Whitehorse, YK ~ "The Wilderness City" A lot of Tourist Activity

The Ultimate WiFi Hotspot!

If there is ever a city that promotes itself Whitehorse is it! There is plenty to do and see. We started early before many establishments were open and walked the downtown taking pictures of the many buildings with frescos on them. From the River Boat along the Yukon River to their new Cultural Center, two Visitor Centers, trolley along the river, we tried to visit them all.

The Art of Totem Pole Carving!

The Cultural Center had native people carving this massive totem pole. They were not only carving but learning their craft from elders. On the inside, native artists were creating art pieces from drawings to carved wood with paintings.

After lunch, we drove a few miles to “Miles Canyon” a place where the Yukon River is funneled into a gorge. Granted the mighty Yukon is narrower here in its headwaters, but still mighty impressive with its aqua colored glacial water. We walked the gorge and took pictures and talked to many people along the trail.

T



Smiling on the Yukon!

Speaking of talking to people, this morning we talked to a guy from Texas who came all the way up here to present the Texas flag to the “Alaskan Gold Rush” series “Guys” from theTV show on the history channel. I know he was successful in his mission, because of my conversation with Jack (the old guy on the show) Jack said that the presentation will be in the series later on. The Texan we met was some 332 miles from Dawson. It is a small world up here even though the land is immense.

That is what we did and saw

Dawson to Whitehorse ~Ordinary Travel Day (332 Miles)

This day, we left Dawson at 9am. It seems that we get up early, but being in our camper, we have a daily routine that keeps everything tidy. Make the bed, prepare breakfast, eat, do dishes, put away dishes and everything else that can fall during our travels. I shut off the propane during travel and surprisingly the refrigerator keeps everything cold or frozen in the freezer. I could run on dc, but that drains the camper battery and I like it fully charged for our night time needs. It is our 58th day and all is well in the camper and outside of the camper. The truck is getting an average of 12.3 mpg at 55 mph (when I can cruise at 55mph) We have put on 9,500 miles on this trip, so far so good!

Five Finger Rapids  Yukon River

Do You Know what I Mean? Do You Get It?

The highway from Dawson to Whitehorse is now paved. The last time I drove it was gravel. The terrain here to there is not spectacular, except where it crosses the Pelly River and later the Yukon River at Carmacks. If you have been following the blog, you might think you have heard the above names which sound the same, but are not. (The Peels River and the town of Carcross are a few names that are similar). The descent to the river was a change from the miles of wooded forest that we crossed. We pulled into Whitehorse at around 4pm. We needed a picker-upper and stopped at McDonald’s for a coffee and try their WiFi. Thumbs down here for their WiFi. We just couldn’t log-in. Whitehorse does have a Wal-Mart and that was our second stop for needed food supplies. To our surprise, the parking lot looked more like a campground! At least two dozen trailers, campers of every description were parked. We got some groceries and headed out of this mayhem. Dinner was in the camper and we found the library for WiFi. (One hour limit) The allotted time was sufficient to get emails out to tell everyone that we were still alive. Nearly a week had passed since we communicated with back home.

We found another large grocery store parking lot to stay for the night. There are several campgrounds in the area, and they all charge a hefty price just to park and not use any of their amenities.

That is what we did and saw

Dawson ~ The Laundry Day with the Gold Rush Guys!

This morning the campground was extremely quiet! I woke up refreshed and feeling ready to relax the day! We drove the eleven miles to downtown to check the Sunday mass schedule. The church door was open and the street level floor was used as a school house with many pictures of the early days. A man walked in and Helen asked him if he was a priest. He answered that he was the Bishop from Whitehorse and he would be saying the mass at 10:30. Helen again did a reading, this time to a full house of maybe 30 people.

Jack, Lucien, Helen, Jim "Gold Rush" History Channel!

After mass, we were invited to a lunch downstairs in the old school class room. I had a conversation with  Bishop Gary Gordon’s uncle, who was up here looking for his fathers’ pictures which might have been displayed around the room. His father was actually here during the gold rush era. He pointed to a parishioner who had a gold mine claim and had just started mining four days ago and had gotten 80 ounces of gold!

After lunch, we went looking for the local laundry. I parked the truck out front and started to walk to the door when I spotted Jack and John from the “Gold Rush Series” on the History Channel. We took pictures and chatted for a few minutes. It was a great day at the laundry mat.     

Jack checking the pockets for gold dust

The rest of today was spent uploading pictures and posting eight days of blogs. The page views on the blog have now topped 1400 and I am happy that people are interested in our adventures.

That is what we did and saw

Inuvik to Dawson ~ The Marathon Run

Cold Beer, Laptop and Bloging Away
 in Inuvik, NT

The earliest that I could get up this morning was 6:30am. You really don’t sleep the best way up here 207 miles past the Arctic Circle. The problem is not the sun light. It’s the noise. People are running around all night long. Even the locals are roaming around. Every house has at least one dog and they tend yelp on and off all night.

We stopped outside the local hotel to send one email (WiFi hotspot) and down the paved road we went. (That is the two miles of paved road to the airport.) The goal today was to drive the entire 476 miles back down to Dawson. Sheila, from the Visitor Center, had told us that they drive all the way to Whitehorse in twenty-four hours. Whitehorse is six hours past Dawson. Remember we are talking of a rough dirt road 30mph to 50mph.

Ogilvie Mountain Range

I got into the groove of the road and tried to do the impossible. What helped me this time was converting the truck back to miles per hour. With the laptop computer running, I could see how much mileage we had done and how much to go before each milestone. The McKenzie Ferry, Ft McPherson, the Peels River Ferry, Eagle Plains, Tombstone Visitor Center and so on.

We made excellent time and arrived at the turnoff for the Dempster Highway at 7:30pm. We made it in 13 driving hours. The truck was plastered with mud. At the turn off, there was a car wash and I pulled in. I put on shower shoes, slid on some shorts and used the pressure spray to take off a couple of layers of mud. We drove a few miles down to the Klondike Territorial campground, checked in, took a shower, ate dinner and man did that bed feel good!

That is what we did and saw.

Inuvik ~ The Town & Its People

Remember "Ice Road Trucker" (2nd Year)

First item this morning was the Inuvik Visitor Center. We were the first tourist of the day and Sheila (the staff person) was very warm and gave us a multitude of information plus answered many questions that I had concerning the native people, their land, way of life, livelihood and of course the weather here in the winter. She gave us a total agenda of what to do in town. With all of this and free coffee, we set out to explore this town. I can honestly say that I expected cold weather, but it was one of the hottest days on our entire adventure since our departure…81 degrees!

Remeber "IRT" The boat on the Rivers' Edge!

First stop, the native art center, many fine craftsmen had put a lot of time in their carvings, bead work and fur garments. The food stores were next. It was a little shocking to see the prices and what we back home take for granted…orange juice for $9 something for half gallon.

Sheila had recommended the Canadian Legion for lunch. We followed her advice and found the food excellent. This post is the farthest  “North” Legion post in the world. I had a nice talk with this guy that worked on the “North American Dew Line”  It was and is the early warning radar system for missiles and airplane attacks from the North over the pole.

The Dome Igloo Catholic Church, a landmark in the town was next. The doors would not be open until 5pm, so we walked here and there exploring. After 5pm, we saw the priest unlock the church and we had a small tour. He said there was a 5:30 mass and asked if we would be attending. We said sure. The strange thing about this is that we were the only two people in the church except another priest who came in a few minutes later. They asked Helen if she could do the readings and she did. It was sort of neat to have a private mass.

I didn’t know where all the time went but it was midnight again before we hit the sack.

That is what we did and saw

Engineer Creek Campground to Jak Territorial Park ~ Inuvik, NWT

Sulphur gives color to this "DO NOT DRINK" Creek

Last night was not exceptionally quiet. Around 11:15 some bikers (pedal) came and set up across from our site. They were pretty loud. A motorcycle guy soon followed. I learned a day later why they were wound up. You see they had been traveling 12 to 13 hours down from Inuvik and putting the shoe on the other foot, I was the same when I arrived in Inuvik. I awoke early, got things packed up on the outside. Helen took care of the inside and off  we went toward Eagles Plains our target for today’s drive.

We picked up a Dempster Highway Travelogue Guide. Every  POI is explained by kilometers. I am fortunate to be able to tell my truck (think metric) The Dempster Highway is the only road in Canada that takes you past the Arctic Circle and into “ The Land of the Midnight Sun”.

Our First Geocache in the "North West Territories"

At the Engineer Creek Bridge, limestone outcrops of fossil coral formed on the floor of a shallow sea about 400 million years ago. Up the road at km 195.5 Ogilvie River has many species of fish including Arctic grayling, northern pike and Dolly Varden.

The road conditions in this section were bearable (45 mph). I checked my rear view mirror and noticed an on-coming  semi. I pulled over to the side of the road and let him go by us. I decided to see if he was using a CB radio or one of those longer reach FM radios. “Breaker, breaker 19 got your ears on” “Sure do” he answered. I asked him if he knew how the road was up ahead. He answered that this was his first run up here. He was delivering an Army 5 ton truck  to the Canadian Army in Inuvik. That call turned out to be a nice long conversation for about 150 miles. I stayed behind him figuring that he would be going the proper speed for the road conditions. The road was a little rougher and the speed was never over forty mph. It was 20-25 for nearly a hundred miles. We enjoyed the scenery (beautiful, I must say) all the way to Eagle Plains. We had lunch together and then he was off. I paid $5.98 a gallon (That’s the conversion cost for litres)

Drill for Gas ~One of Two Rigs

After Eagle Plains, I stepped on the gas! We had decided that we would try and get closer to Inuvik. I wasn’t tired and the road seemed to get better. I could not catch the semi. We stopped at the Arctic Circle for pictures and a geocache. A few miles down the road a vehicle had the hood open and I stopped. The guy had a flat. He had a spare, but could not get it down from under the truck bed. I helped him and could not reach the cable to cut it down. I also remembered when getting gas that a kid came in and told the attendant about the stranded motorist. The attendant said he was too busy to go down and help. Back at the truck, I had done everything I could to help. The couple were going to pitch their tent. They gave me info to give to the RCMP in Ft McPherson. What I didn’t realize was that was 86 miles away and at 30 mph (I slowed right down also) it took nearly 3-1/2 hrs (road conditions and construction). I stopped at the RCMP and gave the info to the female Constable. She said she would call Eagle Plains and get them help. We took the cable ferry at the Peels River and drove on to the next ferry at the confluence of the Arctic Red River and the Mackenzie River. The road from McPherson to Inuvik was really good and 50 to 60 mph was the norm. We arrived in Inuvik at 11:30pm The sun was still high in the sky. We got a geocache at the airport. It was my first night geocache with my sunglasses on. We checked in at the Jak Territorial Campground. Got a good shower in their shower room.

Peel River Ferry

We had traveled 337 miles in 13 hours. We and everything in our truck & camper  were  covered with dust. Those of you who have been in the military and driven on a tank trail will know what I mean by dust.



Midnight in Inuvik

This is short blog to describe such a vast experience. I would have to write a book. I can’t describe all events (such as seeing a bear taking one lane of the highway broadside and being as big as a Volkswagen or sitting here a day later at 9:30pm at night getting a sun tan. Inuvik is one of the hottest days that we experience on our journey. I can never post all of the pictures I took in this beautiful “land of the midnight sun”.

That, my friends, is what we did and saw

Dawson to Inuvik ~ The Special Journey

 

Ferry to Cross the Might Yukon River

Beautiful sunny warm day, with the sun shining over the Yukon River, was our wake-up this morning. I wrote a little more on the blog before and after breakfast. Helen really knows how to treat a guy in the Yukon with a nice breakfast and a cup of coffee. I went outside down by the river and watched the paddle boat struggle to cross the swift current. She came to this side of the river to have her passengers look at the old paddle wheel boats that have been discarded along a section of the river.

Tombstone Territorial Park

Taking the ferry again to cross the river to Dawson, we headed to the bank for an exchange of money ($59.05 for $60.00 American… not a bad rate)… next over to the post office for stamps. ($2.21 for two postcard stamps with tax) Just before turning on Princess St. to get to the bank we met the bike guy, Marten. He had stayed at the other end of the same campground that we had. He said that he would go to Inuvik (God Bless Him!) We met him again at the gas station. He was going to stay on more night in Dawson for a good hot shower. I said that he was just giving us a head start to Inuvik.

Every Turn is a Picture!

I had downloaded some geocaches for the trip up north. Sure enough, there are caches in the Northwest Territories and also above the Arctic Circle. We would take the trip up north nice and easy. 476 miles from Dawson to Inuvik, that’s 942 miles at maybe 40 miles per hour. “Why do it?” To use someone else line “Because that’s what we do” Seriously, this road is one of the world’s most scenic drives. It is nature at it’s best! You don’t see big RV’s on this road. Truck Campers are the weapon of choice. We have the weapon and I want to use it.

This is Marten from the Netherlands
A biker ~ Pedal Type ~ On his way
to Inuvik ~ God Bless!

The ride…hard packed gravel, level, smooth, not too hilly was the normal for the first 108 miles. We are at Engineer Creek campground (4 campers) and one local family from Inuvik stopped here for a rest. I naturally asked him how the road was up ahead. He said, “not too good”. “Very rutty, but if you take your time you should be ok”. He also told me that some tourist got stuck in Inuvik for ten days because of a forest fire. The fire was not close to the highway but, the smoke was too heavy for vehicle traffic. “Man that’s not too encouraging for tomorrow trip.”

That is what we did and saw

Dawson City, Yukon ~The Klondike Gold!!

 



Active Gold Mine

Active Sourdought Miner in Action!!

It drizzled during the night and getting up this morning meant that the road to Dawson would be muddy. We filled the water and dumped the gray tank. Out of the valley… and we started up to a winding climb into the mountains. The mud was messy, but not greasy, which made the trip actually better. We slowed down to 30 miles per hour and enjoyed the scenery. The gravel part of the road is only 30 miles long from the town of Chicken to the border. At about the 15 mile mark the road dried up, but we were now accustomed to the slower speed and continued to enjoy the great distance views. No traffic at all to this point. In a distance, we viewed our first car which was stopped. They were watching a herd of Caribou crossing the road. I had time to go back into the camper, get my long lens and capture a few pics of them. The sun is now breaking between the clouds. So far so good, the “Top of the World Highway” is being kind to us. The ravines are now more predominant with 2000 to 3000 foot drop offs usually, with a creek snaking around the mountains. At mile marker 80, we descended down to the valley floor to a creek with a sign BLM land. (Bureau of Land Management). Soon after, we started to see claim markers and people panning for gold, some places have excavators, screening machines, some places had sluice boxes with small pumps. At mile marker 89, it was time for me to pan for gold with my good luck Frisbee. I did find gold. I can’t tell you how much the gold was worth, but I can tell you, I bought Helen some gold earrings today, so help me God!

Life on the Yukon River... It's Great!!

The border crossing was a simple task. The border crossing has changed considerably since I passed here some 25 years ago. Back then, there was only one small building and now several buildings. The road is now paved. This might seem like an improvement, but it was not. The pavement has pot holes that had no bottoms. One could be drunk… and it would seem normal to see us dogging the holes.

On one high mountain pass, we spotted a lone biker taking a picture of the majestic views. He waived I waived and drove past him down a hill. I noticed that he was coming down the hill also and stopped to talk to him. I said, “How can you do such a long trip here in the middle of nowhere?” He said, “It’s what I do.” He also said that he started in Anchorage and wanted to go to Dawson, but his final destination is San Francisco. He said he was from the Netherlands, and he might stay at the Territorial Yukon River campground. We drove on and wished him luck.

Dawson was view as we descended down a long mountain to the Yukon River. The George Black Ferry was across the river and heading our way. Now this ferry is not your typical ferry with a nice concrete loading dock. The ferry comes across the mighty Yukon pointing upstream and chugging along as the swift current pushes the ferry down river. The captain does one of those orbital swings to the other side, it sort of like playing pool and put English on the ball. The landing area is a bulldozed gravel area. He keeps the engine running… they lower the steel ramp and you drive on or off.

Dawson is a romantic historical town. Many of the old building are still standing from the 1890s’ gold rush days. The town back then was heavily populated… at one time, it was the largest city north of San Francisco on the west coast. Every kind of business was established back then, including brothels, bars, anything that the prospectors could spend their money was located in the area. Today, the atmosphere seems to be the same, but tourists are the mark.

Migrating Caribou Herd!

We had Alaskan Halibut for lunch at Sourdough Joe’s Restaurant and talked to a motorcycle couple who had been up to Inuvik yesterday. They said that one section of the road was really bad. He had to let a pickup truck go ahead to make a rut for his bike to climb seven mile hill. We are planning to head up that way tomorrow. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring all of the downtown in Dawson. There was plenty to visit. We both looked at getting a haircut, but they were kind of pricy… so we will wait.

We self-registered at the Territorial Yukon River campground and got a site right on the river’s edge. Neat…

That is what we did and saw

Big Delta to Chicken, AK ~ The Gold Fever Begins!



Real Gold Nugget in Helen's hand!!

Driving 188 miles today seems like a short ride to the grocery store. In Delta Junction, we spent half the morning getting caught up on emails and posting three days of blogs. The library wasn’t opened but the parking lot had three cars (not tourist, but locals) who, I know were using the WiFi. I’m getting to love the libraries!

On the way to Chicken, we stopped at Tok Junction to gas up. The price there was $4.09. I also filled one bottle of propane. The good thing about the fill-up was that we could have a free car wash. We did this and the truck/camper seemed happy to get washed behind the ears. There was a camper from England (not New England).They washed there camper three times. I said three times!! At Tetlin Junction, we took a left and started to climb into the mountains towards Chicken. The road was narrow with little traffic and 90% paved.

Chicken is a “one  horse” town (actually only three businesses) and is noted for its Gold Rush days. Gold is still found here every day. We actually watched a couple of guys pan and every pan had gold in the bottom. We did see a few large nuggets in the store that were discovered here.

The town with gravel roads took us to the airport to see if any moose were dinning in the two ponds next to the gravel runway. None were found! The next stop was to the General Store and Bar. I bought another hiking stick pin that caught my eye. Helen bought a “Chicken Alaska shirt”. The last stop was at the gas station. We missed the last call for “Halibut and Spare Ribs”, so we had steak on our still “new” Webber grill.

Kris Valencia & Biscuit

Our ¾ mile tour of the town was complete and we headed for campsite number 19 (home for the night). I packed our grill after the steaks were eaten and has I was putting the chairs away I noticed this truck camper coming down the mountain in a distance. It sort of looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Five minutes later the camper came into the campground and parked. It was the famous Mile Post Truck Camper that truck camper magazine had mentioned in one of their articles online. The article said,” if you see the well graphic Mile Post truck, go and introduce yourselves.” We did and took pictures, and Kris Valencia (Managing Editor) took pictures of us also. She said they would post our pictures on their website. www.themilepost.com I just don’t know when this will happen. I don’t remember if I had mentioned in a previous blog, but my truck modification (front bike rack) made it onto online Truck Camper Magazine. I think it was issue number 642 (not sure of the issue number, no WiFi at the moment).

We are contemplating whether we will head south and then west to Oregon, possibly extending our journey another month and a half. We will have to decide in a few days when we arrive at the start of the Alaska/Canada highway. We will let the canoe decide which way the current bring us.

That is what we did and saw

Denali to Big Delta ~ New Friends on the Trail

 

Our Denali experience was super great. We met all of our intended goals. Our reservations were for another night but, we decided to leave the Park a day early. As I mentioned before, the canoe has no paddles and it wanted to move on with good memories behind. We had a short stay back on Fairbanks, attended church, met a fellow Lance camper owner in the parking lot, chatted and down the road we went.

A Santa Stop for Aspen

Our trip out of the Park also brought us good news that we wouldn’t have gotten until we came out, as there was no phone or internet service in the Park. Our good news… which was only about hour old, was a message from Helen’s sister, Doris, informing us of the arrival of her newest grand-daughter, baby…Lexi Evelyn DiFilippe (8 lbs. & 21” long, with a headful of black hair!). We’re looking forward to meeting this little beauty.

Big Delta, AK was our goal for this day. I wanted to check out this town for a simple reason. One of our neighbors back home was stationed here back in the Alcan Highway construction. Roland would be surprised to see the change in the highway.

Helen mailing Aspen a post card from the North Pole!

No trip would be complete without stopping at the North Pole and buying a few post cards for our grandkids with a North Pole post mark. Santa said to say, “Hi Aspen! The reindeer are putting on weight for their big trip at Christmas.”

The End or Begining of Alaska Highway!

Big Delta didn’t have a campground that we liked so we traveled 8 miles south to Delta Junction. A State Campground was conveniently located a short distance from the library.  There were only four or five campers there. The camp host told me that two guys in number 14 were shooters competing in a match at Ft Greely. It wasn’t long before I was over there talking about rifle teams and shooting (as a past member of the New Hampshire National Guard Rifle Team). He was using a BR6. Right off, I knew they were not competing with combat rifles. These were long range shooters 1000 yards with scopes. It happened to be very windy and their score card showed the results. It was a good chat at site fourteen.

After dinner, we walked over to our next door neighbors, Bill and Antje (pronounced Uncha) Schnaekel. We had a wonderful conversation over a campfire. They were from North Carolina. Ironically, this was the third couple we’ve met on this trip who had lived on a boat. They were going north and we were heading south. We exchanged tips and ideas.  The wind finally got the best of the fire and we exchanged emails and said good-bye.

That is what we did and saw

Denali National Park ~ The Experience

Out of the door at 7:15am and we were headed to the bus pickup spot. A couple from England were at the stop and we chatted about the bus schedule. We got onto the same bus going west to Eielson Visitor Center and onto Wonder Lake.

Ahooo.......

The main purpose of the long bus ride is to view wildlife and the vista beauty. The first sighting by the bus driver was a Grizzly Bear and two cubs. Now, let me tell you that I would have not spotted these three guys. The bears were pea size up a mountain. You have to know where to look. The ideal spot is in a ravine with grass. Once we figure that out we had many sightings of these herbivores.

The bus now left the forest area and ascended into more of the alpine terrain. Someone hollered out “Wolf!” The bus driver stops, a wolf crosses the road, looks at us and doesn’t run away. The next thing the wolf does is start to howl! This howling went on for a few minutes. That was enough time for everybody on the bus to grab a picture of this rare creature. The bus driver said that she been driving these buses for 16 years and that is the first time she actually sees a wolf howling.

"Let Me In to Your House!!" Said the Big Bad Wolf!

The bus continues down the road for a couple of miles when bang another wolf in the road. This wolf is on the road and walking in the road. This went on for a 1/8 of mile. He stopped and started to smell something in the road. Bang! Again, he jumps off to side of the road and going after a ground squirrel. The squirrel dives into a hole. The wolf starts digging and listening! He jumps a foot ahead and digs again. The dirt is flying! A bit of moss flies into the air. The wolf is now kneeling, digging. Bang! The squirrel jumps out of the second exit hole and runs for his life. The wolf jumps through the air thirty feet across the tundra. Bang! The mighty jaws of this wild animal caught its prey. He drops the squirrel to the ground and looks around, nearly meaning to say, “look I got it, are you watching?” He calms down and picks up the lifeless squirrel and off he went.

Lunch!

The bus driver again says that was a National Geographic moment. She went on to say that there are between 70 and 80 wolfs in Denali. There is six million acres in the park and seeing two wolves and watching them do what they did is a moment that might never be duplicated by most people.

The rest of the trip we saw Dahl Sheep, Caribou (up close) & more Grizzly Bears. The vistas were spectacular! The Polychrome Mountains were perfect. We did not see Mt McKinley. Even with the sun shining the mountain makes its own weather and was shrouded. It’s sister mountains were visible.

Smile Your on Candid Camera!

It was a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. I came to see and I did!

That is what we did and saw

               

Fairbanks to Denali ~ The Destination Realized

Swiss Army Camper



Left Fairbanks around 7 am even with our morning coffee at McDonalds. The weather looked promising as we started to climb out of the city into the foothills. The Nenana Valley was fog covered, but soon we were above the mist and into sunshine. It is only 121 miles to Denali and we couldn’t checkin until 12pm. That gave us plenty of time to walk the shops on the outskirts of the Park.

Temporary Home Base

At 11 am, we were in the parking lot of the campground registration building having an early lunch. I top off the fresh water tank and ready for our departure. The lot is filled with RVs of all sorts. There was one RV with Swiss license plate that caught my eye. It was a high ground clearance camper, four by four (all-wheel drive) with massive tires. I’m guessing it was a military vehicle or converted military vehicle used as a camper. He was ahead of us going into the park. I watched him more than the scenery to the first 10 mile check point. You can’t travel any further than the check point unless you’ve got a reservation. He stopped and turned off. We marched on for another 14.5 miles to Teklanika campground. There are only fifty sites here. If the big Swiss Army Camper would have continued, I’m sure that I would have gotten his history on camping from here back to Switzerland and a lot of info on that monster RV.

Ranger Talk at Teklanika Campground

We found a good site, settled in and got the bikes of the rack and started to tour. We always expect to see wildlife when hiking or biking. We didn’t! The interesting thing about Denali is that there aren’t any trails or at least only a few. People just wonder off and explore. We headed back to camp (using the highway) and Helen started getting things ready for supper. With the bikes off the rack in front of the truck, I decided to see if I could change the hundreds of bugs off the grill for some new ones further down our adventure road. My 2012 Ford looked like a 2005! I rubbed the bugs off with rubbing compound.

Home of the Range!

After supper, we walked around talking to the other campers and getting tips and info on tomorrow’s bus trip to Wonder Lake. That’s when one camper was telling me of the Grizzly Bear that walked right past here at five o’clock, you know… when I was cleaning my truck grill. The bear wasn’t that close, just 300 yards down to the river.

At 7:30, we went to the Ranger talk down at the river’s edge. The talk was about the history of the Park and the men would were instrumental in making it a National Park. It was a good presentation.

In bed by 9:30pm for a 7:40 pickup time for the bus into the deep interior of the park.



That is what we did and saw

Fairbanks ~ World Eskimo-Indian Olympics

Native Costume

This is our fourth day in Fairbanks. We just about covered all of the tourist things to do here. Our reservations at Teklanika campground are for 12 pm tomorrow. We have been circling waiting to land. In any event, we have made the best of it here in Fairbanks. This morning was spent at the Fort Wainwright Library. There were many soldiers waiting to use a computer. We have our own and had no problem doing the WiFi. The 25^th Infantry Brigade, the 1^st Striker Brigade and all of their support people means a lot of troops!  

We had lunch at Big Daddy’s Bar-B-Q. This is a small milestone for us. Big Daddy’s is the Northernmost Southern Bar-B-Q. We have eaten at Joe’s Ribs in South Padre Island along the Texas coast. Most likely the Southernmost Southern Bar-B-Q. Wave the flag!

Wolf Man

Our adventure for today was the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. They certainly have different competitions. The afternoon event (at least one) was the greased pole balance. A pole around five inches in diameter and ten feet long is rubbed with lard. The contestant is tasked with moving laterally along the pole. The most that we witnessed was about three feet. All of the different competitions relate to hunting survival task. Another competition is squatting positions to a jump forward. This is a simulation of jumping out of a canoe when it is sinking in the ice. I wouldn’t last long in any of these situations.

Native Drum Band

Tomorrow morning, we depart this city for the wilds of Denali National Park. We are anxious to see what this trek will bring us. We have been reading our new friends blog (Jerry & Carin that’s where we got the tip on Big Daddy’s Bar-B-Q) We are both going in opposite directions up here in Alaska. We both seem to experience the same things at different times. They spent time in Fairbanks waiting for their reserve time in Teklanika just like we are doing now. I believe they are heading for Anchorage and we are going towards Dawson City in the Yukon. I wonder if our paths will cross again on this trip.

Tonight we went to the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. I was very surprised with the outcome. The first event was a native tribe playing drums and dancing. I actually understood the movements in the dance. One Elder was especially good at dancing a hunting dance. He reminded me of our neighbor George back in Berlin, not that George does Native Indian dance, but he resembled him in stature.

One Hand High Kick ~93 Inches!

The next event (and I also liked) was the babies dressed in native costumes. Now I’m talking about furs, rawhide and beads. These costumes, I’m sure would cost a thousand dollars if bought in the lower forty-eights. The Eskimo-Indians hunt and trap the raw ingredients. The mothers and grandmothers do the sewing. Different pelts for different parts of the garment. They use Wolverine around the face because it repels frostbite. Really neat the way they do all of that.

The men and women competed in (Alaskan High Kick) that is a one hand high kick. It’s kind of hard to describe but you sit on the floor, look up at a suspended ball 94 inches (for Men) and 73 for woman and trust yourself with one hand and kick the ball. Look at the picture.

Grease Pole Race

We left before the Seal skinning contest and the 3.5 oz Muktuk Eating Contest. (Raw Blubber) It was getting late and we needed to do laundry before our departure. Oh did I forget to mention the Ear Pull? Two contestants sit facing each other and loop twine around their ears. Right ear to right or left to left. A “Tug-of-War” ensues  they lean backward until the string comes loose or someone gives up. Like the ear weight event, it is a test of a contestant’s ability to endure pain.

That is what we did and saw

Fairbanks ~ Here long enough to be a resident?

 

Helen is getting taller! The cabin is low to heat

It was Wednesday morning nearly 7 am Alaska time, but 11 am Eastern time. I had planned to conduct the Berlin Water Works monthly noon meeting just outside the Pioneer Park. They have excellent free WiFi. The previous morning, I had Skype my grandson, Sawyer, with excellent results. This morning the WiFi was on, but there server was not on. Plan “B” go to McDonalds about a block away. I was able to secure the only electric plug in the seating area. (I didn’t know if my laptop battery would last for the entire meeting.) I made contact, but again a problem arose. All McDonalds that have a drive through have free WiFi. The thing that they don’t tell you is when their drive-up is busy the signal goes down below the quality that is required for video. Plan “C” I conducted the meeting with audio only.

Interesting fact ~Steam Shovel came here (for gold mining)
after building Panama Canal!

The commitment behind me, we went looking for Dredge #8 just out of town. Dredge #8 is a real gold dredge that made a lot of people rich back in the day. We got there around 10:15am and the sign said that the next tour was going to be at 2pm. This place has to be a destination sight because the parking lot was full of cruise line buses. There is a train that picks up tourist and runs around the site. The Alaska pipeline runs by the parking lot. We took a couple of pictures and headed back to town.

The trip back to town wasn’t a total lost. We stopped at the Carlile truck yard. This is the company that is featured on History Channel “Ice Road Truckers” I know they have 1000 trucks in the State of Alaska, but we only saw a dozen or so in the yard. This is a good thing for them. They don’t make money sitting in the yard.

Water Cannon used in gold mining

We also found another Wal-Mart and started to stock up for our isolation camping experience deep inside Denali National Park. To recap the rules; Minimum stay three days, one drive in and one drive out (The shuttle bus is available but a sixty mile round trip for a quart of milk is rough).

Todays' Gold ~ Alaska Pipe Line!

This evening we stayed in Pioneer Park, a big three day event is starting. Native artisans were on hand with their crafts. I was able to talk to the artisans & get their inside stories of how they learned there crafts. We walked around & got to ride the train around the park. We also called Meg back in Berlin, NH and sang happy birthday from Fairbanks, Alaska.

That is what we did and saw

Fairbanks, Alaska ~ Rejuvenated

What a diference a day makes!

Boading the Discovery III

Float Plane Landing

Sled Dogs on the ready

Well Done !!

Native girl showing how it's done

The Sun is shining and so are we! It was time to let professionals in the tourist business show us the sights while we rejuvenated. We purchased tickets for a paddle wheel boat ride down the Chena River to the Nenana River. I knew from past trips into this area that this would be relaxing and informative. The Cruise Ship Lines all use this destination here in Fairbanks for their thousands of passengers. We boarded the Discovery III along with five hundred others. Today the Discovery II also was going down river with around three hundred passengers. The paddle wheel slowly starts down river, when the Captain says to watch on the river as a bush pilot starts a takeoff alongside the boat. What’s neat about the whole thing is that the Captain talks to the pilot and with perfect audio the pilot describes his plane and his experiences of a bush pilot. The pilot does a couple of passes around and lands in the river, again along the boat. I got us real nice shots of both takeoffs and landings. The next event going down river was a stop at the Susan Butcher's dog sled training home. Susan passed away in 2006 of cancer. She was world renowned for winning the Iditarod Dog Sled Race four times. Her husband runs the dog training facility and he was there giving us a demonstration of the dogs pulling an ATV (600 pound load without engine) and him around the lake.  Further down on the river, we stopped at a native village and debarked. There we different sites to visit and listening to native girls explain their culture and demonstrate different skills they use to prepare animals for subsistence living. From hunting shelters, to filleting a salmon, to selecting the right fur for clothing. It was inspiring to see how all of this was done.

The paddle boat went down as far as the Nenana River. The Chena River is fifty miles long and is actually spring fed. The water is somewhat clear. The Nenana River is Glacial fed and is gray with silt. When they meet you can diffidently see the mix. The Nenana changes constantly from one channel to the next. The Captain explained how this made river boat navigation hazardous. Even today with technology a Captain must read the river.

The trip back up river was interesting with the explanation of how river front property was expensive. The houses varied from rundown to multi-million dollar houses. We arrived back at the dock a little after five. A very nice diversion from our normal discovery mode.

That is what we did and saw