Alaska - Part Three.

North to the Chena River, where we visited the stunning but freezing ice hotel, complete with ice beds in ice rooms, an igloo music room and beautiful ice sculptures everywhere. 

After an iced vodka cocktail at the ice bar (you get the idea), we warmed up by having a dip in the natural hot springs next door, water bubbling and steaming out of the rocks like a gorgeous giant sulphuric bath, and making us feel like human lobsters.

We then had a mad dash back into town, as Mike was giving a talk about Big Foot in Fairbanks biggest bookshop, Barnes and Noble. As with everything in America, things are always bigger here, and this bookshop was no different. It was the size of a supermarket with a large cafe inside and a big circular fire-pit in the middle of the store, with a dozen or so people dozing or reading around the blazing fire. Diana and I were in complete heaven, both being total book nuts.

The talk was a massive success... with so many people turning up for the presentation, that Mike had to do it twice! Big Foot is a big deal over here and they even have a hit TV reality show called 'Finding Big Foot' which some of Mike's friends are in. Quite a few of the audience talked of sightings, with one Alaskan Native woman, in particular, showing us footage of an entire Big Foot family, on her iPad. But there were plenty of skeptics too, providing quite a lively Q&A session afterwards.

We then joined the SOPAH (seekers of paranormal and history) gang, to talk about ghosts, haunted houses, exorcisms and poltergeists... as you do.

We all went for dinner, and for a treat afterwards, they took us to their favourite haunted property, a Masonic Lodge. Oh joy. I would have preferred coffee and dessert myself, but this was the way they did things. I was terrified. The stories we had heard about this place were not for the faint hearted, and the amount of equipment they lugged in to the place was even more intimidating. The had meters for reading electricity and temperature, to see if there was something in the rooms other than ourselves. They had a spirit box which attempts to photograph ghosts as they pass through it, there was a machine for recording voices, night vision cameras, all sorts. These guys meant business. I put on as many clothes as possible, as if this would protect me from the spirits, and we went in. There were about 12 of us in total, but so much for safety in numbers... as soon as we were in the door, everyone went different directions... some upstairs, some to the basement, they just scattered. I thought the basement would finish me off in term s of terror, so opted for going upstairs with two of the other women on the team who had waited for me. What they hadn't told me, was that the upstairs was where most of the scary stuff happened... it was where the Masonic rituals had been held, so women in particular were not very welcome, as it was a male-only domain. Thanks guys, good to know.

The first thing that happened as we got to the top of the wide staircase, in the pitch black, with only one torch, was Diana rushing past us, back down the stairs, looking utterly petrified. Oh God. "Diana, what's wrong, are you ok?" I shouted after her, "Did you see something?". "No, I'm fine. Just going downstairs" she said, very unconvincingly. Oh God. The girls pulled me upstairs, saying they would protect me. I clung to them like a baby gorilla as they flashed the torch around the vast room and towards the altar at the far end. Mel walked off towards a small ante-room, which she said had been used as a holding area. For what? Human sacrifices, animal sacrifices? She sounded so excited as she disappeared into the blackness, voice fading. Chris and I were left on our own with only her key-ring torch, a bloody useless thing that only lit up about two feet in front of us. We suddenly felt a cold draught and the torch went off. "Chris, I swear to God, if you are messing around, I will kill you" I said, grabbing her sleeve. The torch flickered, then went off again. My heart was beating so fast I thought I might throw up but then I got the giggles. You know when your adrenalin starts pumping and you start to feel a little hysterical? Well that was me, a giggling, shaking mess. We decided to go into a smaller room with another guy called Mike, and as we walked in, the door slammed behind us... so that was enough to send me downstairs! Diana was there looking very peaky, and she described how she had felt a very cold, angry presence upstairs that loomed up in front of her, blocking her way. She was really scared it would push her over and felt sick and dizzy. As more of the group gathered in the hallway also reporting feelings of nausea, I suggested maybe it was due to the heavy Mexican dinner we'd had, but this didn't go down very well. They are very serious about their ghosts. 

After a restless night back in the RV, and kept awake most of the time by the snore that was Brad, we decided to have a lazy day. We drove up to the North Pole and visited Santa Claus. Yup, North Pole, Alaska. Just a town that happens to have the same name, and so, of course, they've gone potty and built a Christmas shop with a real Santa, reindeer, the lot. Slightly ridiculous but also rather fun. The best thing in the shop though, were christmas fairy lights made from used gun cartridges... ahhh, how perty!

 After that, we headed over to Mel's house for the sort of party I think I will only ever experience once. It began with Diana and I having our fortunes read by Mel, followed by booze, food and shooting guns. This is partying Alaska style. The food was amazing... not quite so amazing for Mike and Diana who are vegetarian and had to make do with pasta salad, but for the rest of us, it was heaven. Freshly caught Alaskan salmon, pork loin, giant Alaskan king crab legs, yummmm. Mel lives out in the sticks so you can make a lot of noise and shoot guns. In fact, they were soo excited when they found out I had only ever shot an air rifle and gone clay pigeon shooting, that they all got out their guns immediately. Mel's guns were in her closet, three rifles, two shotguns, a handgun and two tiny pink rifles that were her granddaughters, I kid you not! 

Mike, a friend of theirs who was a sniper in the US Military, had his own personal arsenal. He had a professional crossbow, knives, rifles, shotguns, handguns, you name it, it was in the boot of his car. He also wore a gun at all times, strapped to his belt. This was definitely the man I wanted to teach me how to shoot. 

Half of us piled into Ty's truck, and the other half went in Jason's jeep, including Mike, Diana and Brad. The jeep took off so fast, gravel and dirt spitting out behind them, that we lost sight of them immediately but Mel assured us they were going to the same place as us, so we weren't worried. We had almost got to a clearing, when we were flagged down by another truck. Mel immediately shouted, "Don't stop, they've got guns, they might rob us or something", to which Mike replied, "We've got more guns than they will ever see!". Fair point. As we pulled over, we realised they were only teenagers. They told us they had put some explosives in an old fridge but had run out of ammunition, so would one of us like to shoot it instead? You don't get asked that question every day! Mike leapt out, quick as a flash and sprawled on the ground, high powered rifle in hand, aiming at the tiny white target, three hundred feet away. Seconds later... Boom! The whole thing exploded into the air, fireball, smoke, absolutely deafening. I was trying to film it and I must admit, I didn't get a lot in the frame. Not only was the noise so unexpected but you could actually feel the explosion in your chest. I think I also uttered every swear word I have ever known in the space of ten seconds.

So then it was our turn. I watched for a while, seeing how casually they all seemed to handle the weapons. They were very safe, don't get me wrong, but they were just so used to them that seeing me flinch and hide behind the car, every time a shot went off, was highly amusing to them. I was finally persuaded to come from behind the truck and shoot a rifle. Mike gave me a 22 calibre to start with, or as Mel kindly described it, "The kinda gun my kids shoot!". Thanks Mel, no pressure. And it was fine. I aimed, I shot, I hit a beer bottle, yay. I shot some more, and some more and was scarily enjoying myself. I was then given a bigger gun but I have no idea what it was called, just that it gave me a bit of a kick in the shoulder when I fired. Meanwhile, Mel was shooting some crazy looking shotgun that kicked her back about two feet and everyone else had some sort of gun in their hands, shooting into the distance. Totally freaky but my God, a total adrenalin rush. 

We suddenly realised we hadn't seen the jeep since leaving the house, and were wondering where they had got to, when we got a text, telling us they had gone off the road and were stuck in the mud. All the guys I was with just laughed, because it happens all the time in the bush, and usually the jeeps can get themselves out, but as time went on, the texts became more frantic, and it became clear they were really really stuck. So the problem with that information was there was no way of knowing where they were. There were no road signs, no distinguishing features, only mud tracks and woods, so we had no way of knowing where they were stuck in order to get them out. I knew Brad, Mike and Diana would be freaking out by this time... stuck in a jeep, in the dark, in the middle of bear country. I got quite annoyed and said, "Look guys, you may not be bothered about trying to find your friends but my friends will be scared, so please let's stop bloody shooting and try and find them".

I must have sounded fairly authoritative because they all stopped, packed the guns away and got in the truck. Amazing. After dropping the rest of us off at the house, they went out and found them, cold, muddy and tired. But the poor guys were not only in an accident with a maniac driver, they missed all the shooting too. Didn't seem fair. 

What also didn't seem fair was Mel offering me her spare room while the others slept in the RV. What?! I thought refusing would be rude!