We arrived in Fairbanks on Monday, July 10th and the drive was so much easier than the drive to Tok. Although there were some frost heaves, they were minor and far and few between.
Delta Junction is the end of the Alaska Highway, it is an hour or so outside Fairbanks and we stopped for the obligatory photo, and I bought a shirt . At this point in our trip, I am so tired of the clothes I brought that I am buying Alaska T-shirts! We also stopped at a shop called the Knotty Shop, it specializes in making items out of the burls of a tree. Tree burls form when there is some type of trauma to the tree trunk and it reminds me of how truly amazing nature is!
Fairbanks is the Land of the Midnight Sun, and it is true. The sun has set this week around 12:00 midnight and rises around 3:30 a.m. The truly amazing thing is that although these are the actual times, twilight lasts around an hour or so on each end, meaning it is never actually dark. Twilight ends just as sunrise begins! Look at the photos below, as we actually were up at 3:00 a.m. one night.
Speaking of being up all night, here is the back-story on why we were up until 3:00 a.m. On Wednesday July 12 we took a plane to 60 miles north of the artic circle, a landing strip called Coldfoot (for obvious reasons!) We then then proceeded to take a van to the artic circle. The 60-mile drive took 1.5 hours as the roads are really rough! From the Artic Circle it is about 200 miles to Fairbanks. We took a bus from the Artic Circle and the 200-mile trip took 12 hours! It was grueling. I began to think we weren’t on rubber tires, but on wooden wagon wheels, that would have probably produced a smoother ride! On reflection, I would say not many people go to the artic circle, so I’m glad we did it, and the airplane ride was spectacular, but if I had it to do again, I would fly both ways and skip the drive. The road that takes you to the artic circle is the Dalton Highway, if you are a fan of Ice Road Truckers TV show, this is the road they drive in the winter. We did stop at a location that had permafrost and our driver took us out on to the Tundra and dug a hole to show just how cold permafrost is.
We also learned a lot about the Alaska Pipeline. The pipeline is about 800 miles long from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, about 50% of it is above ground where there is permafrost and burying it was not possible. To protect the permafrost, the pipeline was built above ground as the warmth of the pipeline would melt the permafrost and cause it to sink, and buckle and potentially cause a leak. Since the beginning of the pipeline in 1977 there has been one spill, in Valdez and one case of vandalism when some drunk teenagers decided to try and shoot a hole in the pipeline, when they eventually succeeded, the monitoring system immediately detected it and the pipeline was shut down with minimal leakage. The teenagers were, however, splattered with hot oil making them easy to track down! The temperature of the oil running through the pipeline is about 95 degrees.
The caravan we are on provided two dinners in restaurants, while in Fairbanks. One was at a hotel restaurant where our choices were salmon or elk meatloaf. Guess what one I had and what one Tom had!
The second dinner was a salmon bake, however, the also offered prime rib. This dinner was on July 11th, our 42nd wedding anniversary. The wagon masters presented us with a piece of cake to commemorate our special day. It was an anniversary we will never forget!
We had a chance to go to a couple of museums and of course the North Pole, Alaska where I have it on good authority Santa will be sending Peyton a letter this December telling her how good she has been!
During our time in Fairbanks the annual World Eskimo Indian Olympics (WEIO) were being held. These games highlight native culture and the events represent games that would be played by the indigenous people or events to simulate skills needed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. Although the names Eskimo and Indian are not used much anymore, the games have retained the name WEIO. We attended one night and saw traditional dance and music groups, the Two-Foot High Kick where the competitors attempt to kick a suspended ball with both feet and land on the ground cleanly and the women’s blanket toss. In this event, 40 people gather around a “blanket” of tanned hide with attached rings. They pull outwards which sends the athlete air bound. The idea is to go as high as possible and land on your feet! It was quite an event to watch! (see the video below)
The day before we left, we took a train ride around Gold Dredge #8 and learned about the gold mining in Fairbanks up until the 1950s. We then panned for gold, I panned out about $22 worth, and Tom panned $12 worth and so I had the gold flakes put into earrings.
On our final day in Fairbanks, we took a “3-hour tour” on a sternwheeler riverboat, not to worry, at all times we could see both banks and the Chena River is not very deep at this point. Along the way we stopped at the Susan Butcher sled dog kennel. Susan Butcher won the Iditarod Dog Sled Race four times and was the second woman to win and the first to win four out of five sequential years. She sadly died in 2006 from cancer, but her husband and daughters have continued the kennels and kept her story alive. We also stopped at replica of a traditional Chena Indian Village. The guides at the village were of native descent and extremely interesting.
Our next stop will be Denali National Park.
Tom and Patti's RV Adventure 