How's it sit? Pretty cunning, don't you think?

Alaska is coming up and I'm finding myself looking forward to the time away from America. Well, the lower 48.

Today I got my Jayne Cobb hat. The woman I bought it from, sent me a nice little note telling me to enjoy my trip to Alaska.

I'll begin packing a week from the day. Before then, I'm going to get my sensor cleaned as it has plenty of particles on it.

14 more facts about Alaska

1. It's more than twice the size of Texas.
2. The coldest it has ever been was -80°F (-62°C).
3. Its "Good Friday Earthquake" on 3/27/1964 was the most powerful earthquake in North American history and resulted in the deaths of 115 people including 12 as far away as California, and sunk several fishing boats in Louisiana. (I have not yet experienced an earthquake.)
   
4. It's 68% Protestant and 7% Catholic.
5. 80% of its revenue comes from oil and natural gas.
6. Richard Dean Anderson (MacGuyver) rode his bike from Minnesota to Alaska when he was 17.
7. The state capital, Juneau, is not accessible by road.
8. It's the only state where marijuana is legal. (I'll pass on that grass.)
   
9. It has a very high suicide rate.
10. It has over 3,500,000 lakes which makes my state's slogan seem kind of lame.
11. It was purchased from Russia for $7,200,000 in 1867 -- less than the price of a good starting pitcher.
12. It has four time zones.
13. In Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in the U.S., the sun sets on November 18 and doesn't come back up until January 24, but it stays light out from May 10 to August 2.
14. I'll be there in 18 days.

Facts about Alaska. And gear talk.

I don't know much about Alaska except what I've seen in the movies and on TV. I decided to compile some facts about Alaska.

* It's the largest State. I knew that.
* Population - 683,000. That's the Metro area of Sacramento.
* Mount McKinley, or Denali. As I understand it - locals use Denali. Unless you climb it. Then it's McKinley. I'll go with Denali as it's the native's original term for the peak.
* Anchorage has maybe six buildings that look 'tall'.
* An example of a traditional native food is Akutaq, the Eskimo ice cream, which can consist of reindeer fat, seal oil, dried fish meat and local berries. - If I can find it, I'll eat it!

---

So far the gear I'm taking is my standard road trip + camping gear plus special Alaska "just in case" gear.
* Jayne Cobb hat (yet to arrive!!)
* Borrowed ski jacket
* Backpacking single man tent, 30 degree bag
* GPS + maps (road and national parks)
* LED head lamp, flash light and matches. And my new fancy striker + flint!
* Radios for Micah and I to tell each other bad jokes and insult each other.
* Cell phone (iPhone)
* First Aid, med kit and water treatment.

The Milepost

Nobody goes road trippin' to Alaska without a copy of The Milepost - "the Bible of North Country travel." I purchased my copy yesterday and was pleasantly surprised at how loaded it is. 800 pages of maps and information on anything and everything you need to know when traveling to Alaska.

I am not Jayne. This is my toque.

For the trip, I purchased a hat/toque.



Now you may ask - why? Well, because, well, I don't know. I liked Jayne's hat, wanted one for a while and thought to myself - why not get something that'll make the pictures of me scream "That's a stupid hat".

Well, as Wash once said "Man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything. "

I hear there are moose in downtown Anchorage. That's scary. My toque will scare them into submission!

Photographing Alaska

My interest in photography was born two years ago during that road trip from Georgia to North Carolina. Danny was already an old pro, while I had never really ventured beyond my five-dollar disposable cameras. Immediately after returning home from that trip I went out and purchased my first digital camera. Since then, my interest has grown rapidly and I have sought to gain as much knowledge as I could from Danny's expertise.

Alaska will really give me a chance to put this knowledge to the test, but I suspect that I'll still be the one doing most of the learning. While Danny has been all over the world with his camera, I've only been to such exotic locations as northern Minnesota, the east coast of Maine, and Michigan's upper peninsula. This will definitely be a new experience for me and I plan to make the most of it. But I don't expect this to be my last trip to Alaska either. There's only so much you can see in one week.

Duo Blogging.

My last road trip with Micah was in November of 2006. I flew into Georgia and then drove with him to NC to see a Panther game. Freaking awesome it was.

This trip is different. New territory for both of us. It's the first time I've taken a photo trip with another photographer. I'm interested to see the contrast in style and form. I'm sure we'll learn from each other and bring back images that speak the wonders of the world.

After photographing the Puerto Rico jungles and the deserts of Kenya and the hills of Rwanda - I'm curious to see what Alaska has in store.

My equipment: Canon 30D, Canon XT 350D, Canon 17-55mm, Canon 70-300mm, Tamron 18-200, red and natural color filter and possibly a ND filter if I get it.

The Plan

Alaska. May 17th. One week. Micah and Danny will attempt to photograph every square inch of the last frontier without getting eaten by grizzly bears. Stay tuned.