sign indicating you are at Stampede Road. I'm sure 99.9% of folks never even see the sign and even if they did they'd probably have no idea of its significance. If you've  ever read the Jon Krakauer book "Into the Wild" or seen the movie you might recollect that it's the story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who in trying to find himself died 25 miles or so back on this road on what's known as the Stampede Trail. In 1992 he had hiked in, set up camp in an abandoned school bus (given the difficulty of the terrain how it got there I can't even imagine) and was trying to experience his ideal of living off the land, off the grid. He didn't make it much more than one hundred days. To this day Alaskans don't seem to have adopted Chris as one of their own. Perhaps he was too extreme, too much on the edge, even for people who have to balance on the edge all the time to survive  up here. It's a fight to live up here and Alaska is unforgiving; unlike the fighter jets that practice at war many Alaskans depend on their own wits and skills to survive from day to day, season to season. Perhaps Alaska is itself an anachronism in that regard- it clearly doesn't reflect the reality of daily life for most of us. Maybe that's the attraction, what keeps a steady stream of folks heading north, looking for their own ideal of life in the great north. They may not be as out there as Chris was, but their certainly distant cousins. Sophie and I did share a quiet moment in contemplation of a young man's life cut short too soon. It seemed the least we could do.