Husky News

FAIRBANKS, Alaska –The new movie “Into the Wild” tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a young adventurer who wandered across the continent and died in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992 at the age of 24.

Fans of the movie may be inspired to visit some of the locales and landscapes featured in the film. You can even enter a contest to win a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, part of a joint promotion between the movie and the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, at www.intothewild.com. (Click on “Adventure” for the entry form; the contest ends Oct. 26.)

But the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that local tourism officials are also concerned about insuring the safety of tourists who might come on their own seeking to see the abandoned bus near Denali National Park in Alaska where McCandless died. The remote site is out of cell phone range, reachable only by hiking the Stampede Trail and fording the Teklanika River.

The newspaper reported that Fairbanks tourism officials plan to include an article about the book, movie and trail in an upcoming 2008 visitors guide, but that the article will include a cautionary note about potential dangers.

The Alaska Travel Industry Association is promoting trip ideas that offer a taste of adventure “with the assurance of survival.”

The options include staying at one of Denali Park’s lodges – Camp Denali, Northface Lodge, Denali Backcountry Lodge or the Kantishna Roadhouse; a floatplane trip to a bear-viewing site in Katmai National Park; glacier-trekking in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and visiting Gates of the Arctic National Park, which is accessible only by air and averages fewer than 5,000 visitors a year.

Another option for an unusual Alaska adventure is a new tour from the Travcoa company, which is offering an eight-day trip, Feb. 27-March 5, built around the famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The trip – $5,995 a person – takes an inside look at the life of a musher and includes stops at a wilderness lodge and a race checkpoint. Details at www.travcoa.com.

Delta previews new menus

Delta Airlines is launching a new upscale menu of in-flight meals designed by celebrity chef Todd English.

The menu includes Mediterranean salad with grilled shrimp, roast beef Cobb sandwich, chilled black olive spaghetti salad, cheddar-turkey bacon-apple butter croissants and Nutter Butter sandwiches. Items will sell for $2-$10.

The new meals will be introduced in November. By spring of 2008, they will be available on all flights of approximately 750 miles (about 90 minutes) in the contiguous U.S., serving markets like Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Boston, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., and Tampa.

Delta has also hired Andrea Robinson, a master sommelier, TV host and author, to curate its wine offerings. Her selections debut in Delta’s business class in February.

Delta, based in Atlanta, emerged from bankruptcy protection on April 30.

Other airlines have also brought in well-known chefs in recent years. Air France’s wine selections are overseen by Olivier Poussier, named the world’s best sommelier in 2000 by an international sommeliers’ association, while the French airline’s first-class meal menu was designed by a renowned Paris chef, Guy Martin of Le Grand Vefour restaurant.

Source: Associated Press