Daddy left the RV at 6:25 AM to take a chartered fishing trip with the Aurora. They will have the possibility to catch halibut, salmon, lincod and rock fish. Daddy caught a 25 # halibut, a 15# halibut and a 7# salmon. He caught more; but you can only keep a certain number of each species, so he had to throw some back. Nobody was allowed to keep any lincod because they are out of season. He had a ball; except it rained the whole day on the ocean so he was cold. He didn't take his rubber bibs or his boots; so he did get wet.
I had a 2 hour horseback ride through the state park below Mount Alice. We rode through the Resurrection River and on the shores of Resurrection Bay. Located in there is the "old town" of Seward that was totally destroyed in the earthquake of 1964 that was at least a 9 point on the scale. It was the strongest earthquake in North America. The national forest has taken it over and is growing over top of the cars and tractors that were swept up by the tidal wave that followed the quake. The wood of the houses has deteriorated but the metal things are still laying there rusting away.
Within this park we saw several bald eagle nests and the birds that built them. The bald eagles sit up in the very tops of the trees and really seem to prefer the tree tops that are missing leaves. Therefore, they are very noticeable. The nests are the size of a small toddler's swimming pool. Since the eagles do not leave this area when winter comes, they stay in the same nest year after year. Each spring they add even more branches to the nest so it is constantly growing. Sometimes it gets so large and heavy that the tree will collapse and then they have to find a new site. The eggs hatch in July and the chicks stay with their parents for 3 years until they are adults. Maybe that is the reason the nest becomes so heavy. The immature bald eagles do not have the distinguishable white head and tail feathers. They are big and white with lots of brown splotches all over them. While we we riding below them the adults kept their eyes on us all of the time, especially when we were close to their nests. I'm sure the eggs are already in there.
There were also lots of birds that resembled our eastern sea gulls from a distance. When I asked what species they were, I was very surprised. They are the Arctic Terns that summer here when Antarctica is in its winter. So they are the same birds Daddy and I saw from the cruise ship when we were in Antarctica in January. After taking a close look I remembered them. That is a long way to travel between seasons. I guess they just really like it rather cool! In the area I felt was wetlands because they have gotten so much rain, every time the horses took a step our legs and feet would get splashed. When we rode through the rivers, all of us on short horses had to lift our legs up or they would get wet. In these wetlands there was a trumpeter swan. We only saw 1, but they are always in 2s and they mate for life. Maybe the local bears ate it.
There were 7 of us riding horses and the guide. The guide is the young girl that actually owns this business. She's 24 years old and just graduated from college in Colorado. When she was in high school her parents told her she had to get a job to pay for her college. So she started this horse back riding company when she was 15. Of course you can't ride until May because of the snow and the snow starts again in September, so her working hours are limited. She saved up enough money for her college and she is still doing it now. She owns all of her horses too and quite a few of them have been with her from the start.
Her horse that she leads with is 19 hands high and his name is Max. He is all black. There is 1 other black horse who is rather petite and is 20 years old. You can see some gray hairs starting on his neck. His name is Ranger and he is a rather fast horse because he is one of the American saddle riding horses. The horse she had me ride was the only girl horse, Penny, and she is 2o years old too. Penny and Ranger were bought together and have been together all of their lives. Since Ranger walks very fast Penny does too to keep up. She thinks that's what she's supposed to do. Penny also wants to be the lead horse and she kept trying to go around Max who walks much slower. The guide usually won't use Penny as the lead horse because all of the other horses can't keep up. All of the other horses are boys and 1, named Cisco, kept making his own paths instead of exactly following the other horses. The spunkiest horse, supposedly, was Orca, who is a Paint horse because he is black and white spots. Well he wasn't spunky at all today. He stayed at the back of the line and didn't cause any trouble.
None of the paying customers had ridden horses before, so she placed me on Penny. She warned me that Penny doesn't like playing second fiddle and sometimes she'll decide to lay down in the soft sand or grass. I had to keep reining her in so she wouldn't get ahead of the lead; but I let her stop and eat grass all of the time. Well, apparently she got pissed off because she wasn't in front and decided to lay down in the middle of the park where the trail was so narrow that when she laid down I wound up in the bushes and mud! So now I have to stop her from eating the grasses and flowers because you can't tell the difference between her putting her head down to eat and the movement of her deciding to lay down. And it happens so fast that it feels like she's walked into quicksand. I figured since she did that ponce, she had gotten it out of her system. NO!!!! She did it again, this time in even more mud! The guide told me she won't do it when she's walking in water! Let's hope not! This whole area is really full of water because they have gotten so much rain recently. Well, Penny had to do it again and this time in water! Then I got to ride Max and the guide rode Penny up front. She didn't do it again because she got what she wanted- the front! She was pretty smart; I just wish she didn't use me in the process! It got to the point that I had to keep my eye on her that I couldn't enjoy the scenery. And to add insult to injury, the saddle on Penny was nice and padded. The saddle on Max was not. Now my rear end is saddle sore and I was glad to get off of Max. I have ridden horses millions of times and never have I had a horse lay down while I was riding. The guide said that Orca, the young painted horse used to do it when he felt like it; but he also closed his eyes. Penny never closed her eyes. Everybody behind me was glad they weren't on Penny!
There seems to be a lot of new experiences on this vacation!!!!
There were places near the streams and rivers that we could see bear and moose tracks; but we didn't see the actual animal. We also saw some moose scat in several different spots. The trails here were very narrow and we had to bend and duck to get around lots of trees and shrubs. This was also a very muddy trail and parts of the trail were actually through the river itself; so you could not walk this trail. All of the wildflowers were blooming: spiderwort, Queen Anne's Lace, wild purple Irises, wild daisies, and something called "koontquish" which is really pretty; but if you place the sap on your skin and the sun shines on it, it'll burn your skin! Not a very friendly flower!
Tomorrow we leave Seward for Soldotna which is in the Kenai Peninsula. It's been rainy all day here. It just drizzled when I was out riding; but it rained all day where Daddy was. Today was 60% chance of rain. That is the forecast for the next 2 days also. We will see.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Resurrection Bay was named by the Russian fur trader Alexander Baranov when he stayed in this harbor to survive a bad storm. His ship was protected and it happened to be Resurrection Sunday(Easter) in the Russian Orthodox Church so he named it Resurrection Bay in 1792 and the name has survived.
The Russians first settled here and started a very successful ship building tradition, with the "Phoenix" being one of the most known. Then it became a goldrush camp for almost a century. The historic Iditarod Trail begins here in Seward which followed the old mail route of the gold rush in Hope and Sunrise and later the big bonanza at Iditarod. The city is named for Lincoln's Secretary of State, Willian Seward, who engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. William Seward was wounded the same time Lincoln was assassinated. The city was laid out in grid form of wide streets by a group of railroad men so it resembles many other railroad towns across America. When it was a frontier town it acquired street names from the gold diggers: Millionaires Row and Home Brew Alley. This railroad led to the development of interior Alaska and the making of this an important trade port city. Seward was important during WWII because it was the northern-most-ice-free port and was the southernmost point on the Alaska Railroad. At Caines Head State Recreation Area is the abandoned Fort McGlivray that housed soldiers from 1941 to 1943 and was protection for the port and a strategic command center. A lawyer from San Francisco moved here to Seward after the gold rush and did a lot for the town. He assisted in all of its civic events, built a park here on Resurrection Bay with a fountain, moved lawns, many, many flowers and goats and sheep for children to enjoy. The park is still here, but no goats or sheep.
We went to the Alaska SeaLife Center on Railroad Avenue on Resurrection Bay. This facility has underwater viewing tanks to see all 5 kinds of salmon, halibut fry, several kinds of rock fish, sea nettles, pipe fish, sea lions, sea otters, harbor seals, spotted seals, and various other sea creatures. They are for non-profit and are known for taking in stranded animals to help rehabilitate them. They have been very successful with most of them.
Alaska has 474 species of fish, 29 species of marine animals and hundreds of sea plants. Alaska supplies the US with over half of its fish and shellfish. The Bering Sea is enormous and well supplied with sea animals. The natives still use "umiaqs" made of walrus skins as their boat of choice to go sealing. These boats are of the same design their ancestors used centuries ago. Many of these natives live off of the land and sea; growing their own vegetables and cattle, and fishing and hunting for their seafood and wild game. The government of Alaska keeps a close watch and count on the commercial fishermen and sport fishermen to be sure there is plenty for the Natives who do Subsistence Fishing.
The Alaskan Salmon is Alaska's primary industry and they supervise it very carefully. The eggs are deposited by the female salmon in the gravel on the fresh water bed and the male salmon fertilizes it. When they hatch the following year they are called Alevins are live off of the yolk sac for a while. When they become larger they are called Fry and they are at this stage for a month. Then they become Parr. Then Alaska SeaLife Center takes some of the Parr at this stage and subject them to variations in water temperature which develops marks on their earbones. This mark is easy to distinguish when they are older and then they can tell how old they are when they catch them as an adult fish. At this stage the Parr develop vertical camouflage marks on their sides to be able to blend in with their surroundings. The next stage is Smolt. Here they leave the gravel beds and fresh water for the estuary that has brackish water for several months. The last stage is the adult fish and they head out to the salt water ocean for up to 6 years where they are constantly growing. When it is time to spawn all of the salmon return to exactly the same river in which they were born. Scientist are still trying to figure out how they know where this river is; by smell or what. But it is quite difficult to try to follow a salmon through its life. The ocean is too large and they all look alike. By the time the salmon is ready to spawn it is also ready to die. Once they spawn they die and decompose on the river floor adding nutrients back into the sea. As they swim up these rivers which are now fresh water, they start turning darker colors and their bodies start decomposing. They don't eat anymore after they leave the ocean; and the trip upstream is very exhausting. They go back just to lay their eggs one time and fertilize them and then they die. After they have laid their eggs they are not very tasty for people to eat; but the bald eagles, bears and sea lions just love them.
The Alutiq Native Peoples catch these salmon, dry them and smoke them to live off of them til this time next year. This is a very large part of their Subsistence Living.
In 2003 the Alaska SeaLife Center adopted a 3 day old sea otter who had lost his mother. The scientist had to keep his body temperature regulated or he would die. They had to feed him a bottle with milk(half and half), vitamins and sea squid all chopped up fine in a blender. He needed to have at least 16 pounds of nutrition in 1 day; so that involved a lot of work. This they did for 3 months until he could start eating food. Then they gave him tiny pieces of sea squid which he would eat while laying on his back in the water.
They had to bathe and comb him everyday because that is what his mother would do. This took hours; but they had to be his surrogate mother. Their fur on the outside is a guard fur that is oily and waterproof and protects his inner fur from becoming wet. He has no layer of fat or blubber to keep him warm in these frigid waters; so he needs this special fur. This was very successful and he lived at this facility for 6 years and then they transferred him to an aquarium in Portland, Oregon where they say he is doing fine. He still plays with baby toys and gets along well with the other sea otters. If they hadn't adopted him, he would have died because he needs his mother to teach him so many things for survival that he couldn't learn on his own. One of the older sea otters at the aquarium has taken him as one of her own and has helped him learn survival skills. So this experiment proved to be very successful.
Tonight we went to the Salmon Bake to eat supper. It was delicious. Daddy ordered grilled halibut and I ordered grilled salmon. This place advertises as "the place with cheap beer and lousy food". You'd think they wouldn't get any customers with that slogan. And by the way the food was not lousy; but the beer is cheap!
Tomorrow morning Daddy goes out on an all day fishing charter for salmon, rock fish, halibut, lincod. I'll be going horseback riding at the beach, over a river and into the ruins of old Seward where the earthquake destroyed it.
The Russians first settled here and started a very successful ship building tradition, with the "Phoenix" being one of the most known. Then it became a goldrush camp for almost a century. The historic Iditarod Trail begins here in Seward which followed the old mail route of the gold rush in Hope and Sunrise and later the big bonanza at Iditarod. The city is named for Lincoln's Secretary of State, Willian Seward, who engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. William Seward was wounded the same time Lincoln was assassinated. The city was laid out in grid form of wide streets by a group of railroad men so it resembles many other railroad towns across America. When it was a frontier town it acquired street names from the gold diggers: Millionaires Row and Home Brew Alley. This railroad led to the development of interior Alaska and the making of this an important trade port city. Seward was important during WWII because it was the northern-most-ice-free port and was the southernmost point on the Alaska Railroad. At Caines Head State Recreation Area is the abandoned Fort McGlivray that housed soldiers from 1941 to 1943 and was protection for the port and a strategic command center. A lawyer from San Francisco moved here to Seward after the gold rush and did a lot for the town. He assisted in all of its civic events, built a park here on Resurrection Bay with a fountain, moved lawns, many, many flowers and goats and sheep for children to enjoy. The park is still here, but no goats or sheep.
We went to the Alaska SeaLife Center on Railroad Avenue on Resurrection Bay. This facility has underwater viewing tanks to see all 5 kinds of salmon, halibut fry, several kinds of rock fish, sea nettles, pipe fish, sea lions, sea otters, harbor seals, spotted seals, and various other sea creatures. They are for non-profit and are known for taking in stranded animals to help rehabilitate them. They have been very successful with most of them.
Alaska has 474 species of fish, 29 species of marine animals and hundreds of sea plants. Alaska supplies the US with over half of its fish and shellfish. The Bering Sea is enormous and well supplied with sea animals. The natives still use "umiaqs" made of walrus skins as their boat of choice to go sealing. These boats are of the same design their ancestors used centuries ago. Many of these natives live off of the land and sea; growing their own vegetables and cattle, and fishing and hunting for their seafood and wild game. The government of Alaska keeps a close watch and count on the commercial fishermen and sport fishermen to be sure there is plenty for the Natives who do Subsistence Fishing.
The Alaskan Salmon is Alaska's primary industry and they supervise it very carefully. The eggs are deposited by the female salmon in the gravel on the fresh water bed and the male salmon fertilizes it. When they hatch the following year they are called Alevins are live off of the yolk sac for a while. When they become larger they are called Fry and they are at this stage for a month. Then they become Parr. Then Alaska SeaLife Center takes some of the Parr at this stage and subject them to variations in water temperature which develops marks on their earbones. This mark is easy to distinguish when they are older and then they can tell how old they are when they catch them as an adult fish. At this stage the Parr develop vertical camouflage marks on their sides to be able to blend in with their surroundings. The next stage is Smolt. Here they leave the gravel beds and fresh water for the estuary that has brackish water for several months. The last stage is the adult fish and they head out to the salt water ocean for up to 6 years where they are constantly growing. When it is time to spawn all of the salmon return to exactly the same river in which they were born. Scientist are still trying to figure out how they know where this river is; by smell or what. But it is quite difficult to try to follow a salmon through its life. The ocean is too large and they all look alike. By the time the salmon is ready to spawn it is also ready to die. Once they spawn they die and decompose on the river floor adding nutrients back into the sea. As they swim up these rivers which are now fresh water, they start turning darker colors and their bodies start decomposing. They don't eat anymore after they leave the ocean; and the trip upstream is very exhausting. They go back just to lay their eggs one time and fertilize them and then they die. After they have laid their eggs they are not very tasty for people to eat; but the bald eagles, bears and sea lions just love them.
The Alutiq Native Peoples catch these salmon, dry them and smoke them to live off of them til this time next year. This is a very large part of their Subsistence Living.
In 2003 the Alaska SeaLife Center adopted a 3 day old sea otter who had lost his mother. The scientist had to keep his body temperature regulated or he would die. They had to feed him a bottle with milk(half and half), vitamins and sea squid all chopped up fine in a blender. He needed to have at least 16 pounds of nutrition in 1 day; so that involved a lot of work. This they did for 3 months until he could start eating food. Then they gave him tiny pieces of sea squid which he would eat while laying on his back in the water.
They had to bathe and comb him everyday because that is what his mother would do. This took hours; but they had to be his surrogate mother. Their fur on the outside is a guard fur that is oily and waterproof and protects his inner fur from becoming wet. He has no layer of fat or blubber to keep him warm in these frigid waters; so he needs this special fur. This was very successful and he lived at this facility for 6 years and then they transferred him to an aquarium in Portland, Oregon where they say he is doing fine. He still plays with baby toys and gets along well with the other sea otters. If they hadn't adopted him, he would have died because he needs his mother to teach him so many things for survival that he couldn't learn on his own. One of the older sea otters at the aquarium has taken him as one of her own and has helped him learn survival skills. So this experiment proved to be very successful.
Tonight we went to the Salmon Bake to eat supper. It was delicious. Daddy ordered grilled halibut and I ordered grilled salmon. This place advertises as "the place with cheap beer and lousy food". You'd think they wouldn't get any customers with that slogan. And by the way the food was not lousy; but the beer is cheap!
Tomorrow morning Daddy goes out on an all day fishing charter for salmon, rock fish, halibut, lincod. I'll be going horseback riding at the beach, over a river and into the ruins of old Seward where the earthquake destroyed it.
,Wednesday, June 23, 2010.
We left Anchorage around 11 AM to drive to Seward on the sea coast. Stopping at several places along the way to take pictures didn't take too long. At the first stop the tide was out therefore there were no beluga whales to be seen. They are the only all white whales and it would have been really neat to see them. Maybe when we come back to pick up Tyler and Noah it'll be high tide. Along this coastline the Alaska Railway runs bringing passengers from Seward and Whittier to Anchorage. They also take coal down to Seward to load onto ships. When the tide goes out it leaves behind sand that is made up of glacial silt and loamy soil that turns into quicksand. There are warning signs all over the inlet. It's a shame because this is a really pretty beach.
Driving down the mountain towards Seward is similar to the ride down to Skagway; just not as steep. We tried to stop at several spots along the way to fish; but most of them had too small of turnoffs for this RV and the car in tow. When we finally found one, Daddy went down to fish and I packed up a picnic lunch and carried it down to him. The area was called Jerome Lake and was supposed to be stocked with rainbow and Dolly Varden up to 22". We sat down there forever and there was not even a bite!
All along the sides of the road the local flowers are blooming in profusion. The green weeds are really high too, and the dandelions are going to seed. The white fluffy cotton is blowing all over the place along with the cottonwood trees and willow trees. The wild Queen Anne's Lace is really tall and in bloom. Also there are spiderwort flowers and Jacob's Ladder. They have hedge like shrubs with tiny leaves and close together with bright yellow flowers. I haven't found out the names for them yet. All in the small towns are lilac bushes blooming that smell heavenly. I remember having a bush in the yard when I was a small child. It's a shame it won't grow in Florida. There are pretty blue lupines and fire weed growing wild on the roadsides.
We are staying at the Bear Creek RV Park. There are some RV parks right on the water; but you can't make a reservation ahead of time. The town of Seward is starting to fill up with people early for the 4th of July.So we decided it was best to take 1 out of town. The people that pulled in next to us in a F350 cab and camper attached came outside with the same BBQ that we have. We looked over because all of a sudden there was lots of smoke. She had placed long stringy meat on it and never turned the flame down; so the flames were about a foot in the air! We were afraid she was going to set something on fire. These 12" long strips of meat ended up being 3" long. I'm glad that wasn't our supper.
There was a cruise ship in the town today that was backing out to the channel around 7PM. They used to get about 100 cruise ships a year; but only 50 come now. The town is apparently not interested in them. The owner of the RV Park said the town won't let in any fast food joints and no new businesses that are started by people from out of town. They are real snooty. And this is coming from a lady that grew up here!
At the 1 edge of town is a huge waterfall coming down the mountain from a high snow pack. The water is flowing down so fast that it sprays all over the road and cars for 2 lanes. It flows under the road and then goes out into the estuary and into the ocean. This water is from a glacier and it is a different color when it hits the estuary water. It almost looks like a line has been drawn between the 2 waters. This town is rather small; but not as small as Skagway and it doesn't have a bunch of cruise ship stores like the many diamond and jewelry stores we found in Skagway. The really old historic buildings that survived the 1964 earthquake are being renovated, but no new looking construction in the town. They have 1 veterinarian, but no specialists for people. When someone gets hurt, they have to be medo vacked to Anchorage. Anchorage is a 3 hour drive by car.
Driving down the mountain towards Seward is similar to the ride down to Skagway; just not as steep. We tried to stop at several spots along the way to fish; but most of them had too small of turnoffs for this RV and the car in tow. When we finally found one, Daddy went down to fish and I packed up a picnic lunch and carried it down to him. The area was called Jerome Lake and was supposed to be stocked with rainbow and Dolly Varden up to 22". We sat down there forever and there was not even a bite!
All along the sides of the road the local flowers are blooming in profusion. The green weeds are really high too, and the dandelions are going to seed. The white fluffy cotton is blowing all over the place along with the cottonwood trees and willow trees. The wild Queen Anne's Lace is really tall and in bloom. Also there are spiderwort flowers and Jacob's Ladder. They have hedge like shrubs with tiny leaves and close together with bright yellow flowers. I haven't found out the names for them yet. All in the small towns are lilac bushes blooming that smell heavenly. I remember having a bush in the yard when I was a small child. It's a shame it won't grow in Florida. There are pretty blue lupines and fire weed growing wild on the roadsides.
We are staying at the Bear Creek RV Park. There are some RV parks right on the water; but you can't make a reservation ahead of time. The town of Seward is starting to fill up with people early for the 4th of July.So we decided it was best to take 1 out of town. The people that pulled in next to us in a F350 cab and camper attached came outside with the same BBQ that we have. We looked over because all of a sudden there was lots of smoke. She had placed long stringy meat on it and never turned the flame down; so the flames were about a foot in the air! We were afraid she was going to set something on fire. These 12" long strips of meat ended up being 3" long. I'm glad that wasn't our supper.
There was a cruise ship in the town today that was backing out to the channel around 7PM. They used to get about 100 cruise ships a year; but only 50 come now. The town is apparently not interested in them. The owner of the RV Park said the town won't let in any fast food joints and no new businesses that are started by people from out of town. They are real snooty. And this is coming from a lady that grew up here!
At the 1 edge of town is a huge waterfall coming down the mountain from a high snow pack. The water is flowing down so fast that it sprays all over the road and cars for 2 lanes. It flows under the road and then goes out into the estuary and into the ocean. This water is from a glacier and it is a different color when it hits the estuary water. It almost looks like a line has been drawn between the 2 waters. This town is rather small; but not as small as Skagway and it doesn't have a bunch of cruise ship stores like the many diamond and jewelry stores we found in Skagway. The really old historic buildings that survived the 1964 earthquake are being renovated, but no new looking construction in the town. They have 1 veterinarian, but no specialists for people. When someone gets hurt, they have to be medo vacked to Anchorage. Anchorage is a 3 hour drive by car.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010, Father's Day
Today is Father's Day and the weather is looking good. It has stopped the light rain and is supposed to be warmer. We went up to the Independence Mine State Historical Park. It is high up in the mountains off of the Glenn Highway on a very rough road and over the Hatcher Pass Summit. It is much colder up here and we are in the clouds because we are so high. It is 271 acres of restored mine machinery from the 1930s to the 1950s. The mine was closed down during WWII because all nonessential jobs were cut off to put the employment force to work on war munitions. Then it was reopened until 1953. There is still some gold mining going on around here, just not at this mine. The landscape up here is tundra and you can see it. No big timber growing, lots of wind. When the mine was going strong there was an actual town up here with a general store, a doctor who came up once a month and a school for the children of the miners. Funny thing is the miners all had boy children during this time; so the ad for a teacher was for a male teacher only; plus no single women were allowed to live up here.
Then we went to check out some fishing off of the Parks Highway at Willow Creek State Recreation Area where the Susitna River meets the Deshka River. The Susitna River comes from the Susitna Glacier and you can see where the gray glacial runoff meets the fresh water. The salmon like to swim to the glacial water and sit at the bottom before they swim up to lay their eggs. When you fish for them you can't use bait because it is a sport fishing. You use fancy flies that cost at least $5. a piece and toss it in to irritate the salmon til they bite it. Daddy went fishing on Monday night and only had 25 # test line on his rod. A salmon hit it and was so big, it broke the line. So he not only didn't catch the big salmon, but he also lost the $5. lure! Tuesday morning he's going out again; this time with 50# or 75# test line!
The Athabascan Indians lived in the area of the Matanuska River and the Susitna River and in 1890 George Palmer built a trading post here. Later during the New Deal Relief Agencies under Franklin Roosevelt, social workers picked 203 families that were of Scandinavian descent, lived in the northern counties of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and had been hard hit by the dust bowl and then the Great Depression to join an agricultural colony being formed in this area of Alaska to utilize great agricultural potential in Matanuska Valley. So early in the summer of 1935, these hard working and "not afraid of cold" people came to this town of Palmer. Sad to say, the failure rate was high, but most of the descendants of those people still live in this valley today. Palmer eventually became the capital of this region and is now the headquarters for a cooperative market and is the state's most productive farming region. With its almost 24 hours of sunlight the crops grow exceptionally large. The growing season has 100 to 118 days a year with long hours of sunlight.This is the only community in Alaska that developed from an agricultural economy.
Located in this valley is a Musk Ox Farm. The musk ox is a prehistoric relic that survived the Ice Age. They feel best when the temperature is -80 degrees. The bulls weigh about 900 to 1000# and the cows weigh about 400 to 500 #. The calves are born at 20 to 25 # after an eight month gestation period. When danger threatens they place the calves behind them and circle around them so their huge horns face the threat. From August to September is the season of the males rutting where they battle to see who is the strongest or bravest to be the one bull to be allowed all of the cows to himself. They will place themselves 100 feet apart and charge each other at about 35 mph. hitting heads. They do this until 1 of them gives up his right to the female cows. Then the last one left is the dominant bull or the alpha bull. For a while they had 1 alpha bull (who weighed 1000 #) dominant for 15 years called Sampson, and then he just stood aside and let the next one, Goliath, take over. Goliath has only been the alpha musk ox for 1 year now. Sampson has gotten old and doesn't care if he has female cows or not. He has lost some weight and just lazes around in the fields. They allow the musk ox to die naturally and still try to keep human interaction at a minimum. We were allowed to feed them, but not to pet them or touch them.
They are not part of the Ox family and they do not have musk oil glands as the Russians once thought to be used in perfume production. In fact, they almost became extinct because so many of them were killed for their musk and horns. They have very long hairs on the outside of their fur. This is called guard hair to protect the inner layer of hair. The inner layer keeps them warm when it is -80 degrees in the winter; and the snow and ice don't bother them a bit. This inner layer of hair in called QIVIUT. It is 8 times warmer than sheep's wool, so the Athabascan Indians used to take it when the animals shed in the late spring and summer and make yarn out of it. Now the ranchers comb the musk ox very carefully instead of waiting for it to fall on the ground. It is difficult to take all of the grasses and dirt out of it, but sometimes they have to. . The cows are touchy when they are nursing calves, so they sometimes don't comb them. The musk ox naturally shed this inner wool each spring, sometimes coming off in clumps. And they cannot be combed when they are wet from rain because it gets all knotty and hurts the animal. It seems to rain a lot here too. The yarn is soft, very warm, extremely light weight and has no barbs on it so it won't itch most people. I asked the price of a headband that was knitted from this yarn- $155.00. It is the finest yarn in the world. It is very hard to obtain the yarn because there are not many musk oxes and they each only have 1 calf each year. So it takes a long time to grow up a large herd. This yarn makes up into a fabric like lace and yet it is extremely warm. And the best thing yet is- you can wash it in any temperature water and it won't be ruined like wool and cashmere. It is also naturally a dark beige color, so it complements any color you place it with. Maybe in the distant future we will make use of some of this thinking. The Native Alaskans would knit hats, scarves, mittens and headbands out of it. Now some of them still do make things and sell them at the "Oomingmak" Musk Ox Co-Operative with the money going towards the native Alaskan culture. The native ladies receive a supplemental income from the knitting or crocheting of this yarn which complements their mostly subsistence lifestyle. At the end of the year they receive a dividend from the Co-Op. The name "Oomingmak" is the Athabascan name for musk ox.
The Musk Ox eat grains and several varieties of grass and wheat which grows very well here in this valley. Sometimes the mother refuses to feed a baby and then the rancher has to step in to bottle feed them. But mostly, the musk ox are left in their paddocks and fed and supervised when all ages are placed together. There is not too much human interaction because they want the musk ox herd to remain wild. One of their bulls named "Fat Boy" was on the Jay Leno show.
We were able to see these animals and feed the youngsters. The mothers wouldn't allow us to get close to the babies, and the bulls were too lazy to even come to the fence. This farm was built at the farthermost region south that the musk ox could survive because it really can get warm here, and their coat is so thick. But, when they tried the farm further north, they couldn't get the supplies they needed as easily and then there would be no tourists to come and donate money to further this experiment. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has an Agricultural Experiment Station and Co-Operative Extension Service Office to assist in this experiment very near here.
From the Musk Ox Farm we drove to Long Rifle Lodge and ate dinner as we overlooked the Matanuska Glacier. The restaurant had 25 wildlife mounts of all kinds of animals. One grizzly bear was enormous. Check out the pictures! Then we drove down to the glacier. It is the largest glacier accessible by car in Alaska and then just a 15 to 20 minute hike over the Edge Nature Trail through boreal forests to the glacier. The walk has moderate inclines and some roots sticking up that we had to be careful of. Once we got close to the glacier the land was all gravelly and frozen dirt and ice and slippery.
The Matanuska Glacier starts in the Chugach Mountains some 27 miles away. 18,000 years ago it reached all the way to the town of Palmer where the agriculture is now. Maybe that's why they can grow such phenomenal crops. It is 2 miles wide on average, but at its terminus it is 4 miles wide. For the past 400 years it has remained stable with no increase or decrease in size and no movement. What ice melts from this glacier flows into the Matanuska River as very steely gray, but they have enough snow in the winter to keep this glacier the same size each year. From a distance this glacier looks massive and then when you are up close to it, it really dwarfs you; it is like an ice mountain. Daddy also climbed the glacier; but I didn't. As klutsy as I am I was afraid I'd fall and break a leg or arm. Can you imagine a vacation with that? The glacier has these cracks all over it and in these cracks the ice is aqua blue. It's incredible! We saw glaciers in Antarctica, but we were never this close to be able to touch it. At some points Daddy had to crawl on threes and fours to climb the glacier. I"m glad I didn't climb it, but I'm glad he had the chance . What did he do on Father's Day when he was 57? He climbed a Glacier!!!
We did so much today traveling over 200 miles that the next couple of days we won't be traveling far from the RV. The RV goes into the shop to get the AC fixed and we need to get the AC fixed on the car too. Seems like Alaska is getting a lot of our money up here.When the RV is fixed here in Anchorage we will drive to the Kenai Peninsula to see what fish and clams we can catch. Next Monday Noah and Tyler fly in and we have an extremely busy schedule prepared for them. I bet they go home tired!!! They will be going hiking, swimming, fishing, clamming, hopefully the zoo trip and the earthquake park trip, a trip on a big ship to see 26 glaciers with some of them calving into the sea. Jacksonville Beach might seem pretty mild after this trip!
Then we went to check out some fishing off of the Parks Highway at Willow Creek State Recreation Area where the Susitna River meets the Deshka River. The Susitna River comes from the Susitna Glacier and you can see where the gray glacial runoff meets the fresh water. The salmon like to swim to the glacial water and sit at the bottom before they swim up to lay their eggs. When you fish for them you can't use bait because it is a sport fishing. You use fancy flies that cost at least $5. a piece and toss it in to irritate the salmon til they bite it. Daddy went fishing on Monday night and only had 25 # test line on his rod. A salmon hit it and was so big, it broke the line. So he not only didn't catch the big salmon, but he also lost the $5. lure! Tuesday morning he's going out again; this time with 50# or 75# test line!
The Athabascan Indians lived in the area of the Matanuska River and the Susitna River and in 1890 George Palmer built a trading post here. Later during the New Deal Relief Agencies under Franklin Roosevelt, social workers picked 203 families that were of Scandinavian descent, lived in the northern counties of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and had been hard hit by the dust bowl and then the Great Depression to join an agricultural colony being formed in this area of Alaska to utilize great agricultural potential in Matanuska Valley. So early in the summer of 1935, these hard working and "not afraid of cold" people came to this town of Palmer. Sad to say, the failure rate was high, but most of the descendants of those people still live in this valley today. Palmer eventually became the capital of this region and is now the headquarters for a cooperative market and is the state's most productive farming region. With its almost 24 hours of sunlight the crops grow exceptionally large. The growing season has 100 to 118 days a year with long hours of sunlight.This is the only community in Alaska that developed from an agricultural economy.
Located in this valley is a Musk Ox Farm. The musk ox is a prehistoric relic that survived the Ice Age. They feel best when the temperature is -80 degrees. The bulls weigh about 900 to 1000# and the cows weigh about 400 to 500 #. The calves are born at 20 to 25 # after an eight month gestation period. When danger threatens they place the calves behind them and circle around them so their huge horns face the threat. From August to September is the season of the males rutting where they battle to see who is the strongest or bravest to be the one bull to be allowed all of the cows to himself. They will place themselves 100 feet apart and charge each other at about 35 mph. hitting heads. They do this until 1 of them gives up his right to the female cows. Then the last one left is the dominant bull or the alpha bull. For a while they had 1 alpha bull (who weighed 1000 #) dominant for 15 years called Sampson, and then he just stood aside and let the next one, Goliath, take over. Goliath has only been the alpha musk ox for 1 year now. Sampson has gotten old and doesn't care if he has female cows or not. He has lost some weight and just lazes around in the fields. They allow the musk ox to die naturally and still try to keep human interaction at a minimum. We were allowed to feed them, but not to pet them or touch them.
They are not part of the Ox family and they do not have musk oil glands as the Russians once thought to be used in perfume production. In fact, they almost became extinct because so many of them were killed for their musk and horns. They have very long hairs on the outside of their fur. This is called guard hair to protect the inner layer of hair. The inner layer keeps them warm when it is -80 degrees in the winter; and the snow and ice don't bother them a bit. This inner layer of hair in called QIVIUT. It is 8 times warmer than sheep's wool, so the Athabascan Indians used to take it when the animals shed in the late spring and summer and make yarn out of it. Now the ranchers comb the musk ox very carefully instead of waiting for it to fall on the ground. It is difficult to take all of the grasses and dirt out of it, but sometimes they have to. . The cows are touchy when they are nursing calves, so they sometimes don't comb them. The musk ox naturally shed this inner wool each spring, sometimes coming off in clumps. And they cannot be combed when they are wet from rain because it gets all knotty and hurts the animal. It seems to rain a lot here too. The yarn is soft, very warm, extremely light weight and has no barbs on it so it won't itch most people. I asked the price of a headband that was knitted from this yarn- $155.00. It is the finest yarn in the world. It is very hard to obtain the yarn because there are not many musk oxes and they each only have 1 calf each year. So it takes a long time to grow up a large herd. This yarn makes up into a fabric like lace and yet it is extremely warm. And the best thing yet is- you can wash it in any temperature water and it won't be ruined like wool and cashmere. It is also naturally a dark beige color, so it complements any color you place it with. Maybe in the distant future we will make use of some of this thinking. The Native Alaskans would knit hats, scarves, mittens and headbands out of it. Now some of them still do make things and sell them at the "Oomingmak" Musk Ox Co-Operative with the money going towards the native Alaskan culture. The native ladies receive a supplemental income from the knitting or crocheting of this yarn which complements their mostly subsistence lifestyle. At the end of the year they receive a dividend from the Co-Op. The name "Oomingmak" is the Athabascan name for musk ox.
The Musk Ox eat grains and several varieties of grass and wheat which grows very well here in this valley. Sometimes the mother refuses to feed a baby and then the rancher has to step in to bottle feed them. But mostly, the musk ox are left in their paddocks and fed and supervised when all ages are placed together. There is not too much human interaction because they want the musk ox herd to remain wild. One of their bulls named "Fat Boy" was on the Jay Leno show.
We were able to see these animals and feed the youngsters. The mothers wouldn't allow us to get close to the babies, and the bulls were too lazy to even come to the fence. This farm was built at the farthermost region south that the musk ox could survive because it really can get warm here, and their coat is so thick. But, when they tried the farm further north, they couldn't get the supplies they needed as easily and then there would be no tourists to come and donate money to further this experiment. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has an Agricultural Experiment Station and Co-Operative Extension Service Office to assist in this experiment very near here.
From the Musk Ox Farm we drove to Long Rifle Lodge and ate dinner as we overlooked the Matanuska Glacier. The restaurant had 25 wildlife mounts of all kinds of animals. One grizzly bear was enormous. Check out the pictures! Then we drove down to the glacier. It is the largest glacier accessible by car in Alaska and then just a 15 to 20 minute hike over the Edge Nature Trail through boreal forests to the glacier. The walk has moderate inclines and some roots sticking up that we had to be careful of. Once we got close to the glacier the land was all gravelly and frozen dirt and ice and slippery.
The Matanuska Glacier starts in the Chugach Mountains some 27 miles away. 18,000 years ago it reached all the way to the town of Palmer where the agriculture is now. Maybe that's why they can grow such phenomenal crops. It is 2 miles wide on average, but at its terminus it is 4 miles wide. For the past 400 years it has remained stable with no increase or decrease in size and no movement. What ice melts from this glacier flows into the Matanuska River as very steely gray, but they have enough snow in the winter to keep this glacier the same size each year. From a distance this glacier looks massive and then when you are up close to it, it really dwarfs you; it is like an ice mountain. Daddy also climbed the glacier; but I didn't. As klutsy as I am I was afraid I'd fall and break a leg or arm. Can you imagine a vacation with that? The glacier has these cracks all over it and in these cracks the ice is aqua blue. It's incredible! We saw glaciers in Antarctica, but we were never this close to be able to touch it. At some points Daddy had to crawl on threes and fours to climb the glacier. I"m glad I didn't climb it, but I'm glad he had the chance . What did he do on Father's Day when he was 57? He climbed a Glacier!!!
We did so much today traveling over 200 miles that the next couple of days we won't be traveling far from the RV. The RV goes into the shop to get the AC fixed and we need to get the AC fixed on the car too. Seems like Alaska is getting a lot of our money up here.When the RV is fixed here in Anchorage we will drive to the Kenai Peninsula to see what fish and clams we can catch. Next Monday Noah and Tyler fly in and we have an extremely busy schedule prepared for them. I bet they go home tired!!! They will be going hiking, swimming, fishing, clamming, hopefully the zoo trip and the earthquake park trip, a trip on a big ship to see 26 glaciers with some of them calving into the sea. Jacksonville Beach might seem pretty mild after this trip!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Today it is raining again, but we are going to a museum so we won't get wet. It's the Alaska Museum of Art and History. We're not interested in the art, just the history part of it. I always thought the Alaskan native was an Eskimo; but that was just 1 of their natives. There were several groups that made up their natives; I guess because the land is so big. So far I have seen: 1. Tlingits- which also spread into Canada, 2. Aleuts- on the outer islands, 3. the natives from the St. Lawrence Island which was really close to Russia and was probably part of the land bridge between Russia and Alaska 4. Athabascans from the interior south and southeast, 5 Eskimos from the far, far north.
Whenever these natives fished or hunted they used all parts of the animal. Nothing was wasted. Their kayaks were made out of willow branches covered with seal skins or sea lion skins. They made their parkas and boots out of of seal guts(intestines and esophagus es) double seamed to hold out water and sewn together in lateral strips with whale or fish sinew, which would swell up when wet and make the article waterproof. To decorate these items they would add caribou tufts from their fur or add shells from the beach. For a small child they made a jacket, pants and boots out of rabbit furs. The snowshoe hare was plentiful and easy to catch. When they doubled the furs with the fur sides on the outside and against the skin, it kept the babies and children very warm in their extremely cold winters. But since the rabbit skins were so often used, it became commonplace that the more affluent used mink, marten, seal or otter to show they had more.
They believed the sea otters were descended from people because they showed emotions close to ours. They would float on the seas with their babies on their stomachs and get very upset when a hunter would hurt their baby. They would jeopardize their own lives to save their offspring. Sea otter pelts were the most prized in all the world, which is why Russia tried to keep Alaska for herself until the sea otters were fished out to almost extinction. The natives also felt that the sea otters' spirits were the result of incest between the brothers and sisters of the natives. That is a hard concept to fathom! Their knives they used were called ulus and they used them to do everything: eat, skin animals, scale fish, cut bones, etc. These knives are still used today and are sold in most of these stores here.
The little girl natives had dolls to play with made out of skins. They weren't allowed to take them outside of the huts in fall, winter and spring because of the weather. They had to wait until they saw the red bird in late spring. When they started puberty, the girls were placed into a room to make baskets for 40 days. When they came out, it was a sign that they were ready for marriage. So the whole village knew she had started menstruating. That really seems weird! Then they also gave away their dolls because they could have babies of their own and didn't need the dolls anymore. So they gave them to younger children. All of the children's' toys were imitations of their adult life; even for the boys.
The young girls before puberty had to learn how to sew for their adult life. They made these fabric cloths with many pouches and a variety of stitches (similar to our samplers of the colonial period) that were rolled up and tied together to hold their sewing tools. This they kept with them for their whole lives. Once this was finished it showed the village that she can sew and help a husband. So this is another sign that she is ready for marriage. It is always about tradition, keeping the culture intact and the race producing for survival. Some of these traditions are still used today.
Whenever these natives fished or hunted they used all parts of the animal. Nothing was wasted. Their kayaks were made out of willow branches covered with seal skins or sea lion skins. They made their parkas and boots out of of seal guts(intestines and esophagus es) double seamed to hold out water and sewn together in lateral strips with whale or fish sinew, which would swell up when wet and make the article waterproof. To decorate these items they would add caribou tufts from their fur or add shells from the beach. For a small child they made a jacket, pants and boots out of rabbit furs. The snowshoe hare was plentiful and easy to catch. When they doubled the furs with the fur sides on the outside and against the skin, it kept the babies and children very warm in their extremely cold winters. But since the rabbit skins were so often used, it became commonplace that the more affluent used mink, marten, seal or otter to show they had more.
They believed the sea otters were descended from people because they showed emotions close to ours. They would float on the seas with their babies on their stomachs and get very upset when a hunter would hurt their baby. They would jeopardize their own lives to save their offspring. Sea otter pelts were the most prized in all the world, which is why Russia tried to keep Alaska for herself until the sea otters were fished out to almost extinction. The natives also felt that the sea otters' spirits were the result of incest between the brothers and sisters of the natives. That is a hard concept to fathom! Their knives they used were called ulus and they used them to do everything: eat, skin animals, scale fish, cut bones, etc. These knives are still used today and are sold in most of these stores here.
The little girl natives had dolls to play with made out of skins. They weren't allowed to take them outside of the huts in fall, winter and spring because of the weather. They had to wait until they saw the red bird in late spring. When they started puberty, the girls were placed into a room to make baskets for 40 days. When they came out, it was a sign that they were ready for marriage. So the whole village knew she had started menstruating. That really seems weird! Then they also gave away their dolls because they could have babies of their own and didn't need the dolls anymore. So they gave them to younger children. All of the children's' toys were imitations of their adult life; even for the boys.
The young girls before puberty had to learn how to sew for their adult life. They made these fabric cloths with many pouches and a variety of stitches (similar to our samplers of the colonial period) that were rolled up and tied together to hold their sewing tools. This they kept with them for their whole lives. Once this was finished it showed the village that she can sew and help a husband. So this is another sign that she is ready for marriage. It is always about tradition, keeping the culture intact and the race producing for survival. Some of these traditions are still used today.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Anchorage
We have been staying in Anchorage for the last week in a RV park in downtown. Doing something different each day. One day we went to the history museum and one day we went South down the Seward Highway towards the Kenai Peninsula and got down about 40 miles and stopped at a place that takes care of injured or abandoned animals and brings them back to health. The next 3 or 4 pictures will be from that mini zoo. We enjoyed it, it was located in the wilderness right beside the highway.
Broken Windshield Wiper
One of the windshield wipers broke on the trip and this just proves that duct tape will fix anything. I did have it repaired in Anchorage.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
It has been raining for 2 days now in Anchorage, Alaska. Yesterday we went to the mall to check out the movies in town; but we had seen all of the ones we were interested in. Their mall is four floors: the very bottom is an ice rink that can be used all year. The other 3 floors are stores and movies. I walked into a Famous Footwear and overheard a mother arguing with her 3 young daughters about not wearing socks in Florida. Apparently, these young girls feel they have to wear socks all of the time in Florida, too. Boy, will they be surprised at the temps when they get there!!! It's been in the upper 40s and lower 50s for the last 2 days with rain, rain, and more rain!!! I've heard they need the precipitation; but it would be nice to have it when we're not here.
Today we drove towards Seward, Alaska. Daddy is getting this cold/allergy that I've had for several days and is taking sudafed which is making him groggy. The road drives along the coastline and up against the mountains. It is gorgeous even though it is raining. The mountains rise up sharply and really high. The shoreline is made of glacier silt and water that creates a sort of quicksand that you can't get out of. There wasn't anybody fishing out there. You were supposed to be able to see the all-white beluga whales from that point; but we didn't see anything except seagulls. There were also supposed to be Dall Sheep up on the cliffs and moose seen crossing the road. I guess they don't like rain either!
Then we drove to Portage, Alaska where you can still see evidence of the 1964 earthquake that hit Anchorage. This town is now several miles from where it was in 1964. The land fell down 10 feet and in now covered when a high tide comes in. But the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center is still there. They take in all wild orphaned animals and raise them, and give them a quality life til they die. A young moose cannot survive in the wild without its mother to teach them what they can eat and which animals are predators. So this center keeps them and protects them. Their environments are exactly like where they would live in the wild, except there are no predators to hurt them. They had porcupines, wood bison, elk, moose, grizzly bears, bald eagles. The 2 grizzlies were wrestling and I was able to take some really good pictures of them. Because they are in a huge caged pasture, I could stand within 5 feet of them. They were really neat while they were play fighting and rolling on the ground. They didn't seem to care that we were watching them. Now I can see the difference between a very large bull elk and a bull moose. From a distance they could almost look alike. But an elk always has a white rear end!
On the news channel at night there have been incidents reported about bears being on the paths of the parks while people are there. They are coming to the creeks and streams to catch the salmon and eat whatever they find. A couple of people got hurt in the last 2 days. They are saying to not go alone and to question the rangers for bear activities. They don't close the parks at night because it isn't dark at all. You can walk into them at any time, no matter how late. And you can always see really well. You can read a book outside at 2 AM without a light overhead!
Today we drove towards Seward, Alaska. Daddy is getting this cold/allergy that I've had for several days and is taking sudafed which is making him groggy. The road drives along the coastline and up against the mountains. It is gorgeous even though it is raining. The mountains rise up sharply and really high. The shoreline is made of glacier silt and water that creates a sort of quicksand that you can't get out of. There wasn't anybody fishing out there. You were supposed to be able to see the all-white beluga whales from that point; but we didn't see anything except seagulls. There were also supposed to be Dall Sheep up on the cliffs and moose seen crossing the road. I guess they don't like rain either!
Then we drove to Portage, Alaska where you can still see evidence of the 1964 earthquake that hit Anchorage. This town is now several miles from where it was in 1964. The land fell down 10 feet and in now covered when a high tide comes in. But the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center is still there. They take in all wild orphaned animals and raise them, and give them a quality life til they die. A young moose cannot survive in the wild without its mother to teach them what they can eat and which animals are predators. So this center keeps them and protects them. Their environments are exactly like where they would live in the wild, except there are no predators to hurt them. They had porcupines, wood bison, elk, moose, grizzly bears, bald eagles. The 2 grizzlies were wrestling and I was able to take some really good pictures of them. Because they are in a huge caged pasture, I could stand within 5 feet of them. They were really neat while they were play fighting and rolling on the ground. They didn't seem to care that we were watching them. Now I can see the difference between a very large bull elk and a bull moose. From a distance they could almost look alike. But an elk always has a white rear end!
On the news channel at night there have been incidents reported about bears being on the paths of the parks while people are there. They are coming to the creeks and streams to catch the salmon and eat whatever they find. A couple of people got hurt in the last 2 days. They are saying to not go alone and to question the rangers for bear activities. They don't close the parks at night because it isn't dark at all. You can walk into them at any time, no matter how late. And you can always see really well. You can read a book outside at 2 AM without a light overhead!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Stageshow
We went to a stageshow which was a comedy based on the beginning of Fairbanks. It was really good and the actors were very good.
Harding Railroad car.
Looks to be in pretty rough shape, nothing like the office cars that CSX runs today.
Pioneer Park
Fairbanks has a city sponsored park called Pioneer Park which has a Salmon Bake buffet, also on the way in we saw the Harding Car which was the car President Harding used to come to Fairbanks in 1923 to dedicate the Alaska Railroad.
After Panning
After panning out the gravel with water, the results were pretty impressive. Mom and I got 24.00 worth of gold in our two pans and Mom bought a necklace with a locket and had the gold put inside of it. Somehow I knew finding gold was going to cost me.
Loading the dirt and gravel
The gravel and dirt from the creek bed is fed into the sluice before the water is released from a holding tank which is behind. This carries it down the sluice.
Eldorado Goldmine
The next day we visited the Eldorado Gold Mine, a working mine where we were met by the mine train and transported to the mine. Here they demonstrated the operation, they used sluice which carried water over the gravel and washed out the big gravel so that under the drain pads were the fine gravel that needed to be panned for gold dust. Any nuggets would show up at the beginning of the sluice since they would be heavier than the rest of the rock.
Float Planes
Alaskans in the bush have no roads, there is only one road out of Fairbanks north to Prudhoe bay which is where the ice truckers run and take supplies for the oil fields.
The natives use Fairbanks as a supply point and often the float planes are the way it is delivered. There are several stores in Fairbanks that cater to the native and getting them the supplies to the planes to deliver them.
The natives use Fairbanks as a supply point and often the float planes are the way it is delivered. There are several stores in Fairbanks that cater to the native and getting them the supplies to the planes to deliver them.
Susan Butcher
The riverboat also stopped at the compound of Susan Butcher, whose husband now runs. Susan won the Ididarod 4 different times and generated the saying in Alaska "where men are men and Woman win the Ididard". Susan died of cancer several years ago and here husband now races and runs the dog compound. Here he is exercising the dogs, instead of a sled uses a four-wheeler without a engine and they race around the lake.
Moose
This moose at the fishcamp was killed by a car and then stuffed. Moose loose their antlers every year just like deer and caribou. The antlers do get larger as the moose ages.
Reindeer/Caribou
They had several reindeer there in pens, reindeer are just caribou that are domesticated.
Animal furs
This line of harvested animal furs were used by the natives to make warm close for the winter.
Salmon catching machine
This handmade salmon catcher is really neat, the current makes the wheel with the baskets turn and catches salmon during spawning season.
Discovery River Boat, Fairbanks, Alaska II
This girl, a native Alaskan demonstrated a salmon catching and drying facility, this is what the tribe lives on in the winter time. All of the kids that worked here were nati ves and do this in the summer to try and stay close to their native traditions. Most of them go to college.
North Pole, Alaska
I forgot an important place that we stopped on the way to Fairbanks, It was North Pole, Alaska where Santa's house is located as well as his gift shop. It is about 10 miles from Fairbanks and an exit that has other commercial stores but it definitely stands out.
Monday, June 14, 2010.
Today we drive a short trip to Wasilla, Alaska. It is an hours drive from Anchorage and the salmon should be there by now. This is also the town where Sarah Palin is from. The lady at the RV Park knows her personally, but wouldn't tell me her address. Said she lives somewhere around Lucille Lake! So now we're going into WalMart and Fred Meyers and I'll look to see if anybody resembles her. Just joking!!!
The A/C is not working again, so it goes into the ship tomorrow morning at 9 AM. That means we need to check out of the RV Park at 7 AM and drive to Anchorage. Let's hope they can fix it before the day is over. We need to find something to do that doesn't take long, in case it is finished early. And the next day Daddy is going to go out on a chartered fishing boat. I hope he catches some salmon.
The A/C is not working again, so it goes into the ship tomorrow morning at 9 AM. That means we need to check out of the RV Park at 7 AM and drive to Anchorage. Let's hope they can fix it before the day is over. We need to find something to do that doesn't take long, in case it is finished early. And the next day Daddy is going to go out on a chartered fishing boat. I hope he catches some salmon.
Saturday, June 12, 2010.
We left the Denali RV PArk as soon as we got our mail and are on the way to Talkeetna. Stopped at His & Hers Restaurant for lunch; really good food. It is an unusual place; was built in 1961 before the road was even paved. Survived the 1964 earthquake that was centered in Anchorage. They have added on many rooms and all of the ceilings are wooden and beamed. There is a huge lake behind them that is stocked with rainbow trout.
We stayed at Montana Creek Campground and walked down to the river where the salmon swim up to spawn and then die. The Sunday papers said the salmon have finally been spotted in Anchorage, so they'll be up on the way here. They were really late this year. People started wondering what was wrong. Daddy didn't catch any, but neither did anybody else. The 1 lady next to Daddy caught 1 in his tail. You can't keep those because this is a sport fishing event. There must have been 80 people fishing all around here with little kids all running around all over the island. Daddy looked pretty good in his waders!
Hopefully, by Monday I will be over the cold or allergy I got when we hiked into Denali the first day. It must be from the willow and cottonwood trees just blooming. Of course, the dunk into the cold lake didn't do me any good either. I bet if anybody could have seen it, it would have been hilarious!!!!
We stayed at Montana Creek Campground and walked down to the river where the salmon swim up to spawn and then die. The Sunday papers said the salmon have finally been spotted in Anchorage, so they'll be up on the way here. They were really late this year. People started wondering what was wrong. Daddy didn't catch any, but neither did anybody else. The 1 lady next to Daddy caught 1 in his tail. You can't keep those because this is a sport fishing event. There must have been 80 people fishing all around here with little kids all running around all over the island. Daddy looked pretty good in his waders!
Hopefully, by Monday I will be over the cold or allergy I got when we hiked into Denali the first day. It must be from the willow and cottonwood trees just blooming. Of course, the dunk into the cold lake didn't do me any good either. I bet if anybody could have seen it, it would have been hilarious!!!!
Friday, June11, 2010.
Denali National Park was created as a Dall Sheep preserve in 1917 encompassing 2 million acres. Harper and Karston wanted to stop the extinguishing of the Dall Sheep. In 1970 President Carter had it enlarged to 6 million acres and is now the second largest in the US. South of here is Mount Saint Elias in Alaska which is the largest. We entered from the east side on the one and only road into Denali over Riley Creek. You are only allowed to drive to the visitor center, but from there you need to ride a bus driven by a Park Official. We rode in a school bus renovated with coach seats for 91 miles to the other side of the park. As soon as we were into the park we saw a huge moose just chewing happily on the side of the road, totally unaware of us all taking pictures of him. Then we rode along the Savage River.
Denali National Park has the highest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley. Mount McKinley has two peaks: northern peak is 19,470' and southern peak is 20,320'. The northern peak has the highest vertical rise of any mountain (17,000'); and then you can add to it the 2000' elevation that it sits upon; which makes it 22,320'. It is named after a Senator from Ohio who supported the gold currency over the silver currency in Congress. The gold miners in Denali liked that and named it after him. When the Fairbanks papers heard of it, they printed it and it stuck. The natives have always called it Denali, meaning "great one" or "high one".
The first 15 miles into the park are on an asphalt road; after that it is dirt and gravel. The original road was built in the 1930s. This road now is called the Parks Road built in 1970. At the very beginning of the park the area is called the taiga- gateway to the Arctic . The permafrost ground is only frozen to 1 foot; whereas the tundra has permafrost that is frozen to 2 feet down. Here in the taiga white spruce and poplar grow because there is less rain on the east side of the mountain. Within 20 minutes we were into the tundra (which is what most of the park is) following the Sanctuary and and Teklanika Rivers, and it is above the tree line. It is either too wet, too dry, not enough soil and/or too much wind for trees to survive here.
In the distance we could see Mount McKinley with clouds around it. The clouds today are called lenticular clouds and it means it is very windy up on the top. We can see snowshoe rabbits in the shrubs on the side of the road. There are bathrooms along the road and they are typical of Alaskan architecture that is sod roof; which insulates the building better. On the side were forget-me-nots flowers growing wild, which is the state flower. The state bug is the dragonfly; and I have seen oodles of them, much smaller than ours in Florida.
In many places the permafrost layers have been shifted and everything attached top it gets shifted; so that the trees look tilted. They call it the "Drunken Forest". It is tipped over at a 40 degree angle. The Teklanika River is an abraded stream with glacial silt flowing on its top. The streams change course constantly due to the silt clogging the original flow pattern. There are no salmon in these rivers because we are on the wrong side of the mountains. So the grizzly bears here do not eat salmon; instead they eat moose calves, roots, grass and Eskimo potatoes which are tubers that are high in protein. They need a lot of protein at this time of year since they have just come our of hibernation. We saw a whole herd of Dall Sheep high up in the mountains as they were grazing. They looked like little white dots. Sometimes we saw elk and moose grazing beside the streams. Check out our pictures.
At the bottom of the glaciers as they melt grass grows from the silt that was under the glacier. The glacier looks aqua-blue and is called the Polychrome Glacier. In 1896 the first white man here was George Wickersham from the Yukon Gold rush. He first went to Eagle River, then the Kahiltna Mountain, then on to climb Denali. At that time there were no roads, only dog sleds or hiking into Denali. There are lots of rivers and streams here and very rough going, so it was not an easy thing to do. He started in early June and by mid July had to stop because he came upon an ice wall that he couldn't get over or around. This is now called Wickershams Wall. The next few men weren't successful either. The northern summit actually looks higher, but it isn't. Harper and Karston tried it in 1930 and again in 1932. In the summertime the summit is -40 degrees and in the winter it is -150 degrees! Each year many people try to climb it and there are usually 3 to 5 deaths a year because of avalanches, unseen crevasses, frostbite, altitude sickness.
As the day progresses the weather is rapidly changing and Mount Denali is hidden in fog and clouds. It is raining a little. We saw a harrier hawk which are common here and golden eagles; the bald eagle doesn't live here. We came across kettle ponds where the glaciers dug out the dirt because it was weak and then filled it with melted glacier water. Up on the side of the road we saw a Grizzly Mama Bear and her two cubs. They were feeding on the hill. Of course the Mama Bear kept her eye on us the whole time. The little cubs didn't care, they played all around her. We sat and watched them for about 20 minutes being sure everyone was able to take a picture. I was able to take several good ones.
We ate lunch at the Kantishna Park and Lodge. They had a buffet set up for us with salads, cold cuts and desserts. The pilots from the Kantishna Air Strip came over to see if any of us would prefer to fly back to the entrance instead of the 6 hour drive back. We would have done it if the sky was clear enough to be able to see Denali, but it wasn't. On the drive back we saw a wolf who was walking in the road just in front of our bus. We followed him for a while then he ran off to chase a snowshoe hare. I'm glad I didn't see him catch it.
At the end of the trip we had not seen any red foxes. They must just be hidden. The bus we were on had in its itinerary to stop when ewe see wildlife; that was the whole point of taking this tour. The other buses just drop you off at different stops, but they don't narrate your tour. You can camp anywhere inside Denali, but you have to hike into Denali, not drive. They don't want us to leave much of a carbon footprint on the animals environment. The few buildings they do have , have been constructed over where the older ones were, and they were built using natural products from the land without depleting the land. One of the centers was built partially underground so from the back all you see is a hill. We probably spent 14 hours on this trip, but it was well worth it. The upgraded seats made the length of the trip bearable.
Denali National Park has the highest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley. Mount McKinley has two peaks: northern peak is 19,470' and southern peak is 20,320'. The northern peak has the highest vertical rise of any mountain (17,000'); and then you can add to it the 2000' elevation that it sits upon; which makes it 22,320'. It is named after a Senator from Ohio who supported the gold currency over the silver currency in Congress. The gold miners in Denali liked that and named it after him. When the Fairbanks papers heard of it, they printed it and it stuck. The natives have always called it Denali, meaning "great one" or "high one".
The first 15 miles into the park are on an asphalt road; after that it is dirt and gravel. The original road was built in the 1930s. This road now is called the Parks Road built in 1970. At the very beginning of the park the area is called the taiga- gateway to the Arctic . The permafrost ground is only frozen to 1 foot; whereas the tundra has permafrost that is frozen to 2 feet down. Here in the taiga white spruce and poplar grow because there is less rain on the east side of the mountain. Within 20 minutes we were into the tundra (which is what most of the park is) following the Sanctuary and and Teklanika Rivers, and it is above the tree line. It is either too wet, too dry, not enough soil and/or too much wind for trees to survive here.
In the distance we could see Mount McKinley with clouds around it. The clouds today are called lenticular clouds and it means it is very windy up on the top. We can see snowshoe rabbits in the shrubs on the side of the road. There are bathrooms along the road and they are typical of Alaskan architecture that is sod roof; which insulates the building better. On the side were forget-me-nots flowers growing wild, which is the state flower. The state bug is the dragonfly; and I have seen oodles of them, much smaller than ours in Florida.
In many places the permafrost layers have been shifted and everything attached top it gets shifted; so that the trees look tilted. They call it the "Drunken Forest". It is tipped over at a 40 degree angle. The Teklanika River is an abraded stream with glacial silt flowing on its top. The streams change course constantly due to the silt clogging the original flow pattern. There are no salmon in these rivers because we are on the wrong side of the mountains. So the grizzly bears here do not eat salmon; instead they eat moose calves, roots, grass and Eskimo potatoes which are tubers that are high in protein. They need a lot of protein at this time of year since they have just come our of hibernation. We saw a whole herd of Dall Sheep high up in the mountains as they were grazing. They looked like little white dots. Sometimes we saw elk and moose grazing beside the streams. Check out our pictures.
At the bottom of the glaciers as they melt grass grows from the silt that was under the glacier. The glacier looks aqua-blue and is called the Polychrome Glacier. In 1896 the first white man here was George Wickersham from the Yukon Gold rush. He first went to Eagle River, then the Kahiltna Mountain, then on to climb Denali. At that time there were no roads, only dog sleds or hiking into Denali. There are lots of rivers and streams here and very rough going, so it was not an easy thing to do. He started in early June and by mid July had to stop because he came upon an ice wall that he couldn't get over or around. This is now called Wickershams Wall. The next few men weren't successful either. The northern summit actually looks higher, but it isn't. Harper and Karston tried it in 1930 and again in 1932. In the summertime the summit is -40 degrees and in the winter it is -150 degrees! Each year many people try to climb it and there are usually 3 to 5 deaths a year because of avalanches, unseen crevasses, frostbite, altitude sickness.
As the day progresses the weather is rapidly changing and Mount Denali is hidden in fog and clouds. It is raining a little. We saw a harrier hawk which are common here and golden eagles; the bald eagle doesn't live here. We came across kettle ponds where the glaciers dug out the dirt because it was weak and then filled it with melted glacier water. Up on the side of the road we saw a Grizzly Mama Bear and her two cubs. They were feeding on the hill. Of course the Mama Bear kept her eye on us the whole time. The little cubs didn't care, they played all around her. We sat and watched them for about 20 minutes being sure everyone was able to take a picture. I was able to take several good ones.
We ate lunch at the Kantishna Park and Lodge. They had a buffet set up for us with salads, cold cuts and desserts. The pilots from the Kantishna Air Strip came over to see if any of us would prefer to fly back to the entrance instead of the 6 hour drive back. We would have done it if the sky was clear enough to be able to see Denali, but it wasn't. On the drive back we saw a wolf who was walking in the road just in front of our bus. We followed him for a while then he ran off to chase a snowshoe hare. I'm glad I didn't see him catch it.
At the end of the trip we had not seen any red foxes. They must just be hidden. The bus we were on had in its itinerary to stop when ewe see wildlife; that was the whole point of taking this tour. The other buses just drop you off at different stops, but they don't narrate your tour. You can camp anywhere inside Denali, but you have to hike into Denali, not drive. They don't want us to leave much of a carbon footprint on the animals environment. The few buildings they do have , have been constructed over where the older ones were, and they were built using natural products from the land without depleting the land. One of the centers was built partially underground so from the back all you see is a hill. We probably spent 14 hours on this trip, but it was well worth it. The upgraded seats made the length of the trip bearable.
Discovery River Boat, Fairbanks, Alaska
We arrived at Fairbanks and got checked into the RV park and decided the next morning we would go on the Discovery River boat ride down the Chena River. Picture of the Discovery
Tok - Fishing comes first
This couple next to us at the campground at Tok were a friendly pair that I got talking to about fishing and where we were going to fish. I asked him if he was going to ship his fish home and he motioned to the back of his truck where he had a freezer tied up in his truck that was hooked up and running to store his fish until he got home.
Pretty good idea
Pretty good idea
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Alaska- where the men are men and women win the Iditarod! Today we went to the Husky Homesteader Tour. I believe Carol and Ray did this when they were here with Princess Cruises. All of the people on the bus with us were from the cruises. But we had a coupon for 20% off because we had a land book!
In the Iditarod the dogs are the athletes, not the people. The people don't have to be extremely muscular or healthy. But they need to be able to do with little sleep. It is run from Willow Creek in Fairbanks to Nome, Alaska the first Saturday in March. The trip takes 9 - 14 days and is 1100 miles long. The route is staked out with iridescent wooden stakes; but some dogs have done this SO many times they know the route without the stakes. Ahead of time the mushers ship food out to their stopping places because it is too much to carry for the whole trip.The only things that they actually take with them in the sled is food for the musher and the dogs, extra batteries, sled parts and boot liners and mittens for the dogs paws. The sleds have GPS on them just for the audience to follow them.Usually at the different camps where they stop for the night there are about 35 - 40 veterinarians who leave their jobs to be there for the dogs. Before they can run, the dogs receive a complete exam with EKG, blood work and orthopedic exam and they have a microchip installed in their necks. The sled is loaded with a cooker to melt snow for water and to mix food for the dogs. They stop every 2 hours for a potty break and a snack. For dinner they eat 100 pounds of beef, moose and caribou. The magic number of dogs is 9; but they usually take 16 so they have extras if needed. But the sled runs just as fast with 9 dogs as it does with 16. Sometimes dogs are sent home with sore shoulders or when their needs differ from that of the group. The dogs need 1 hour of resting for each hour of running, and 12 hours of sleeping and eating. So they usually do 6 hours running 6 hours resting. Their speed is about 10 mph; but after 6 hours running you have to convince the dogs to rest because they just love running. Then the musher has to give them straw for a bed, feed them and massage their feet., repair the sled if needed. Out of the 6 hours off, 4 and a half are spent on chores. You get 90 minutes of sleep.
This is the ranch of Jeff King whoi has won the Iditarod 4 times now. They have 65 Alaskan Huskies and 4 Border Collies. We didn't see Jeff King, just his wife, Erica, and 2 daughters. Jeff came from California when he was 19 to work for the summer at Denali Park. He stayed and never went back. He started raising his own Iditarod team His wife was from New York and was working in Minnesota when she came here for the summer to work at the Park. They literally ran into each other with their teams of mush dogs. And the rest is history, as they say. They have 2 daughters who are very adept at dog mushing. The girls were born at this ranch and were on the mushing sleds by the time they were 3 weeks old! For the last 15 years they didn't even have electricity. They have gotten that in the past 2 years. The girls went to school in Healy, a small coal mining town to the north with a K - 12 school of 200 students. The 1 daughter just graduated this year in a class of 14 students! The schools in Alaska are very well funded and equipped because of the oil funds going to education. When the temperature gets to -50 degrees the students who don't live in the towns are allowed a "snow day" because the buses can't run. School is never cancelled and they never even calculate wind chill!
I was able to hold 1 of the 2 month old puppies, a girl Prada- named after the designing divas. She was so sweet! Daddy only took pictures. These Alaskan Huskies are bred to run and deliver their pups in the summer because it's so cold here. When the dogs are retired from running the Iditarod, they are sold to the amateur teams and families that run dogs. These dogs are bred to run and they have to do it to be healthy and happy. They have a retired husky named Salem who won the 2006 Iditarod that helps with the other dogs' training and he sires new pups. Alaskan Huskies are not AKC registered like the Siberian Huskies. The only requirements to be an Iditarod musher is to be very sociable and adapted to the northern climate. Their ancestors came over the land bridge from Siberia. They have a double coat system of fur: the top layer is greasy so it is water repellent and the underfur is soft and cushioned to keep them warm. Their fur is so thick that they cannot stay inside a house for very long before they start panting. They also have to eat lots of calories to keep warm; usually for a 50# dog they need to eat 10,000 to 15,000 calories a day in the winter. So their food is extremely high protein and high fat; a normal dog that is not a work dog could not eat this food. This is equivalent to over 50 Big Macs.
The sleds weigh 50 pounds, supplies weigh 100 pounds and then the musher. So the dogs can pull 300 to 400 pounds and you usually only need 9 to 10 dogs to effectively pull this weight. The dogs aren't strained at all. They have placed a tug monitor on them and each dog only pulls 4 to 6 pounds a piece. Remember, the sled glides along the ice. These dogs are not bred for pulling, but for long distance marathon running. They only use females for 10 to 20 % of the team because they can go into heat during the race and then the male dogs will not cooperate. One time Jeff King had a female leader that went into heat during the race. He had to send her home and put another in her place. The rules require that all of the dogs you will use in the race have to start the race. Therefore, most of the time they all start with 16 dogs with some being weeded out when they can't run or keep up. All of the dogs have to be running at the same pace; they cannot have needs different from the group or they'll pull the whole group down. The first dogs are the lead dogs which are extremely important. These dogs display leader qualities whent hey are pups, so they are groomed for this position. The middle pairs of daogs are called swing dogs, they give the most power. The last group of 2 before the sled are called the wheel dogs. They control the sled which is very important.
In the summer they still run everyday. They don't pull a sled instead they pull an ATV around the lake or they swim in the lake single file and it helps keep them cool. The water is still pretty cold so they wear neoprene vests to keep warm but not life jackets. They are born being able to swim. Sometimes they are so strong that they have to put a motor behind them in reverse to hold the dogs back.
In 2006 a man started running the Iditarod at 50 years of age and won. He still does it every year so far. The first woman to win the Iditarod was Libby Riddles. Then Susan Butcher won in '86, '87, '88, '90. We went to her husky ranch earlier this week. There are sled races run every weekend in the winter, it's just the Iditarod is the most famous.
We went to eat at the Salmon Bake and it was delicious. Daddy had fired halibut with shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onions. I had a bison burger. Yum!!! They name their streams and creeks oddly: Fox, Antler, Dragonfly, bison gulch, iceworm gulch, etc. Byn the wat, Alaska's state bug is the Dragonfly! It should be the mosquito!!!
After the Husky dogs we decided to try canoeing on the lake close to our RV Park. If we are going to get a canoe( and we have been looking at them) we need to be sure I like them and will go with Daddy in one. So we went out for an hour or two. They gave us 2 life preservers. We thought we would see some moose along the waterway because they like the wetlands areas. We saw some ducks, only 2, and they were sitting on a rock. Well, Daddy decided he wanted to find his water bottle on the floor of the canoe behind him. I have never been in canoe before, but thought we were doing pretty good. I had the camera in my hand taking pictures and the cell phone in a plastic bag in my pocket. Daddy leaned back to grab the water and he said I freaked out. All I know is we were both in the lake and the canoe was full of water. But I saved the camera! Not the cell phone. Now Daddy has to buy another cell phone. This is the 3rd phone since the beginning of March! And he had promised me he wouldn't tip the canoe over!!!! So now we are soaking wet and that lake was COLD!!!! I don't think I like canoes. Give me a rowboat instead!
In the Iditarod the dogs are the athletes, not the people. The people don't have to be extremely muscular or healthy. But they need to be able to do with little sleep. It is run from Willow Creek in Fairbanks to Nome, Alaska the first Saturday in March. The trip takes 9 - 14 days and is 1100 miles long. The route is staked out with iridescent wooden stakes; but some dogs have done this SO many times they know the route without the stakes. Ahead of time the mushers ship food out to their stopping places because it is too much to carry for the whole trip.The only things that they actually take with them in the sled is food for the musher and the dogs, extra batteries, sled parts and boot liners and mittens for the dogs paws. The sleds have GPS on them just for the audience to follow them.Usually at the different camps where they stop for the night there are about 35 - 40 veterinarians who leave their jobs to be there for the dogs. Before they can run, the dogs receive a complete exam with EKG, blood work and orthopedic exam and they have a microchip installed in their necks. The sled is loaded with a cooker to melt snow for water and to mix food for the dogs. They stop every 2 hours for a potty break and a snack. For dinner they eat 100 pounds of beef, moose and caribou. The magic number of dogs is 9; but they usually take 16 so they have extras if needed. But the sled runs just as fast with 9 dogs as it does with 16. Sometimes dogs are sent home with sore shoulders or when their needs differ from that of the group. The dogs need 1 hour of resting for each hour of running, and 12 hours of sleeping and eating. So they usually do 6 hours running 6 hours resting. Their speed is about 10 mph; but after 6 hours running you have to convince the dogs to rest because they just love running. Then the musher has to give them straw for a bed, feed them and massage their feet., repair the sled if needed. Out of the 6 hours off, 4 and a half are spent on chores. You get 90 minutes of sleep.
This is the ranch of Jeff King whoi has won the Iditarod 4 times now. They have 65 Alaskan Huskies and 4 Border Collies. We didn't see Jeff King, just his wife, Erica, and 2 daughters. Jeff came from California when he was 19 to work for the summer at Denali Park. He stayed and never went back. He started raising his own Iditarod team His wife was from New York and was working in Minnesota when she came here for the summer to work at the Park. They literally ran into each other with their teams of mush dogs. And the rest is history, as they say. They have 2 daughters who are very adept at dog mushing. The girls were born at this ranch and were on the mushing sleds by the time they were 3 weeks old! For the last 15 years they didn't even have electricity. They have gotten that in the past 2 years. The girls went to school in Healy, a small coal mining town to the north with a K - 12 school of 200 students. The 1 daughter just graduated this year in a class of 14 students! The schools in Alaska are very well funded and equipped because of the oil funds going to education. When the temperature gets to -50 degrees the students who don't live in the towns are allowed a "snow day" because the buses can't run. School is never cancelled and they never even calculate wind chill!
I was able to hold 1 of the 2 month old puppies, a girl Prada- named after the designing divas. She was so sweet! Daddy only took pictures. These Alaskan Huskies are bred to run and deliver their pups in the summer because it's so cold here. When the dogs are retired from running the Iditarod, they are sold to the amateur teams and families that run dogs. These dogs are bred to run and they have to do it to be healthy and happy. They have a retired husky named Salem who won the 2006 Iditarod that helps with the other dogs' training and he sires new pups. Alaskan Huskies are not AKC registered like the Siberian Huskies. The only requirements to be an Iditarod musher is to be very sociable and adapted to the northern climate. Their ancestors came over the land bridge from Siberia. They have a double coat system of fur: the top layer is greasy so it is water repellent and the underfur is soft and cushioned to keep them warm. Their fur is so thick that they cannot stay inside a house for very long before they start panting. They also have to eat lots of calories to keep warm; usually for a 50# dog they need to eat 10,000 to 15,000 calories a day in the winter. So their food is extremely high protein and high fat; a normal dog that is not a work dog could not eat this food. This is equivalent to over 50 Big Macs.
The sleds weigh 50 pounds, supplies weigh 100 pounds and then the musher. So the dogs can pull 300 to 400 pounds and you usually only need 9 to 10 dogs to effectively pull this weight. The dogs aren't strained at all. They have placed a tug monitor on them and each dog only pulls 4 to 6 pounds a piece. Remember, the sled glides along the ice. These dogs are not bred for pulling, but for long distance marathon running. They only use females for 10 to 20 % of the team because they can go into heat during the race and then the male dogs will not cooperate. One time Jeff King had a female leader that went into heat during the race. He had to send her home and put another in her place. The rules require that all of the dogs you will use in the race have to start the race. Therefore, most of the time they all start with 16 dogs with some being weeded out when they can't run or keep up. All of the dogs have to be running at the same pace; they cannot have needs different from the group or they'll pull the whole group down. The first dogs are the lead dogs which are extremely important. These dogs display leader qualities whent hey are pups, so they are groomed for this position. The middle pairs of daogs are called swing dogs, they give the most power. The last group of 2 before the sled are called the wheel dogs. They control the sled which is very important.
In the summer they still run everyday. They don't pull a sled instead they pull an ATV around the lake or they swim in the lake single file and it helps keep them cool. The water is still pretty cold so they wear neoprene vests to keep warm but not life jackets. They are born being able to swim. Sometimes they are so strong that they have to put a motor behind them in reverse to hold the dogs back.
In 2006 a man started running the Iditarod at 50 years of age and won. He still does it every year so far. The first woman to win the Iditarod was Libby Riddles. Then Susan Butcher won in '86, '87, '88, '90. We went to her husky ranch earlier this week. There are sled races run every weekend in the winter, it's just the Iditarod is the most famous.
We went to eat at the Salmon Bake and it was delicious. Daddy had fired halibut with shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onions. I had a bison burger. Yum!!! They name their streams and creeks oddly: Fox, Antler, Dragonfly, bison gulch, iceworm gulch, etc. Byn the wat, Alaska's state bug is the Dragonfly! It should be the mosquito!!!
After the Husky dogs we decided to try canoeing on the lake close to our RV Park. If we are going to get a canoe( and we have been looking at them) we need to be sure I like them and will go with Daddy in one. So we went out for an hour or two. They gave us 2 life preservers. We thought we would see some moose along the waterway because they like the wetlands areas. We saw some ducks, only 2, and they were sitting on a rock. Well, Daddy decided he wanted to find his water bottle on the floor of the canoe behind him. I have never been in canoe before, but thought we were doing pretty good. I had the camera in my hand taking pictures and the cell phone in a plastic bag in my pocket. Daddy leaned back to grab the water and he said I freaked out. All I know is we were both in the lake and the canoe was full of water. But I saved the camera! Not the cell phone. Now Daddy has to buy another cell phone. This is the 3rd phone since the beginning of March! And he had promised me he wouldn't tip the canoe over!!!! So now we are soaking wet and that lake was COLD!!!! I don't think I like canoes. Give me a rowboat instead!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
We left Fairbanks today. We really had a good time here. On the way we passed Ester which started as a tent cam[p of miners in 1906 and then became a large scale gold dredging operation by 1936 until 1956. It reopened in 1958 as a summer resort.
The town of Nenana was called Tortella by the miners trying to pronounce the Indian name of "Toghottele". It's an Athabascan word that means "a good place to camp between the rivers". It was a trading town for the Natives and travelers. Now it is the hub for tug boats and barges taking goods to the interior towns. The Nenana Ice Classic has been going on since 1917 when the men in a bar bet money on when the ice on the river would break to start it flowing again in the spring. It has been going on every year for 95 years and the money goes to all who chose that exact minute. Last year the winners shared $279,030. The payoff is made in June. The river freezes over by October and November and is 42" thick by April 1st. The ice melts on the top due to the weather, and on the bottom from the water flow. The tripod that marks the exact minute it flows is placed 2 feet into the river between the highway bridge and the railroad bridge 300 feet from shore and is connected to a clock that stops as the ice goes out.
Denali National Park is a little different from Yellowstone. You cannot drive into the park, but you can walk anywhere you want in there. You can also camp in there, but you have to hike your camping stuff in on foot. They have asphalt trails for quite a ways. There are some parts that have no trails at all. We walked to the train depot- 2 miles last night. I had some trouble breathing which is probably due to the cottonwood trees blooming and blowing all over the place. The only wild life we saw were 2 squirrels!
The town of Nenana was called Tortella by the miners trying to pronounce the Indian name of "Toghottele". It's an Athabascan word that means "a good place to camp between the rivers". It was a trading town for the Natives and travelers. Now it is the hub for tug boats and barges taking goods to the interior towns. The Nenana Ice Classic has been going on since 1917 when the men in a bar bet money on when the ice on the river would break to start it flowing again in the spring. It has been going on every year for 95 years and the money goes to all who chose that exact minute. Last year the winners shared $279,030. The payoff is made in June. The river freezes over by October and November and is 42" thick by April 1st. The ice melts on the top due to the weather, and on the bottom from the water flow. The tripod that marks the exact minute it flows is placed 2 feet into the river between the highway bridge and the railroad bridge 300 feet from shore and is connected to a clock that stops as the ice goes out.
Denali National Park is a little different from Yellowstone. You cannot drive into the park, but you can walk anywhere you want in there. You can also camp in there, but you have to hike your camping stuff in on foot. They have asphalt trails for quite a ways. There are some parts that have no trails at all. We walked to the train depot- 2 miles last night. I had some trouble breathing which is probably due to the cottonwood trees blooming and blowing all over the place. The only wild life we saw were 2 squirrels!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Today we went on a bus to the El Dorado Gold Mines headed by an old couple, Yanda Yukon and her husband. We rode through a permafrost tunnel on a narrow gauge coal mining train to the gold mine. There is still permafrost here, but when they are inside the tunnel is really wide. They still had the old mining machines that were used in the 1930s.
The process is to dig up the rocks and gravel inside the tunnel, put it in cars to bring it out of the tunnels and dump it in a huge pile. Once it warms up and the streams has thawed out, they dump car loads of the dirt into a bin and rinse it with the stream water. It comes out the bottom and flows along a sluice line. We were sitting along this line and she showed us some of the nuggets they have found in there. The largest nugget was maybe 9 ounces; but it was much heavier than it looked.
They gave each of us a sack of dirt to learn how to pan for gold. You pour water on top of it and swirl it around to loosen the dirt and pour it off. There is a technique of doing this so you swirl the rocks, dirt and water around and then pour off from the edge. It looked to me as if I was probably dumping out my gold too. You never know. They may go back and check all that spilled out water later and find the gold we really found for them. Who knows? Anyway, Daddy needed 2 bags of dirt because he only got 4 flakes from all of that work. I was given 1 bag and Daddy helped me swirl it because I didn't want to dump out any dirt for fear of throwing away the " baby with the bath water"! Daddy found a lot of gold flakes in mine; so we combined them and we able to put them into a special locket for me to wear the gold as a necklace. The gold supposedly was valued at $22. One young guy had $40 worth. I know it has to be a racket, but it was really fun and Daddy really enjoyed it. It was the most realistic, especially when you have to swat at mosquitoes!!!
The sky looked really odd tonight. Eventually, it rained cats and dogs and hailed! It is actually darker than it has been in a while because of the rain. We were going to eat at the Salmon Bake Buffet. It was $62 a person and outside. Not a good idea. How do you keep your food from getting wet? We leave tomorrow for Denali National Park We need to get a new windshield wiper blade for the RV before we leave. We are also considering buying a canoe to go fishing . It could fit on the roof of the CRV for the trip home.
The process is to dig up the rocks and gravel inside the tunnel, put it in cars to bring it out of the tunnels and dump it in a huge pile. Once it warms up and the streams has thawed out, they dump car loads of the dirt into a bin and rinse it with the stream water. It comes out the bottom and flows along a sluice line. We were sitting along this line and she showed us some of the nuggets they have found in there. The largest nugget was maybe 9 ounces; but it was much heavier than it looked.
They gave each of us a sack of dirt to learn how to pan for gold. You pour water on top of it and swirl it around to loosen the dirt and pour it off. There is a technique of doing this so you swirl the rocks, dirt and water around and then pour off from the edge. It looked to me as if I was probably dumping out my gold too. You never know. They may go back and check all that spilled out water later and find the gold we really found for them. Who knows? Anyway, Daddy needed 2 bags of dirt because he only got 4 flakes from all of that work. I was given 1 bag and Daddy helped me swirl it because I didn't want to dump out any dirt for fear of throwing away the " baby with the bath water"! Daddy found a lot of gold flakes in mine; so we combined them and we able to put them into a special locket for me to wear the gold as a necklace. The gold supposedly was valued at $22. One young guy had $40 worth. I know it has to be a racket, but it was really fun and Daddy really enjoyed it. It was the most realistic, especially when you have to swat at mosquitoes!!!
The sky looked really odd tonight. Eventually, it rained cats and dogs and hailed! It is actually darker than it has been in a while because of the rain. We were going to eat at the Salmon Bake Buffet. It was $62 a person and outside. Not a good idea. How do you keep your food from getting wet? We leave tomorrow for Denali National Park We need to get a new windshield wiper blade for the RV before we leave. We are also considering buying a canoe to go fishing . It could fit on the roof of the CRV for the trip home.
Monday, June 7, 2010
We are going on the DiscoveryIII Paddle wheeler owned by the Binkley family for 5 generally or moose. Daddy and I ate some; very good. Jim Binkley came up here to start hauling freight from the railroad 2400 miles round trip from here to the Bering Sea. This is a 60 year business started on the Tanana and Chena Rivers. His descendants have continued the tradition of the steam wheeler; but now with passengers, too.
In front of the paddle wheeler an Alaskan bush pilot took off and landed 2 times in his sea plane with wheels and floats for us to view. By October 31st, they change the wheels to skis because he has to land on snow and it is -15 below!! We saw the tiny creek that had $6.7 billion of gold in it. The water pipe line is here that travels back to Cripple Creek where the gold was. Now they have turned the mining pump nozzles into electric lights.
Here is a surprising fact- the average age of a Fairbanks inhabitant is 27! Here anything is acceptable in clothing, food, housing styles. There are still some cabins that are built like those a century ago with sod on the roofs that insulate the house when it is cold. It is really strange looking. When they need more room in the cabin they just add another room on. You can tell who has added on. Sometimes the wood is the same kind, but it has aged at differently. Some of the people cut down and strip the timber just like it was down a century ago. The poles that stick out in front of a log cabin are there to hang their winter mammal kills, especially moose. At -40 degrees and 0%humidity, outside is colder than our freezers in wintertime. On the breakfast menu the sausage is elk or moose. Daddy and I tried it; very good! Land costs $100,000 an acre on the rivers and costs 150 a square foot. The log cabins are made of white spruce because they are abundant and they are straight and very tall.
Since it is so cold here they use 2 by 6s instead and have 6 times paned windows for warmth. In the winter the river is completely frozen over and they walk and drive over it all the time. Of course, it is dark for most of the day in winter, so they spend their time in libraries, movies and indoor hockey rinks. This town has the largest swing of temperatures in the world: -70 in winter and 80 - 90 in the summer.
On the trip down the Chena River they took us to an Iditarod dog camp belonging to the late Susan Butcher and her husband. She won the Iditarod 4 years in a row with her dog, Granite. Both are gone now. Susan died of cancer when she was 51 year old.He showed us a puppy just 14 days old and demonstrated how the dogs pull the sled. The lead dog controls the rest of the dogs. The sets of 2 dogs each behind the lead dog are the swing dogs; they supply the power. The 2 dogs just before the sled control the sled, which is very important, too.. These Alaskan Huskies just love to run and as soon as they saw the reins for the sled they all were jumping all around as if saying "Take Me!" They are bred to love running.
The Athabascan Indians lived here in the basin 10,000 years ago and were nomadic moving around to follow the game. In winter they trapped food; summer and spring they fished and fall they hunted. They gathered berries and fruits, but they didn't grow vegetables. These Chena Indians have lived here for 150 years; but a small portion of their culture has changed. Once the settlers came rifles were introduced which made hunting much easier. The Chenas built huts with sod on the roof to insulate and seal the roof. The water in the grass keeps the hut cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Their huts are made of spruce sticks and caribou hides on top. when they are hunting. They do grow vegetables now and their children are educated in Alaska's public schools.
The children spend their summers at their fish camps helping to catch the salmon, drying it for storage for their animals in the winter. They catch the salmon in a fish wheel that dates back 1000s of years, cut them with an ulu with many slits to air dry faster while hanging in the open on a drying rack. After they are dried completely, they go into a smoke building for 2 weeks. This building is on stilts so wild animals don't eat the salmon. From there they are stored in another building on stilts too called a cache - which is French for storage. One dog will eat 1 dehydrated 1 pound chum salmon a day. The sockeye salmon that people eat is not found in this river. They are caught by the ocean.
They trap the red fox, 7 foot long timber wolf, the ferocious wolverine, who is chief of the forest; the lynx (relative of the bobcat), muskrat, marten, mink, beaver and arctic fox. All of those furs they use to make hooded parkas to wear in the winter. They also use the natural oils of the wolverine on their face to prevent frostbite. You need 30 to 40 hides of the muskrat to make the main body of the parka. This fur keeps humans the warmest. The mink is only used as a decoration because the fur is too short and thin. It isn't really warm, only good to -10 degrees. The Marten is used around the face . The ermines are white in the winter and brown the rest of the year. The beaver furs are used for the boots and mittens because they are water repellent. They use the timber wolf's fur for the edge around the face called the sunshine. The parka the girl showed us was absolutely gorgeous with the furs pieced intricately together.
The environment here is extremely harsh. The Chenas put up fences to catch the moose and caribou and corner them for the kill. They use their hides for blankets and eat their meat. The white birch tree is abundant here and they use the bark and babeese they make from the moose to make snowshoes so they can walk on top of the snow. Then when they chase the moose and caribou they won't sink into the snow, but the animal will. They also use the birch tree to make their birch bark canoes. The birch tree has a fungus growing on it that is a natural mosquito repellent and it also will hold a fire for a long time. They get it lit and carry it in a leather bag to another campsite. The women make birch bark baskets in which to cook soup, stews and other foods. To do this they put in the meat and veggies and water with red hot stones to cook the food. The baskets cannot go directly on the fire. This takes a very long time and it has to be constantly stirred.
When they kill a moose they use all of it. The leftover moose shoulder bones from previous years they hit against tree trunks to imitate the sound of a moose rubbing his antlers on the tree. This will attract other moose to the area. They use bow and arrow, club or spear to kill the moose. The women would scrap all of the flesh with a shoulder blade bone; dry it, cut it into strips and weave it into babeese strings to be used for snowshoes. In order to tan the hides the women would soak the hides in a solution of moose brains and water that has been fermented. Then they dry it over a smoke fire to tan the tide. They make clothing out of this hide after they have pounded it to soften it by breaking the fibers. The clothing has beads sewn on it in designs of bluebell and forget-me-no flowers to signify the area where they are from. On a male's coat there would be beaded animals which indicate what animals the Indian has hunted and killed. To decorate further they used caribou hair dyed with berries or whatever they can find that will color it and sew it on; called "caribou tufting".
We saw caribou and reindeer, even with a baby. The female caribou has antlers too, but they are smaller than the males. They lose the antlers after calving. Their fur is white in the winter to blend in with the snow and brown speckled the rest of the year to blend in with the woods. Their fur is hollow which helps them to float when they need to go in the river to escape a predator. Their BIG feet are used to paddle. The Indian name caribou means deer who paws or shovels the ground. The antlers are used by the Japanese as a medicine when it is ground to a powder. Caribou and reindeer meat is delicious and good for you. It does not have the steroids of our beef and is not fatty at all. A baby caribou can walk 1 hour after birth because the herd is constantly on the move and nature isn't friendly to those that fall behind.
The Tanana River is the melt off from a glacier. You can see the silt floating on the river beside the boat. The Indians now grow all sorts of vegetables that will mature in 4 months. They have gigantic rhubarb that they harvest in cords instead of pounds. They cannot grow corn; it takes too long and takes up too much space. With the sun out for 22 hours a day the plants really grow fast. It seems that even the Alaskans that are not native still have gardens in their back yards.
On the way back to dock they gave us a salmon dip on crackers that was really awesome. But it has to be made from smoked salmon, which I can't find in a can at WalMart. They fish the oceans near Ketchikan for the sockeye salmon and hand pack the cans.
We went to the Palace Theatre in the Pioneer Park at night to see the stage show Golden Heart Revue which tells gthe story of the New Frontier ofFairbanks. E.T. Barnette brought his wife in a steamer up here to start a trading station. Then it was only a swamp with thick trees and no people. It was July and they had to build a shelter before October becasue it is below freezing by then. Not long after them came the brothels, miners, lots of saloons and special mens only clubs. The show had very good singers and actors and actresses, and it was a comedy. The Pioneer Village had some of the original cabins from downtown Fairbanks from the early days moved from the downtown to here to all be together to celebrate their heritage.
In front of the paddle wheeler an Alaskan bush pilot took off and landed 2 times in his sea plane with wheels and floats for us to view. By October 31st, they change the wheels to skis because he has to land on snow and it is -15 below!! We saw the tiny creek that had $6.7 billion of gold in it. The water pipe line is here that travels back to Cripple Creek where the gold was. Now they have turned the mining pump nozzles into electric lights.
Here is a surprising fact- the average age of a Fairbanks inhabitant is 27! Here anything is acceptable in clothing, food, housing styles. There are still some cabins that are built like those a century ago with sod on the roofs that insulate the house when it is cold. It is really strange looking. When they need more room in the cabin they just add another room on. You can tell who has added on. Sometimes the wood is the same kind, but it has aged at differently. Some of the people cut down and strip the timber just like it was down a century ago. The poles that stick out in front of a log cabin are there to hang their winter mammal kills, especially moose. At -40 degrees and 0%humidity, outside is colder than our freezers in wintertime. On the breakfast menu the sausage is elk or moose. Daddy and I tried it; very good! Land costs $100,000 an acre on the rivers and costs 150 a square foot. The log cabins are made of white spruce because they are abundant and they are straight and very tall.
Since it is so cold here they use 2 by 6s instead and have 6 times paned windows for warmth. In the winter the river is completely frozen over and they walk and drive over it all the time. Of course, it is dark for most of the day in winter, so they spend their time in libraries, movies and indoor hockey rinks. This town has the largest swing of temperatures in the world: -70 in winter and 80 - 90 in the summer.
On the trip down the Chena River they took us to an Iditarod dog camp belonging to the late Susan Butcher and her husband. She won the Iditarod 4 years in a row with her dog, Granite. Both are gone now. Susan died of cancer when she was 51 year old.He showed us a puppy just 14 days old and demonstrated how the dogs pull the sled. The lead dog controls the rest of the dogs. The sets of 2 dogs each behind the lead dog are the swing dogs; they supply the power. The 2 dogs just before the sled control the sled, which is very important, too.. These Alaskan Huskies just love to run and as soon as they saw the reins for the sled they all were jumping all around as if saying "Take Me!" They are bred to love running.
The Athabascan Indians lived here in the basin 10,000 years ago and were nomadic moving around to follow the game. In winter they trapped food; summer and spring they fished and fall they hunted. They gathered berries and fruits, but they didn't grow vegetables. These Chena Indians have lived here for 150 years; but a small portion of their culture has changed. Once the settlers came rifles were introduced which made hunting much easier. The Chenas built huts with sod on the roof to insulate and seal the roof. The water in the grass keeps the hut cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Their huts are made of spruce sticks and caribou hides on top. when they are hunting. They do grow vegetables now and their children are educated in Alaska's public schools.
The children spend their summers at their fish camps helping to catch the salmon, drying it for storage for their animals in the winter. They catch the salmon in a fish wheel that dates back 1000s of years, cut them with an ulu with many slits to air dry faster while hanging in the open on a drying rack. After they are dried completely, they go into a smoke building for 2 weeks. This building is on stilts so wild animals don't eat the salmon. From there they are stored in another building on stilts too called a cache - which is French for storage. One dog will eat 1 dehydrated 1 pound chum salmon a day. The sockeye salmon that people eat is not found in this river. They are caught by the ocean.
They trap the red fox, 7 foot long timber wolf, the ferocious wolverine, who is chief of the forest; the lynx (relative of the bobcat), muskrat, marten, mink, beaver and arctic fox. All of those furs they use to make hooded parkas to wear in the winter. They also use the natural oils of the wolverine on their face to prevent frostbite. You need 30 to 40 hides of the muskrat to make the main body of the parka. This fur keeps humans the warmest. The mink is only used as a decoration because the fur is too short and thin. It isn't really warm, only good to -10 degrees. The Marten is used around the face . The ermines are white in the winter and brown the rest of the year. The beaver furs are used for the boots and mittens because they are water repellent. They use the timber wolf's fur for the edge around the face called the sunshine. The parka the girl showed us was absolutely gorgeous with the furs pieced intricately together.
The environment here is extremely harsh. The Chenas put up fences to catch the moose and caribou and corner them for the kill. They use their hides for blankets and eat their meat. The white birch tree is abundant here and they use the bark and babeese they make from the moose to make snowshoes so they can walk on top of the snow. Then when they chase the moose and caribou they won't sink into the snow, but the animal will. They also use the birch tree to make their birch bark canoes. The birch tree has a fungus growing on it that is a natural mosquito repellent and it also will hold a fire for a long time. They get it lit and carry it in a leather bag to another campsite. The women make birch bark baskets in which to cook soup, stews and other foods. To do this they put in the meat and veggies and water with red hot stones to cook the food. The baskets cannot go directly on the fire. This takes a very long time and it has to be constantly stirred.
When they kill a moose they use all of it. The leftover moose shoulder bones from previous years they hit against tree trunks to imitate the sound of a moose rubbing his antlers on the tree. This will attract other moose to the area. They use bow and arrow, club or spear to kill the moose. The women would scrap all of the flesh with a shoulder blade bone; dry it, cut it into strips and weave it into babeese strings to be used for snowshoes. In order to tan the hides the women would soak the hides in a solution of moose brains and water that has been fermented. Then they dry it over a smoke fire to tan the tide. They make clothing out of this hide after they have pounded it to soften it by breaking the fibers. The clothing has beads sewn on it in designs of bluebell and forget-me-no flowers to signify the area where they are from. On a male's coat there would be beaded animals which indicate what animals the Indian has hunted and killed. To decorate further they used caribou hair dyed with berries or whatever they can find that will color it and sew it on; called "caribou tufting".
We saw caribou and reindeer, even with a baby. The female caribou has antlers too, but they are smaller than the males. They lose the antlers after calving. Their fur is white in the winter to blend in with the snow and brown speckled the rest of the year to blend in with the woods. Their fur is hollow which helps them to float when they need to go in the river to escape a predator. Their BIG feet are used to paddle. The Indian name caribou means deer who paws or shovels the ground. The antlers are used by the Japanese as a medicine when it is ground to a powder. Caribou and reindeer meat is delicious and good for you. It does not have the steroids of our beef and is not fatty at all. A baby caribou can walk 1 hour after birth because the herd is constantly on the move and nature isn't friendly to those that fall behind.
The Tanana River is the melt off from a glacier. You can see the silt floating on the river beside the boat. The Indians now grow all sorts of vegetables that will mature in 4 months. They have gigantic rhubarb that they harvest in cords instead of pounds. They cannot grow corn; it takes too long and takes up too much space. With the sun out for 22 hours a day the plants really grow fast. It seems that even the Alaskans that are not native still have gardens in their back yards.
On the way back to dock they gave us a salmon dip on crackers that was really awesome. But it has to be made from smoked salmon, which I can't find in a can at WalMart. They fish the oceans near Ketchikan for the sockeye salmon and hand pack the cans.
We went to the Palace Theatre in the Pioneer Park at night to see the stage show Golden Heart Revue which tells gthe story of the New Frontier ofFairbanks. E.T. Barnette brought his wife in a steamer up here to start a trading station. Then it was only a swamp with thick trees and no people. It was July and they had to build a shelter before October becasue it is below freezing by then. Not long after them came the brothels, miners, lots of saloons and special mens only clubs. The show had very good singers and actors and actresses, and it was a comedy. The Pioneer Village had some of the original cabins from downtown Fairbanks from the early days moved from the downtown to here to all be together to celebrate their heritage.
Sunday, June 6, 2010.
Last night in Tok, Alaska we stayed at the Sourdough Campground where they had a sourdough pancake toss for a free buffet breakfast. We each had 2 tries and didn't make it. But we weren't interested in a pancake breakfast anyway. There was a group playing music the night before; they were really good. The town was very small: several hotels, several campgrounds, 3 gift shops 1 tiny grocery store and a small liquor store.
Outside of town is where the wildfires have been. They made us slow down as we went by the firemen making fire breaks. We stopped at the town of North Pole, Alaska. They had a live Santa Claus with some old women sitting on his lap!!!
Into Fairbanks and staying at the River's Edge RV Park. All of the satellite dishes are pointed to the ground! That's the only way they can get reception.
Outside of town is where the wildfires have been. They made us slow down as we went by the firemen making fire breaks. We stopped at the town of North Pole, Alaska. They had a live Santa Claus with some old women sitting on his lap!!!
Into Fairbanks and staying at the River's Edge RV Park. All of the satellite dishes are pointed to the ground! That's the only way they can get reception.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The car windshield has 2 cracks in it now. It is raining as we are leaving this po'dunk town!!! To leave here you have to ride the George Black Ferry across the Yukon River which has a very strong current. It was amazing to see them put us on the ferry with everyone else. In the winter the Yukon River is frozen and the people just walk across or drive their cars and trucks across. I guess if you live here and see it enough, you will trust the ice!
Now it is a 9% grade for 13 miles up mountains and down mountains. The road is full of frost heaves. We can only drive at 30 mph because the heaves are so bad and so frequent. You don't want to hit one unawares. Since it's raining it isn't dusty. We're up in the clouds, elevation 3692' on highway #9 called "Top of the World" At elevation 3725' it is Alpine Forest and snow; at 3811" no trees are left, it is above the timberline! The road is curvy and scary with no guard rails and extremely tight hairpin turns. At 3992' is the Border between the US and Canada; population is 2! On the Alaska side the road is all mud and washboard. You feel like a milkshake and that is going 20 mph. At mile 89 in Alaska there is a spruce tree laying across almost half of the road. The car and RV are so covered in mud you can't even see the design on the RV.
We stopped at the town of Chicken to get gas. It was expensive- 4.50 a gallon! Now the road is gravelly, winding, sharp turns and narrow roads with no guard rails again. The drop off to the side is very steep at least 1000 feet down. We are headed to Tok, Alaska and Fast Eddy's Restaurant.
Tok began as a construction town in 1942 for the building of the Alcan Highway. It was named after a husky puppy the Army corp had adopted as their mascot. It is now a trade and service center for all transportation. It's the only town in Alaska you have to travel through twice if you visit by car; therefore it's called Main street, Alaska. It is also the sled capital of Alaska.
Now it is a 9% grade for 13 miles up mountains and down mountains. The road is full of frost heaves. We can only drive at 30 mph because the heaves are so bad and so frequent. You don't want to hit one unawares. Since it's raining it isn't dusty. We're up in the clouds, elevation 3692' on highway #9 called "Top of the World" At elevation 3725' it is Alpine Forest and snow; at 3811" no trees are left, it is above the timberline! The road is curvy and scary with no guard rails and extremely tight hairpin turns. At 3992' is the Border between the US and Canada; population is 2! On the Alaska side the road is all mud and washboard. You feel like a milkshake and that is going 20 mph. At mile 89 in Alaska there is a spruce tree laying across almost half of the road. The car and RV are so covered in mud you can't even see the design on the RV.
We stopped at the town of Chicken to get gas. It was expensive- 4.50 a gallon! Now the road is gravelly, winding, sharp turns and narrow roads with no guard rails again. The drop off to the side is very steep at least 1000 feet down. We are headed to Tok, Alaska and Fast Eddy's Restaurant.
Tok began as a construction town in 1942 for the building of the Alcan Highway. It was named after a husky puppy the Army corp had adopted as their mascot. It is now a trade and service center for all transportation. It's the only town in Alaska you have to travel through twice if you visit by car; therefore it's called Main street, Alaska. It is also the sled capital of Alaska.
Thursday, June3, 2010
We left Whitehorse, Yukon which is the capital of the Yukon since 1953 to drive to Dawson City. We drove through some heavy smoke because of the wild fires. Dawson City is the Queen city of the North and the Paris of the North. This was a refined city during the gold rush days with running water, electricity and telegraph in 1897 with lots of new inventions and , but right now it looks like a 1 horse town. I was correct, it is a 1 horse town- we have no cell phones, no TV and no satellite radio.
The famous author, Jack London, spent only 1 long year here but most of his books are based upon what he learned or experienced while living here. He was born on 1/12/1876 to a poor family in Oakland, California. At 14 years of age he had to quit school to help support the family. He worked at Cannery Row for 18 hours every day which is where his hatred of exploitation of young kids stemmed from. Loving reading books and the sea he became a seaman on the Japan-Bering Sea. His book, Sea Wolf, is about those experiences.
In 1897 he was 21 and the world was in an economic chaos. He had tried his hand at writing and the pile of rejection slips reached the ceiling. When he heard about the Yukon gold he wanted to go;o his stepsister mortgaged the family farm to come up with the money needed. His brother-in-law went with him, but when they had to paddle from Juneau to Dyea in huge dug out canoes, he went home.
At the Summit of Chilkoot it took Jack 30 days to go 33 miles actually pulling himself up the rocks. His book, Smoke Blue, is about that experience. On October 9, 1897 he reached Stewart Island; the river was freezing and lots of people were going back home. They advised him to stay away from Dawson City because there was starvation, scurvy and no land left to claim. He stayed at Henderson Creek for a long, long winter. He put down a claim- #54 on November 5, 1897 and spent 1 month in Dawson City in a tent. He went to the saloons only to get warm, he had no money. The Call of the Wild, his most famous book was inspired by a dog ( a mix between a Scottish sheepdog and a Saint Bernard that weighed 140#) that lived with a miner in the tent next to Jack's. To survive Jack traded his building skills for food and shelter. The miners all congregated in 1 cabin at night to socialize by telling stories. Most of these people were in his novels. He got scurvy while in Dawson City, went to a hospital and then on 6/7/1898 left on a boat to the Bering Sea with his job of shoveling coal. He started writing then. He wrote over 50 books in 18 years and made over one million dollars on his books. He died in his 40s in the year 1914 in Glenellen, California of kidney failure. His cabin was originally in Henderson Creek, but was moved because it was in danger of fire, so it was moved to Dawson City. His cabin was restored with the bottom half in Oakland, California and the top half here in Dawson City. Jack never made a fortune with the gold and went back home with only $4.50.
It is 62 degrees outside ; we are in the CRV and it
just turned over to 60,000 miles. It's been a really great car for doing this. We are headed to Bonanza Creek Road where the gold was found in 1896 in dredge #4. They cut into the mountain and left very large pebbles behind that resemble huge stone caterpillars called "talings". They layer them and plant shrubs on top so they look like foothills. They mined this site for 60 years and ceased in 1960 when the dredge machine sank into the silt. This was the largest wooden hulled bucket line dredge in North America. The gold was found in the white gravel below the permafrost.
The famous author, Jack London, spent only 1 long year here but most of his books are based upon what he learned or experienced while living here. He was born on 1/12/1876 to a poor family in Oakland, California. At 14 years of age he had to quit school to help support the family. He worked at Cannery Row for 18 hours every day which is where his hatred of exploitation of young kids stemmed from. Loving reading books and the sea he became a seaman on the Japan-Bering Sea. His book, Sea Wolf, is about those experiences.
In 1897 he was 21 and the world was in an economic chaos. He had tried his hand at writing and the pile of rejection slips reached the ceiling. When he heard about the Yukon gold he wanted to go;o his stepsister mortgaged the family farm to come up with the money needed. His brother-in-law went with him, but when they had to paddle from Juneau to Dyea in huge dug out canoes, he went home.
At the Summit of Chilkoot it took Jack 30 days to go 33 miles actually pulling himself up the rocks. His book, Smoke Blue, is about that experience. On October 9, 1897 he reached Stewart Island; the river was freezing and lots of people were going back home. They advised him to stay away from Dawson City because there was starvation, scurvy and no land left to claim. He stayed at Henderson Creek for a long, long winter. He put down a claim- #54 on November 5, 1897 and spent 1 month in Dawson City in a tent. He went to the saloons only to get warm, he had no money. The Call of the Wild, his most famous book was inspired by a dog ( a mix between a Scottish sheepdog and a Saint Bernard that weighed 140#) that lived with a miner in the tent next to Jack's. To survive Jack traded his building skills for food and shelter. The miners all congregated in 1 cabin at night to socialize by telling stories. Most of these people were in his novels. He got scurvy while in Dawson City, went to a hospital and then on 6/7/1898 left on a boat to the Bering Sea with his job of shoveling coal. He started writing then. He wrote over 50 books in 18 years and made over one million dollars on his books. He died in his 40s in the year 1914 in Glenellen, California of kidney failure. His cabin was originally in Henderson Creek, but was moved because it was in danger of fire, so it was moved to Dawson City. His cabin was restored with the bottom half in Oakland, California and the top half here in Dawson City. Jack never made a fortune with the gold and went back home with only $4.50.
It is 62 degrees outside ; we are in the CRV and it
just turned over to 60,000 miles. It's been a really great car for doing this. We are headed to Bonanza Creek Road where the gold was found in 1896 in dredge #4. They cut into the mountain and left very large pebbles behind that resemble huge stone caterpillars called "talings". They layer them and plant shrubs on top so they look like foothills. They mined this site for 60 years and ceased in 1960 when the dredge machine sank into the silt. This was the largest wooden hulled bucket line dredge in North America. The gold was found in the white gravel below the permafrost.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tok, Alaska
We finally arrived at Tok, Alaska which is on the Alaska highway and stopped at a gas station for Diesel and they had a high pressure RV wash. I got a lot of the mud and gravel off the RV and the Honda, it cost $3.00 for 3 minutes and I spend 15.00 getting the mud off.
We stayed at the Sourdough Camp site in Tok. A sourdough is a rookie, they called the men who came to the gold rush with no mining experience Sourdoughs.
I talked to the couple next to us in the park and they indicated that they were going fishing in Nimilchick south of Anchorage to catch Halibut, they were from Washington state. I asked if they were going to ship the fish home and they quickly indicated the freezer in the back of their pickup that they would be filling with Halibut to take back to Washington, not a bad idea.
We stayed at the Sourdough Camp site in Tok. A sourdough is a rookie, they called the men who came to the gold rush with no mining experience Sourdoughs.
I talked to the couple next to us in the park and they indicated that they were going fishing in Nimilchick south of Anchorage to catch Halibut, they were from Washington state. I asked if they were going to ship the fish home and they quickly indicated the freezer in the back of their pickup that they would be filling with Halibut to take back to Washington, not a bad idea.
The honda at the rest stop
I had put cardboard and duct tape over the windshield but wish I had covered the whole front of the car. This is the windshield and the rocks that collected in the windshield in 100 miles. The bumpers which are made of hard plastic, the grit just made them rought. THe paint is chipped on the front of the hood, the back of the mirrors. Nothing terrible but just indicates the condition of these roads.
Stopping on the Taylor Highway.
We stopped to make a sandwich and soup and to inspect the vehicles, the mud was just so thick on the RV and car.
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