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Fairbanks
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| Fish traps |
I bought some eye covers so I can sleep with light sky at
night. I am certain I will need them,
the 11PM sky is bright enough to read outside without any auxiliary
lighting. I used them a couple nights
but find the light is not an issue.
Noise, at some of the campgrounds is an issue.
This evening we listen to a sourdough, an old timer in AK,
telling stories. He recited poems by
Robert Burns and Robert W. Service, told stories, jokes and filled us in on the
general history of Fairbanks. ‘The
Cremation of Sam McGee’ is particularly humorous. The evening was very entertaining.
Museum of the North is high on our list of places to
visit. It includes: cultural,
historical, geographical, geological and wildlife exhibits. Time frames are from pre-man for the wildlife
and geological sections. The geological
section discusses the rock formations; how and why they formed and where
precious metals fit into this mix of rocks.
Humans first appeared in the Alaska area around 10,000 years ago. There are even ties between some of the
native Alaskans and the Apache and Navajo in Southwestern US. There is also a present day Alaskan art
exhibit.
Several people recommended taking the Discovery stern-wheeler
boat ride. The boat is a working flat
bottom stern-wheeler paddling up and down a portion of the Chena River. A guide provides narration over the PA system
while monitors show historical images and videos show what the captain sees as
we go down the river. As part of the
tour we see a float plane take off and land next to the boat.
We stop to see a display at the Trail Breaker
Kennel, a professional dog sled kennel started by Susan Butcher, a 4-time
Iditarod champion. Susan passed away in
2006, her daughter Tekla answered questions and took some of the dogs for a run
pulling a cart with Tekla driving. The
boat continued to the Chena confluence with the Tanana river. The Chena is spring fed and clear, the Tanana
is glacial and very cloudy. Where the
two mix it looks like cream swirling in black coffee before it’s all mixed
together. Our final stop is an Athabascan
village before and after contact with the white man. Native clothing, tools and housing are on
display with guides to answer questions.
On the return trip we are treated to smoked salmon with tins available
for sale. The obligatory gift shop at
the dock awaits for one to pick up almost any and everything related to Alaska. |
| Chena and Tanana River confluence |
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| Athabascan village |
Prudhoe Bay – Dalton Hwy
We are going to Prudhoe Bay on the Dalton Highway. At first we thought to drive it with the
truck camper. Searching several blogs of
people doing the same thing causes us to have second thoughts about taking the
camper. Our second idea is to rent a
vehicle; they are available to drive the Dalton, a 500 mile gravel road, but
you pay extra for the privilege. The
vehicle comes with a CB radio; an extra spare tire and an emergency kit. Our third idea is to go on a tour. Ride in a van with several like-minded
tourists then a 2.5 hour flight back.
After discussing the logistics with the car rental places for option 2;
a 20 hour drive up to Prudhoe Bay, tour it, then turn around for another 20 hour
ride back, we decide on option 3. Our
driver Aaron, is also our tour guide. He
fills us in on details about the road, the area, and the pipeline itself, things we
would not have known if we had driven ourselves. The 2.5 hour return flight is a nice benefit.
Looking back, the road is not as bad as some of the blogs made it out to be.  |
| Haze along the Dalton Hwy |
We stop at the Yukon River Camp for lunch. This is the same Yukon River we saw in
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, several hundred miles upstream.
We officially celebrate crossing the Arctic Circle. There is a red carpet with the ‘official’
stripe denoting where we cross, Arron plays a trombone as each of us cross to
the arctic side. We finish the
celebration with a piece of chocolate cake.
The pipeline comes and goes along the 500 miles of road to
Prudhoe Bay. Sometimes it is close, other
times buried. The engineering to make
the pipeline is extraordinary. It is
always twitching from left to right, up and down, to take natural movement of
the pipeline into account. It can move
up to a few feet left and right of where it is setting and back and forth along
its length. Each support structure has
Teflon shoes allowing for the pipe to move.
It is also designed to withstand earthquakes. The pipeline is 48” in diameter. It moved over 2M barrels/day at its peak,
somewhere around 500 K barrels/day now.
We calculate the oil inside the pipe is moving about 2 miles/hour, 24
hours/day.
Coldfoot is the halfway point from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay.
Initially a mining town during one of the gold rushes it turned into a
convenient staging point for the Alaska pipeline. Now there are office trailers converted into
a hotel/man-camp. Each room has two
single beds and a bathroom. Food is
buffet style and surprisingly very good.
Our choices this night are; Ahi tuni, flank steak, three choices of
vegetables, soups, chile stew and desserts.
Breakfast was equally good with eggs made in several styles, pancakes ,
waffles, oatmeal cereal and fruits.
Gates of the Arctic NP is across the road from
Coldfoot. Needing to stretch our legs
from our 10+ hour ride we decide to walk over to the visitor center. A ranger leads a talk about really studying
the flora and fauna while in the park.
We walk the trail looking closely at a number of plants with the idea
that we will return to the center to sketch what we have seen. Returning, there are almost no takers,
including me. Instead we talk with one
of the other rangers about the park and life in this far removed park.
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| Wiseman |
Being only half way to Prudhoe Bay our next day starts at
510 so we can have breakfast then on the road by 7. It is raining. We tour the town of Wiseman, meeting one of
the long term residents. This is off the grid living. They hunt, trap, fish and grow their own
food. Solar panels power their lights,
laptops and other small appliances.
Propane powers the stove, wood is used to heat water on the wood burning
stove in the center of the house. A root
cellar, with year round temperatures just above freezing holds foods throughout
the winter until the gardening season starts again.
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| Brooks Range |
Continuing through the Brooks Mountain Range we climb
through the Atigun pass. Rain
continues. Heavy dark skies stretch from
horizon to horizon. Aaron mentions that
sometimes weather on the north side of the Brooks Range is completely different
– not this time. We don’t see any blue
patches of sky until an hour before arriving at Prudhoe Bay. As we progress further north the vegetation
gets shorter, the tree line which I usually associate with high elevations ends
along the north going road. Tundra.
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| Tundra |
The terrain is shrubs and
grasses. The ground changes from rolling
hills to flat. We see for miles around us. A few big brown boulders appear on the landscape,
we have not seen big brown boulders on the road for most of the trip, closer inspection
reveals they are musk ox. A few are
close enough to the road that we stop for a photo op. Mosquitoes descend on us as soon as we open
the door. The breeze is not strong
enough to keep them away. We still stay
out and shoot musk ox, who knows if we will see any others. Regrouping in the van we exchange our stories
of musk ox and mosquitoes. Before
continuing, a speeding semi-truck picks up and throws a stone shattering the
back window of our van. Fortunately
nobody was hurt. Aaron braves the
mosquitoes and other speeding semis employing a Rubbermaid box cover and lots
of duct tape providing a temporary shield.
Once we get on the road all of us go into mosquito killing mode. They are not able to fly in the van once we
are on the road but they know where we are while we are sitting still. Caribou finally made an appearance shortly
before we arrive at Prudhoe Bay.
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| Caribou |
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| Musk Ox |
The camp where we stay is actually called Deadhorse, which
is a few miles from Prudhoe Bay. Many
gravel pads surround us. They house
drilling rigs, hardware, piping, and associated hardware to do their work. Drilling rigs, on wheels are self-propelled. They weigh a million pounds. 1500 pound wood and steel mats are placed on
the roads when the rigs move from one location to the next. The rigs move three miles, sit to cool off
for an hour then move another three miles.
The mats distribute the weight keeping the rigs from sinking into the
ground when it is not frozen. Workers go
to Deadhorse two weeks on – then two weeks off, 2500 personnel on each two week
shift.
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| The sun at 1130 PM |
The ‘hotel’ where we are staying has very strict rules on
cleanliness. Upon entering any building
we put blue surgical booties over our shoes keeping down the dirt. Each time we eat at the buffet we put plastic
gloves over our hands while serving ourselves.
The rooms we sleep in are in a separate building from the kitchen and
meeting rooms. It has two single beds as
the man-camp in Coldfoot. The men’s and
women’s bathrooms are down the hall.
There are no keys to lock your room.
If the doors are mistakenly locked one has to find the person in charge
to get the master key to unlock the door.
Touring the oil field we see caribou, families of ducks and
geese all around. Safety and
environmental protection are high on everyone’s mind here.
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| New Members of the Arctic Polar Bear Club |
As a part of our tour we are taken to the Arctic Ocean. If one goes knee-deep into the ocean they get
a certificate as a member of the polar bear club. All the people on our tour go to their knees,
one of the younger guys first walks in to his knees, walks out then goes in all
the way. Way too cold for Nicida and
me. Getting back out the bottoms of our
feet are red and white, I’m not certain which area the blood flow has
stopped. Others on the Prudhoe Bay tour,
one Aussie in particular stripped down, quickly walked in to his knees and
dropped under the surface of the water.
At first you look to see what’s going on - until you see what’s going on
- then look away quickly - but it’s too
late. Screams and laughter from all came
after we saw what happened.
After drying off and restoring blood flow in our feet we are
driven to a shuttle taking us to the airport for the two and a half hour flight
back to Fairbanks. The sky is cloudy all
the way to Fairbanks where it turns to partly cloudy skies but with the clearer
skies comes turbulent conditions. We bob
up and down, and side to side as we make our approach. Hearing the pilot talking to the control
tower is a bit unnerving with several extra firefighting planes and helicopters
in the area. Even with the extra
distractions we land safely.  |
| Fairbanks airport |
Fairbanks - again
Smoke is still in the air.
It clears at times then moves back in, sometimes we smell it. The smoke doesn’t stop us though. After spending over $200 at the grocery store
stocking up for the next leg of the journey we visit Pioneer Park, a city park,
which has buildings and other historical items from the early days of
Fairbanks. We also attend a vaudeville
show put on at the park. They tell a
lively, humorous story covering the inception of to present day of Fairbanks.
Chena Resort has a hot spring, and is our last activity in
Fairbanks. The main pool is large. We easily go from warm to really hot spots
within a few steps. I get the idea of
how a lobster may feel when I get too close to the hot spots. Several pools and spas are there to cool you
off and work on loosening muscles. We
spend a couple hours there planning our trip to Denali tomorrow.
Thank you for stopping by,
Mark
The pipeline fascinates me, the amount of planning, engineering, and thought that had to go into it!
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