North to Alaska V

Well, as Marty Allen would say: Hello dere! To continue the narrative of our Alaska adventure, we arrived by air in Fairbanks AK on the evening of the day our ship docked and officially began the land portion of our RCL tour. They put us up in a hotel called the "Sophie Station". It was a nice place with a decent but pricey restaurant and the rooms were actually suites with sitting rooms, full kitchens and balconys in addition to the bedroom and bath. The beds were quite comfortable and the rooms were clean. If I had any objection to the place, it was that it was not near anything easily walkable. We could have taken a shuttle to downtown Fairbanks, but after a day that started at around 5:30 AM, we were not feeling very ambitious. So we ended up eating in a "pub" that was an adjunct to the hotel restaurant. I had a buffalo burger - quite good and supposedly lower in fat than beef, and Michelle had some tasty fish and chips made with Alaskan halibut.

The hotel was about a quarter mile from a store called "Fred Meyers" which is a chain in Alaska. This particular store was a combination department store/supermarket - something on the order of a Walmart, but not as large as the typical Walmart store. I walked over there to pick up some snacks and diet coke for the rest of our trip. On the way I saw something that hit home about how far north we were. Each set of four parking spaces in the hotel lot were clustered around a short steel post. On top of each post was a cluster of four electrical outlets. I then recalled being told that in -40 to -60 degrees F a vehicle left out overnight had better have an electric block heater to keep the crankcase oil from becoming a solid immobile mass that no starter will be able to turn over. Well it seemed strange since the temperature in Fairbanks that day was in the 80's with 90 forecast for the next day but I was told later that in winter, it can fall to -60. Some temperature range!

Riverboat landing in Fairbanks

The "Discovery II"

The next day we breakfasted at the hotel and then were bussed to a landing on the Chena River which runs through Fairbanks. There, we had some time to shop for tee shirts etc. and then onto the sternwheel riverboat "Discovery II" for a trip on the Chena and Tanana rivers. The riverboat trip was quite enjoyable as they did more than just point out scenery. For instance: they arranged for an Alaskan bush pilot to take off and land his float plane right next to us on the water. That was for starters. Then, a little further down the river they pulled into a landing at Trailbreaker Kennels, the home and dog kennel of the late Susan Butcher: a young woman who had won the famous Iditarod dogsled race a number of times. Sadly, Ms. Butcher passed away a few years ago at quite a young age, but her husband and others keep the kennel and tradition alive. The dogs are trained in the snowless summer by pulling a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle with the engine removed. As we watched from the deck of the boat, the dog trainers had a team hitched up to demonstrate for us. It was amazing how excited the dogs were at the prospect of a run. Sled dogs are bred for this and it is what they love to do.

Here is a picture of dogs training by pulling an engineless ATV

After our stop at the kennels, the boat continued on to the junction of the Chena and Tenana rivers, where it turned down stream into the Tenana. Next stop was a recreated Athabascan Indian village where two young women who attend the University of Alaska - one an Eskimo and the other an Athabascan Indian- showed us around the exhibits and described the Native Alaskan cultures. We also met an Athabascan lady named Dixie Alexander who makes her summer home at the village and is a world renowned maker of traditional Native Alaskan fur parkas. These are made from all natural animal pelts and decorated with elaborate and beautiful beadwork. One of her parkas is actually on display at the Smithsonian. At the village we also had the chance to see some reindeer and some more sled dogs close up.

Another interesting thing at the village was a traditional Athabascan fish wheel. This is an ingenious device invented by the Indian people which uses the river current to turn a wheel upon which are mounted baskets that scoop up the salmon swimming upstream to spawn. I have to say that this device and other things I was told and saw left me very impressed with the Native Alaskan people and their ability to survive for thousands of years in a hostile and unforgiving environment.

Incidentally, if you're wondering what the difference is: Eskimos (Inupiaq, Yupik and Cupik peoples) are a coastal people who live on the west and north coast of the state. Athabascans live in the interior, Aleuts live on the south coast and the Aleutian Islands (naturally), and Tlingit, Eyak, Haida and Tsimishian Indians live in the coastal panhandle region. These people in the panhandle have a lot in common with the Native people of the Pacific Northwest regions of the U.S. and Canada. E.g. they are totem pole carvers.

Anyway, after the tour of the village, we reboarded the Discovery II and it was back to the landing where we set out from. At the dock we boarded our tour bus and it was off to downtown Fairbanks where we had lunch (Italian food of all things) and wandered around the downtown where some sort of gold rush festival was in progress. After that it was onto the tour bus and off to Denali Park.

Next: Denali, whitewater rafting and a train ride.