Tuesday May 12th, 2009
We left Atlanta at 9:30 am and flew 3 legs to Fairbanks.
1st ~ Atlanta to Salt Lake City 2nd ~ Salt Lake City to Seattle 3rd ~ Seattle to Fairbanks Arrived in Fairbanks at 9 pm with a nip in the air at 52* and still broad daylight! After a 12 hour day we didn't wait up to see the sunset. But it was daylight again around 3 am when I got up for a potty trip.
Wednesday the 13th we spent 3.5 ours on the Riverboat Discovery down the Chena River visiting Susan Butcher's dogs, a walking tour thru an Aathabacan camp and a bush pilot taking off right next to us.
Couldn't get the paddle boat all in one picture it was so big!
Bush planes play a vital role in the pioneering of Alaska, succeeding the riverboats in transportation history. Because of Alaska's vast remote areas, service by airplane is still essential to the timely delivery of supplies. Today, Alaska has the highest per capita ownership of private aircraft.
Susan Butcher won the 1,100 mile Iditarod Dog Sled Race from Anchorage to Nome four times. We visited her kennels where her husband carries on. Mind you, we were still on the paddleboat and spoke via headset to her husband below. He hooked up a team of dogs to a 4 wheeler w/o the engine and off they went! "Hike" for go, "Gee" for turn right, "Hawl" for turn left, "Easy" for slow down, and of course "Whoa" for stop.
Farther down the river we saw the camp and learned how wolf, fox, martin and beaver were used to provide food and protection in the harsh Arctic climate; how fish are prepared for human and dog consumption, smoke house and their huts and hunting skills. Here is a fish wheel which scoops fish from the river as it is turned by the current. Sounds like a good idea here in the south!
Also Reindeer up close and personal. Learned Reindeer is the name for domesticated ones and Caribou, which is the same, is the name for the wild ones. We later tried the Reindeer sausage but with all the spices couldn't taste anything different. Then we toured the village with a guide, it was all very interesting.
Back to the lodge for a quick bite of lunch and off again! This time to the El Dorado Gold Mine ~ a train ride thru the mts learning of how gold was mined in the olden days then back to the camp where it is still mined today by modern methods. We were all given a small bag of "poke" to find the gold. Dipping and panning for 30 mins at least, this is hard work!
We didn't 'strike it rich', our gold together totaled a mere $11.00!
The Alaska Pipeline is 800 miles long from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, crossing 3 mountain ranges and over 800 rivers and streams. Takes 4 1/2 days to travel the 800 miles. In last 20 yrs more than 11 billion barrels of oil have gone thru the pipes.
That "night" we went to the famed Salmon Bake and had a taste of it all; fried Cod and Halibut, Prime Rib and King Salmon but must say my husband still holds the title on the best grilled Salmon around!
See this plug? We southerners haven't a clue and perhaps some of you others too. All the cars have this here. It's to plug their cars into a heat source for the extreme winters. Fan belts can disintegrate at 45* below and keys can snap off in door locks!
How was the weather you ask? Today it was 55* with a low of 36* and about 21 hours of daylight. In speaking with a local we were told this past Dec of 2008 temps were 60* BELOW!! There is a lot of depression here in Fairbanks during the long cold dark winters where the opposite happens. Maybe an hour or two of daylight and I'm told it's like dusky daylight at that. Suicide rates are high here.
Fairbanks is the place to be for the Northern Lights in the winter til March but this past yr was the absolute pits, no sun spot activity at all. Locals tell us the past few years have been poor.
Needless to say, after our long fun filled day we didn't mind the daylight, fell right to sleep!
