The drive to Delta Junction was pretty much uneventful but gorgeous. One simply can not get over the vastness of this place, it just is huge and you really feel it. More trees around here than I thought existed in the world. We were under impressed with our chosen CG, tight spaces, a totally spaced out manager (we were thinking some serious drug damage occurred to this poor fellow – reminded me of “Jim” on the old TV show Taxi) but it served our purpose. Delta Junction is the first place you can see the pipeline so we drove out to see our first view. It is impressive, lots of serious engineering went into this project. Here the pipeline had to cross the Delta River. Remember this thing is full of heavy oil so they had to deal with weight, wind and suspension.
Then we all met downtown to take another group picture, this one to celebrate the end of the Alcan Highway and having traversed same.
For dinner there was a buffalo burger drive inn across the street, an actual drive inn – very cool and very good.
The next day we decided we were just not happy with our RV park so decided to move down the road. Rich and Joan drove into Fairbanks to Eielson AFB while the rest of us opted for a place up the road on the Salcha River. Another Yukon Government CG established mostly for boat launching but presenting a great spot to camp. Some fair fishing was also available, I was able to grab a couple of graylings. When I was first fishing earlier Shelle and Rox came out to greet me and Shelle found an abandoned – most likely forgotten – fly rod and reel. It was a real cheapie, probably some kid’s outfit. It needed some fixing up but I used it in the afternoon to catch the grayling, somehow that seemed like extra points.
Caught a couple small graylings right by the little point in this picture. Many of the rivers had this brownish – tannin – color. It comes from minerals in the water and most clear streams had this cast. As we moved north many of the rivers had a blue/gray milky color to them. These were the glacial fed rivers. It turns out to be very good for fish or fishing but still great looking rivers. Here are some more shots of the Salcha River.
One of our first views of the ever present and beautiful Fire Weed. It is seen in many Alaska post card pictures. Just starting to bloom now.
Another wild rose.
These are dog wood flowers, related to the dogwood found in the south. Very pretty flower.
Next it is off to the big city of Fairbanks. We stayed at Rivers Edge RV Park, a so-so park. Full hook ups, close to the river and adequate for our needs. The wifi did not work (even folks with all types of boosters failed), the laundry room wasn’t the greatest, and we were packed in pretty tight. But Fairbanks is cool and lots of stuff to do so we started doing it.
We started with Dorado Mines, a huge snag ‘em and milk ‘em tourist trap, but still fun and very interesting. We learned a great deal about gold mining, the folks that did it and the various techniques used. In the end everyone pans a bag of dirt salted with some real gold dust. Susan got the most I believe, her gold was worth (if you bought it retail) something like $56, Shelle’s was worth about $35. The most interesting thing to me was that the train narrator/singer/guitar player/fiddle player is Hank Snow’s son! He sounded pretty good. Here he is getting started off.
Here is a shot of the people car behind ours, you can see nothing but a sea of people (most came in big tour buses).
Here is a supposed “typical” miners shack.
The people hauler train (electric) and some of the original old mining equipment.
Some of the flowers around the mine.
The next adventure, still a tourist “milker”, but more interesting and amusing was the river boat trip on a real stern wheeler. A great ride down the river, a stop at a legit sled dog kennel, in fact the family of Susan Butcher’s kennel. Susan was hugely famous as the first woman to win the Iditarod and repeated that win 3 more times.. These dogs are awesome. I have never witnessed so much excitement and enthusiasm. I had always wondered how much the dogs really liked their job, I can assure you they love it to death, it is so exciting to see, hear and feel their emotion and power charged enthusiasm, it moved me emotionally to experience that excitement. These dogs are race dogs and do not look like your traditional Husky, bred to pull heavy loads, but not to race.
Here is a team coming back from a run pulling an ATV, the team is all excited and all their buddies in the pen are excited and hoping for their turn.
Since it is summer and warm they all enjoy a nice cool off in the river.
And here a couple of puppies just starting to learn the trade.
This dog sledding is not at all a tourist thing, they are purely for real and a big hobby/business in all of Alaska and major means of transportation in winter.
At the beginning of the boat ride we were presented a demonstration of a float plane, another very prevalent means of getting to places in Alaska. The pilot was remotely wired into the boats sound system which was kind of fun. He was flying a Super Cub, a very common plane up here. He did a nice take off right in front of us, circled around, did a slip turn (kind of slide in sideways out of a bank turn, a quick straighten up and land) landing maneuver for us, very pretty!
say hello!
and the slip turn:
To a perfect wings level picture perfect landing.
Further down the river we were able to see the confluence of a glacial fed river into the Yukon River. The glacial fed rivers are milky – they are actually full of flour – yep, flour. The glacier carries big rocks as it slowly slides along. These big rocks grind on stationary rocks and create a super fine powder which is of the consistency of, and is called, flour. It stays in permanent suspension and hence the milky appearance of a glacial stream.
After this we turned back to a mock up of an Indian fishing village. (By the way, where as there are several tribes of native Alaskan Indians – many of them could be considered “Eskimos” – the term Eskimo is usually not used, in fact it sort of carries a negative connotation.)
We first spied Caribou – exactly right after the ship’s narrator said they occasionally spotted Caribou here. We soon found out they were not Caribou but Reindeer. Reindeer are nothing more than domesticated Caribou (wow, imagine Rudolph the red nosed Caribou – doesn’t work as well).
Then we were lucky enough to spot this fantastic bull moose. He even posed for me, allowing me to get some great shots, even the following super close up!
The interesting thing was that he kept on posing, I think he was still posing after we left. Some Doubting Thomas had the gaul to suggest it was a stuffed moose – no way!
Here one of the native American guides modeled a traditional fancy woman’s garb. We were told the retail value of this jacket was over $15,000.
Here is a shot of our stern wheeler (and all the people that were our voyage companions :-( )
And another river shot.
Rich and I had one of the thrills of our life by taking a day fly in trip into the Fairbanks wilderness on a way cool float plane (a DeHavlin Beaver – a super wonderful back country, reliable, powerful plane). We flew over the forests and over the tundra and landed on a little river where the pilot has some rustic, basic cabins and some small boats with 2 hp outboard motors. He dropped us off and we had the day to explore and catch Northern Pikes – and catch them we did.
Landing on the river (Rich in the right hand seat). And below, off loading gear. The plane ride alone made the day!
Rich tossing a lure (check out the bend in that pole).
These are Indian caches, houses on stilts to store food – we figured these were pretty good signs we were in the right spot.
Here Rich is motoring us home, well back to base camp, to clean our catch and get ready for the flight home. The limit was five Northerns each and we brought home 10 beautiful fish. Oh my gosh what a stupendously wonderful day!!!
Everyone helped in the cleaning and another fish feast was served (actually several feasts were had with these delicious fish).
Here is our RV park in Fairbanks. These pictures were taken after 11:30p, it was this bright at 1 am. We got so used to the midnight sun that as it is now (later at this writing) dwindling we miss it.
Next stop Denali National Park – and the next post.
