Monday July 21, 2014 Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

Denali

 Up in the morning and on the road.  Well not we started our coffee and got the Jeep hooked up and the power disconnected.  We were on the road at 9:30.  We weren't the last to leave Tok, but nearly.

We had been warned of bad road and a lot of construction.  There was that, we had Pilot Cars twice for long distances.  We did get a treat at one of the pull outs, a glimpse of Denali.

Sweet Peas

Our flora discovery of the day was wild sweet peas along the road.  We stopped in Beaver Creek and had a snack of butter milk and crumbled up bread.  I looked for a cache but it had been taken into the office of a RV Park and the office was about a half mile from the posted coordinates.

Back into Canada

After 90 miles we crossed over the boarder into the Yukon Territory of Canada.  I still have to chuckle when they ask if we are traveling with over $10,000.

River overlook

On one pull I got a check engine light.  The fault was High Crankcase Pressure.  I thought that filter for the crankcase had been changed in Whitehorse.  We stopped at an overlook and shut down the engine.  The fault didn't register in the fault record.  I checked the oil and added about 1/2 a gallon.

Bear crossing

 Our wild life highlight was the sight of a mother bear and her three cubs crossing the highway.  They were moving pretty quickly and it was hard to get a good picture of them.  We did see them closer than the pictures but they were moving fast.

Bear crossing zoomed

Last one into the brush

Dinner at the Destruction Bay Lodge.

We were the third to last to arrive in Kluane (Klew-ah-nee) and the destruction Bay Lodge and RV Park.  This park has no sewer hookups, 30 Amp. electricity and water.  We were warned not to use the water.  We did get there just in time for a great dinner put on by the owner of the lodge.  There was a roast beef, mixed salad, baked beans, baked potato salad and apple crumble with whipped cream for dessert.  It was all very good.

Christian and his dessert

The lodge owner also was the one man entertainment.  He gave us a history of the area and of course included why he lives here.  He played the guitar and sang.  He was actually pretty good.

Back at the coach we found out the park now had WiFi available.  We were able to log on and catch up on e-mail and Facebook before bed time.

Sunday July 20, 2014 Tok, Alaska

Checking the list

 This was a travel day with 208 miles to drive to Tok, Alaska.  I made coffee and we drank it while getting caught up on computer stuff and then getting ready to travel.  We waited for a wash and rinse cycle to finish before I unhooked the utility lines.

After we left the park I stopped at a Tesoro station and fueled up the coach.  The diesel was 24 cents a gallon more than at Sam's Club.  But considering the amount I needed and the fuel used to drive nearly 20 miles off our route, it was cheaper in both time and money to pay the higher price.  We stopped at downtown North Pole and visited the Santa Claus House.  This store sells all Christmas items all year round.


We were back on the road for Tok at about 10:30

North Pole, Alaska

Santa Claus House, North Poke. Alaska

Eielson AFB

Our second Moose sighting

We passed an Air Force base.  Gerri's Dad used to fly B-47's in the 1950's to Alaska for cold weather testing.  Later we were told that along the highway past Eielson AFB there were no stopping and no photo signs posted.  We didn't see them.

We spotted a moose and a calf along the road but when we stopped they ran into the woods.  Later we spotted a Female moose at the edge of a pond near the road.  We had no place to stop.  We turned around at the next turnout and went back.  It was about a 4 mile loop but we got some good pictures of her.

Daisies?

It rained off and on, Sometimes quite heavily.  We stopped at a couple more turn outs looking for caches.  No luck.

Also along the way to Tok we stopped at Delta Meats and sampled some 'wild' meat.  We tasted Yak, Elk, Buffalo, Musk Ox, but there was no reindeer to sample.  We bought 1 pound of buffalo sausage, very good.

I topped off the tank at a station owned by the park and then went to the RV Park. We weren't the last unit to get to Tok.  I decided not to wash the coach and car because it was cold and windy and the next leg of our trip had more construction activity.

At some point during the drive  Gerri discovered that I had set something on the spigot of a 2.5 gallon water container and it had all leaked out in the area of my chair.  After we parked we had to move everything out and try to dry the area with a fan and our electric space heater.

I unhooked the Jeep and went out caching.  I found two.

Back at the coach we were able to get the netcast of church services from Oakey Blvd. Church of Christ.

The group gathered for dessert at seven.  We met in the park's laundry room.  The desert was an apple cake made by Arthur in a Dutch Oven.  We also had Ice Cream and Root Beer for those who wanted ice cream with their cake or a Root Beer float.  We had our travel briefing after the dessert.

Back at the coach it wasn't long before we were in bed.

Saturday July 19, 2014 North Pole, Alaska (near Fairbanks)

On the train, the cars were open.

 No hurry to get up this morning, our bus doesn't leave until 9:30.  We slept in until 7.  I fixed the coffee and we drank it while getting caught up on computer chores and getting ready for a full day.

A steam engine called a "donkey"

The bus took us to a point along the Alyeska Pipeline where there is a narrow gauge railroad with a tour of the largest gold dredge in North America.  We walked under a section of the pipeline and past some displays.  We boarded the narrow gauge train for a tour around an once rich mining area.  The train, except for the propulsion was a replica of those used in the gold rush days of Fairbanks and as recently as the 50's.  Instead of steam the engine is now run by gasoline.  The cars were open but had a video set up similar to the riverboat tour.  There was a guitar player/singer on the train to warm the group up.  He had been greeting people riding this train for 22 years.  He was once a well known singer who had opened show for Johnny Cash twice when he appeared in Fairbanks.

Our tour narrator

Like the riverboat tour there were demonstrations as we went along.  On this tour of course the demonstrations were mining related.  The first was a demonstration and explanation how the first miners extracted the placer gold.  They had to thaw the permafrost to dig a hole to bedrock being careful not to thaw so much that the hole caved in.  The gravel was then hauled out of the shaft by buckets on a cable system run by a steam engine.  The engine was called a "donkey" because it only worked when it wanted to.  The gravel was piled up to be panned for gold during the summer.

We saw another replica of a miners camp with an actor panning for gold in the creek.  The next stop was Gold Dredge Number 8.  This dredge operated from 1928 until 1959.  A lady gold miner explained the importance and history of the dredge and also how it operated.

Gold Dredge No. 8 the Queen of dredges

Gerri with a brick of gold.

The dredges were a way that big mining companies mined the gold left behind by the pick and shovel miners.  A lot of work went into mapping just where the dredge would operate and then there was a lot of preparation before the dredge could be used.  The topsoil had to be removed and the permafrost under it thawed so the dredge could dig the gravel.  It took hundreds of men to do this work.  Of course now days the EPA would prohibit this type of operation as too harmful to the environment.  This dredge was built in San Francisco and then disassembled and shipped to Seward on barges.  There it was loaded onto flat cars for shipment to Fairbanks.  It took 143 flat cars to haul the pieces.  It was then transferred to the narrow gauge railroad for transportation to the planned work site.  Of course then it had to be reassembled. The dredge floated in a pond that moved with the dredge which used 9000 gallons of water an hour in operating the various parts. The valley where the dredge operated was dry, so a 60 mile long canal was dug from the Chena River to supply the water.   This dredge produced tremendous amounts of gold which was sold to the government for $35 an ounce and mailed to the mint in San Francisco.  The bars that were mailed weighted 56 pounds each.  During it's useful years the dredge only moved a quarter mile from where it was assembled.

A sample of pipe with a "pig" inside

Our next stop was a gold panning station where we were all given a poke of gravel and sand. We were shown the technique and allowed to keep any gold we found.  We took the gold we panned into an assayer's area and it was weighed for us.  Gerri and I combined panned $17 worth of gold at today's prices.  Gerri had it put in a silver case that can either be worn on a charm bracelet or necklace.  Of course that was the au rigor gift shop.  The twist was they gave away free coffee or hot chocolate and a selection of cookies.

An actual section of the Alyeska Pipeline

The train took us back to the original boarding area, again including entertainment by the guitar player.  He also played the fiddle.  Although his voice seemed to be failing due to age he was a very talented man.  Our narrator then gave us a talk on the pipeline and it's construction.  The pipe  is 28" in diameter and over 800 miles long.  It is insulated and the oil inside is heated.  The pipe itself is surrounded by 8" of insulation.  It takes 5 days for oil to travel from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.  The pipe line zig zags and floated on elevated beams to avoid earthquake damage.  There are also measures taken to avoid thawing the permafrost where it is present.

An outhouse like no other

Our next stop was for lunch at the Cookie Jar.  On the way we caught sight of another town moose.  Three of the six moose we have seen in Alaska have been in cities.  I had a pastrami Reuben and navy bean soup.  It was very good. Gerri had a meatloaf sandwich and navy bean soup.  Her sandwich was just so-so.

Next was the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska.  Yes, that's right folks.  Gerri in a museum. Besides the exhibits they had two movies that we watched, well Gerri watched the first one.   It was about the Northern Lights.   I slept.  The other movie was about Winter in Fairbanks.  More people giving interesting explanations of why they live here and explanations of how they deal with the cold.  More stuff about "it's a dry cold."  I was surprised how many houses were without indoor plumbing and had outhouses.  Shades of 1950's West Virginia, but for a different reason.  We didn't have it available, here the plumping freezes too easily.

With Otto, a 9' Ursus Arctos Horribilis

The museum had the only mummified carcass of a Steeps Bison, it was huge.  They displayed a stuffed Grizzly Bear that was nine feet tall.  All this along with lot of native and historical artifacts.

Back at the RV Park we had our briefing for tomorrows travel to Tok.

I spent a little time doing chores.  I used the Gorilla glue to try to fastened the built in vacuum hose bag into the end pieces.  I also tried to adjust the bay door that keeps popping open  I put a couple of washers under the latch.  Time and travel will tell if the adjustment worked. Use will tell if the hose repair hold.

I drove out on our route to see where the cheapest fuel is.  The cheapest is Sam's Club but that is nearly 9 miles out of our way.  I only need about 50 gallons and the 18 mile round trip makes it cheaper and easier to get fuel at a local Tesoro station
and pay the extra 12 cents a gallon.

I drained the black water and hooked up the Jeep in preparation for travel.  I left the sewer and fresh water lines hooked up because Gerri was still doing wash.

We were in bed by 10:30.  Gerri reading and me sleeping.  Only 19 days of our caravan are left.  Dave and Rita are back with us, only one coach left in the shop, Alec and Sheila, and they hope to join us in Haines.

Friday July 18, 2014 North Pole, Alaska (near Fairbanks)

You would think that on a "free" day we would sleep in.  I was up at 6:30 and Gerri was up before that.  I made coffee and got caught up on computer activity.

A dog team hooked up to an engineless ATV

It rained more during the night.  The morning was overcast with the sun showing periodically.  Gerri got some wash started and I cleaned the windshield.  The entire coach needs cleaned outside and in all the bays.  There is little point in doing serious cleaning until we get further south and out of the intermittent gravel road and construction areas.

In the afternoon we went shopping for a few items at Sam's Club. While there I filled the Jeep tank with gasoline.  I also found a cache in the parking lot.  We also went to Fred Myers for some items.  I bought a new remote for the center TV.  I also bought new wiper blades for the Jeep and a set of carpet covers for the motorhome's outside steps and some Gorilla glue.  I am going to try to fix the vacuum hose.

Reindeer on our riverboat tour

It rained some more in the afternoon.  The storm was short but it was the hardest rain we have experienced on the trip.

Back at the coach I tuned the universal remote to match the TV but couldn't get any channels off the air.  I always forget how to do some of the things I don't use often.

I gave up on the TV and went out to find a cache.  This one was the 100th I have found since leaving home on May 27.  51 more and I am at 4500 finds, I don't count my DNF anymore.  There are a lot of those.

Fairbanks, Christmas in July

We had a group get together at a pavillion in the RV Park along the river  This river was, like all the creeks and streams in the area have been running swiftly and very full. Everyone pitched in and brought different snacks.  We were having a very good time when Santa came in and made it even better.  One of the group, Brian, had brought a Santa suit and played the part very well. Brian is the life of every party or even a bus ride if there is no party.

A cache, not a geocache

After the party broke up we returned to the coach and Gerri continued her washing chores.  I started to plug my phone into the charger and discovered that I had left it at the pavillion.  I got dressed and headed that way.  I didn't get far when Arthur hailed me and ask if I had lost something.  Whew!  Thank you Arthur

I didn't have the abundance of pictures to choose from for this blog, so I have included a few that didn't get published before.

We were in bed by 10, me to sleep and Gerri to read.












0

Thursday July 17, 2014 North Pole, Alaska (near Fairbanks)

The riverboat Discovery III

The bus to take us to the days activities arrived at 8 AM.  I had set an alarm and we got up at 6. I made a cup of coffee each.  After dressing we caught up on what e-mail and Facebook posts that had come in that early.

The bus took us to the riverboat landing on the Chena River.  Of course there was the obligatory wait and opportunity to visit the gift shop.  On the riverboat they served coffee and blueberry donuts.

The riverboat, Discovery III does this picture make my boat look big?

The boat tour was narrated and was equipped with a video system that showed what the narrator was pointing out.  The first thing of interest was a float plane demonstration.  The pilot was able to talk to the narrator and that conversation came over the boat's PA system. The pilot showed landings and takeoffs and several aerial maneuvers.

Float plane demo

The narrator pointed out interesting structures and home along the river.  We stopped at the home of Susan Butcher, four time winner of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race.  Susan died of leukemia in 2006.  Her husband, David Monson, still runs a kennel, breeding and training dogs for dog sled races.  We were treated to a demonstration and explanation of how the training is done.  A team was then hooked to an ATV without an engine and we got to see them in action.  The course they ran was partly visible from the boat and other parts were on the video system.  Down the back stretch these six dogs pulled the ATV and the musher at 20+ MPH.

Sled dog training, teaching the puppies confidence
and overcoming obstacles

The tour included other demonstrations and conversations with people on shore.  We cruised to where the Chena River meets the Tenana River. Water was high on both rivers and the Tenana was moving swiftly and a lot of sand bars were visible. We didn't go there.  The narrator talked about navigation on the rivers and how important steamboats were to the developing of Alaska's interior.

On the way back up river we stopped for an hour or so at a village set up to represent early Eskimo and Athabaskan life.  One of the demonstrations was about the making of parkas in the old style.  Most of the crew of the boat were young people of either Eskimo or Athabaskan descendants and from remote villages.  All of them were college students or recent High School graduates planning to go to college.

On the way back up river we were also treated to a salmon dip made from wild smoked salmon canned locally.

This time it was a Bluebird bus

Back at the dock we had more gift shop time.  I don't think that when I say gift shop you get the full picture of how large a store this was.  Besides the building housing a hotel and restaurant the shop continued into a gigantic sprung like structure.  It must have covered two acres.  You have probably seen and been in these types of buildings.  They are tensioned membrane buildings, popular for conventions and there are really common here in Alaska.  We bought us jackets that were a good price.  Water proof with a polar fleece lining.  We han't notice but we got more than we bargained for.  The sleeves zipped off and the jackets are reversible.  This was pointed out to us later by Rebecca, who had considered buying them too.

Fire weed

Back on the bus we headed to Pike's Landing for lunch.  We were transported around to our activities by a bus owned by the RV Park.  The driver happened to be a retired Alaska State Trooper.  The bus was a bluebird brand, like the tour busses in Denali this brand is more often associated with school busses than with tour busses.

After lunch we went downtown to visit the Ice Museum.  The ice museum is an old theater converted to show a movie about ice carving and to display some of the intricate carvings. Fairbanks is the site of an international ice carving competition.

Modeling a native parka

While we waited for the Ice Museum tour to begin, Team Colt 45, Zoom 24 and I walked a block away to a visitor's center and bagged a geocache.

The owner of the museum introduced the film. After the film we were invited to get a close up look at ice carvings on display and to sled down a ramp carved from ice blocks.  I should add that the display area was kept at a balmy -20 degrees.

Which is the moose?

Back at the RV Park two of the couples that had engine problems had rejoined the group.  Now we are only missing one couple who are here in Fairbanks waiting for repairs.  Many of the group had impromptu  gab session at the RV Park.  A circle of friends but without a campfire.  One of the things we have enjoyed is meeting and talking with members of the caravan.  Even though the schedule seems tight at times the camaraderie makes up for it.

Discovery II, retired

This blog is an prime example of a problem I frequently have.  Deciding which pictures to include.  What you are seeing here are only a fraction of what we have taken.  I have had to delete a lot of older pictures from the SD cards to make room for more.  I don't have this problem on many trips I write about, ie, a month in Mexico may only mean visits to 3 or 4 places.  On this trip we sometimes move every day.  And, there is always more and different things to see.  I want to convey the essence of what we are seeing and doing, so there are a lot more pictures with this blog than there is writing.

My guess is not this time of year

There was an  interesting thing about our tours and demonstrations here in Fairbanks.  All the presentations seem to have an explanation of why someone would choose to live here.  Fairbanks has a population of 85,000.  It has the widest variation of temperatures known to any city.  It some times reaches 90 in the summer and 60-70 below in the winter.  There is a phrase that I always scoff at when someone talks about the heat in Las Vegas; "but it's a dry heat."  I say when it 110 it's 110 an that is HOT and no bones about it, dry or humid.  They have the opposite here, But it's a dry cold. They claim that in the winter here the snow is too dry to make snowballs and snowmen.  They also claim wind doesn't blow much in Fairbanks so wind chill isn't a factor.  My opinion is that 60 below is still 60 below and that is COLD, and no bones about it..

Another interesting sign

Starting with a block of ice

Andy and his finished carving

After a full day and taking care of some business on the computers we were in bed by 10:30. Tomorrow is a "Free" day.  Time for shopping and housekeeping.

Wednesday July 16, 2014 North Pole, Alaska (near Fairbanks)

The Alaskan word for summer is "Road Construction"

 With only 140 miles to drive, I'll never know why so many people left the RV Park so early.  I heard engines starting at 6 AM.  Maybe they were concerned about the sign we saw when we arrived in Denali, "Road Construction Next 134 Miles."

I'm not sure when Gerri got up, but I stayed in bed until 7:30.

There are good roads in Alaska, too

I made coffee and started drinking it while catching up on e-mail and Facebook.  I continued drinking it while we got ready to travel.

We left the RV Park at 9.  We were among the last to leave.

Road construction began before we were far out of Denali and continued off and on most of the way to Fairbanks.  We were stopped by flagmen twice and traveled at 10-15 mph for a long way once.  I had washed the Jeep in Anchorage and then towed it through the rain to Denali.  It got worse today as we drove through areas of construction that had been watered down.

Tanana Valley

We got to the Riverview RV Park at 1 PM.  We are in a full hookup, pull through site with 50 amp electrical service.

After we got set up we redded up the inside of the coach a little,  sweeping and then vacuuming, dusting, and etc.  I even gave the floor a once over with a mop.  The vacuum hose still comes loose from the attachments.  Today it also pulled loose from the wall plug.  On our free day here I plan to get some Gorilla glue at Walmart and see if that will hold it in.  I also need to get some small washers and see if we can adjust the catches on the bay doors that pop open.  We have had them taped shut since Whitehorse.

Entrance to the Salmon Bake at Pioneer Village

Ridem salmonboy

After the chores I checked for nearby geocaches.  There was one about a quarter mile away.  I picked up Dave and we went for it.  The cache was near some horseshoe pits behind a local bar and grill.  The GPS reading jumped around quite a bit and we were looking for it outside the fence around the horseshoe pit area.  There were four sets of horseshoe pits, two covered and two in the open.  According to information on the cache page there is an informal tournament every Wednesday at 7 PM.  We wondered around for awhile with no luck.  The woman who owned the bar and grill came out and ask us if we wanted to go through the bar to the other side of the fence.  I asked her if we needed to.  She laughed and said she wasn't giving any hints.  She and the other two patrons of the bar got quite a few more laughs as we wondered around out back looking for the cache, they knew where it was.  Ground zero seemed to be near the fence in the grassy area.  I reread the cache page and then read the recent logs by other cachers.  One had written that the coordinates were about 45' off.  We expanded our search and I found it nestled atop one of the logs making up the cover to the horseshoe pits.  Flushed with victory we returned to the RV Park.

I showered and Geri gave me a hair cut before the bus came to take us to dinner at 4:30.

Dinner was a Salmon Bake at a restaurant at Pioneer Village in Fairbanks  It was another all you could eat meal featuring baked salmon, deep fried cod, prime rib and a salad bar.  There was also a dessert bar with several kinds of cake to choose from and a blueberry/apple sauce to put over your choice.

After dinner we walked through the Pioneer Village to a theater.  The village featured old buildings and various equipment associated with mining and shops.  here were several entertainment venues and a car show going on.

The theater featured a revue that gave a whimsical history of Fairbanks.  There were four actors/singers and a piano player.  The show was really enjoyable, especially a variation on the old Abbot and Costello "Who's On First?" skit.

Back at the RV Park we weren't up long.  I caught up on computer stuff and Gerri went to bed to read.  Do you remember I said the days were getting shorter?  Well, at 10:30 it was getting dusk.

Tomorrow we have a river boat tour, lunch and a visit to the ice museum.  So it's up early again, the bus leaves at 8am.

Tuesday July 15, 2014 Denali, Alaska

Park entrance

Rain!  Rain!  It rained all during the night.  We got up at 6:30 and I made coffee and turned on the furnace before Gerri got out of bed.  The internet service was surprisingly good last night and I got the blogs done. The good reception continued all morning and Gerri caught up on some of her egg games.

Our first and only animal sighting for the day.

The rain continued.  I went through our pictures of animals and made a separate file of all that we had seen on this trip.  We think the grands might like to see them, especially the younger grands.  I zoomed in and saved some of the pictures, so some of the animals looked closer than we actually saw them.

In the early afternoon it was still raining.  We headed out for the Visitor's Center and the Wilderness Access Center.  At the Wilderness Access Center we showed our National Parks Golden Age Pass and got $10 each refunded. We got Christian's $10 on our pass.  Each pass allows four people to enter the park.

Our first and only animal sighting was in the parking lot as we returned to the Jeep.  A female moose and her calves.

We saw a movie at the Wildlife Center before leaving.  We next visited the Park Visitor Center and looked at exhibits there.  We also saw another movie showing features of the park.

I noticed that the battery in Gerri's camera was almost dead.  We went back to the coach to get a charged one before driving into the park.


Before entering the park I found one cache on a footbridge near the Nanana River.

The rest of our wildlife shots were beautiful, but all of lesser wildlife.  They were pictures of flowers growing near the park road.

The white flower is Labrador Tea

Visibility, what visibility?

One of many streams in the park

There was a mountain here yesterday

We drove to the point where we had to turn around.  Across the Savage River only vehicles with permits can drive.

On the way back we took pictures from the spots where we could see Denali yesterday.  I also picked up the information needed to claim two more Earthcaches.






















Our group activity in the evening was an all you can eat dinner.  The main dishes were baked salmon and pork ribs.  Dessert was a multi berry cobbler with whipped cream.  I had two because Gerri didn't want to take a chance on the seeds.

Dinner was followed by a show.  Little did I know I was part of the entertainment.  I played the person who shot Dirty Dan McGrew in the Robert Service poem.

I was part of the show

It was 10:30 before we got home.  Tomorrow is a travel day so we weren't up long after that.  The rain had stopped about 5 PM and it wasn't raining when we went to bed.

In spite of the rain it was a good day.  The 36th day of our Alaskan Adventure.