Fairbanks - Wednesday, Thursday, July 22, 23

Our train from Whittier to Denali had been only 5 cars long.  All the cars were Princess. This train is 13 cars with only 2 Princess cars.  There are a couple of Holland America cars and a variety of others.

We followed a river much of the way.  Here we are slowly passing 3 rafts of adventurers.  The river was almost as fast as the train, so they were in sight for quite a while.

A little later we saw these antennas which I am sure are part of the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line Radar installations.

There have been almost 1,000,000 acres of Alaskan timber burned this year, with many still burning.  We never saw any direct evidence of these fires until now.  We passed several areas of rising smoke.  Sometimes the train was enveloped in fairly thick smoke. Upon reaching Fairbanks, the city was shrouded in smoke, making it hard to breath outdoors. Fortunately, the following morning the wind had changed and the city was clear.  We only had slight amounts of smoke after that.

We saw this Salmon catching fish wheel along the shore.  The only other one we saw on this trip was a replica at the fishing village we saw during our later riverboat trip.

As we approached the lodge on our Princess bus, wa passed this cafe with part of an airplane sticking out of the roof.

Our lodge was very pretty, being on the banks of the river.  This is the view from one of the patio areas.

I took this picture at 1:12 AM.  It never got dark! At this time is was sort of a twilight.  By 4 AM it was nearly fully bright.

The morning after arriving, we took a 4 hour riverboat tour.  There were some very nice homes along the river.

Shortly into the boat ride, the boat stopped and the announcer told us his friend would take off in his 1963 Piper Super Cub float plane, circle and land for us. Here is is just taking off.

After climbing several hunderd feet and circling the boat, he came in for a landing just ahead of the boat.  Afterward he taxied up to just alongside the boat and talked to us over his radio and the boat's PA system. The boat had a number of flat panel TV screens and a full time announcer.  The cameras system was quite advanced and we got to see almost everything of interest on the monitors.

The boat is driven by a large rear paddle wheel which in turn is hydraulically driven.

This is another of the homes we passed on the river shore.

Float planes are very common in this area.  Here the homeowner has his moored in a specially built dock. Others are just pulled partly on shore.  We often saw airplanes parked on a home's front lawn.

Susan Butcher won the Iditorod 4 times and was a very well know dog musher.  Unfortunately, she passed away from Leukemia a couple of years ago.  She was married to David Monson and had their dogs kenneled along the river. The boat stopped in front of the kennels and David talked to us through a radio microphone   He then hooked up 10 of his dogs to an engineless ATV and took off like lightning through a gate, across the river then along it.  After a short while he came back by the same route. Here the dog team is just exiting the gate.

This shows his dog yard.  It also shows him, behind his team going along the river on the far side.  You have to look closely, but he is clearly visible.  His team is below the vegetation.

.	After returning, Dave unhooked the dogs and they all headed directly to the river.

A little later the boat went by a yard where the owner let out 5 Reindeer. A Reindeer is genetically identical to a Caribou, the only difference is the Reindeer is domesticated.

The boat docked and let us off at a replica fishing village.  We split into 3 groups and our group first went to see some more reindeer.

Another stop was at a hunting cabin where our young Athabaskan native guide modeled a tibal fur coat.

Nearby I got my closest look yet at a Moose.  It was really easy as he did not move the whole time we were there. I feel fairly certain that he hasn't moved yet!

After pulling out, the boat went by a display of an authentic Placer mining nozzle that used to be used to blast through the soil to find gold.  Of course it was operated at much higher pressure then.

We found most of the homes along the river to be very interesting. It was interesting to see the angles of the satellite dishes.  This one looks like it is actually pointing downward, but in reality the beam is actually pointing slightly upward.

In the afternoon following the paddle boat ride, we scheduled a bus tour which gave us a downtown tour, a visit to the Alaska Pipeline, and a trip to the Museum of the North, located at the University of Alaska. Here we see a typical residential area of Fairbanks.

This was an area where many of the pipeline workers would spend spare time during the pipeline construction.  It is much calmer now.

Apparently there is curling in Fairbanks.

This is a section of the pi;eline.  The engineers had to take extraordinary measures to ensure that the heated oil did not thaw the perma-frost below.  In addition to keeping the members well isolated, there are fluted radiators on the tops of the poles to disipate some of the heat.

Our driver and guide on this trip was Lindy, a full blooded Athabaskan native of Alaska.  He was great.  He knew the area very well and gave us a lot of insight that only a native Alaskan could. At every stop he would get his showshoes out and lean them on the front of his bus.  It is his trademark, and makes it a lot easier to find the right bus if there are a number to choose from after a stop.

This is Blue Babe.  She is a steppe bison who died 36,000 years ago!  She was killed by a lion who opened her side and ate some muscles.  Shortly afterward, she was covered by loose silt which allowed slow decomposition for several years when the whole mass was permenantly frozen until she was found in 1979.  She was kept in a freezer until a taxidermist could preserve her as she is today.

I really liked this sculpture of a bear on display at the museum.

Rosemarie is modeling one of the most decorated outhouses you will ever see.

All good things must end! On our flight to Seattle from Fairbanks, I saw this pretty scene of some of the snowcapped peaks in Canada poking through the clouds.

OK, I guess we are almost home now.  We are in the Seatac airport in Seattle.  This food court, inside the secure area, if one of the most complete I have seen.

After a 3 1/2 hour layover in Seattle, we boarded our final flight to Phoenix, arriving about 6 PM.  Wonder of all wonders our luggage arrived also!  We called the hotel who sent out their shuttle to get us.  We slept in Phoenix Friday night, did some shopping in the morning, and were home by mid afternoon.

I hope you were able to get a flavor of our trip from these picutures.  I took a total of about 1260 picutres, so the ones here are severely culled from the total number.

This trip was a wonderful experience.  I would highly recommend a trip to Alask to anyone.  In all, we were gone just 2 weeks, and until this morning I don't think we slept in past 6, often being up at 5 or earlier.

It was a wonderful trip, but it's good to be home!

Till next time,

Dick

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