Driving from Bethel to Eek

Eek School is now the proud new owner of a Honda Pioneer side-by-side. Our four-wheel is getting a little old, we haven't really had enough snow to use our Ski-doo snow machine, and we are always needing people transported. ATVs and snow machines are the passenger cars of bush living.

The Kuskokwim and Eek rivers are frozen right now, so there is no way to deliver anything by barge. Cargo as large as a side-by-side will obviously not fly on one of the small prop airplanes. So, it had to be driven.

This time of year, the river is several feet thick. The Kuskokwim is essentially a natural highway. People travel and transport by boat until it freezes well, and then they drive on it.

Vernon, our custodian, asked me if I'd like to drive back with him when he picked it up. I jumped at the chance. Vernon is, in my mind, like the President of Eek School. He has worked here so long that he knows essentially everything. He's one of my best friends at the school.

The day we left was absolutely perfect for traveling. The temperature was hovering around 0, which is pretty warm. There were no clouds, the sun was shining bright, and hardly any wind was blowing.

We flew into Bethel on a tiny, tiny plane. I love flying in these small bush planes. Imagine NYC taxi cabs that hurtle over the frozen tundra at 100 knots. What's not to love? The smaller the plane, the better!

After getting into Bethel, we hopped a taxi to the AC. Here, I think I need to explain AC and Bethel cabs.

In Bethel, cabs are the same price, always, depending on where you go within the city. $5 in town, 7$ to the airport, $10 to far away areas. Also, you might not be in your own cab. If someone else needs to go somewhere on the way, the cabbie will pick them up. If you've ever taken a ride share with Lyft or Uber, it's just like that.

AC stands for Alaska Company. It is THE grocery store. They also have electronics, a taco restaurant, furniture, tools, vehicles, etc. Almost anything you need you can get there. We call in our grocery orders, AC packages them in boxes, takes them to the airport, and ships them out to us.

We got our side by side from the AC. After learning about it from the salesman, we drove it out!

Driving through Bethel in a utility vehicle bundled up like a marshmallow will always be a fond memory I have. I wish I owned a GoPro so that I could have recorded our journey.

Vernon let me drive part of the way, and he drove the rest of the way. I drove from Bethel to Napakiak (Nuh-Pa-Key-Ack) on the frozen Kuskokwim. I was passed by several trucks, a Toyota Camry, and an 18 wheeler with a fuel trailer. It was so much fun! I could see where cars had broken down and become part of the landscape. People were ice fishing here and there.

After Napakiak, Vernon took over. Instead of taking the river, we cut across the tundra to save some time. To try to conserve fuel, we'd been driving in two wheel drive. We hit a huge snow drift and Vernon was flung from the vehicle. He wasn't hurt. After that, we drove in 4x4 and wore our seatbelts!

Along our journey, I had some awesome experiences. I got to see river otters. They're not as cute as the sea otters at the zoo. River otters are much bigger and more weasely.

The tundra looks totally flat. Standing in my classroom or kitchen windows, it looks like an unending plane of white. When you're driving over it, the tundra is anything by flat. It's bumpy, it's rugged, and it's awesome. Several times we had to carefully maneuver the Honda over some rough patches, gigantic embankments, and deep snow drifts. I'm impressed that we never got stuck!

I got to see two landmarks, Lonely Hill and Piss-Me-Off Lake. Lonely Hill is an enormous hill in between Bethel and Eek. It's the only one, thus the name. When Vernon was telling me about the lake I might have misheard him? I am a little hard of hearing, the side by side sounds like a motorcycle, and talking through several layers of fabric muffles words. I'm pretty sure he said Piss-Me-Off lake. I can't think of anything that might sound like Piss-Me-Off lake, and I'm too embarrassed to ask for clarification!

Vernon taught me lots of things on the way about the landscape, how people used to live, and survival.

Bethel is about 50 or so miles from Eek. The whole journey took us about 2 and a half to 3 hours. I didn't really time it exactly.

We made it back, safely and I wasn't even cold, except my feet. My gear is very good! I am less than impressed with my $200 LL Bean boots, because my feet were very cold for a while. I think my good ol' Muck boots might have been warmer.

I am so thankful to live in such a beautiful place where I can have such cool experiences!

Until next time,

Jordan

xoxo

P.S. The top speed of a Honda Pioneer is 43.