Trapper Creek

As the Valley Bureau reporter, it’s my responsibility to keep up with what’s happening in the Mat-Su. All reporters are supposed to come to the morning meeting with a story idea, but when I was working in Anchorage, most reporters didn’t come prepared… or they would come with an idea pulled straight from the Anchorage Daily Newspaper. (*sigh*) If it’s in the newspaper, it’s OLD news!!!

Since I’m living/working in Wasilla now, I conference call in to that meeting. But being new to the area, it is difficult to find stories. The PR person for the Mat-Su Borough sent me a press release a week ago about the Borough’s request from the state to help repair / replace bridges and roads throughout the Valley because nearly ¾ are considered substandard.

The Valley is an interesting place… well, I guess you could say the same for nearly 98% of Alaska… but people who moved to the Valley years ago liked it because of it’s beauty, cheap prices of land, the rural location with an outdoor playground nearby, and local government doesn’t have much of a say-so as far as where homes/cabins can be built. In fact, the Borough still doesn’t really have building codes. So, if you move to the Valley and build a cabin right next to a Lake, the Borough says they could fine you, but there’s no enforcement. A lot of homes and businesses are in locations that you’ll drive by and think, Why did someone build right there?

With that in mind… it’s no wonder most of the roads and bridges aren’t up to par. Many residents live wayyyy out in the sticks. I mean, having to drive hours just to get to a small city like Wasilla. I just wonder what people do for a living to be able to live in the middle of nowhere?

Some of the substandard bridges in the Valley are made out of old rail cars – with the wheels removed. I found out from the Borough that two are located in the Trapper Creek area… about 2 and ½ miles north of Wasilla. Kris & I woke up early and headed north on the Parks Highway around 8:30am. One of the people we were meeting to interview about the bridge had warned: Drive slow because a lot of moose will be out that early in the morning. Boy, he wasn’t kidding. We saw 15 moose - total - just driving up to Trapper Creek. It was crazy. The first ones we saw were three all together and one took off running and stopped in the middle of the road. Kris came to a complete stop and we just sat there going, “MOVE!” Haha. It was a very stressful drive because at any moment, moose could come trampling across. And those animals are so big, you definitely don’t want to hit one with your vehicle.


Speaking of which, an army soldier with the 425th brigade – from Lawrenceville, GA but based in Alaska – returned home around Thanksgiving and last week, while he was driving on the New Seward Highway, hit a moose… and died.

Okay, back to the story we were working on. We finally got out to the location for our story and it was -10 degrees. And we’re doing interviews / getting footage outside. I had on at least three layers… and hand warmers in my gloves… and was still shivering. It was a really dry cold, and I could feel my nose hairs slowly hardening with every breath. My nose started running and froze. And when I looked down at my scarf, I noticed that my breath falling upon it had frozen!! Haha. We stayed out about 40 minutes and that’s all I could handle.


During my live shot with JT at 5 o’clock, I finished with my story and usually JT will say, Thanks, Lori… Lori Tipton reporting from our Valley Bureau tonight. But he went off script and it turned out like this:

JT: Hey, Lori?
((long pause))
LT: Yeah?
JT: It doesn’t get this cold in Georgia, does it?
LT: Nope. This is definitely the coldest weather I’ve ever been out in. Haha. I mean, -10 degrees when we were out there. Whew.
JT: Well, you’re a trooper. And you’re doing great.