Sunday August 13, Day 26

Starting trip meter: 7546
Starting time: 9:30 AM ADT
Starting Location: Anchorage, Alaska

We started the day by attending church in Anchorage, and were very surprised and pleased to see the couple that were camping across from us there as well. Barney had struck up a conversation with them last night since they were sleeping in a smaller van than ours and not even using a car top carrier. That is an impressive feat! After the service, we set off toward Denali National Park. The park is 237 miles north of Anchorage. We plan to camp outside the park tonight then explore it tomorrow. We have no reservations anywhere so we are hoping that our luck holds out. We don’t like making reservations in advance since that ruins our flexibility and also we like to look at the places we are staying before we pay up. So far we have only had the one “No Vacancy” problem in Wisconsin (remember our Holiday Inn Homestead adventure?) and a little difficulty in Seward.

We ran into rain about 100 miles north of Anchorage and it rained steadily all the way to Denali. We stopped at the Denali National Park visitor center to gather information, but the weather had deteriorated so badly that we postponed our tour and pushed on to Fairbanks.

Drove around Fairbanks a little to get our bearings and to look for a Firestone dealer to service our tires. We had no luck on the latter, but we did get to see quite a bit of Fairbanks. There is a lot of construction going on in the older and downtown sections of the city. The streets and roads are pretty rough. At first we weren’t that impressed with the city, but then we got to thinking about where it is situated on this continent. Considering that and the weather that ravages this town, Fairbanks is a remarkable city. It actually has most of the conveniences of home (no Wal-Mart, but they do have a Sam’s Club) with plenty of restaurants and shopping centers.

Today’s weather: Nice and sunny in the AM and about 55° when we arose. Low 60s for a high.
Miles driven today: 428

Monday August 14, Day 27

Starting trip meter: 7974
Starting time: Noon
Starting Location: Fairbanks, Alaska

Woke up to light rain this morning and decided to stay at the same grounds another night. We put up our gazebo in a very light drizzle and moved our picnic table underneath it just before it started to rain in earnest. Ate our breakfast, and Barney worked on the computer some. Based on conversations held with others in the camp, we went ahead and made our Denali tour bus reservations for tomorrow. Those we had spoken with suggested that the weather did not ruin their enjoyment of the wildlife in the park and the odds of seeing Mt. McKinley were slim even in good weather.

We were able to log onto AOL at our campground, but so far we have been unsuccessful at uploading our web pages through an AOL connection. AOL has a $6 per hour surcharge for use of the 800 number needed in Fairbanks as there are no local access numbers. Alta Vista has neither here so we could not do an upload. We were both able to get and send e-mail through the AOL connection on the pay phone in the laundry room.

Found the Fairbanks Exploration Inn and stopped to introduce ourselves to Kinzey and Betty’s daughter Kris. It was warm and cozy and felt good since the temperature was 49° and very brisk at 1PM. She was so helpful in making suggestions and answering all of our questions. We also had the pleasure of meeting her daughter Kimberly who was in the kitchen baking cookies. Can’t wait to get back there!

Took a drive out the Steese Highway as we wanted to get an advance peek at our cabin where we will be staying later this week. We drove about 50 miles out in the boonies but never found it. All was not lost as we stopped at a Trans-Alaska Pipeline viewing area. We found that they send “pigs” through the line with the oil, did you all know that? In this area, the pipeline is elevated to a clearance of 5 feet to allow for uninhibited caribou migration as well as all other animal crossings. It can withstand earthquakes up to 8.5, and in some places had to be insulated and refrigerated as to not disturb the permafrost in the area. Talk about a challenge to design! Later we stopped alongside a raging river to eat our picnic lunch.

Found our gazebo had turned over in the wind while we were gone for the day. Tomorrow we will have to secure it better since we will not return from Denali until late in the evening. Packed up our lunch for tomorrow as we will be on a bus for 8 hours, and must take our own food and beverages. The wind chill was in the 30s. Brrrrr! Guess that is why the girl in the office told Barney that it was already fall weather and some of the local tours had shut down for the season.

Today’s weather: Very cool and windy with some rain. Low 40° and high 51°.
Miles driven today: 132

Today’s Pictures

Tuesday August 15, Day 28

Starting trip meter: 8106
Starting time: 7 AM
Starting Location: Fairbanks, AK

“It was COLD last night with a capital C!” Quote from Diane.

“Actually, it was pretty nice last night with brisk, cool, fresh air. All it took to make a person warm and cozy was a little heat from the electric blanket.” Quote from Barney.

This truly was a blustery day. We had to leave Fairbanks by 7 AM in order to be at Denali in time for our scheduled tour. We lost our sun about 75 miles from the park, and by the time we arrived we could see that it was snowing in the higher elevations. By the time we got onto the bus, it was snowing and blowing on us. The roads into the park had been closed until about an hour before we got there. The dusting of snow on all of the trees was beautiful to see.

Without a doubt, Denali is a cathedral to nature. We were fortunate to see abundant wildlife, grizzly bears, caribou, red fox, dall sheep, marmot, and ptarmigans. No bull moose, darn it! Barney has been so hoping to see one. We were told the moose had been very elusive this year for some reason, even though we did our best to see the “moose in the spruce.” We did however, have the good fortune to see the peaks of the Denali, which is Mt. McKinley. It is difficult to comprehend the size of this mountain compared to those around it. It is the largest in the North American Continent at 20,320 feet. This was the first day it had been seen for quite some time due to the bad weather they have been having. We were repeatedly told that this had been an unusual summer for rain and that the rivers and creeks were extremely swollen. The wind chill at the ranger station at our turnaround must have been in the 20s. It was a bitter day in spite of some sunshine.

After 8 hours of being on the bus with bumpy roads, we were glad to head back home to Fairbanks and were more than ready to call it a night. Our miles driven only cover our miles in the van, but all totaled with the tour we covered 376 miles (133 miles on the bumpy bus).

We no sooner arrived back in our site than we were visited by two sisters who were intrigued with the set up with our gazebo and van, and came over to check it out. We gave them the cook’s tour of the rest of our apartment, and they were amazed at how we were organized. I regret that we did not get their names, however they were a lot of fun and we enjoyed chatting with them. One was from St. Louis and the other from Cleveland. Would love to hear from you gals!

Today’s weather: Very cold. Bright sun in AM.
Miles driven today: 243

Today’s Pictures

Wednesday August 16, Day 29

Starting trip meter: 8349
Starting time: 10:45 AM
Starting Location: Fairbanks, AK

After leaving our site, we went to the Department of Natural Resources to check on our cabin, and see what provisions we needed to acquire for our two days in the wilderness. We were told that the road to our cabin had been closed for several days due to a washout caused by the rain, and that we would have to reschedule. Unable to find a suitable date, we had to reluctantly cancel our plans. Instead, we decided to go on to the Arctic Circle and try and find accommodations there.

We had acquired several items that we would need at the cabin, that we were able to return to Sam’s Club since there were no more Wal-Marts in the state, and while we were there we met the nicest lady who told us that she had come to Alaska 10 years ago to visit her brother and never went back to California. She told us that her first job was to be the housemother to the strippers in town, and of all the things that went along with her job. It was enlightening to us that some of these women hire on with full anticipation of making $800 to $1,000 a day in order to pay for college tuitions, support their families, save up for some major purchase, pay off debts, or a variety of other reasons. To supplement her salary, the strippers who called her “Mom”, would pay her to do errands or chores for them, and that is how she made enough to keep herself. She was delightful, and we thoroughly our time spent with her.

We had booked reservations on the Discovery Riverboat trip for the afternoon, and were pleasantly surprised at what an informative excursion it was. It was on the Chena River, and they explained much of the history of the area, as well as had demonstrations of a bush pilot taking off and landing on a very short runway, a salmon harvest, Susan Butcher who has won the Iditarod 4 times, and her sled dog training facilities, and a Chena Village with an explanation of it’s facilities and history. Very enlightening tour. The weather was perfect. Clear blue skies, and mild temperatures in the high 60s.

Spent the evening at the Fairbanks Exploration Inn which is owned and managed by Kris Brekke, the daughter of Kinzey and Betty Reeves. Our room was very pleasant and a nice change from our bedroom in the van. At a recommendation from Jimmy on her staff, we ate at an Italian restaurant that we were able to walk to, and that made the evening even more pleasant.

Today’s weather: Low 38°, High 68°. Bright and sunny. A wonderful day in Fairbanks.
Miles driven today: 21

Today’s Pictures

 

Thursday August 17, Day 30

Starting trip meter: 8370
Starting time: 10:30 AM
Starting Location: Fairbanks Exploration Inn, Fairbanks, Alaska

We were up until 1AM uploading this web site, and consequently were a little slow in getting up this morning. Rebecca (Becky Reeves) Hilgendorf, Kris’s sister stopped by to meet us on her way to work, which was very nice of her. While we were having breakfast, their brother John Reeves came by and had a cup of coffee and it gave us a chance to meet him as well. Each of the Reeves children are very interesting individuals and we were astounded at their accomplishments, ideas, willingness to tackle major undertakings and endure the elements of this harsh climate all at the same time. We were told later, that as if Kris did not have enough to do with taking care of the Inn and her guests, she also has a leather business which keeps her very busy. Graciously, Becky invited us to spend the night with her on our way back down from the Arctic Circle, and John offered to show us around a little, so we jumped at the opportunity to stay in this area a while longer. We both have felt a certain sense of sadness in the past few days knowing that we would soon turn around and head south.

A quick stop at the grocery for ice and food and we were continuing on our journey via the Steese Highway toward the Arctic Circle. Can you imagine what a thrill it is for us? The majority of the road is nothing but dirt and gravel and much of the way was above the tree line giving us a view of terrain we have yet to see in Alaska. Circle and the Yukon River are approximately 150 miles NNE of Fairbanks. Thanks to Kris, we have reservations for a cabin tonight at Arctic Circle Hot Springs Hotel. We have driven for miles without seeing another car going in either direction.

Arrived at our cabin and were delighted with the ambiance of the entire complex which included very rustic cabins, elevated (critter proof) storage sheds, a huge hot springs pool, saloon, and a large main building which was the hotel built in 1930. The interior was decorated in an old frontier motif. There were pictures everywhere depicting times in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and so many things to look at and enjoy that our time got away from us, and we decided to put off the last 40 miles to Circle until in the morning. We wandered through the four floors of rooms still available and decided to switch our cabin for one of the rooms instead. It had such a feeling of “period authenticity” as each room was decorated in a different theme. We will have to run down the hall for the bathrooms, but it is like staying in one large bed and breakfast.

During dinner we decided to go on and drive to Circle since we would still have plenty of daylight, and it would give us an earlier start tomorrow. The road was total washboard all the way, with one lane bridges. Surprisingly to us, we had imagined the land to be vast and barren at the Arctic Circle, and instead it was mostly dense forest. On the drive up, we had a large Mountain Lion (later we found out it was really a lynx) cross the road in front of us, but other than that we did not encounter any other animals. The road literally stops right at the edge of the Yukon River. The actual latitude of the Arctic Circle is another 50 miles, but it would have to be reached by other means than our van. Sadly, it was almost anti-climatic because again it meant that once we turned the van around, we would be heading back home. We are proud of the fact that we have accomplished what we set out to do, and have enjoyed every mile along the way.

Today’s weather: Very cool 45° and cloudy in the AM as we left Fairbanks. High near 60°
Miles driven today: 240

Today’s Pictures

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