Once again we were able to volutneer in Chicken at the bluegreass festival knonw as Chickenstock.  We left after work on Friday evening in the rain and spent 3 days in the rain, returning in the rain on Monday.  Yuck!  But we had a good time with David cooking and me taking and selling tickets and listening to music with Fred.

  This is a photo of the old pedro dredge that the owners brought to Chicken. 

On the way back we passed these two roadside oddities.

Here is our usualy travel configuration with me in the passenger seat, David driving and Fred viewing out the front window.

We went to Manley Hot Springs, about 150 miles due west of Fairbanks for a wonderful long weekend, marred only by a lot of smoke from the hundreds of wildfires active during May.

Manley is noted for its rustic hotsprings, located in an old greenhouse.  Of the 4 pools three were so hot that we could not get in and the 4th was only sit-able becuase two hoses were running with cool water.  We shared the pool with this friendly group of 3 from 1 family…and the man went to West Philly High School years ago!!!!   

      During the day we took a very bumby ride to Tofte which is an abandoned gold mining town.  Nothing is left, but it occupies a place on the map as big as Manley.  False advertising.  on the way we saw hundred of swallowtailed butterflies making butterfly “balls” in the road.  DDavid also came upon this lovely abandoned truck.

We camped right next to a slough of the Tanana River and since we had new fishing gear we decided to fish.  Since David kept snagging the line, he wanted to find a new place very shortly after swe started so we started to reel in.  At that point a large pike threw himself onto my little tiny hook right at the foot of the boat ramp and committed suicide by fishing.  He flipped onto the boat ramp and slipped between two of the concrete slabs that made up the ramp.  Well, I tried to scoop him out and David tried to grab him, but he flipped into another depression and got stuck.  It was like the keystone cops met Captain Ahab, but finally we grabbed the poor fellow.  Beginners luck was with us because we were able to slip the stringer in his mouth and keep him.  Little did we know how viscious they really are. We founhd out later about their large teeth and propensity to bite!  But we fillet him and had a really good dinner. 

And we even met a resident who had hunted for bear and was willing to trade the salmon we had brought for dinner for some fresh bear meat.  And this man knew someone who lived down the street from David’s sister in Oregon.  What a wacky world.

The Natives are allowed to use fish wheels which scoop up the fish and deposit them in baskets.  They manuever them out into the river and leave them there.

Manley airstrip was the staging area for the firefighters in the area and on the morning that we were to leave we went to the Manley Roadhouse for breakfast and to hear the news about the fires. The waitress told us that the road out had been closed in the morning and asked if we really needed to get backt o Fairbanks on Monday.  Typical of us, David immediately said “yes” and I, of course, said “No”.  We all had a chuckle.  But, the road was open when we wanted to leave, so off we went, with fires on both sides of the road.     The fires were so close that when David open the door to take the photos we could quite clearly feel the heat!

But now there ahs been much raid in June so the fires have died down.

Our friend Tom came to visit and we ahd a chance to show him “our Alaska.”  That is…no wild animals, no Northern Lights, no snow and relatively warm weather!!

We went all the way to the Arctic  Circle (which David casually told us was about 3 hours away).  5 hours later we arrived, having seen no animals and very little snow covered ‘wonderland” type scenery.  however, we did realize that we very likely would run out of gas before we got home.

Before we ldft I realized that we didn’t seem to have enough coffee for our morning cup.  When Tom said that was not a problem because we could simply stop at a convenience store on the way the disconnect between here and there really came home to me.  Between our house and the Arctic Circle is a lot of trees and one road!!

A local non-tourist site is the Permafrost tunnel which is exactly what it sounds like…a tunnel through the permafrost that requires a geologist guide.  David was kind enough to arrange a tour for a group of us which was a highlight of the trip.  Not only did we see ice lenses and other ice formations that were thousands of years old, but many old bones and even some thousand year old sedge.  What a great tour!

The Native Arts Festival took place while Tom was here so he got a great look at all of teh village dancers which is always a big highlight of the winter.  

Another highlight was the local ice park which attracts hundreds of international carvers. 

Then it was on to the Iditerod for both the ceremonial start in Anchorage and the restart in Willow.

Here I am with Newton marshall.  Same photo of me and the Jamacian musher as last year!

A quick trip to the Chena Hot Springs and to the Curling Club to and Tom was on his way back home.

On February 26 David and I were going to go tent camping. but we were lucky enough to be invited to share the hospitality of  a friend, Randall Miller, who has a series of cabins near us.  We drove about a mile or so and then turned off Chena Hot Springs Road and then drove for about 6.5 miles and then hiked for another few miles to a wonder ful hexangonal cabin that he built many years ago.  Then several other building were added to the complex.  randall and his friend built them all themselves!

Randall stayed through lunch and dinner and then David, Fred and I had a lovely evening and Sunday and then hiked out.  What a great weekend!

 Ellen and Randall.

 Frosty David.  It was very cold that weekend!    Notice the neat cupala where there is a little seat with a quilt for cozy afternoon reading.

        Trudging home.

Well, Philadelphia is known as the mural city.  But Fairbanks has its art too.  We have many, many ice sculptures dotting the town, not to mention our world class ice park which attracts sculptures from all over the world.

The ice is delivered in huge blocks to various businesses, etc. who then pay a carver who starts in January.  The sculptures last until the end of April.  Last year the University, which has several sculptures of its mascot, nanook (polar bear) around the campus, then took the melting sculptures and put them all in one place and it was fun to watch them shrink!

       our census advertisement!

 This is supposed to be Al Gore.

 This is one of my favorites outside a local sports store called Prospectors.

 Outside the local Wendy’s.  Go figure

        This one was an utter mystery to both us!  

 Nanook

  Ad for the local wood stove shop.

 Outside David’s office.  Every year Design Alaska sponsors the holiday concert and makes an ornament and ice sculpture representing an instrument.  This year was a flute.  Each builing at UAF gets to design their own ice sculpture.  This is otuside the Biology and Wildlife building.   This is outside of my building and, I think it is supposed to be Rocky and Bullwinkle.

  Outside of the International Arctic Research center.

 This is in a rotary in North Pole.

Well, the Yukon Quest began in Fairbanks today, February 6.  The week started off with the Banquet during which all the mushers pick their start numbers and give a little speech.  I did the silent auction and was pleased that we raised $1000.00.

Then two days later came Meet the Mushers, a free event during which the mushers sign posters and talk to their fans. 

Then Saturday was the start of the 1000 miles race to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. We met at 8 am for a pancake breakfast, hung around until 10:30 and then the race started to start.  Below is a photo of our city before the crowds.

The staging area was above the river. 

Then when it was time, each sled to go down the ice ramp onto the river, dragging a braked snow machine to slow the dogs down.  Then the dogs and sled were released from the snow machine and run to right before the strt line where they waited for the team before them to go off, then they had three minutes and they were off!

 I was working chute security which meant that I got to keep the crowds away from the dogs as they were led into the shoot.

The weather was a warm 18 degrees ABOVE zero, the warmest its been all winter, so everyone was quite happy.  But they did provide us with a moveable feast of fire!

Then the race started!  Here is the crowd favorite, Lance Mackey off at #11.

Once all the 24 mushers got off, DAvid and I sent past our house and followed the trail to about 10 miles past our house where we could see the teams run towards the first checkpoint.  It took them about 4 hours to run the first 40 or so miles and in that time the order of the racers switched dramatically (which meant nothing in terms of the final outcome).

David and I stood watching into the woods for the first sign of mushers and then one by one they were upon us (with many minutes in between) as silent as the night.  But, so happy!  As Lance went by he said, in quite a covnersatinal tone, “Isn’t this just the greatest ride?”

  And then my favorite, Brent Sass rode on by, waved and again said as he ran by, “What great weather.  This is a great race.”  Just the idea that these guys recognized me and talked as they ran!  Wow!

  Now we will follow the race on line as they head for the next 10 days to Whitehorse.

Then we will pack up and go to Anchorage the first weeekend in march for the Iditerod where 5 of the Quest mushers will run the Iditerod.

David and I were lucky enought o go to Valdez this past weekend, January 16 and 17 for a survey related trip.

Alaska certainly is a state of extremes. Although it was warm (by Fairbanks standards…20 – 34 degrees ABOVE 0)..the snow was certainly noteworthy. About a month and a half ago Valdez had over 4 feet of snow fall in 3 days. AND TAKE NOTE ALL YOU TEACHERS…NOT ONE DAY OF SCHOOL WAS MISSED. THE STREETS WERE CLEAN BY 8 AM EVERY DAY. That being said, there were lots set aside just for snow removal and, as you can see, the parking lot snow mounds were about 16 feet high. Please note that the first mound is the parking lot snow pile, mirrored by the mountain in the background. 

This guy is shoveling snow off the roof onto a pile of snow that reaches from the ground to the roof!

As a town of 3000, Valdez makes Fairbanks look quite city like.  And although the setting is spectacular, similar to Homer with the sea and the mountains, because it is on the coast, it is gray and snowy much of the time.  Not for me!  Give me the cold any time.

The trip to Valdez was spectacular.  Here is a sample of what we saw: The caribou and moose were all over!

The frozen waterfalls were blue! And the lighting was marvelous.           

Valdez is the end of the pipeline.  Here is the terminal.  Unfortunately we could not take any photos of Prince Williams Sound because a squall blew in and there was no visibility over the water!

Valdez is a long (7 hour)…360 mile trip) from Fairbanks but well worth it!

Some folks have complained that we have not posted a blog in a long time. Well, that is true, not because we are not doing anything, but because we are now repeating everything we have done. NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING!!!!

If we liked it the first time, we are loving it the second time.

For David’s birthday we rented a cabin in one of our favorite parks, Wrangle St Elias.  The only problem with it is that it is very far away…about 5 hours from Fairbanks.  The plus is that it is the largest park in the US and has only one road.  the park is the size of West Virginia, so the likelihood of meeting anothe person is quite remote.

We rented the only cabin you can easily walk to.

We have been busy just living and enjoying.  This is why we love Fairbanks:

 David stepped outside of his workplace on Jan. 14 at about 3:30 and took this photo of the sunsetting behind the power plant.

Well, its been too long and I have no excuse.  Sorry to say that our next adventure after the lake fishing trip was a CRAZY dip netting experience with no photos.  First of all, the trip had to go on the salmon’s timetable…not ours, so we waited by the phone until Dylan gave us the word that the salmon were running on the Kenai and then left work on a Thursday night, driving straight through until 3 in the morning when we, with Fred in the back seat arrived at the Home Depot in Soldatna. where we were to sleep until 6 am.  Now, David has to do all of the driving because I fall asleep at the wheel…and he does a great job while I do a good job of passengering.  We never argue, except this time when we had a major fight at the Home Depot parking lot about the exact place to park in the empty lot.  “No…you cannot park there, the light is shining in my eyes.”  “No, we cannot park here because it is too close to the building.”  We must have looked like we were crazy, driving in circles around the parking lot.

Too soon the phone rang and Dylan was telling us that he would meet us at the gas station down the road in 20 minutes.  Way to little time for Fred, David amd me to pee, dress, eat and drive.  Sure enough, 20 minutes passed and Dylan was on the phone, “Where are you?”  This should have given us a clue to the rest of the day.

We met Dylan and followed him and his loaded truck to a place where we parked our car, transferred our stuff and Fred to his truck and then drove to the put-in place for dip-netting.  There was no room in the truck for me, so I had to ride in the bed with all the stuff.

I don’t know what we expected, but certainly not the 6 or 7 hundred people all dragging an undescribable array of coolers, nets, tents, etc. onto the beach which was already full of tents from the night before and more seagulls than I have ever seen.

At 6 am sharp, the fishing began.  The tide was running out, the optimum fishing time at this spot which was at the mouth of the sea.  So, here you have, standing shoulder to shoulder, hundred of men and woman in chest waders, holding 20 foot long poles on the end of which is a 5 foot diameter net…big enough to catch a small child.  You hold the net perpendicular to the flow of the water, wedge it against your neck and hope to keep your balance.  Since my net was broken, I was “support” for the first run.  This meant that when Dylan or David caught a fish in their net, they flipped the net on its side to keep the fish in and started walking onto the beach, shouting for me.  In the meantime, I ran splashing into the swiftly running river and helped drag the net out and untangled the flopping fish weighing about 20 pounds.  Then…I bonked the fish on the head with a club, all the while apologizing like crazy…then hooked my finger into its mouth, ripped out its gills, slit it from gill to tail, ripped out the guts, threw the guts to the birds who I had to beat off my head, drop everything when David or Dylan shouted and I ran into the water again.

Of course, David and Dylan were standing inf reezing water up to their armpits, braced against a swift running current, dragging giant fish out of the water…and then Dylan and  I did it all again at 4 am the next morning.  What great fun!? But no time for photos. Please be aware that this, unlike the trout fishing, is not really “fishing” but harvesting. But we did end up with about 50 pounds of cleaned, flash frozen red (chanook)salmon)

We came home and bought a freezer the next day!  And then even traded some salmon for moose!

Going from the sublime the the ridiculous…Fairbanks has a traditional boat race called the Red and Green Regatta in which anybody who wishes can create something that floats and float down the Chena River through town.  Just goes to reinforce my feeling that small things can mean a great deal.

Even better than the boat race was the Governor’s Picnicnand Sarah palin reisgnation announcement in Fairbanks.  What a hoot. Especially when she marched her kids on stage and then castigated the press for picking on them.  This was my favorite sign:

Since we bought the freezer, we have been acting like the supermarkets are going to close in the winter here.  We have been blueberry picking, crangerry (lingobery picking) and freezing the produce that we get from our CSA and our own cotnainer garden.  Since we pay for water which is delivered monthly from the water delivery service here, we took to watering our garden with water we hauled from David’s office.  I grew sqash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and herbs which did quite well inc ontainers, although no oen gets red tomatoes in this short season.  Everyone brings them in and lets them ripen inside.  And my eggplant is the size of a kernel of corn, because,apparently, some veggies must stay in a greenhouse, even though there is lots of sunlight.  The growing season is just too short!

Another “big” event in Fairbanks is the rubber ducky race which is a big fundraiser for the town.  You buy a duck and hope that it wins the race from one bridge to another down the Chena River.  Justlike the Nenana Ice Classic, our big chance came and went!

The first duck to be scoopedout of the water wins!  It was not us.

But lots of folks were downtown.  Because this is a big deal!

We went to a nearby bluegrass festival in Anderson, and seem to have missed the boat.  The music was not great on the stage, and the good music was in the campground where we were NOT staying.  We were staying in the campground where people played heavy metal from their trucks.  And the festival music wasn’t great, but , at least, Anderson is close to Fairbanks.  This was during the time of the big smoke in Fairbanks, when the town was ringed in forest fires and we drove through some spots where we could hardly see.  Fairbanks, for about two weeks was covered in smoke, and, since no place is air conditioned, it was very hard to breath and very hard to see.

 Others might have bucking broncos.  We have bucking salmon.  Go figure!

We had our first guests in August!  Don, my banjo teacher and friend fromb ack east and Ann came by in their RV.  Typical of Fairbanks, on their first day they ran into a couple whom they knew from other bluegrass festivals.  What a hoot.  We ended up inviting themf or dinner the following night, which was great, but would have been even better if we had not had a “dinner malfunction” and neded up not serving until almost 11 pm.  But great music, lessons for me, and RB even took my banjo apart and set it up beautifully!

One fo the things we did was the obligiatory blueberry picking..and then we had blueberry bluckly for dessert and blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Fred loves blueberries!

Don and Ann were hear for another big event..the return of the sand hill cranes.  The newspaper actually lets us know their impneding arrival date by tracking them from place to place.  They come in great gabbling flocks along with the Canada geese and everyone goes to Creamer’s field where they put food out for them.  This is done to keep them away from the airport. This is a bitterwsweet pre-cursor to fall.

The weekend after Don and Ann left, we set off for a trip on the Denali Highway which connects the Richardson and the Parks highways.  It is one of the oldest roads in AK and is bumpy and unpaved, but oconsidered one of the most beautiful rides in AK.  It did not disapppoint.

It did get much better than our campsite that night on waterfowl lake with loons, moose mama and yearling munching on the shore, swans, bear poop…and, unfortunately, rain in the morning.  But beautiful nevertheless.

Then, our much anticipated labor Day trip up the Haul Road to Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean.  We had been on the Haul Road through Antigan Pass on Memorial Day and had made up to push through to Prudhoe on Labor Day. On Memorial Day there was snow on the ground.  On Labor Day, snow fell from the sky, but we drove through absolute tunnels of golden trees lining the road. Its a hard road on cars.

We camped at Galbraith Lake the first night out..on of our favorite campgrounds and made up to take a long hike the next day which dawned cold, but blue. 

After a lovely breakfast, I decided to go for a short walk with Fred which did not last very long because about 5 minutes into the walk I looked up and saw a ground smothering cloud come barreling toward me, pushing cold wind ahead of it.  Fred and I started backt o the camp where David was crazily throwing stuff into the car.  By the time he had finished loading up we were completely covered with the cloud which brought rain and snow for the rest of the ride to Prudhoe. 

I don’t know what David expected, because before the trip he kept asking folks what there was to do in Deadhorse.  The answer is nothing! 

No one actually lives there.  It is just the place where there is a post office for the North Slope Oilfields.  There is a terrible hotel type thing which costs $200.00 per night, a hardware/everything store and miles and miles of oil rigs and support buildings.  We had to take a $40.00 per person tour to the Arctic Sea since it went through the oil fields.  Notice the outfit.  It was COLD!

Leaving Prudhoe in a snowstorm.  But what great sights!

Camping the night we left Prudhoe left something to be desired.  We pulled off into a roadside rest stop because it was dark and snowing and through up our tent, cooked our dinner whichw e ate in the car, and then camped in the snow.  First of all, a BIG truck pulled into the parking area and stayed their idling his engine the whole night!  Then, I felt sorry for Fred, who wa sleeping int he car, so i brought him into the tent at about 4 am where he prmptly wedgedhimself into my mummy bag head first and stayed there nice and wamr, but leaving no room for me.

We made up to leave first thing and go right home.  But, first we had to stop for the musk ox.

 Then as soon as we went through Adigan pass, the snows topped, the sun came out and the temperature rose by 20 degrees. So we decided to stop in coldfoot for lunch and then camp at a little lake overnight.

  After some great berry picking, we went home, again marveling at the golds, yellows, reds and greens.

Fall is definitely here, as I write this blog on September 20.  We are bringing in our pots of veggies because a frost is predicted and we are a bit flabbergasted that at 8:45 it is quite dark.  of course, last year at this time we were equally flabbergasted that it seems still light at this hour.  Amazing how relative things are!

We were lucky enough to go on a great guided river canoeing trip over the Independence Day weekend. Two nights and three days of camping, paddling, fishing…and portaging with a guide from David’s work and his three buddies.  We went on the Tangle Lakes to the Delta River, about three hours from Fairbanks, left one car and the take-out point, drove up to the lakes and then floated down, fishing all the way. 

The weather was awful the week before our trip, but bright, sunny, warm during the day and cool at night for the whole weekend.  Buggy during the night, but even that was managable.

We fished and fished, first for lake trout and then for grayling, filleting and eating our catch at night and still having lots left over to take home.  We got quite fussy and threw back many more fish than we caught.  But our catch each day was quite respectable.      

 The scenery was spectacular as we floated through mountains and flat areas and passed beaver lodge after beaver lodge!

And David and I did quite well in one canoe, with David as captain and me as mate.

Even the portage, which was in two parts…unload, carry, load, paddle, unload, (have someone else) carry was an adventure.  That was not something I would look forward to doing again since the up was steep and the down even steeper over treacherous rocks, but it all added to the adventure.

Then it was back home, for a midnight dinner…and then early to bed for the next two nights.

For those of you who visit AK or who live here and want a great trip, go to http://alaskadreamadventures.blogspot.com/ and contact Tony who has been traveling these rivers since he was a little boy!