This train is not fast, it is not fast, the whole railway line is built in the mountains, and there are no tunnels, you have to detour in the mountains, of course you have to build bridges in the water, but those bridges look so thin, it seems that the funds are really not very abundant when this railway was built.

The train stops at a few small stations along the way, all of which were supply stations and settlements built by gold diggers, and the scenery is beautiful, surrounded by tall cedar forests and rushing streams down the hillsides. But in winter, when it snows heavily, the mountains can be miserable. There were no trains or helicopters, and from November to May, everyone had to stay in the cabins, and it was boring to go anywhere.

Cruise ship passengers like Hong Tao can't follow the small train to the destination, because the second half of the railway is within the Canadian border, if you want to go further, you have to get off the train and go through the entry check, those Americans may use a U.S. passport, Hong Tao has nowhere to get a Canadian visa, so the passengers on the cruise ship generally go here and change to the train back.

Coming and going, it took about 5 hours, Hong Tao can be regarded as having seen more than half of the woods and streams in this life at one time, there is nothing else along the way, how many big trees there are, the roots are straight and straight, from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. And then there are countless streams and rivers, and I don't know where they came from or where they are going, and they are going up and down.

By the time we got back to Skagüey, it was past lunchtime, but it didn't matter, there was a cafeteria open 24 hours a day, so you can go and eat whenever you want. It was here that Hong Tao and Erin finished their last cruise meal, then packed their bags and said hello to the Lady Kerford, who then escorted them off the ship.

Skagüey's airport is at the other end of town, with a runway that resembles a stretch of highway with a small wooden building on one side. There are three floors, with the airport's control tower on the top and the departure lounge on the first floor, with a total of two rows of wooden benches. Hong Tao and Erin had already contacted the small company mentioned by Ms. Kelford by phone, and they had also met the captain, the first officer, the navigator, the flight attendant, and the police officer in the waiting room, Mr. Bag.

Mr. Bagh is about 30 years old, half a head taller than Hong Tao, wearing a pair of very old jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt on the upper body. To say that he is a cowboy Hong Tao is sure of faith, or the kind that is in a state of unemployment. And Hong Tao suspects that this person is a bit second, he and Erin are wearing a warm coat and don't feel very warm, but he wears a short-sleeved top, and wears short-sleeved in winter.

If it weren't for his plane, Hong Tao even planned to call Kerford immediately and ask her if there was anyone else, although this person didn't look very reliable, his plane would be really good at that time. At least compared to the other two planes parked on the runway, Bag's plane was both newer and larger. Of course, this is relatively speaking, saying that his plane is relatively large. That's because his plane can take 7 people, while the other two planes can only take 4 people.

"You're going to see the aurora? That's going to Fairbanks, and if you're going to Anchorage, you're going to fly to Fairbanks. Are you sure you're going to Anchorage? Although Bagh didn't look very reliable, he was a very good person, and when he heard that Hong Tao and Erin were going to see the Northern Lights. immediately pointed out that there was a problem with the original destination, and in order to prove what he said, he also specially called the next airport staff member from the upper floor to help him testify.

Listen to people's persuasion, eat well, and Hong Tao thinks that what Bag said has some point, because from the map, Fairbanks is closer to the Arctic Circle than Anchorage, about 500 kilometers. Since it's to see the aurora, it should be easier to see it the further north you go, and Bagh also said that there is nothing to do in Anchorage this season, and the only national park there is also closed in winter.

Bag's small plane sat pretty well, at least it was much more comfortable than Hong Tao imagined, and he didn't want the kind of transport plane he took in South Africa back then, although they were all propeller planes, but the noise and vibration were not big. What made Hong Tao even more excited was that Ba Ge actually allowed him to sit in the co-pilot's position, you must know that the co-pilot and the real driver's position are basically the same, there are also joysticks, rudder pedals and a lot of instruments, which are generally not used by passengers, probably because they are afraid that passengers will mess with the equipment and affect flight safety.

The small plane did not fly high, and Bagh said that the weather was good today, so that all of them could fly low and let Hu Fly and Irene see the scenery below, and once it caught up with the rainy weather, the plane had to burrow into the clouds to fly, otherwise it was likely to crash headfirst into the mountain in the case of poor vision.

After flying for a while, Hong Tao felt that he and Erin had spent too much money on the more than $3,000 ferry tickets, and from the plane, the valley below could not be said to be full of glaciers, anyway, one could be seen in a while. Looking down from the sky, it's easy to distinguish between snow and glaciers, with glaciers that glow blue like glass and snow that are white.

"Look, this is the real Alaska, it's snowing up ahead, and we're going to rise." After taking off for a while, the sea was no longer visible to the left of the plane, at which point Bagh pointed down and began to slowly begin to climb.

Hong Tao looked to the west of the plane, the ground scenery here was completely different from that of Skagüey, there was no green at all, white and black were mixed, the white should be the snow, and the black was the woods. Gradually, nothing could be seen from the plane, and the ground below became gray and full of cumulonimbus clouds, and there was no clear sky around or above, and there were gloomy colors everywhere, and it was getting dark.

In fact, when the cruise ship arrived in Skagüey, Hong Tao had already felt the obvious climate change here, to say that it was cold, Skagüey was not too cold, as long as it was not windy, and he could wear a set of warm clothes, and the two sets of high-end cold-proof clothes he and Irene bought were not used. But it doesn't light until 8 o'clock in the morning, and it gets dark before 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and the daytime is a bit short.

But after flying north for 2 hours on the plane, Hong Tao and Erin not only put on winter clothes, but the sky outside changed again. It's only less than 3:30 p.m., and it's going to be dark, it's still high in the sky, and if you land on the ground, it is estimated that it will be dark early. After more than three hours of flying, the small plane finally landed at the airport in Fairbanks in the dark, and the time was only half past four in the afternoon.

The airport in Fairbanks is not fundamentally different from the small airport in Skagui, but the people here seem to be thick-skinned, and they actually made a big sign on the small terminal building, which reads: Fairbanks International Airport!

At this time, the pilot Comrade Bag had already completed his mission, but he did not leave immediately, Gu said that basically no one would fly here from Skagey this season, so he did not want to let the plane go back in vain, and wanted to find a cheap hotel here to stay for two days, to see if there were any people who went to the camp in the Arctic Circle or those who happened to return to Skagey and Anchorage, so that there would be no need to run back and forth.

"What does Camp Arctic Circle mean?" Hong Tao's curiosity surged up again.

"It's a truck driver's stopover, it's already within the Arctic Circle, and some tourists want to go there." Bag asked Hong Tao to take out the map and dot the place north of Fairbanks, which from the map must be more than 400 kilometers away.

"Is there a hotel with better conditions? Isn't it better to see the aurora? Hong Tao felt that the farther north he went, the more he had actually been to Alaska, so he began to discuss the feasibility of going there with Bager.

"There is only one hotel there, a total of 3 rooms, a shop, a post office, except for a nearby Inuit village, there is nothing to play, probably ice fishing, snowmobiles, dog sledding can be played, as for the hotel room, I think it's not bad, there is heating, hot water, pay TV, very clean, oh, by the way, there is a hot spring, you can go in and bubble." As soon as Bagge saw that Hong Tao had the intention of going, he immediately came to his senses and began to talk about the situation in that camp.

"Well, don't wait here, let's go to the camp you mentioned, we'll stay there for about 2 days, and then you can send us back to Anchorage, what do you think?" When Hong Tao heard it, isn't it very good, there are almost all that should be there, as for the hotel, as long as it is clean and warm, it will be.

"No problem, I'll go refuel and report the flight, you wait for me for a while!" When Bagh heard that the deal was coming again, he was as happy as a child, and he even jumped up and down to command the tower to run, and looked back as he ran, for fear that Hong Tao and Irene would run.

In less than half an hour, Hong Tao and Erin rose into the air again, and this time they couldn't see any scenery, and it was completely dark. Hong Tao had nothing to do when he was idle, and began to chat with Bag about the knowledge of flying, such as how to use instruments to identify directions, know his flight altitude, and how to use the pulse signals emitted by the airport and the navigation station to locate the position of his plane. It's not that Hong Tao wants to learn to fly an airplane, it's mainly that night flights are too boring, and he has to find something to do for himself.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, Bag's small plane landed on a runway that made people tremble, and after getting off the plane, Hong Tao realized that this was not a runway at all, but the surface of a small lake. The locals organized a relatively flat area on the surface of the lake, and then laid out two rows of lights on both sides, which was considered a runway. You can't land medium or large planes, and you can't land and take off when it's snowing or windy, and even in good weather, only pilots who are familiar with the area can come here. (To be continued......)