Alaska

A trip to Alaska — and back in time

Published

2 years ago

July 24, 2024

A trip to Alaska to visit family and friends once again — one way to evade this July heat.

By plane, we’ll arrive in a matter of hours. Forty years ago, this month we loaded up our four elementary school kids — and the dog — and drove a station wagon 2,500 miles to our new state. It took days, not hours.

You don’t know how it’s going to turn out.

Alaska was definitely Terry’s expansive dream for our family. I would have stayed in our familiar Spokane suburb. With four decades in the rearview mirror, I can cheer those barely 30-somethings who really had no idea what they were doing, but they braved it.

The modest home and tidy yard we left behind were an estate next to the single-wide mobile home with the dilapidated front entry — a kunnichuk if you speak Inupiaq. It backed up against the woods — and there were moose and bears in those woods.

What did I learn from that humble dwelling? Gratitude for shelter and that I could live simply without humiliation. Not sure I’d heard the term “trailer trash” back then, but there’s no such thing.

We bought a house four years later. One year it nearly burned in a raging wildfire. The close call taught me that everything I have is a gift. That secret pride over anything is such a waste of head space.

We had more room in our two-story wood-frame house. We filled it with people — especially bringing the world to us through foreign exchange students. We hosted Germany and Japan and Brazil and Azerbaijan. Our kids saw beyond their turf and learned to take an interest in others and value global cultures.

They grew up tougher in Alaska. Maybe the word is more independent. No cellphones back then. The unlimited outdoors was theirs. I learned to set them free in the right sort of way — no fire-breathing mom monitoring their every move. It built their confidence. They are still fearless.

I won a national writing contest, scribbling away in our trailer house. I told the story of how I came to embrace Alaska. Living there 14 years I kept writing my experiences for this publication, and they kept publishing.

It had been my dream to write but I had to trip over Alaska to do it. The Far North gave Terry his dream of all the outdoor adventures he could handle. The 13-year-old boy who had visited his uncle for an Alaskan summer returned 20 years later and was not disappointed.

The friends we made are the same ones still there who we’ll be making the rounds to see this month. Alaska is like an eagle and once you’re in those talons, it doesn’t let go. Sharing that life makes for deep relationships.

Alaska threw so much nature at me I can’t live without it now. I learned my limitations. I will not hike off tundra and attempt rock — even if the view is spectacular. I will never get near a cow moose and her calf on foot, after listening to one snort beneath me while I stood on the deck. And probably I won’t paddle a canoe upstream again in grizzly bear country when the reds (salmon) are running.

This is a handful of the wisdom and experiences I collected before Terry’s career moved us south to Minneapolis — a direction not commonly associated with that city. Should we have moved to Alaska in 1984? There are some dreams worth tripping over.

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Alaska

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

Published

3 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A musician with Alaska Native roots recorded an hour-long live set in Interior Alaska beneath the aurora.

Chastity Ashley, a drummer, vocalist and DJ who performs under the name Neon Pony, celebrated a year since she traveled to Nenana to record a live music set beneath the northern lights for her series Beats and Hidden Retreats.

Ashley, who has Indigenous roots in New Mexico, said she was drawn to Alaska in part because of the role drums play in Alaska Native culture. A handmade Alaskan hand drum, brought to her by a man from just outside Anchorage, was incorporated into the performance in February 2025.

Recording in the cold

The team spent eight days in Nenana waiting for the aurora to appear. Ashley said the lights did not come out until around 4 a.m., and she performed a continuous, uninterrupted hour-long set in 17-degree weather without gloves.

“It was freezing. I couldn’t wear gloves because I’m actually playing, yeah, hand drums and holding drumsticks. And there was ice underneath my feet,” Ashley said.

“So, I had to really utilize my balance and my willpower and my ability to just really immerse in the music and let go and make it about the celebration of what I was doing as opposed to worrying about all the other elements or what could go wrong.”

She said she performed in a leotard to allow full range of motion while drumming, DJing and singing.

Filming on Nenana tribal land

Ashley said she did not initially know the filming location was on indigenous land. After local authorities told her the decision was not theirs to make, she contacted the Nenana tribe directly for permission.

“I went into it kind of starting to tell them who I was and that I too was a part of a native background,” Ashley said. “And they just did not even care. They’re like, listen, we’re about to have a party for one of our friends here. Go and do what you like.”

Ashley said the tribe gave her full permission to film on the reservation, and that the aurora footage seen in the episode was captured there.

Seeing the aurora for the first time

Ashley said the Nenana performance marked her first time seeing the northern lights in person.

“It felt as if I were awake in a dream,” she said. “It really doesn’t seem real.”

She said she felt humbled and blessed to perform beneath the aurora and to celebrate its beauty and grandeur through her music.

“I feel incredibly humbled and blessed that not only did I get to take part in seeing something like that, but to play underneath it and celebrate its beauty and its grandeur.”

The Alaska episode is the second installment of Beats and Hidden Retreats, which is available on YouTube at @NeonPony. Ashley said two additional episodes are in production and she hopes to make it back up to Alaska in the future.

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Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

15 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

1 day ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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