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Into the Wild
30-Second Reads

Into the Wild Bus Heads to the Museum

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Museum of the North will use Bus 142 to tell Broader Story of Alaskan Lands The Museum of the North in Fairbanks has received $500,000 to preserve the bus made famous in the book Into the Wild. The funding comes from the National Park Service and the Institute of Museum and Library Services and will help prepare the bus for public exhibit. Angela Lin, senior collections manager at the museum, acknowledges that the bus can be polarizing in Alaska and says that the exhibit will address more than Into the Wild. “We’re excited to tell a more complete story,” says Lin. Bus 142 is a 1946 International Harvester that served as a school bus, a Fairbanks transit bus, and eventually as remote housing for mine workers near the end of the Stampede Trail west of Healy. When its axle broke, the bus was abandoned on site. The bus gained global…

Borealis Basecamp
30-Second Reads

Adventures and Aurora

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Borealis Basecamp launches new offerings Three nights deep in the backcountry of the million-acre White Mountains National Recreation Area outside Fairbanks is a good example of a hard adventure. A soft adventure, says Adriel Butler, could be one hour riding a snowmachine through a powder field. Butler is the owner of Borealis Basecamp, which he aims to make the go-to resort in interior Alaska for those types of soft adventures. The cubes at Borealis Basecamp are spaced out to give guests more privacy. Borealis Basecamp opened in 2017 on a 100-acre parcel of forest 25 miles north of Fairbanks. It was open only during winter months and primarily a destination for aurora viewing. The team used time during the early months of the pandemic to plan new accommodations and adventures that launched in 2022. The basecamp is now open through the summer months and offers excursions like six-hour UTV rides…

Activities

The Equinox Marathon 

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A uniquely Alaskan footrace “I’m done with that forever!” I shouted into the sunlit yellow birch and aspen forest. After descending the fabled, steep chute section at mile 17 of the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks, I felt elated and needed to announce my accomplishment to the trees. At that point in the race, runners were spread out along the 26.2-mile course. Under a miraculously blue autumnal sky, the sparsely populated route felt serene. Gaining 3,200-plus feet of elevation, the Equinox is one of the most difficult races in the world. But you wouldn’t know it from local runners. Fairbanks competitors are extraordinarily humble, yet hardy people. I am not one of those people. I count myself lucky to run a mile. I’d refused several alcoholic beverages along the route from encouraging volunteers at homemade aid stations nearing the top of Ester Dome. “Need a beer?” someone asked as I jogged…

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