Fairbanks (update 9/1)

We arrived in Fairbanks in the afternoon of Friday August 25th after a short drive of only 120 miles. That evening we went to Pioneer Village for an Alaska Salmon Bake. Pioneer Village is a little like Greenfield Village but with an amusement parks with rides. They celebrate the History of Fairbanks with a major emphasis on the Gold Rush.  

The Salmon bake was an outdoor buffet that featured grilled salmon, roasts prime rib and fried cod. There was a a big salad bar and a varied assortment of side. 

The food was all very good and prepared us for the show that was to follow.

The show was a song and dance telling the history of the gold rush and fairbanks in a very fun and interesting format. It was well done and everyone enjoyed the show.

The next morning the bus picked up us  8:30 am for a river boat cruise  on the sternwheeler Discovery II. The captain of the boat was fourth generation of the family that had been running Sternwheeler on the Tanana river since the 1900's. They have since transitioned from hauling freight and supplies to hauling tourist.

The tour included a float plane demonstration with the plane taking off and landing twice. They the talked to the pilot and he described the importance the float plane had as the workhorse in the

for transportation historically and the current day.

     

Next was a stop along the river at Susan

Butcher's home and sled dog kennel. Susan was the second woman to win the Iditarod 

sled dog race and won it four times in eighteen tries. Susan passed away in 2007. Her husband and daughter continue her legacy. They spend a great deal of time raising money for cancer research. 

The final stop was a visit to a recreation of an Athabasca (native people) Village.

We were routed through three stations that 

Smoke house

explained what daily life might have been like. THis is the fish smoke house where they prepared the fish to get them through the long winters.

Our guide is explaining how they made canoes snowshoes and temporary shelters from the resources they had from nature.

At this station they explained how the women  would use the hides to make both everyday clothing and in this case special ceremonial parka.

All of the guides and workers at the village were descendants of the Athabasca people. I was very impressed by the pride they took in there heritages. They were knowledgeable of the history and made the presentations very interesting,well spoken.

We ended our day by having lunch at a local restaurant.

On Sunday morning the bus was there  again to pick us up at 8:30 AM. this time we were off to see the Trans- Alyeska pipeline, Tanana Valley railroad and panning for gold at Gold Dredge #8.

I could have past on the pipeline but the train to Dredge #8 left from the pip line.

Dredge #8 pretty much the same as the dredges we saw in canada.

The main reason we were there was to pan for gold. Maybe we could pay for
our trip and strike it rich!

To our bitter disappointment we failed to
strike it rich. We came up with a grand total of just over $19.00 worth of gold.

Now Beth had the right idea a19 ounce nugget worth $175,000, but they would not let her take it with us.

Spoiled Sports!

Mostly there plan was to get you into the gift shop to spend money, Which we did.

 Our third day in Fairbanks was a free day. We spent the morning 

waiting for a windshield repair person. During our travels we 

have accumulated three stone chips and a crack. They say this is the cost of doing business in Alaska and we should expect it. The repair person showed up @ 12:30 and had the repairs, except the crack, complete before 1:00 pm.

Our first stop on our exploration of Fairbanks was the ice museum.
This a private museum run by a Chinese ice sculptor. It was an odd place. We spent 10 minutes watching a  video of magnificent ice sculptures. 

Then we were ushered into the frozen showroom filled with a series of sculptures that you could have your picture taken.

Included was this ice slide.

Behind the ice bar.

Eskimos ?

The ice museum was not what we expected but it was still a lot of fun.

Our final stop was at the University 

of Alaska history museum. The museum covered both the
geological history and the human history. We were aware of some of this information it did learn some new information.

Denali National Park, Day Three

   

This was a free day, there were no Fantasy activities planned so Beth and I planned to the time exploring on our own. The weather called for party sunny skies temperature in the mid 60's and no rain.

We drove to the visitors center, picked out a hiking trail and off we went. the trail led us through some heavily wooded areas and eventually down to a stream. The sun was in and out and the temps made for a very comfortable walk.
After about 45 minutes we came to this stream. I thought that was odd because the stream was not on my map where it was supposed to be.

Continuing down the path hoping to locate a sign or landmark to verify our location. Then the rain started, remembering the forecast we had left our raincoats in the car. the rain continued to increase as we continued our hike. eventually we found a sign and were able to match it to our location on the map. Beth claims we were lost, I disagreed we weren't lost we just weren't where I thought we should have been. The rain continued and we were getting pretty wet. We located a bus stop along a road leading to a campground and were able to shelter from the rain. It wasn't too long before a bus came along that would take us back to the visitors center.

At the visitor center we were able to warm up, dry out and have some lunch.
By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was breaking through the clouds. Next on our agenda was to drive into the park as far as the allowed private vehicles to go. The park allows private cars to drive 15 miles into the park before your turned around by a Ranger station.

Driving slowly along the park road enjoying the scenery and on the lookout for wildlife. As we approached one of the pullouts there were several cars stopped and the people were looking up one of the mountains. We stopped to check it out and were quickly directed to see a large bear moving along one of the ridges. In addition there were several moose moving in the same direction in front of the bear. These animal were very far away and binoculars were the only way to get a good look. Beth and I were the only ones with binoculars which we quickly passed around so everyone could get a good look. The animal soon disappeared over a ridge and it time to move on.

Continuing up the road we saw several ground squirrels and various birds but no more large animals.

Arriving at mile 15 and the Savage River we were ready to get out and stretch our
legs. It just so happened there was a hiking trail for us to explore.

It was a nice two mile walk with interesting rock formations and great scenery.

       

Returning down the mountain toward the visitors center Beth spotted this lovely lady along the road.
She was a long way away, this was the best I could get with my telephoto lens.






   

One last stop in the park before returning
to the campground. Denali has there own sled
dog kennel. Historically sled dogs have been the workhorses of the park from the very beginning. In the 1960's sled dogs were eliminated in favor of snow machines. In the late 1970's the new Park manager decided to bring the sled dogs back.

The two reasons he sited where the lack of reliability of snow machines. If a machine broke down 30 miles from base camp it was a long dangerous walk for the Ranger. The noise of the machines disrupting the wildlife was the second reason.

Since then the sled dogs are the only form of transportation used in the park during the winter.








 

As we were leaving Denali the next morning we stopped at a rest area @ 40 miles north of the park. We got out of the coach and looked directly south and there was Mt Denali bigger than life.

Alaska, No bad days!

Denali National Park, part 2

Friday morning 8/23, it's 41 degrees and raining.The forecast is for a high of 52 and occasional showers all day. This is our scheduled day to go rafting on the Nenana river.

 Of the 44 people on the tour only 25 were up for river rafting on this day

This is a hardy lot and all these people from the Fantasy team are ready to rock and roll.

On to the river.

Next step was to suit up. We were given very specific instructions an how to put on these $1000.00 dry suits. It was a bit of a struggle but both Beth and I got everything where it was supposed to be. The Nenana river is glacial fed and very cold The dry suit is an absolute must no matter what time of year.



 

Once suited up down to the river we went, there
were nine of us from Fantasy plus the guide. The guide told us there were two ways to get down the river. The first was to skirt the rapids and take the "smooth" way or go for it through the class 2 & 3 rapids. There was a quick unanimous vote and the class 2 & 3 rapids won.

For the Fantasy group  the youngest was 60 and the guide was in his early 20's. I think he was a little surprised we voted for the rapids.

This is us as we approach the first class 2 rapids.

Boom! "Glacial Facial" Not only did I get it in the face I had my mouth open giving a big Hoot and got a mouth full of river. Man, It was cold but a real thrill.
 

As we continued down the river we went through a series of class two and three rapids. As you can see from the pic's everyone seems to be smiling and having a good time.

                             

Glacial Facial, this time I had my mouth closed this time.

The trip lasted just over three hours. Physically it was pretty demanding. I'm not used to paddling that hard for that long.

I have not been river rafting for a long time and it is something I have wanted to do for awhile.
River rafting Alaska in Denali NP was just frosting on the cake. The trip was thrilling, exciting and the scenery was spectacular.

WOW, Denali National Park

The morning after we arrived we were up for a 6:30 AM bus tour though the park. This is the standard wild life tour and the same one we took in 2013 on the Princess land and sea cruise.

This tour was much better, we were able to see much more wildlife.










 

Shortly after we arrived in the park we saw this
big fellow. The driver had just mentioned that it was rare to see a bull moose. There were fewer bulls and they were much more solitary.

In addition to this guy we saw three additional moose, one more bull and two cows. It's the beginning of fall here. the colors are starting to turn and the rut has begone. It had been a very dry July and August many of the plants and trees were just turning brown but we do see a little color here and there.

Next on our list was caribou. In addition to this guy we saw so many caribou the bus driver stopped stopping for them. I lost count as well but an educated guess would be more than 15 and less that 20. Many of them were too far away to get pictures even with my telephoto lens.










Grizzly bears were the next ones we came across. There was a mother bear with two cubs. They were on the opposite side of the bus and along way away. I was able to get a look through the telephoto lens but taking pic's didn't work. We were able to view the through our binoculars and it was quite fun watching the cubs play.

A short while later we came across this guy just wandering across the tundra. In addition to these three we saw three additional bears and got good looks through the binoculars. In 2013 we did not see a single bear in the park.

These are Dall Sheep, image taken from the screens on the bus. The driver had a video camera with a long lens.  With the naked eye these were just white dots very high up the mountain side. We saw two groups like this. I was a little disappointed we could get closer.

Mt Denali 2019

This is where Mt Denali is supposed to be, but the weather just did not cooperate.

Mt Denali 2013

Just thought I would throw this in there, 2013 trip was better.

The bus tour was just over 7 1/2 hours and we traveled nearly 65 miles. It was a long day but very much worth it.

This was just day one, much more to come. Stay tuned for part 2.

Escape from Homer

After being stranded in Homer on Monday 8/18 we were up and ready to go early Tuesday morning. At 8:30 am we were notified the Sterling highway was once again closed to traffic because of the Swan lake forest fire. We had already lost one day and losing a second day would cause havoc with our schedule going forward.

Shortly after 9:00 AM we were notified that the road would once again open using a pilot car to guide the drivers through the smoke. The pilot car is a emergency vehicle that guides traffic through the difficult areas one direction at a time. This  can cause significant backups.

It was decided that no matter how long it took we were going to make the 228 mile trip to Anchorage.

As we approached the Swan Lake area @ 70 miles north of Homer @ 10:30 AM this is what we saw.

The closer we got it was with some trepidation, driving forward into the smoke.

As we entered the fire zone, they were no longer using the pilot car and traffic was moving in both directions.
There were times when visibility was down to 50 feet and we were going very slow.

There were several people in our group with breathing issues and many used wet wash clothes over the nose and mouths to avoid breathing the smoke.

Beth and I were fortunate. Although the smoke was uncomfortable, we were able to make the 30 minutes trek without any serious issues.

We found out the next day they again closed the road later that afternoon and it remained closed for the next several days even affecting the Friday night High School football schedule. Many of the teams were unable to travel.

The rest of the trip to Anchorage continued without any additional problems.
Not much to report about Anchorage. We were only there one very short night and then on to Denali.

Homer AK

We have been in Homer the last few days after driving from Seward on Friday. We are staying on the Homer Spit, which is a long narrow peninsula sticking out into Cook's Outlet @ three miles.  The RV park has water front sites.

View from our front window, low tide.

Views from out site are amazing with both mountain and ocean views. It has been very interesting watching the tide come in and go out. There is an @ 18 to 19 ft difference between high and low tide.

 

High tide

The general consensus among out fellow travelers is that we would like to stay for another week.

That is not going to happen so we will enjoy Homer while were here.

If there is a downside it has been very winding in the afternoons making it difficult to sit outside.

The highlight of our stay in Homer for me was the Halibut Charter that we took on Saturday. Thirteen of  out fellow travelers got up very early in the morning to go far out to sea to fish for the crafty and somewhat elusive sport fish. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We did get up early and all loaded on to @ 50 ft charter boat.

As we left the harbor and headed out into Cook's outlet there was a sea running of four to five feet. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction of the running sea making for uncomfortable conditions. The further out we went the bigger the seas got. It wasn't long before we had several members of out party got sea sick and were at the sides of the boat.

It was an hour ride to the fishing grounds and by the time we got there six of our people were sick.

The crew of the boat had everything prepared and after they dropped the anchor gave us a quick instructions for fishing for Halibut. 

The short stiff rods were set up with a 2 lb weight and a length of 12 to 14 inch  leader with cut hearing on a rather large hook. We were to drop the weight all the way to the bottom (@ 220 ft) and when we felt a fish on reel it in.

I was one of the healthy ones so I was handed the first rod, dropping the weight all the way to the bottom it wasn't five minutes and I felt a pull on the line. Reel, reel, reel reel, reel, 220 ft from the bottom was a long way. Boom first fish in the boat. It was a thirtytwo inch halibut a good one in the box.

I was setup with another rod and down to the bottom the weight and the bait went. Ten minute later I felt a pull, Fish on! Reel, reel, reel, reel reel, 220 ft from the bottom is a long way. Boom second fish in the boat, this one is a little smaller @ 26 inches. It was just after 8:00 am and I had got my limit. There was a tow fish limit, one larger that 30 inches and on smaller that 30 inches. My day was done or so I thought.

The sea conditions were still uncomfortable and a number of people were unable to hold or watch a rod. The crew was putting out lines for everyone on board and asked if I could keep an eye on several lines and help some of the less skilled fisherman. That was right in my wheelhouse.

Over the next few hours I hooked up eight or ten fish and handed the rods off to people who were sick or coming back from being sick,  I even hooked up a few fish for people who had not made there limit and had them land the fish.

Toward midday the wind dropped and the sea flattened out, many that had been sick were recovered or recovering.

There were 14 of of us on the trip with a two fish limit per person we were able to boat 28 fish.

Beth and I had fresh caught halibut for dinner, a fitting end to a really good day!

Sunday night we're having a halibut feed. Each of the fisher persons donated a couple of filets and everyone is bringing a dish to pass. Wooo Hooo more Halibut!

Tomorrow (Monday) we head for Anchorage.

I still have some stories from Valdez and Seward that I need to catch up on, stay tuned.