About 250 miles to go. We landed last night, just as the sun set over the water. We circled over the airport and over the contrasting white line where the pack ice ends and the frigid salt water begins. The commercial runway here is three times as long as the village, which sits in a small cluster between the Unalakleet River and the salty bog it flows into. Winds whips up on race fans in Unalakleet Unalakleet is famous for more than just it's legend in the Iditarod.
Wind is as abundant here as caribou and ice.
Gusts of up to 40 miles per hour grounded our plane, so we're waiting until dark to ride up the trail on snowmachines. The wind here is awesome. It whips though the village and piles snow drifts 20 feet high around the homes on the coast. The landscape is all swept in one direction, like a little boy's hair, combed back by the forceful winds. No one here seems to notice.