Scott's Bluff Morticians

Along the Iditarod Trail, in Alaska’s snow-coated wilderness, 57-year-old funeral home owner Scott Janssen barks, “Straight! Straight!” to his sled dogs barreling toward a checkpoint 311 miles into the famed, grueling and controversial 1,000-mile race. Nearby, canine teams rest on scattered straw; one musher removes his dogs’ protective booties to rub ointment on their paws while another feeds slabs of Chinook salmon to her hungry pack before the next push.I’ve arrived at this remote deep-frozen village of McGrath an easier way — by a flightseeing plane that will soon soar us over the Arctic Circle and land in the isolated funky Gold Rush town of Bettles, population 10.Most tourists flock to Alaska for summer cruises. But late winter offers a behind-the-scenes peek at the spectacular Christmas card beauty, vast solitude and storied mettle of the frosty Last Frontier. Did I mention full-tilt quirkiness? During my 11-day powdery adventure, I do my first-ever hike with antlered guides, including a rambunctious reindeer named Buttercup; come face-to-bearded-face with prehistoric woolly mammals at the “world’s only musk ox farm,” and sip aurora-hued martinis in a neon-aglow ice museum after melting outdoors in natural hot springs. And, huge score! From a mountaintop at night, I awe-strikingly gape at the twirling, morphing, phosphorescent green-and-pink Northern Lights.This is all part of a John Hall’s Alaska Tour that my husband and I take in early March. The all-inclusive unique itinerary, created by the family-owned company, is packed with activities (snowmobiling to a crystalline-blue glacier, curling lessons, an ice art exhibition boasting a chiseled Mongolian warrior) along with caveman-portion meals only found in a state one-fifth the size of the Lower 48. Guests even receive a keepsake sub-zero parka, although at times temps hit a balmy 20 degrees. Our bus journey, about 360 talc-white miles from Anchorage to Fairbanks, is a roadshow itself as lively tour escort Danielle Bailey points out only-in-Alaska... (The San Diego Union-Tribune)