Latest updates, page 37

My dad and brother flew in to Fairbanks for a visit last night, and had the good luck to catch the second best display of aurora I've seen in six years in Alaska. The pictures don't do justice to the way these beams shot and shimmered across the sky, but they still show that my visitors had incredibly lucky timing. These pictures were taken just a few miles outside Fairbanks.

My wife wanted to go swimming tonight, and I never want to go swimming (at least not in Alaska), so we went to a nine-acre pond where I could kick around in a float tube and chase some fish. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game stocks the heck out of several little man-made gravel pits along the Steese Highway with grayling and infertile rainbow trout.

Our husky Taiga was eager to help out, and kept swimming back and forth between the two of us until she decided my activity was more interesting and she should orbit my float tube at close range, like a furry Panda-colored moon. I caught a couple trout like that and then figured she'd had enough exercise (who does she think she is, a labrador retriever??) and we tied her up on shore so I could fish normally for a few minutes before we had to go.

(Note: If anyone in Fairbanks reads this and considers a visit to that pond, don't go swimming.)

I think this was the best day of the hike. I woke up and poked my head outside the tent and saw a bull, cow, and calf caribou wandering around within 200 yards. Better still, it wasn't raining!

After climbing just a few hundred feet into the last pass of the trip, we had a relatively easy mostly-downhill hike for the rest of the trip. Sun and blue sky made the scenery even better, especially as we passed by a series of emerald alpine lakes.