Fairbanks excursions

Alaska weather is just so iffy, at least for me. Although it isn't bright and sunny, it isn't pouring either. It's just scattered weather, not warm, but not cold either. Saturday was rain, clouds, sun and a high about 20C.

The other important warning before coming here is about bugs. Watch out or the mosquitos will get you. Huh...we have not seen or been bothered by bugs yet!

Before joining up with the tour group we visited the University of Alaska Musuem in Fairbanks.  Very interesting exhibits.

Bev's hand in comparison to a mastadon tooth and a mammoth tooth!

Blue Babe

After viewing "Blue Babe" a mummified Steppe Bison discovered in 1979 and carbon dated as 36,000 years old at the museum we were lucky enough to later visit the area near Denali where the remains were found as part of our ATV excursion.

One of the exhibits at the museum asked you to name the farthest east point of Alaska.  Trick question as the farthest eastern point is just the other side of the International Date Line from the farthest western point in the Aluetian Islands! So...the distance from the most eastern part of Alaska to the most western part is only about 60ish miles! Surprise.

exhibit showing the International Date Line as it runs through the Aleutian Islands of Alaska

On Saturday July 27th we met up with our tour guide Eve Sapp who would journey with us for our 8 day land tour.  She was a valuable resource and made our trip quite enjoyable!

Our 2 Fairbanks excursions were a standard part of the Princess Connoisseur CruiseTour package.

1) In the morning we rode on a vintage train and visited Gold Drudge #8.

Goldstream Dredge No. 8 is a ladder dredge operated by the Fairbanks Exploration Company from 1928 to 1959. Starting in the 1920s, water was brought to the area through the 90-mile (145 km) Davidson Ditch for gold mining. The Goldstream Dredge No. 8 cut a 4.5-mile (7.2 km) track and produced 7.5 million ounces of gold.Yes, there were other dredges but this is the last one remaining. Can you imagine the noise this monstrosity would produce as its buckets scoop up the rocky ore
and process through the giant tumbler inside. It did this task constantly, days at a time, stopping only to retrieve the gold after processing tons and tons of ore. The dredge was named a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1986.

The control room

dredge buckets

The section of the Trans Alaska Pipeline we viewed was on the same property as Dredge #8.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) runs 800 miles (1,287 km) and the pipeline has a diameter of 48 inches (1.22 m) that conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska. The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977. The challenge in building the pipeline was addressing areas of permafrost where the pipeline could not be buried and appears above ground as in the section we viewed.

 On the same property we panned for gold. Between the two of us we got only $19 worth of gold. That took about 10 minutes so our hourly rate would have worked out to almost $120 an hour. But Bev got to hold the largest nugget found in the area which was worth $75,000!

The big Nugget

2) After lunch we took a 3 hour riverboat cruise on the "Discovery", a multi-deck stern paddlewheeler.

 A bush float plane demonstrated take off and landing beside the riverboat. He really cranked it and banked in a short circuit on the river. Since Alaska is so isolated in terms of road coverage, bushplanes are practically like pickup trucks that can go just about anywhere.

Take off eh!

We stopped to visit the home and kennels of the late four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher and see her champion sled dogs in action. These dogs are so eager to go that they all get excited when getting ready. They ones not going were howling too. Don't leave me behind. When let loose, the team pulled the motorless ATV around the compound lickety-split. This is just a small dash of exercise to the tourists but on a real exercise they will head out for 30 miles just to get in shape. Amazing dogs.

Next we learned about the ancient Athabascan Indian culture when our Alaskan Native Guides took us on a personalized tour of the Chena Indian Village. We learned about the importance of the wildlife to the native culture and how nothing was ever wasted.

fish trap for catching salmon running up the river

various animal pelts drying - centre is moose pelt

beautiful coat made a various types of animal furs

tour guide sitting on hut raised on stilts to prevent animals foraging

There was a small herd of reindeer at the Chena village. Reindeer can cope with -50 winter temperatures better than beef cattle.  Every lodge we stayed at on our trip offered reindeer sausage as part of the breakfast buffet.

reindeer