Jul 20, 2006

GLACIER-EYED GIRL
TAKU, Alaska: For dinner, we fly to a lakeside lodge. Our lemonade contains chunks of the Hole-in-the-Wall Glacier, whose ruffled turquoise snout is just visible, if I sit up real straight inside the log cabin.

And yes, our mode of transport is a floatplane. Except this time, I'm all blasé and can note important details, such as "my eyes almost match the headphones and the crevasses." Clearly, the stuff of epic journalism. Tim Cahill's quaking in his boots, I'm sure.

But stylish ambition is fitting here, since the lodge is all about publicity stunts. A previous owner – Mary Joyce – mushed 1,000 miles to promote her strain of sled dogs. Despite temperatures of 50 degrees below zero and only a few hours light each day, her three-month trip concluded at the 1936 Fairbanks Ice Carnival.

She said: “When I first got the idea, the people in Juneau said it would take me two years to drive to Fairbanks and that I would be pulling the dogs in. They also said that I would eat the dogs or the dogs would eat me.”

The 27-year-old arrived with self and team intact.

"I just wanted to see if I could do it," was her comment on this still-unrivalled feat.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:03 AM

    Tim never looked so good in earphones! But his beard is much better... S.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh man, Cahill has the facial moss and Mary beat me to the hipster hood.

    What's left for the modern fashion rebel?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wait, wait: clearly, a gringa wearing a men's keffiyeh as a veil!

    (Photo taken under diress, I might add. But it did garner me a marriage proposal).

    ReplyDelete

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