This is our yard with a very large moose calf standing next to the sign that reads “Ye Old Watering Hole, which is where we dump the beloved slop bucket that catches our water under the sink. Mama was on the other side of the house and you better believe that David took this photo and ran back into the cabin!

One event that Fairbanks holds in the winter is the Tired Iron which is a race (of sorts) of old snow machines. 

This photo was taken on 2/22/11 on or trip to Talketna

And the photo on the right is from Esther Dome.  Since Fairbanks is in a flat area amongst hills, the higher peaks are called domes and there are usually electronic equipment stations on each one, being the highest point in the area.

Of course, one of the main attractions in the area is dog mushing in all forms.  Here is a “fun” race at Dog Musher’s Hall, right down the road from our cabin…weekly races for all sorts of amateurs.   Another great dog racing event is the North American Classic which is for great sprint runners.  It takes place over 3 days and starts right downtown Fairbanks.  There is quite a festival atmosphere involving great dogs running, big, giant dogs pulling huge weights and  a fur auction.

On of our last “winter” trips was a day trip to the Blackwater area and a skiing trip with friends. David in  snowshoes.   and I spent a good deal of time flopping around!

In June I was lucky enough to hook up with two ornithologists who took it upon themselves to check 9 boreal owl boxes along the Steese Highway going out of Fairbanks twice a week, from before the chicks were born to when they left the nest.

                            The owls are tiny..about 7 inches high at most!

In June we decided to take Fred on a shake down float on the Chena River to see how he did in a canoe.  He was GREAT!   And this moose was determined to get his photo on a post card!

Before we went on the Clearwater River for a canoeing trip David, Fred and I went to camp on its banks in late April.  Note all the snow on the ground.

We made our annual trek to Chicken for Chickenstock, the little bluegrass festival that a friend of ours runs at her parents gold camp in Chicken.  This year we added an actual gold panning trip to the gold camp of a workmate of David’s.  Never again.  First of all it started to hail.  Then I got stuck in sucking mud and had to take off my boots to get out and then retrieve my boots by popping them out with a shovel.  Yuck! The people we visited had a real deal going and used a sluice box. But not us!And then it started to hail.  Yuck again!

Our first canoeing camping trip of the season was with Jack Wilbur, David’s boss and 4th generation Fairbanksian and super canoer. On May 5th David and I with 2 other men and Jack went for an overnight trip on the Clearwater River.  Cold but really great and we learned a great deal about canoeing and camping.      

After this trip we never cooked on a coleman stove again.

We take the solstice very seriously here and along with the midnight sun baseball game which we have attended, we have the Midnight Sun race with over 3000 runners, from all over the country, many is costumes.  Fittingly it starts about 8 pm and, you will notice how light it is,   

It is the little things that count.

In June one of David’s clients took us on a great flight over the Alaska Range.  We had hoped that we would be able to have him drop us off in August for a weekend camping trip, but the weather never cooperated.  But we had a great flight.  The funny thing is, he parks his little, fabric covered plane right in his backyard!!!       Believe it or not, this is the body of a WWII  plane that crashed into the tundra in the 1950′s.

We had a lovely 4th of July in Homer, listening to Dylan’s band, Burnt Down House play at two fundraisers and then ride in a fire truck with Fred in the 4th of July parade.   And Fred had a chance to visit his bigger twin Eire.

In August we had friends come to visit and we took them on our favorite trip, canoeing on Tangle Lakes to fish and camp.    T he only hard part is a double portage up and down very steep and rocky hills with a canoe on head.  I was exempt because of my extreme old age…and it was my birthday! But the fishing and  berry picking were great even though it was cold and windy!   We were lucky to see a father and his 10 year old son shoot a caribou right on the bank of the Delta River as we were floating by, so we stopped and looked at the fresh kill.    Since they already had one caribou in their raft they were going to be quite overloaded but quite well set for the winter!

A big trip for us was the Labor Day trip to Haines and Skagway, 1600 miles.  The big draw…bears!!!! 

Skagway is the head of the famous Chilkoot trail that the miners used to get to the goldfields in 1896, and home to some magnificent mushrooms! Fred on our tent. 3 is a crowd! And the famous sand hill cranes that migrate through Fairbanks to great thrills of all.

I was so lucky to go winter camping with Peg Billingsley, the musher that I am helping in her training for the Yukon Quest 2012.  here we are at -10 camping overnight.  I built the fire!!!!

  we celebrated David’s 60th birthday with a cookout.  Turned out to be the last warm day of the year.  He received many gifts of frozen local game meat like moose, caribou, grouse, salmon, & halibut cheeks.- Only on Alaska.

Barrow is the largest city of the North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.^[2][3] It is one of the northernmost cities in the world, and is the northernmost city in the United States, with nearby Point Barrow being the nation’s northernmost point. The population was 4,683 at the 2000 census, with an estimated population of 3,982 in 2007. 

 

We stayed in a hotel that ws exactly across the street from the airport on the main road.  This is truly a whaling town and the whaling captains are the kings.  Each crew hacks a path across the sea ice which is about 2 miles to the open ocean) in the spring to drag his whaling boat to the open leads to hunt for spring whales.  Each town is allowed so many strikes per season.  A strike is a throw of the harpoon, so the whalers are quite careful as to what they aim at.  Catching the  a whale is a big deal and the culture is such that sharing is so important.  The cvaptain of the crew that catches the whale has the honor of dividing up the whale and each member of the community gets a piece, with the elders getting the best pieces.  Then it is up to the whaling captain and his wife to throw a feast for the whole village.  There is a whole section of Barrow named after one of the large whaling families. All in all, I found Barrow a very friendly place.

Point Barrow is the tip and many, many scientist come there to study to sea and its ice as well as the whales.     This is the road to Point Barrow.  It goes past the fish camps where the Natives go every year from their houses in town to fish, and dry their salmon.  Notice the sense of humor in the “parm trees” made of whalebone and baleen.  Barrow is known for its football team.  Can you imagine?  Note that we are above the tree line and, even if it were not snow covered which happens in about July) there is nothing green.

The highlight of my trip to Barrow was a trip onto the sea ice.  There are many scientist in Barrow and someone told me that if I asked, and someone was going out to the open water they would take me.  Well they did, but it was not a casual trip.  Frist of all I had to acquire arctic gear including jacket, pants and double lined bunny boots. Then a snow machine was produce, and when I told them I had never driven one before, a driver had to be arranged for.  So, we had this great snow machine with heated handle bars! and a native guy who carried the biggest gun I had ever seen (for polar bears).  Then there was a discussion as to whether I could weild a pick axe, because apparently anyone who goes out has to contribute to hacking the path to the ice.  Luckily the path was complete by the time I got there so I was excused.  Silly me.  I thought sea ice was like pond ice.  It turns out it is like an ocea that has been flash frozen with So we went to the edge of the ice where a lead had just opened up.  The scientists where makinga “perch” from which they will watch the spring whale migration by standing their in shifts 8 hours a day counting whales as they go by.  When I was there a lead had just opened and they predicted would close again that night.

  This is the perch they were building.     Here are some scenes around Barrow, which seems to start getting snow in August which lasts until July,    Whalebones everywhere!         I was in love with the way this little girl played around.      Baby aboard!  Here is a skin whaling boat.  Can you imaging hunting a whale in one? This is a view from the end of the street where my hotel was located.

Note the prices!      A gallon of water was close to $7.00!!!

Here is a great example of, what up here is called a sun dog.

David was able to meet me in Bethel for the weekend, which,luckily for us, was Camai, the huge Native dance festival.

Bethel (Mamterilleq in Central Alaskan Yup’ik) is a city located near the west coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, 340 miles (550 km) west of Anchorage. Accessible only by air and river, Bethel is the main port on the Kuskokwim River and is an administrative and transportation hub for the 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Bethel is the largest community in western Alaska and in the Unorganized Borough, as well as the 9th largest in the state, with a population estimated to be 6,356 in 2006.[3

Camai was held in the high school gym for three days and nights, going until about 1 am every day. Most of the speaking was in Yupik, the local language, because it is the language that the schools use until 4th grade. Many elders, many little kids and lots of teens coming and going all day as well as many dance troops from all over the area.

Below are photos of the Tsimshiam people who are known for the button blankets. Each group has great, decorated drums.

We were able to go to a free Native dinner with traditional food including seal stew and Akutaq, Eskimo ice cream which is crisco, sugar and blueberries whipped together.

Towards the end of Saturday evening all the drummers were called upon to march around the gym, drumming on their huge skin drums as hard as they could. Very powerful and very beautiful! Camai had a wonderful mixture of young and old, and some of the oldest were the dancers. This old lady was our favorite.

The craft fair had wonderful art that we have not seen elsewhere, and the museum also had very unusual work. First the museum pieces:

This fish skin doll was for sale. Bethel is quite desolate but had some humor as well as seen by this dumpster. What you see here are salmon drying on a rack in the back and the large, sort of yellow thing is the waste water container that is sucked out overy week.

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 GREEN.  Something we didn’t see in laska in January!     We didn’t realize what a wonderful sculpture Wright’s wife was.

 Or what a terrible haircut I had!

A highlight of our trip was a nighttime visit to the Kit Observatory where we got to see all the huge telescopes and then look through one.  Then we had to go down the mountain in a caravan without lights!  Why?  Because all the telescopes work at night (no kidding!) and our lights would pollute their work.  Even Tuscon must use downward-facing sodium street lights to keep the view clean.

    This is a permanently aimed solar telecsope.  .  Next we went to Bixbee, a wonderful little town where we stayed at an amazingly decorated Victorian B & B which we found with the help of our trusty iPhone. and took a great mine tour riding on a little mining car.

.  Then on to Tombstone which was quite terrible and touristic where everything was a separate charge except for the cemetery which was wonderful. 

And then into the Sonora desert where we saw cactus and more cactus with David stopping at every one to take a photo.   

And then to the Desert Museum, a great, outdoor exhibit in the living desert that went on for acres..  Then we stopped at St. Xavier.  . 

Great trip!  Great weather! Great camping!

We start our day with David getting up very early to trudge downstairs and outside in nothing more than a jacket and a pair of boots to go to the outhouse.  Unfortunately, one wintery morning about a month ago, he was rushing and fell on the steps and broke a rib!  What a sight!  But all is well.

 I get up a bit later and that is when Fred, the lazy luxury dog stirs.  When David goes down he burrows under his blankets, afraid he will be spotted.  But by the time I get up at a civilized 7:00 or 7:30 he is ready and as soon as he hears my bracelets jingling I can hear the thump s he leaves the couch and heads for the door. It takes me a bit longer as I wear sweat pants and sweat shirt, socks and boots for my trudge outside.  Of course, in the dead of winter, I have to wear hat, gloves and coat so I have to leave extra time, and now that it is sunny in the morning, David better start wearing pants!

The water issue is a bit cumbersome, but not too bad. We prefer the water from a freshwater spring in Fox which is about 7 miles from our house. 

When I was going mushing twice a week I would stop on the way home, which was just a little detour.  But now that my schedule is a bit erratic, either David or I or both of us load up the 5 and 7 gallon jugs and make our way to Fox.  We could go to the water dispensaries around town which sell water for about 25 cents per 14 gallons, delivered from a nozzle much like a gasoline hose, but we don’t like the taste.

The Fox adventure is quite interesting.  First we load up the car with the jugs. The water from the spring is collected in a large two-part tank with two spouts. The water spouts are in a hut with two spouts from which water comes when you push a button.  Of course, the dripping water creates quite an ice build-up and the distance from spout to top of jug decreases significantly as time goes on.  I load the jugs onto a sled and drag them, two by two to the car, load them up and go on my way. The place is quite popular and sometimes there is a line of folks waiting to fill their jugs.  And sometimes folks have 10-15 jugs!

Once home we drag the jugs into the house and we are lucky enough to have a 40 gallon holding tank under our sink.  So we pour them into the tank and then we access the water via a foot pump.  This is much better than some folks who have to stack their jugs on their counters and then use the water right from the jugs.  HOWEVER….the water from the sink flows into the dreaded 5 gallon slop bucket under the sink drain.  Which means toting it outside and emptying it in the designated area BEFORE it overflows.  Often we are not so lucky and we have a little mess.  We have learned, and now keep a dish pan under the bucket, but if to gets too full, removing it from under the sink is a challenge.

And, of course, the water is COLD. If we are very conscientious, we put a kettle on the stove before we eat dinner and then have nice hot water to do the dishes afterwards.  If not, we have to wait.

Showers we take at work.  Since many people live in dry cabins, many places have showers for their employees.  I have showers on my floor in my building, as well as the gym, and David has showers at work, but often we share a shower at my workplace.

All the “dry-ness” is forgotten when I look out my bedroom window while I put on my makeup.

Well, I was quite dubious about the whole thing, given my great lack of balance and overall clumsiness.  But Dylan had given David cross country skis and boots and I had picked up a whole outfit for $10.00 last summer at a flea market, so when Gary, my great boss, offered to take us on December 11 off we went.

I learned how to get up from a fall, and even better, to get up, which was a good thing because I think I was down more than I was up. David, of course, didn’t fall once.  And Fred stayed inside, even though Gary and his friend’s dog romped along side of us as we skied on the Tanana River, just below Gary’s lovely home.

 Gary’s house

 The skier’s at -10

 The skiing group…2 pro’s and us

 What a stance!  No wonder I kept falling!  Notice the garage sale fashions!

 Gary and G’winzee the Venetie dog who stays outside all day and night while Fred the luxury dog lies wrapped in a blanket next to the fire!

 What a boss!

the most amazing thing is that we loved it and can’t wait to go again!!!!

Dog lover that I am, folks find it hard that we only have Fred, but that is just fine with me.  HOWEVER, I have become a handler!  That means that I now work with a musher in her dog yard doing everything from scooping poop to feeding to running dogs.  Peg Harpsham is “my musher” and she is going to run the Yukon Quest in February. 

I was lucky enough to meet her last year while David and I were walking on a trail near her house when we lived on Buffalo Lane.  Shy, retiring me immediately asked if I could help in her yard, and when I did not hear from her right away gave her a call.  I cannot even imagine what she thought of me appearing in her dog yard with not the slightest idea of what to do.  She put me on a sled right away, which was a disaster!  On the sled…in the snow!  Back on the sled (having run after it while Peg jumped off her own sled and caught my 4 dogs)…in the snow!  As you can see from this photo, I was far from relaxed.

 The Quest is the 1000 miles race from Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada to Fairbanks. (That’s this year.  Next year it starts in Fairbanks, as it did last year).  Peg started conditioning her dogs in September, as soon as it got to be in the 40’s since the dogs do really well in cold weather, but suffer a bit in the heat. 

She started conditioning me as well!  I learned to hook up first 4 and now up to 8 dogs to a 4 wheeler and take them out on the miles and miles of trails behind her house.  We started at 3 miles each time and are now up to 30 miles.  When we started we ran the whole way in sunlight and now, when I go on Thursday’s after work, the whole process is in the dark! I spend about 4 hours on Thursday and all day Sunday at her yard and am just in awe at what dedication it takes.  She has 45 dogs…that means it cost over $40.00 per day just to feed them, not taking into account the equipment, etc, etc.  All the feed stores here keep a full pharmacy of medications since all but the most difficult cases are treated at home.

What am I doing?  The noise, the power, the sheer energy of the dogs is overwhelming.  But last week I knew that I had made progress when I was kneeling in -15 degree weather with bare hands, untangling a line that hooks the dog’s collar to the main or gangline totally unfazed by the 7 dogs leapt about, screaming and howling and ready to go!  Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?  However, to all those who say it is just a matter of time before I have my own yard and sled, etc, etc,. I say “NO WAY!”

So far we are running the dogs on 4 wheelers because the trails are not quite ready for sleds.  That’s fine with me since the tales of falling of a sled are horrifying.  Apparently one must “hang on at all cost” which means somehow hooking one arm under the sled handle while being pulled along face first in the snow while trying to jam a snow hook in the snow with the other hand.  How will I ever manage?  The power of the dogs is fantastic. 

The dogs are so powerful that one day Peg, “my musher” was hooking up dogs to her 4 wheeler and I was hooking up to mine and she went past me and shouted back, “Where is my 4 wheeler?”.  Well, she had 8 dogs hooked up, her ice hook attached to the lead dog and dug into the ground and the 4 wheeler in gear with the brake on and the dogs simply took off and were running down the trail pulling her monster 4 wheeler.  They are amazing!!!!  They eventually stopped when the 4 wheeler hit a rut and they could not dislodge it.

The whole 4 wheeler thing is so typically Fairbanks…Peg, “my musher” only had one 4 wheeler and it was too expensive to rent one for months and months so I started asking around if anyone had one to rent privately.  One day at work a guy called who I had never heard of and offered to lend me his.  It turns out that he is the next door neighbor to a woman I sing in a choir with and I had asked her if she knew anyone with a 4 wheeler.  I didn’t even know this amazing man and he lent me the 4 wheeler and a trailer!  Wow!

I took David with me a few weeks ago for a ride and all he could say was “You’re nuts”.

In order to run the Quest Peg must qualify by finishing two 300 mile races.  She will run the GinGin on December 26 and the Copper Basin on January 7.  This will be my first race experience and I can’t wait, despite the cold.

HOWEVER, David had a great desire to get near enough to a polar bear to be eaten, so off we went to Kaktovik on the Arctic Ocean for an overnight polar bear viewing trip. (Quite expensive)

We took a 6 person propeller plane to Kaktovik and David was quite perplexed that there was absolutely no security and the pilot doubled as a baggage carrier. It was also a bit disconserting that the folks who checked us in weighed our luggae as well as US!

We stayed at the home of the brother of one of the students in the RAP program who is a guide for polar bear viewing and all things Arctic. He is also a passionate advocate against drilling in ANWAR which led to some interesting discussions.

The village of Kaktovik is in the North Slope Borough which benfits from North Slope Oil taxes and land leases so it is a small, but reasonably wealthy village with no trees and right on the sea.

Robert, our host, met us right on the tarmac and took us in his truck to his house where we would stay overnight. Quite ironic that we have to go to an Arctic village to have indoor plumbing! Quite nice since Kaktovik was very windy and an icy wind blew off the sea which made it more uncomfortable than Fairbanks. Robert’s grandaughter and her cute baby Athena lived with him.

Robert arranged for us to hop onto a motor boar and go out to a barrier island close to the mainland where the polar bears hang out during the day. It was freezing and windy! We were lucky enough to see a mother and two cubs. David’s new camera has a healthy zoom because we were not able to get very close, but his camera let us see great detail.

Look at those paws!

Robert drove us around Kaktovik, seeing the sites and allowing us to experience a landscape without trees.

This graveyard, one of several, was near the sea. Notice the whalebone arch.

One of the places that polar bears gather is the “bone yard” where the whales are cut up and the bones are left. It is purposely away from the town to encourage the bears to keep away from people. There is an area where the new bones are and then an area where last year’s bones are left. The bears come at night to feed on the remains. When we were there, we saw 6 bears, which is a low count. Robert thought that there was a dead whale about 20 miles up the beach that was keeping the bears satisfied.

The gulls in the place are huge!!!! Don’t call them sea gulls! I was corrected several times!

There are two hotels in Kaktovik that cater to researchers and the tourists that come to see the bears. Waldo Arms is by far the one with more character, but dubious comforts. It is made of a series of Atcos and looked quite derict, but had a cozy gathering area and quite genial hosts (Waldo and his wife).

At night Robert took us to a high point where we watched brilliant green auroras swooping across the sky from horizon to horizon (no treeline to obsucre the sights). The night was so clear and the auroras so bright that they lit up the sea with their reflections! No photos, alas.

We had a great time at Robert’s as he was a wonderful host. Even though the quilt that was to cover us never made it to the drier we were cozy because he was careful to turn the heat way up at night to keep us warm. And we had huge meals: breakfast of pancakes, eggs, fruit and spam; lunch which included beluga muktuk and dinner of caribou ( which, unfortunately was a little tough because Robert accidentlaly defrosted a big hunk of beluga instead of caribou roast, so he quickly defrosted a caribou haunch and made it into a stir fry which probably wasn’t what that cut of meat was meant for).

We were to leave at 3 pm the next day and although the morning broke windy but sunny as the take-off time neared the snow was swirling and the sky lowering. Luckily our plane came in. We got to the airstrip early and the pilot loaded the plane, and because all 6 of us were in our seats 15 mintues before take-off…up we went! No one even asked our names…they figured out who we were because the pilot seemed to know everyone BUT us!The pilot is loading the baggage, which in our case included a cooler full of beluga for Robert’s sister in Fairbanks.

The hairy thing about the landing strip is that it doubles as a road to the boneyard and at one point we actually pulled off and let a plane land while we were travelling around Kaktovik!

So we started looking for a place either in town or near the University. We were handicapped by the dog since many places did not allow pets, and we were very particular about where we lived since it had to be close to work or town. So, we ended up in the dread DRY CABIN, within walking distance of the University. The shower thing is not too bad since I always took showers either at my gym, or in my building where there is a shower. And now David takes a shower at work too. Many folks have dry cabins so many offices accommodate them by providing showers.

It is a 20 x 20 full log cabin with a full upstairs and a balcony and a greenhouse!

The outhouse thing isn’t so bad yet since there is only a little snow on the ground and at the coldest it is about 19. Wonder what it will be like when it is 50 or 60 degrees colder. Does pee freeze?

Our kitchen is nicely equipped with a 40 gallon holding tank under the sink so every week I go to the natural springs in Fox, about 15 miles from us to get water in 7 gallon jugs that we empty into the holding tank and then use a foot pump to pump water out a spout to use in the sink. HOWEVER, it drains into a 5 gallon bucket under the sink that has a tendency to overflow if we are not careful. David is in charge of toting it outside to the disposal area.

The cabin is fully equipped with all the essentials…internet and a wood burning stove!

All in all, we are quite happy here. Even Fred.

Upstairs

View from our front window

View from the balcony

Nome is known as the end point for the Iditerod Sled Dog race, famous for the burled arch that all mushers ride under to finish.  Nome is not a Native village and seemed quite established.  It is about as far west as you can go in AK.

Here is the main street.

Nome was a major gold mining town  

Wyatt Earp actually came to Nome and started a business supplying miners.  We visited the remains of his house way out in the “country”! 

My favorite restaurant in town was a combination laundramat and Mexican restaurant.  We did not eat there since it was a bit funky!

 Notice the washers and tables!

We were lucky enough to go with someone who lives in Nome to pick blueberries.  There are fields and fields of blueberries. Yummy!  AND…there are  musk ox among the blueberries.  The woman we were with loves to gather quiviat, the underhair of the musk ox that is highly prized as very, very soft and very, very warm hair which is very, very expensive).  She is allergic to the stuff so she gave it to me!  How lucky am I.  I will spin it and make it into a scarf for David. 

Nome is part of theDEW Line, not necessarily needed at this point, but still active. There are also remnants of bunkers from World War II!!!

Nome had  great wooden statues looking out onto the sea!

And some quirky ways! 

Only Barge Fresh Beer for me!

A reasonably short plane ride away was Kotzebue, a Native village which was quite different from Nome. 

Notice the prehistoric bone just parked in someone’s front yard.

 The weather is usually cold and cloudy and the one main street is right at the sea!  Kotz. is on a spit in the Arctic Ocean.  and is quite poor.

 This is the new nurses’ home at the hospital.  Notice that it is made of ATCO trailers with frame over them!!

 These are the traditional fish camps that folks go to in the summer to prepare for winter by fishing and then drying the salmon.

It certainly is not cheap to live in Kotzebue.  

The people in both Nome and Kotzebue were wonderfully friendly and made us feel quite welcome.  We met many students who were interested in continuing a discussion about enrolling in RAP and and I started learning about bush life.  I was certainly glad I went.