Alaska '08

I've been less than garrulous lately. One reason for that is I disappeared to Alaska with my family for 10 days at the very end of July and into August. Here are some pictures AND (dun dun dun dun) video clips from the trip. The video comes from either a regular camera or a phone, so don't be expecting Lucas Film here.

Of note

Right now, in Alaska, a statewide manhunt is underway to catch Robert "Papa Pilgrim" Hale. Papa Pilgrim, the locally famous patriarch of the 17-member Hale clan, has fled in a camper van from 30 charges including sexual assualt, kidnapping, coercion, and incest. The Anchorage Daily News had this to report:

The 17-member family, bound by strict rules that Hale drew from his reading of the Bible, broke apart last winter after a single, horrific episode, described by troopers this week. They said Hale locked a daughter in a small shack on family property near the Kennicott River in McCarthy and raped her repeatedly. Some other family members knew she was in there, heard suspicious sounds and were concerned, troopers said.

It's hard to imagine this stuff even happens these days. Luckily, the chances of Hale escaping unnoticed before winter bears down is almost nonexistent (you try escaping with an 18-inch beard, pilgrim hat, and camper truck). If he tries to hold out past that point, I'm guessing mother nature will apply final justice.

Also, I would give most things to be in San Francisco right now to check out this urban ski-jump of all urban ski-jumps. Unfortunately, my friend Tyson still hates America, so I don't know if his brother Tanner's taking part or not (of note, of note, I was in Manhattan for that road race last weekend, but the man made me work right through it...here's the results showing Alan Webb in 2nd behind Craig Mottram).

You can't run away (from problems) on a treadmill

Although you’re more likely to encounter most of the animals in the Anchorage zoo while cross-country skiing down one of the city’s urban trails, a few key exceptions to this rule reside in those pens. Most notably, the zoo has remained defiant through much controversy and maintained their 23 year old African elephant, Maggie.

This decision sickens me for all the reasons it sickens everyone else.

I arrived in Anchorage in the middle of January-halfway through their winter. By the time the ice and snow retreated enough to spend a considerable amount of time outside without warm clothes and equipment, I was getting stir crazy. That occurred in May. I’m not kidding, it was May. Relative to much of Alaska, Anchorage lies to the south and experiences the mellowing influences of coastal weather. However, let’s underscore the fact that it gets brutally cold up there and legitimate winter weather spans roughly six months (according to my sister and brother-in-law who live up there, it’s been pouring rain and hovering in the 40’s and 50’s for weeks now…it’s only September). Regarding my struggles with the weather, I wasn’t exactly living in the tropics, or even California, prior to moving there. So, although the climate shift proved substantial, it wasn’t as significant as might be experienced by someone or something moving from, ohhhh, let’s say the Sahara.

But guess what? Maggie belongs in the Sahara. Her genes didn’t arm her with the defenses necessary to combat harsh temperatures, cold winds, snow and sleet. Nor does any of the vegetation she’s used to stand a chance of growing up there.

Furthermore, as mentioned in the article, elephants herd together. Maggie, however, had one companion up until 1997 and has since spent her days among alone or among humans. Not only would this significantly alter her natural behavior (which constitutes one of the fundamental reasons for building zoos-to educate people about how animals act in the wild) but probably inflicts psychological distress in the form of loneliness and depression.

I write about this today because the zoo announced they purchased parts to construct a 16,000 pound treadmill upon which Maggie can exercise during the protracted northern winters. This extravagant gesture will do little to quell the storm of controversy surrounding the zoo’s decision to house and keep Maggie. Instead, it seems this costly and untested device serves to buy the zoo more time while they persist in mistreating this natural treasure for their own benefit.

Normally, I get a kick out of reading through the Oddly Enough news section because most of the wacky stories provide harmless, head-shaking anecdotes about ridiculous people. This story just pisses me off. I’m not the first to call for Maggie’s removal from the zoo, but it bothered me while I lived up there and it still does today. The Anchorage Zoo needs to acknowledge their inability to properly house this animal, regardless of the elaborate contraptions they devise. Maggie should not spend another winter in Alaska.

I can palm a wrecking ball

Here's a picture of my brother-in-law's hand on top of a grizzly bear's pawprint in Alaska. Jeff proceeded to hunt down the animal and inflict mortal wounds with a boomerang.

Hey Seppala, a chunk of your face just fell off

I just finished reading The Cruelest Miles by first cousins Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury. This book documents the 1925 diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska and the ensuing feats of heroism that enabled the antitoxin to arrive in Nome safely before the entire population succumbed to the frightful disease. The whole book was fascinating, especially if you have a love for adventure stories and an appreciation for the arctic. A few things struck me as especially poignant.

I didn’t know much about diphtheria prior to reading this book. In the words of the incestual authors:

Diphtheria is an airborne bacterium that thrives in the moist membranes of the
throat and nose and releases a powerful toxin that makes its victims tired and
apathetic. In two to five days, other, more deadly symptoms would appear: a
slight fever and red ulcers at the back of the throat and in the mouth. As the
bacteria multiplied and more toxin was released, the ulcers thickened and
expanded forming a tough, crusty, almost leathery membrane made up of dead
cells, blood clots, and dead skin. The membrane colonized ever larger portions
of the mouth and the throat, until it had nowhere left to go and advanced down
the windpipe, slowly suffocating the victim.

As anyone who’s ever suffered from tonsillitis or mononucleosis can attest to, severe sore throats rank among the worst of physical afflictions. I’ve had my fair share of broken bones, third degree burns, and gruesome skateboard accidents, but without hesitation, I’d include throat issues among the worst of my experiences. When you have to muster every ounce of courage within yourself simply to swallow saliva, things are pretty bad. I can’t imagine the plight of these (mostly) children who battled with diphtheria, only to meet their end in a losing battle with asphyxiation.

Considering the threat of diphtheria has retreated into the annals of history, I’ve never found motivation to research its effects. Pondering this reality, I was reminded of how easily I dismiss the modern threat of contagious illnesses/diseases. Leaning upon an oft-subconscious, yet all-encompassing faith in modern medicine, I neglect the all-too-real threat of those pathogens surpassing a critical threshold and morphing into a pandemic. This might be in the form of SARS in Asia; AIDS in Africa, India, Russia, and urban America; Marburg in Angola; or even an influenza outbreak when the flu shot supply issues we experienced last year are magnified many times over. AIDS is already wiping out whole populations in Africa, and a cure has yet to materialize. Containment of the less scary ones hinges on constant medical vigilance, while the more pernicious examples have no known remedy. Although I cherish the ease of international travel, I can’t help but fear the repercussions this might entail should an outbreak escape our monitoring, or if the carriers of such an illness/disease don’t develop symptoms for months or years subsequent to contraction.

It’s funny how a book can have peripheral affects like this. Judging by the prologue and after-comments, drawing attention to such issues was not their primary or explicit goal in writing the book. Their depiction of entire Alaskan villages falling victim to influenza (1918-19, which also devastated many other parts of the world) and only narrowly escaping the same fate with diphtheria, however, made such ruminations unavoidable after spending a good chunk of last year in Alaska. While this is all well and good, it still bothers me that my sense of empathy wanes as geographical distance grows between a devastating event and my own sphere of experience…something I’d like to continue to reverse.

Aside from all that nasty stuff, however, the book documented just how intrepid both mushers and dogs (not too many historical accounts afford individual dogs a sizeable chunk of text) were to brave the perils of Alaskan winters. I would have preferred even more attention paid to the individual mushers’ experience during their legs of the relay. [Side note: contrary to popular belief, the dogsled portion of the antitoxin delivery consisted of 20 different mushers covering a total of 674 miles from the interior town of Nenana to coastal Nome. Both the relay aspect and the course itself differs from the modern Iditarod race which starts in Anchorage and covers 1,049 miles….actually, the distances for the North and South legs of the Iditarod course are 1158 and 1163 miles, respectively, but the traditional distance of 1049 represents that the race always extends longer than 1,000 miles and that Alaska is the 49th state.] Furthermore, the relatively short personal accounts represent only a handful of the participating mushers. According to the authors themselves, the many native Alaskans who participated in the middle segments of the relay either balked at recounting their stories for the press or were never asked at all. I’d love to hear these stories sometime. The stories that did make the final edit recounted blistering cold, unforgiving winds, precipitous climbs and plunges, and treacherous ice (the water threats constituted some of the most fascinating material, in my opinion…imagine falling through the ice on the Yukon river, only to find that the water underneath had retreated and you were left in an empty cavern of frozen riverbed 20 feet deep and 150 feet wide). Most of these guys did this stuff for a living. Every day!

One more juicy tidbit worthy of mention was the lively debate concerning whether sled teams or airplanes would deliver the serum. History could have played out quite differently had the Governor of Alaska decided to transfer the serum via plane, instead of by sled dog teams. Aviation in the north had yet to find a firm foothold, and only a group of bold pioneers and military units explored the skies in the Last Frontier. The miniscule collection of planes in interior Alaska consisted of World War I vintage biplanes that were dismantled for the winter, had open cockpits, and had water-cooled engines that were unreliable in cold weather. Regardless of these formidable barriers to safe aerial transfer, the national and international press still harangued the Governor and the Board of Health for choosing a much slower means of transportation riddled with its own perilous obstacles. To the benefit of the both the governor and the ailing population in Nome, the sled dog teams competed TWO successful relays and saved innumerable lives. Although the contingent pressing for an air delivery lost in the short run, they won in the long run. National attention focused upon the insufficiencies in northern air travel and an era of rapid development in this industry followed on the heels of the 1925 diphtheria outbreak.

But the dogs had their day. I’m going to stop writing now. If you’d like, you should read the book. I highly recommend it. Just try to disregard the fact that the title came from a modified Ronald Reagan quote.

If you don't find this cool...

...nothing is cool. give up. I'm talking about the picture posted below this blog entry. So the friend of a wife of a friend of a brother snapped this pic while hunting in Montana. the afforementioned brother told me at one point the dogs realized this cat was tracking their group and proceeded to give chase, eventually pinning it back on the ledge. The idiotic dogs, who collectively reached the decision that their 7 to 1 advantage would prove superior over satan in the form of a cougar, talked puppy smack for five minutes. Apparently that was enough time for them to figure out they we're all going to die in severed, bloody shreds if they didn't bounce....like now. which they did.
but speaking of animals that could make abstract art out of a human body, i thought this situation was so sad. one of the prerequisites for living in alaska was signing a pledge wherein you vowed to read more articles about animals than people. when it's commonplace to spot a moose trotting down the street or bedding down in your backyard right in the middle of the city with half the state's population, you realize that grabbing the morning latte is not your only concern. i read alot about the wolf situation while in alaska and have been delighted to see that the Washington Post has latched on to the saga of this wolf pack. I'm not delighted about what's happening up there. although i'm not an animal behavioral scientist by any means (although my college residence did allow me some unusual insight into the issue), i do understand that in order to gather useful data on any particular species it takes TIME. four decades is so much to invest into these wolves, but still not enough. wolves are plentiful in alaska-so plentiful that hunters have been given license to take them out from aboard airplanes in order to diminish the devastating effect they've had upon certain moose populations. Therefore, my argument isn't with a few wolves dying. also, although i do take issue with many types of hunting, namely the kind done over a computer (way to go Texas)..., that's not my issue here so much either. It's the state of Alaska's unwillingness to take special precautions to safegaurd and encourage the scientific value of this particular pack. It scares me that nobody with adequate political might had the balls to be vociferous about this issue...three democratic senators from other states won't do the trick. These wolves are being slaughtered right in front of our eyes.
If they had had an income tax up there, i would have taken them to school on my return....