The Here and Now

Yesterday a few other teachers and I traveled up to the Point.
Look at a map of northern Alaska and you will notice a point at the very tip-top of the state. A few miles down the beach is the town of Barrow, the place that I now call my home.

So, yesterday we hopped on a 4-wheeler and sped up along rocky sand to that very tippy-toppy place. To see the view.

Now, the thing about the Point is that people here have put this narrow sandbar to a very important use.

You see, every year when the whales and caribou and seals are slaughtered the bones and excess, well, parts, need to be disposed of. If these meaty pieces are tossed in the “land fill” near town then the olfactory-gifted polar bears will come a runnin’.

Making it rather dangerous to be a pedestrian in the vicinity.

Therefore, all those tasty treats are taken to the Point to be dropped and to lure the polar bears away from town.

We traveled to the Point. We stood on the farthest north plot of land in the United States.
We smelled the smell of the ocean and the stench of rotting whale.
We saw bones bigger than any of us.

Here is a picture showing several containers of big-ass bones.















This shot is a spinal column of, well something. It was about 6 feet long. My guess is that it is a polar bear. Though I am not entirely sure.