Y'see, we thought Alaska was supposed to be COLD. We packed for temps in the 50s and followed everyone's instructions to dress in layers. A natural mistake. Instead, here we are on the longest day of the year (the summer solstice). In addition to being the longest day (sunrise 4:40am, sunset 12:30am) it's also HOT!!! Layers? Yeah, if they're all ice-soaked tissue paper...
We checked. It's hotter here than in Hotlanta...
The day began with our tour group bussing to view a section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Looking at a pipeline may not sound like much to see but, believe me, it's impressive and fascinating. Our tour guide, Joy:
..knows all there is to know (and more than you'd think to ask) about the pipeline. The whole darned thing (which runs 800 miles from Prudhoe in the North to Valdez in the South) was built in only two years (between 1975 and 1977).
We saw a retired device called a "pig" which was used to run through the pipeline and scrape off the paraffin that builds up inside the 4' diameter tube:
We saw the home of a nearby neighbor whose house looks like the worlds biggest mobile home (but isn't). Folks who live in Alaska are, well, different from folks in the lower 48:
From the pipeline we motored a bit farther for the El Dorado Gold Mine. We heartily recommend this to anyone visiting in Fairbanks. Disney has nothing on this operation. We rode a train into the permafrost (much of Alaska has ground that never thaws no matter what is happening on top):
..saw how gold mining is done (placer style):
.. and panned for gold ourselves:
Nearly everyone finds some gold in their pan. Between us, Gael and I found eight grains which is about $10 worth on today's market. It was a lot of fun:
They even weigh it for you (but don't offer to buy it...)
They have a 19oz gold nugget worth $25,000 on display; they even let Gael hold it (how stupid of them; where the heck are we going to put it on the trip home...)
From there our Bus #131 took us into Fairbanks for lunch; we wandered downtown which, since today is the Summer Solstice, had a four square block street fair. We had lunch at Hot Tamale the northernmost Mexican buffet restaurant in the US:
Pretty darned good and another chance to sample what is fast becoming one of my top ten favorite beers, Alaskan Amber:
Back on the bus to the banks of the Chena river
.. where we spent the afternoon going down, then up the Chena River on a paddlewheeler:
The Riverboat Discovery tour included a visit to the home of Susan Butcher the four-time Iditarod sled dog race champion and a demonstration by her husband David of how they train the dogs when there is no snow:
And we visited an indian settlement where young Native American and Eskimo ladies gave us an idea of how life was lived just a short time ago:
This was a fascinating afternoon and highly recommended.
But, wait, there's more!
We dashed back to the hotel and were picked up by a representative of the Northern Alaska Tour Company for our Arctic Circle Air Adventure. NOW it'll be cooler. Wrong. 90s there, too. Our pilot Doug:
.. flew us an hour north of Fairbanks (in a eight-passenger Piper Navajo Chieftain):
.. and landed on a strip in Coldfoot, Alaska, well within the Arctic Circle:
Here's a shot of Doug's copilot on the trip up:
..and on the trip home:
Yep; that's Gael "Amelia Earhart" Cone, trying to keep her tootsies off the rudder pedals..
In Coldfoot, we hopped into a van for a tour of the countryside and a visit to Wiseman, AK.
Wiseman has a population of fewer than ten. We visited with Jack Reakoff:
.. who has lived there all his life. He's the youngest grandfather I've seen in some time (living off the land must keep you looking young). This man absolutely knows his environment and what it can give you. With annual temperatures ranging 175 degrees low-to-high you'd better know to to operate there!
Jack lives simply:
Though we were met with a visible cloud of mosquitoes (the mosquito is the State Bird of Alaska) we were prepared with repellent and didn't get a single bite. You did have to spit some out as the cloud passed around your head.
Seriously, when I saw the bugs outside the van I wondered who in the world would have arranged this tour. Fly an hour in a light plane, land on an uncontrolled strip, drive in a beat-up van into a sea of mosquitoes to visit some guy who lives pretty much alone in the wilderness. But, you know what? Jack was fascinating to listen and talk with and the mosquitoes turned out to be no big deal. And the flight up and back was made so pleasant by our pilot Doug that we had a swell time. We even saw caribou, moose and a forest fire on the flight:
Back to Fairbanks where, at midnight, we each received certificates proving we'd visited inside the Arctic Circle:
This is Kathy of Northern Alaska Tour Company giving out the certificates
.. and then back to the hotel. Tomorrow is another full day and our bags have to be outside by 5:45a..
