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8 Aug 2010It’s a cool 55 degrees with a light rain and overcast. We are leaving Whitehorse freshly showered and clean clothed with full cabinets and refrigerator. We will be arriving in Alaska on Tuesday. A state park 5 miles before Tok will be our first stop. Next we will go down the Glenn Highway to the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks. We will be staying Fairbanks for a few days. I am looking forward for tour guide Bob to show me around. I’m excited to be so close to our furthest destination!
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9 August 2010Bob made the best fire last night. This is the first on our trip. It was either too hot or there was a ban on campfires. I can’t believe the snow capped mountains and the lakes that are so blue and clear. I feel like I’m in a Discovery documentary on TV. Every turn we take has another view better than the last and so much to take in. The weather is really changing. It’s mostly cloudy in the morning and cool, 55. Later in the day it’s about 63 and the sun is very warm. Last night it was down to 49!
Back on the road and heading to Snag Junction Campground. This will be our last day in the Yukon. The frost heaves got horrendous, and the road sign said it would be bumpy until the border. The road crews were out marking the worst of them. Oh well, at least most of the road so far has been in overall excellent shape considering how far we are from everything. We pulled into the campground and we were the only ones here. We got the primo campsite on the lake. We saw some swans in some remote lakes today. Always just pairs. In the Yukon they stock firewood for you. Thank you Canada. We had another nice camp fire today. The mosquitos and bugs are getting worse and worse the farther north we go. If there is any kind of breeze, there is not a bug to be found, but as soon as there is no breeze they will be out and suck you dry. One could die from loss of body fluids if not careful.
10 August 2010Left Snag Jct. campground today, last one in the Yukon. We are heading to the Alaska boarder. Tok River State park is our destination. We went through customs ok, this time they asked for Gypsy’s papers.. go figure. Not long after our arrival in to Alaska we saw a big black bear in the middle of the road! He had his butt to us and he turned around and started walking toward us! Gypsy was barking like crazy and he ran off. One more thing to cross of my list! The mosquitoes are large and ferocious. Bug spay is a must at anytime, all the time! I’ve never seen them so big and they bite right through your clothes and jackets.
We made it to Tok Alaska today. A small campground on the Tok River right before the bridge. Lots of rose hips, I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. I know they make some kind of preserves from them. I'll have to find the recipe.
11 August 2010 Left Tok this morning and Bob took me down the Glenn Highway to the Richardson Highway. What a ride! You’ve seen pictures of Alaska, and plenty of shows on TV about Alaska but they don’t do it justice. It’s just how I pictured it to be, but 100 times better. We are camping on the Gulkana River where Bob used to fish. Tomorrow we are going to see some glaciers and kettle ponds at Tangle Lake.
We are taking the long way to get from Tok to Fairbanks, but I definitely wanted to show Kim the Glenn Highway, Richardson Highway and Isabel Pass. This road is one of only two that goes through the Alaska range. The other road is the Parks Highway on which Denali Park is located. The Richardson is an older road, the original road built by the Army Engineers. It passes by many places I had either fished at or trained with the military and I wanted to show them to Kim. We stayed the night at Gulkana River Campground. The King Salmon had already run, so there wasn't much fishing activity. A few fly fishermen were casting for Grayling.
12 August 2010When we left Gulkana River I thought maybe we would camp at Tangle Lakes on the Denali Highway later that day. That park was closed, but we drove to it anyway. Even though it was cloudy, as it is most of the time in the mountains, it was worth driving and having to double back! From the vantage point of the Tangle Lakes, you can see the Alaskan Mountain Range from as far as you can see westward to as far as you can see eastward. It is impressive. Alaska is even more beautiful than I remember, the mountains are bigger, the glaciers are closer, the rivers are faster and bigger, and just about everything is better than I remember. The mosquitoes are the same. The weather changed for the worse as the day went on, so I decided to head for Fairbanks. We took quite a few rest stops for pictures. I cut off the highway and showed Kim Pump Station 8 where I used to work. On the way back down from the Pump Station, Kim saw her first moose and calf of the trip. I took a quick shower and we headed into Fairbanks. Things have changed quite a bit. I guess the biggest changes are that there are two "Expressways" going through town, and there are the ubiquitous Home Depot and Super Walmart. The two expressways have routed the traffic away from the downtown area. The old main drag is now just holding in there economically, and downtown hardly has people walking around anymore. Progress? I visited where I used to live, and it still is very nice there. I remember my way around pretty well. The old stuff is still around, it's just there is alot of new stuff.
I got a chance to show Kim some of the original downtown Fairbanks from the Gold rush era. Many of the small homes and cabins built during the early 1900's are still here. Some are in remarkable condition, others look their age.
13 August 2010We slept in today since it was a day off in Fairbanks. I headed into town to look up my old physician, but had no luck. I did have success calling an old very highly respected acquaintance who I worked with on the pipeline. I can't call someone like George a friend. We never did anything together as buds, but we always enjoyed being around each other and talking. Many a lunch time or evening shift did I spend speaking with George. Ring, Ring. "Hello is this Mr. George Steck?" I said into the phone. "Who the hell is this?" was the quick and demanding reply. Mr. George Steck, a fixture in Fairbanks since 1958 and quite a piece of work as you'd say, even before I met him. I worked with George at Pump 8. We reminisced about things, and he shared some deep stories of himself and his life growing up in Chicago, his stint in the Army in WWII and losing his wife. He brought a few pictures of people we had both know, and a pamphlet about finance and a couple health related newsletters from Harvard and the Mayo clinic because he knew I'd be interested in them. He is a very good man and always thoughtful. People like him are what I've missed other most about Fairbanks. He, Kim and I had coffee downtown Fairbanks at McHaferty's, just as he'd like it. He took our picture at the entrance of the coffee shop, as he would always like to document everything. It was sad saying good-bye, it wasn't really a good-bye, he just took our picture, I shook his hand, and he was off to his car and on his way as if it was just so normal that someone from 25 years ago in his life should pop in again. He is 83.7 years old, living in Fairbanks. What a guy!
I had been wanting sourdough pancakes since I had thought of them thinking about the roadhouses along the Alcan when we first started the trip. George had told us of Sam's Sourdough Cafe, so Kim and I headed there for a late lunch. We made reservations at the Turtle Club for Sunday, our anniversary.
I had forgot to mention that we stopped in at Big Rays All-Weather Outfitters downtown Fairbanks since we both needed hats. I've never seen a larger selection of cold weather and wet weather gear anywhere. I guess this is the place to have a store like that if any place at all. I did look for Samsons hardware, where I was going to buy some Buhach natural insect repellent. I was informed that the old Samsons was torn down, but the new one, under new management is now called Samsons True Value Hardware, and was somewhere on Philips-Field road near the airport. Sheesh! that's what happens when Home Depot comes to town. I think you could have found spare parts for Fred Flinstones brontosaurus burger machine in that place when it was still around. There was nothing that place didn't have. It supplied all the miners and the town since early 1904.CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO VIEW A LARGER IMAGE OR REVIEW ENTIRE IMAGE ALBUM OR GOOGLE MAP LOCATION
We had a real nice visit here in Fairbanks. The weather was nice, today it reached 90 degrees out! I know Bob is happy about being back to see all of the old and some of the new. It was great having a tour guide and to not have to worry about how your are getting somewhere all the time. Bob was able to tell me all kinds of stories about people, places and things from the years that he lived here. The small towns outside Fairbanks are very nice. There you feel like you are in Alaska. On the way home from Murphy dome tonight I said "okay, it's dusk, where are the moose" and sure enough on the side of the road were two big ones chomping on the trees! I can't believe we've been married a year already. We had a nice dinner tonight and we were pleased to spend our first anniversary in Fairbanks! Tomorrow we leave for Denali National Park. Really looking forward to it. Tomorrows forcast for Denali National Park is 68 for the high, 53 for the low and raining.
We walked along the Chena River in the Golden Heart Park downtown Fairbanks and visited the statue of the "Unknown First Family". I then drove through some of the historic parts of town to take some pictures of the types of homes the original settlers had built in Fairbanks. All of these homes are still being lived in. The homes were made to suit them best in their environment. That mean low ceilings, small windows, usually a centrally located stove, open space for cooking and sleeping. How easy and convenient to live like that, as long as there was a
huge heated workshop out back. We drove to Creamers Field where the residents of Fairbanks, each spring, await the arrival of the geese, sand-hill cranes and ducks on their stopover to nesting areas further north in their migration. It is big news when the geese arrive at Creamers Field, the entire town knows, its in the paper, and it means that the long cold winter is over and spring is arriving as scheduled. I think this is also the same time of year as the down hill out-house races, I'm not sure, you'd have to ask my brother Chris, he used to partake in them when he lived in Alaska. We found the office of Dr. Carol Davis and left her a note saying hello from her good friend Pat. We stopped off for some ice cream at "Hot Licks" a small new place near the University. Kim's was delicious, mine was just okay. It was getting late, so we headed home to get some rest and update the web site.
14 August 2010We started out the day headed to Livengood Alaska. Jay Livengood and Ted Hudson discovered gold in 1914. It's an historic gold camp on mile 71 of the Elliot Highway, getting into the White Montains in the Yukon-Koyukuk Borough. Things have changed since the gold rush. The population is 28 but the land area is 265 square miles, now, you do the math. Within the two miles of the main road we found one lonely cabin and a shed and a portable dredge pump which we left alone. No trespassing on mining claims! There was a sign on the cabin door "Not Public Closed Keep Out". There is also a road maintenance facility located there. We couldn't find one person to speak with. Between 1915 and 1920 they mined 9.5 million worth of gold. Large scale mining in the 30's and 40's failed. A large gold mining interest has bought up the remaining Livengood gold bench. In 1957 they closed the Post Office. We did notice small mining activity in the local area, but just not a Livengood any longer.
In 1979 a miner near Livengood discovered an Ice Age Bison, 36,000 years old. After visiting Livengood we headed out the Steese Highway to Chatanika Lodge for lunch. I had hunted and fished along both of these highways in the past, and it was good seeing them again. The lodge seems to be one of the few that remain open year round any more. It still rents rooms, has a bar, a good size restaurant and a dance floor and billiard tables. Caribou season is open now, so there were plenty of people out with their 4 wheelers in tow. I don't know of one person that actually likes the taste of Caribou. I guess if you mix it with something and make sausage it could be good. My good friend Bob, I'm afraid I was a little too late to get any good information for you about Livengood. Even Wikipedia has the same lonely cabin as the one I found. Each time I go somewhere I plan on taking an alternate route. We came home via Gold Mine trail which a shadow community that parallels Fairbank to the north along the mountains to the north. I expected more to be built in this area. The temperatures in the hill around Fairbanks can be up to 20 to 30 degrees warmer in the winter because of the inversion layer. Fairbanks is located in a bowl, and the very cold weather just sits there and doesn't move. After a few of those very cold days, ice fog moves in and an inversion layer starts to form. People like Subaru's up here. There are a lot more diesel trucks around than there used to be. You have to use No. 1 diesel in the winter.
15 August 2010Had smoked salmon (Sockeye) and coffee for breakfast, thanks to Kim. One would think salmon would be less expensive here since this is where it is caught, but no, all the salmon is processed in Seattle and has to be sent back up here. It is still darn good however. There are a few different types of salmon that are caught in Alaska. My favorite for catching and eating is King Salmon also knoon as Chinook Salmon. It is the biggest salmon and has rich orange flesh. My other favorite, although hard to catch are Sockeye Salmon also known as Reds and Kokanee. The flesh on these is even richer and darker orange than the Kings. Next is Silver Salmon also known as Coho Salmon. The meat is not as dark or rich as either Kings or Reds, but still very good. Then come the Pink Salmon also known as Humpy's or Humpback Salmon. Often you see this in stores or in cans on the shelves. It would be okay to eat like a tuna fish sandwich, mixed with mayo, etc. It is my least favorite. Lastly are Dog Salmon or Chum Salmon. These are usually not eaten by people. Often these are used to feed sled dogs. A couple other items from the sea are famous in Alaska. Halibut that look like giant flounders and King Crabs. We went to University of Alaska Museum. This definitely is worth the visit. The Ice Age Bison, Blue Babe, that I wrote about earlier was preserved and located in the museum. The picture of the polar bear is a picture of a picture that was in the museum. A painting that looks better than a photo. After the museum we went to the Turtle Club for dinner, then a drive up to Murphy Dome Radar station, north and west of Fairbanks. Murphy Dome is a remote unmanned site and is located above the tree line and it is always windy, as it was tonight, but the view was spectacular. Double click on the photo to the left to see what we saw from Murphy Dome last night. Between yesterday and today, we got a chance to see all of the major gold mining areas around Fairbanks. We covered east, north and then west, I'm happy with that. We got home and took Gypsy for a nice long walk along the river.
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