Taking a roadtrip from WA to AK this summer

[FauteDeMieux]

Forgetwho,

Thanks for the advice. We hope to camp 3 nights at Wonder Lake. Are the bugs really as bad as I keep hearing? People keep telling me not to bother unless I bring a headnet and 16 pounds of DEET.

As to the B&B, great recommendation! We'll definitely check it out, seems really neat and it's reasonably priced.

[forgetwho]

I'm glad my recommendations are useful :-).

At Arctic Getaway (also known, btw, as Igloo No. 8...lol) you'll see Bernie and Utta's sled dogs. And find Jack - I forget his last name, but everyone will know who he is, since the population of Wiseman is about 25 - and ask him to let you into the museum and tell you about the place. And get someone to show you the one pay phone in town - it's in an actual phone booth that sits on someone's back porch, and it's used often when the town's phone service and Internet go down. Also, read Bob Marshall's Arctic Village before or after you go to Wiseman. The book is about Wiseman in the 1930's. The back room of Bernie and Utta's house is where village dances were held then.

I've stayed in Wiseman twice, both times after backpacking trips in the Brooks Range when weather delayed our bush flight back out to Coldfoot so that it was too late to fly back to Fairbanks the same night. (Coldfoot has an uninteresting cafe/lodging complex, a great new Visitor Center, and a tiny airport where Dirk, the proprietor of Coyote Air and a terrific bush pilot, lives with his family in the summer and has his office.)

About the bugs - it just depends, on whether it's early or late season, windy or still, rainy or sunny - the mosquitoes can be very bad, or they can be not there at all. I would bring the Deet and the headnet, and loratadine (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loratadine; you can get loratadine over the counter - Claritin or some other brand) if you tend to be allergic to bites, and then not worry about it. I have visited Alaska seven times (including Denali twice and the two stays in Wiseman), and the mosquito situation has been really varied. Mosquitoes or not, you'll have a great time.