Hello,
I'm sitting in Anchorage heading north to Barrow. I'll be there until Thursday for work. I might have some free time. What is there to do? Anyone know of someone there to bum a ride sightseeing?

Thanks in advance,
Phil

Go get a burger at Pepe's Top Of The World. It's worth a trip over to the North Slope SAR hangar to drool over their aircraft and talk about the conditions they operate in. Good bunch of guys and gals. And if you have time, buy a ride or two with Cape Smythe (I guess ERA now) and make a run down the coast to Point Lay and/or Wainright just to see Arctic village life.

Gump

I heard Pepe's burned to the ground. They plan on re-opening, but who knows when.

marker60 wrote:I heard Pepe's burned to the ground. They plan on re-opening, but who knows when.

I heard the same...

A local guide named Daniel Lum operated polar bear tours from Barrow up until a few years ago. It's run by his cousin now I believe. Have a good trip.

When I was there some 41 years ago, the Navy had an experimental research station with polar bears and wolves, which was fascinating. We were told that their major purpose was to find out how it is that these animals can survive in the extreme cold without getting frost-bit.

Sorry to hear about Pepe's. I recall a sign on the front which hawked reindeer soup and a few other "delicacies".

One of the more interesting things we did was a tour of the town. The gas pipes were run along the ground until they came to a road, then run overhead over the road and back down again. Beside the door of each house was a large stack of "pink bricks"--frozen whale blubber cut into blocks.

Clearly a different world.

Cary

CamTom12 wrote:

marker60 wrote:I heard Pepe's burned to the ground. They plan on re-opening, but who knows when.

I heard the same...

More on Pepe's