Chena Hot Springs

Chena Hot Springs Resort turned out to be a delightful spot to spend a day. The resort is 56 miles outside of Fairbanks and boasts a 160 degree hot springs. Electricity doesn’t make it that far out of Fairbanks, but the resort has gone with quite a high tech approach to that little difficulty. They generate their own power using low temperature power generators. How does that work you ask? Well, as far as I can tell it is thermal dyna-magic. No one was around who could explain it to me, but they seem to have all the electricity they need.

The hot springs isn’t all, this place is also the home to the Aurora Ice Hotel. The first one was built in the fall of 2003, but inadequate refrigeration brought about a melt down in the summer of 2004. Better refrigeration and ambitious ice artisans brought it back to life and it has been a big attraction since, year round. The new refrigeration system is a two stage ammonia absorption system using geothermal energy (the hot spring) and was the first in the world. By the way, I don’t know what that means, but it was really cold inside.

There are numerous ice carvings, like these jousting knights…








And this chess set with pieces coming to your knees……









And they are all maintained by two artisans who also make the glasses…….









For use at the martini bar……










Which, once you’ve downed a few, leads to the need to be led to your room (with its own ice bed). Of the four rooms only one has a toilet, which was also sculpted ice, even the seat. My guess is that no one has ever been brave enough to use it.

Just so you know that we survived the ice hotel, I thought I would show you the stop we made after we left there. This is the Howling Dog Saloon. The HD brags that it is the furthest North Rock and Roll bar in North America. I can tell you it is a lot warmer in there than the ice hotel and the bar maids don’t wear coats and gloves while they work. Actually I think the work uniform was more akin to a tight tee and a mini-skirt. Now that’s the way to run a bar!!!

Pipelines, Cabbage, and Muskoxen

We’ve all heard about the pipeline, but here’s some info of which you may be unaware.

The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company is a consortium made up of oil companies (BP, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Unocal, and Koch Alaska). The pipeline is one of the World’s longest pipelines at 800 miles. It stretches from Prudhoe Bay (300+ miles North of the Artic Circle) to Valdez, the Northern most ice-free port in North America.

Oil was discovered on Alaska’s North Slope in 1968. The pipeline company was formed in 1970, construction began March of 1975, and completed in June of 1977. At that time the project was the largest privately financed construction project ever attempted, completing at 8 billion dollars (10 times the original estimate). Oil began flowing on June 20, 1977 and the first tanker load of crude left Valdez on August 1, 1977.
The pipe is 48 inches in diameter, 380 miles of the pipeline is buried to the level of bedrock. Unstable permafrost makes it necessary for the remainder of the pipe to be above ground on insulating towers. The above ground portion zigzags allowing for expansion and contraction caused by seasonal temperature changes ranging from -80 to +80 degrees Fahrenheit. The pipe can slide up to 12 feet on the tower as the temperature changes.

There are 11 pump stations. Slightly over 1 million barrels of oil flow down the pipeline each day with the record year being 1988 when it carried 2.1 million barrels per day. Oil flows at approximately 4 mph.

The crude oil is naturally hot when it comes out of the ground (to 180 degrees F) and cools to about 100 degrees F by the time it reaches Valdez. The support towers are insulated from the pipe so that the heat from the oil doesn’t melt the permafrost (permanently frozen ground) and cause the towers to sink or lean. Those finned items on the top of the towers are to radiate heat from the towers into the air, to further protect from melting the permafrost.

Cabbage grows big up here, 60 to 80 pounds is not uncommon. It is rumored (I haven’t seen them) that at the Alaskan State Fair a single cabbage can fill the bed of a pickup. When I asked a local how he got such big cabbages in his refrigerator he said “shredded”.

This is a Muskox and calf. These animals don’t smell musky and are related to sheep, not oxen. But they can get big, bulls to 800 pounds, and other than man their only natural enemies are wolves and bears. They once ranged throughout the cold lands of the Northern hemisphere, but became nearly extinct at the end of the last ice age. There were none in Alaska until they were reintroduced in 1979, now there are more than 3,000 roaming Northern Alaska. By the way, their inner layer of wool sells for $25 an ounce and is one of the best insulating natural fibers in existence.

Fairbanks - Gold!!!

Gold, gold I tell ya, I've hit gold...

Calm down there boy. That's not your gold. That's what came out of a demonstartion on how to pan. It is real and that tiny little nugget on the lower left is worth about $100 at today price ($681.50/ounce).

This is Dexter. He was putting on the sluicing and panning demonstration for us tourists so we could try it for ourselves. Dexter is a summertime tourist entertainer and a gold miner during the rest of the year. None of us tourist did as well as Dexter, Sharon an I ended up panning out $5 worth of gold flakes.


We thought we'd take the opportunity, while this far North, to visit the North Pole. That is, North Pole, Alaska. It is a small town that is almost all gift shop.



Fairbanks has a week long celebration at this time of the year called Golden Days. Among the many entertainments offered is a parade. Here we see an old sourdough, caught up in the hoopla of the parade. Probably wishing he could find his way back out to his claim.

And what parade would be complete without a token polar bear. This one appears to be grumpy. Personally I think it is all just hot air.......

Fairbanks – The Regatta

Fairbanks is a fun town, for tourists and for the locals. We’ve tried to cover both sides, so that we don’t miss anything important.

The ninth annual Red Green Regatta is one of the local’s events that’s fun for the tourists as well. For those of you not in the “know”, Red Green is a Canadian comedian with a show that appears on some PBS stations in the states. Red’s trade mark is duct tape, he uses it to fix everything. Therefore all rafts in the regatta had to incorporate duct tape in their construction.

These young ladies called themselves the Duct Tape Divas. I didn’t see where they needed any duct tape to hold themselves together, but their raft had plenty.

These folks were having a great time.












And these folks were trying to tame the Chena River’s version of the Lake Ness Monster. They were having quit a difficult time. The monster is big, long, and slow. The currents were not his friend and he was way behind everyone else. Well, everyone except two boys whose raft had disintegrated almost as it hit the water. They were bravely riding the pieces. I guess even duct tape can’t save you from poor design.

Fairbanks - Steam Shovels to Dogs

This may look old and rusty, well it is. It does have some history, however. It is one of many interesting displays at Pioneer Park. This is a steam shovel, the first I've ever seen. The shovel was used on the Panama Canal, then shipped to Hawaii, and now it rests here in Fairbanks after years of service digging canals to supply water to mining operations in central Alaska.

This is the riverboat Discovery III. A very popular tourist attraction, especially for the bus tour generation. Although I did enjoy the ride, and the narrator did a wonderful job, I didn't care for being packed in with 800 or so other tourists.

I tried my hand at fishing for salmon while I had the chance. Ed, a Fairbanks resident and friend of our traveling companions, offered to take us. We were after King Salmon, which on some rivers can run up to 90 pounds. On this river they usually only run up to 30 pounds. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show and no tale to tell, I got skunked. We were on the river 8 hours and only two fish were caught on our stretch of the river, one by Ed. It was not very big (in comparison to what we were after) so we agreed to throw it back. You see, the limit on King's is one per day and we wanted to go home with 30 pounders. In retrospect I'm thinking that little salmon would have tasted really good.......

Here's someone most of you will at least have heard of. Susan Butcher is possibly the best known dog musher in Alaska. She won three consecutive Iditarod dog sled races (1986, 87, & 88). Keep in mind that the Iditarod is about 1,000 miles long and held in the dead of the Alaskan winter when temperatures can dip to -65 degrees (not considering wind chill). Her career included completing 17 Iditarod races and never finishing less than 20th.

Susan died of breast cancer in her early 50's. She left a legacy in two daughters and a sled dog kennel as good as any in Alaska. Her husband and daughters continue to operate the kennel and sponsor a team in the Iditarod. Maybe the daughters will one day join their mother in the record books.

Denali National Park and Preserve - Animals

This park was founded in 1917 as a game refuge first and a park second. Originally it was named Mount McKinley National Park after then senator William McKinley. In 1980 it was expanded from 2 million acres to 6 million acres and renamed to Denali National Park and Preserve. At its current size it is larger than the state of Massachuetts.

Over hunting of the animals to feed the men of the gold rushes of the early 1900’s was severely reduce the animal population. So congress created the park as a preserve with no intent of allow visitors. The park’s only ranger was responsible for eliminating poaching. Although it seems an impossible task for one man to cover the then 2 million acres, somehow he did it. The animals revived and the area is again a great spot for viewing.

The big five are Grizzly Bear, Moose, Caribou, Dahl Sheep, and Wolves.










Denali-Animals centered

Oh yeah, that last one is not a wolf. I never saw one. The little creature doing the stand in is an Artic Ground Squirrel. Sorry for the low quality of the pictures. I was over a mile away from the sheep and the caribou. Probably a quarter mile from the grizzly. The moose was a bit more cooperative at 100 yards. The ground squirrel was a show off and posed at less than 5 yards. I can’t say that I am sorry that the grizzly didn’t want to come over and give me a close up.

Denali National Park and Preserve - Scenery

The park has only one road, which is 90 miles long and goes deep into the park. All of that road past the first 15 miles, for the most part, is only accessible by park shuttle. After mile 15 there are no park trails for hikers, so it is cross country or stay on the road, and most elect to stay on the road. This greatly reduces the impact that the large number of summer visitors have on the park and its animals.

The park scenery is DRAMTIC and beautiful. Take a look…

Dramatic!

More Dramatic!!

Most dramatic!!!

AWESOME!!!!!!!! Mount McKinley (known commonly as Denali, the tall one) at over 20,000 feet high. The tallest mountain in North America.

And yet it has its delicate side too. This is Alaskan Fireweed, seemingly the most common wild flower in the area. It is edible, used as a green and the flowers are used in jellies. I chose to look and not taste.

Denali National Park and Preserve - Animals

This park was founded in 1917 as a game refuge first and a park second. Originally it was named Mount McKinley National Park after then senator William McKinley. In 1980 it was expanded from 2 million acres to 6 million acres and renamed to Denali National Park and Preserve. At its current size it is larger than the state of Massachuetts.

Over hunting of the animals to feed the men of the gold rushes of the early 1900’s had severely reduced the animal population. So congress created the park as a preserve with no intent of allow visitors. The park’s only ranger was responsible for eliminating poaching. Although it seems an impossible task for one man to cover the then 2 million acres, somehow he did it. The animals revived and the area is again a great spot for viewing.

The big five are Grizzly Bear, Moose, Caribou, Dahl Sheep, and Wolves. I went out on a mission to get pictures for you.......










Oh yeah, that last one is not a wolf. I never saw one. The little creature doing the stand in is an Artic Ground Squirrel. Sorry for the low quality of the pictures. I was over a mile away from the sheep and the caribou. Probably a quarter mile from the grizzly. The moose was a bit more cooperative at 100 yards. The ground squirrel was a show off and posed at less than 5 yards. I can’t say that I am sorry that the grizzly didn’t want to come over and give me a close up.

Anchorage

As we left the Kenai Peninsula heading for Anchorage, we made a quick stop in Girdwood.

As it happened, we hit the last day of a craft fair. This turned out to be a quaint little display of 60’s tie dyed clothing, dangle jewelry, crocheted hats, the occasional flower necklace and live Beatles music played by guys in overalls. Yep, this place belonged to the hippies. The posh Alyeska resort and ski area is the big attractions and the life blood of this community.

Anchorage itself is a modern city, but high rises are non-existent. You see, this is a high risk area for earthquakes and in 1964 a large portion of the city was “relocated” by an 8.9er. It was rebuilt and we found it to contain everything a person could need (2 WallyWorlds, 2 Sam’s Clubs, and a Costco). Nearly half of Alaska’s population lives here, giving the city a population over 300,000.

However, you can find the salmon fishermen everywhere, including here on Ship Creek just a few blocks from downtown.




We also toured the Anchorage Botanical Gardens, which turned out to be very disappointing. I was expecting lots of flowers, but the gardens were small and mostly tended by volunteers without much skill. I did find this beautiful blue Mongolian Poppy.

Here’s a teaser. This is Mt McKinley from quit a distance. Unfortunately the peak is covered in clouds, which is the way it is 80% of the time. By the way the peak was originally named Denali by the Indians, meaning tall one. Because of poor name recognition of then congressman McKinley (a Presidential hopeful), his advisors decided he needed a mountain and a park named after him. They bullied their friends in congress and there you go, a perfect example of the way congress wiles away their idle hours.

Alaska - July 4th and More

We celebrated the 4th of July in Kenai, a little town known mostly for great salmon fishing. There were no fireworks, it never gets dark enough. No ball games or amateur stock car races, although they do have both in the area frequently. But they did have a parade and a craft fair…….. We’d already seen the crafts at the farmer’s market two days before. Misnamed because there was only one vegetable stand, the others were all crafts.

However, the parade drew a lot of people and clogged the main highway for 90 minutes (since the highway is also main street, the parade route). They sure do have a lot of city owned trucks, and they were all in the parade. Here’s a picture of the most interesting thing at the parade. Yep, that’s a guy running his radio controlled car in the parade route. He entertained the crowd for 30 minutes before the parade and until the cops stopped him after it started. After that the parade got kind of boring.

We moved on to Seward on the sixth and went looking for salmon jumping the waterfalls. I swear, I took 20 pictures trying to catch one in the air and didn’t get a single one that has an airborne salmon in it. So, you’ll just have to settle for this picture of two salmon in the queue waiting for their turn to go for the jump. Salmon seem to be very polite, and each waits his turn. Sometimes they get their signals crossed and they crash into each other, but would believe a guy who can’t even get one picture…

This is downtown Seward. Seward sits on Resurrection Bay and water is only a couple of streets to right in this picture. This area is about one mile South of the commercial harbor and cruise ship docks.

This is Exit Glacier and it is currently about 3 miles long. It has been as much as 8 miles longer (long, long ago) and was 3 miles longer 200 years ago. Many glaciers are receding (melting faster than winter snows can replenish them) because of climate changes (global warming or just a cycle?).

This is a bonus picture. I really liked the view and tried to capture it. It was much better in person, but I tried to convey it as well as I could. A large cloud bank had encircled these two peaks and the sun was shinning on the whole scene quite nicely.

Eagles in Alaska

First, a correction to a previous issue. I called a bird in an earlier issue a Ptarmigan. I have come to find out that I was incorrect (ugh). The bird was most likely a Spruce Grouse, which has some of the same colorings except a Ptarmigan has a white belly. In the winter a Ptarmigan turns nearly all white to make it blend in and thereby avoid predators.

Okay, enough, on to the eagles. Ran into these guys while on the spit in Homer. Got pretty close and got some mediocre pictures.

Here's lookin' at ya.












I'm goin' flightseeing, like all the tourists.













Wow, you really can see a lot from up here.










Home again!!!












By the way, for anyone interested in the trials and tribulations on this trip, we’ve had another. The trailer of the couple we are traveling with sprung a water leak. Flooded the underbelly. All fixed and nearly dry now, so on we go.