2026-05-04 to 2026-05-10 - Packing and Moving
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Hellooooooo folks! First official blog update of the summer. See Why not social media? for some more context on why I'm blogging. Had a fun time putting this together alongside some other pages Denali Blog - Intro | Where is Denali?
As always, don't be a stranger! Feel free to shoot me a text or email response! Also let me know if you have any recs for format, things you want to hear about, etc. Part of the point of this blog is just for myself, but it's also to share my summer with friends n fam else and keep up with y'all. Friendly comments and hate mail are accepted alike!
Packing and Travel
After a rejuvenating couple weeks spent catching up with friends and family on the east coast after quitting my previous job, I returned to Chicago to pack up my life and hop on a plane up to Alaska (departing May 8th).
The culmination of a busy week of packing for Alaska and moving my belongings into a storage unit in Chicago! Thankfully my roommates are amazing and offered to hang on to some of the stuff (most notably a bed and kitchen items) in the apartment since they'll be continuing to live there.
In Alaska, the endemic snowblowers have evolved to hunt for snow on the roofs of buildings. Unfortunately this specimen seems to be stranded with a rapidly dwindling supply of sustenance. Hopefully a kind soul will relocate it somewhere safer for summer hibernation. (Pic at like 10pm from outside my hotel in Fairbanks where I stayed the night I arrived).
Lost Luggage :(
Sadly, my checked suitcase with half my camping gear, my rice cooker, towel, sheets, bulk toiletries, and my other shoes besides the hiking boots I wore on the plane somehow did not make it onto my direct flight from O'Hare to Fairbanks. Maybe TSA had to do an additional check because of the weird assortment of items or something?
It arrived on the next flight in from O'Hare (24 hours later). However, as of the morning of Sunday May 10th, they haven't sent it down for delivery yet. Hoping to get it later this evening!
I'm mostly pissed at not having my running shoes tbh >:(
How am I supposed to get my last run for the week in!?
Fairbanks has (a lot of) Thai Food!
Thai restaurants in Alaska!? For a city in the middle of the Alaskan interior with a population of ~31k in the city limits and ~96k in the metro area, Fairbanks has a wonderfully high density of Thai food. On Google maps, I count ~20 results for a search of "Thai restaurants", and that's potentially missing some of the seasonal Thai food trucks that apparently pop up around the city. That gives us a ratio of 1 Thai restaurant for every ~5000 people in the metro area. For the city limits this is likely closer to 1 Thai restaurant for every ~1600 people (assuming 31k people / 19 restaurants.
For comparison this random marketing source claims that there are ~500 Thai restaurants in NYC. (I'm not going to sit there and count them, I suppose could try programmatically querying maps results somehow but we'll just trust this number for the moment). Assuming an NYC population of ~8 million, that gives us a ratio of 1 Thai restaurant for every 16,000 people.
So there you have it! I don't claim scientific rigor, but it seems like Fairbanks, AK may have about 10x more Thai restaurants per capita than New York, NY!
Drive to Denali
Didn't actually take many pics here, but had a wonderful drive down to Denali from Fairbanks. My supervisor for the summer was kind enough to help out by picking me up from Fairbanks and driving me to get checked into my housing in the park.
Views from the passenger seat when coming up on the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve.
Alaska Fun Facts
Learned a few fun facts about Alaska on the way too.
- Migratory bird season is just starting up here. We saw a massive high flying flock of hundreds and hundreds of birds pass by near Nenana.
- The ice along the rivers is just breaking up as well. The Tanana River has an annual betting pool called the Nenana Ice Classic for when the ice will melt out (down to the minute). The official method of determining the time is when the iconic "tripod" (which is not actually a tripod?) placed out on the river falls in.
- When leaving Alaska, folks will just refer to "going outside"
- One nickname you may have heard for Alaska is "The Last Frontier". However, this name is kind of ironic because Alaska was actually also "The First Frontier" where people crossed the Bering Strait into North America.
- I learned the term "aufeis" or "overflow" ice which refers to a sheet of ice that forms from water freezing in successive layers to form a sheet of ice. We saw a really cool instance of this right outside the park entrance where an ice dam/blockage in the main part of the Nenana river had caused aufeis formation where one of its tributary streams joined in.
Moving In
I'm living in C-Camp (the site of the old Civilian Conservation Corps campsite during the depression era) in a lovely little cabin.
Home sweet home for the next 5 months! No running water yet, so we make use of that big orange jug and get water from the common shower house until the temps warm up enough that the pipes in the cabins won't be at risk of freezing.
Grocery haul from Fairbanks! Costco card came in clutch and was responsibles for ~$380 of grocery spend
No sheets due to MIA luggage, but I luckily did have sleeping bags and a shirt that functions(ish) as a pillowcase!
Also pictured:
- part of an old map of Denali with fieldwork sites marked that my supervisor gave me (left wall)
- my blackout curtain (sheet of plastic) to block the late night sun and create a dark little sleeping cave.
Meeting People and Wildlife
I had a blast meeting a bunch of folks around C-Camp Sunday afternoon/evening.
First, in the afternoon I got a ride with some new friends up the park road a ways and had some lucky wildlife sightings! Saw two moose, two bears, and various birds. Also saw some majestic alpine landscapes. It's otherworldly up here, a gorgeous snowy subarctic wilderness!
Then, I made a little key chain at craft night and met a bunch of cool people.
A snowshoe hare out there! Seems to be lots of these lil homies roaming around C-Camp. They're like a heavier duty (thicker fur and tougher looking legs) version of the rabbits back home!
Moose on the loose! His antlers are growing in nicely! These animals actually have more negative interactions with humans than the predatory animals do.
Bear on a tear! (looking for underground tubers). Picture taken via a scope from across the frozen river. First grizzly bear sighting I've ever had!
Frozen river and snow-capped peaks!
Arts n crafts!
What's next?
- I will attempt to recover my luggage - not sure it's happening this evening (May 10th) but maybe tomorrow...?
- UPDATE: As ~11:45pm on May 10th, my other luggage has arrived! A run will be had and rice will be cooked tonight!
- I'll start work on Monday, will try to report back with an update after the first week with any fun discoveries and more details on the work I'll be doing!
Finally, I'll leave you with some views from (a) my front porch, (b) my bedroom window, and (c) the entrance to the bathhouse
Front porch views. Center building is the rec hall while others are cabins
The pile of plowed snow + mountain and park buildings from my bedroom window (would get ya a better picture, but it's a screened window)
Evening views at 10pm from the entrance to the bathhouse - not bad!