Before I start about today, I want to say a little more about Denali. I told you it was 6,000,000 acres (actually 6,028,203 acres) or 9,419 square miles. So, walking across all of Denali at a rate of one acre a minute (about 70 yards) for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year would take 11 years, 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 10 hours, 34 minutes, and 28 seconds, approximately!
"Denali's Big Five" wildlife are Grizzly Bears, Dall Sheep, Caribou, Moose and Wolves. Grizzlies weigh up to 600 pounds. There are around 300 to 350 grizzly bears that live in the park. There are about 2,500 dall sheep in the park. The park's 2,000 caribou roam in groups. They favor open tundra and ridgetops. There are about 2,000 moose in the park, weighing between 800 and 1,500 pounds. The park's wolf population, on the north side of the Alaska Range, fluctuates between 60 to 100 adults. This was the only animal we didn't see.
Today we are off to Fairbanks. We were up at 5:45 and out of the room by 7:00. We ate at the Sourdough Cafe breakfast buffet. The bus leaves for Fairbanks at 9:00. Today is also our 40th anniversary! I can't believe it's been that long! What a way to celebrate!!
We got on the bus and had a 120 mile drive to Fairbanks. Our driver, Rachel, told us that Alaska has two seasons - winter and construction! We came to several places on the highway that were gravel and being redone. Fortunately, it's Sunday and there are no workers around. Still, it was slow going. We noticed going through one of the first towns, Healy, that gas was $4.12 a gallon. When I gassed up my car not long before we left, it was $3.35. Then a little further north we passed by Stampede Road. This is the road where Christopher McCandless, the guy from the book and movie "Into the Wild" was dropped off by a truck driver and never seen again. (He was found dead from starvation in a bus where he had been living for 3 months.)
We went through the town of Anderson, population 300. In 2007, the town decided that the best way to grow was to offer free lots. The town gave away 26 with the stipulation that you had to build a house in the next two years and it had to have a minimum of 1,000 square feet and had to have running water and sewage. By 2009, they had foreclosed on 18 of these houses.
We crossed the Tanana River, a 584 mile tributary of the Yukon River. Every year people bet on when the ice will melt on the river. They said you can even bet online! The ice accumulates to an average maximum thickness of 43".
Each year since 1917 residents have guessed at the timing of the river breakup. A tripod, connected to an on-shore clock with a string, is planted in 2 feet of river ice during river freeze-up in October or November. The following spring, the clock automatically stops when the tripod moves as the ice breaks up and has gone 100 feet. The time on the clock is used as the river ice breakup time. This year the pot was $363,627! The ice broke up this year on April 25th.
Our Journey Host shared a little trivia. At 20 degrees below, sporting events are cancelled. In the past 60 years, there has been only one snow day. In the last 5 years, they've also added in ice days. Gas in Fairbanks was $3.85 a gallon. The McDonald's in Fairbanks is the northern- most McDonald's. There is no $1.00 menu but there is a $2.00 menu. A few years ago, a Home Depot opened in Fairbanks. The first day it was open, it COMPLETELY sold out! Every single thing was sold!! The blocks are short in town because everyone wanted a corner lot. So the city was laid out in short blocks so more folks could have a corner lot.
We arrived in Fairbanks and got off the bus downtown. We were given an hour and a half for lunch. We chose to eat at Big Daddy's Barbeque, nicknamed the "Northernmost Southern BBQ". It was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri as a great casual dining spot. The food was good and was very similar to Whole Hog Cafe.
The Chena River in downtown Fairbanks
We loaded the bus again and were off to Gold Dredge #8. We got off at the Alaska Pipeline, allowed to walk around awhile and then a guy talked to us about the pipeline. Where we were, it was above the ground.
Here I am, standing under the Alaska Pipeline.
Then we all (several other groups were also there) loaded up on a train to see the dredge.
Here we are on the train.
We stopped at the dredge and a lady explained how
it all worked and how to pan for gold.
On around the track, we stopped and got off at the Visitor Area. We were all given a bag of dirt and guaranteed we have gold dust in it. We went to the panning area (a long table with a trough of water in the middle) and started panning. It's a lot harder than you'd think! We finally got down to just the gold and put it in our container (like a film canister) and took it inside to be weighed.
The "panning" table
This is part of what was in Conrad's pan.
We put our gold together and when it was weighed, we had $30 worth! I decided I wanted some earrings so had the gold put in the earrings. My anniversary souvenir!! Then it was back to the train, then back to the bus, and on to the hotel. We decided to walk downtown and see what was open so walked the 10 blocks downtown - nothing open - so walked back to the hotel.
We bought meal vouchers for the trip so each breakfast and dinner was in the hotel except for when we were in Denali. Tonight was our anniversary dinner. Conrad had the filet with mashed potatoes and green beans. I had the halibut with a cream sauce (to die for!), rice and green beans. For dessert we both had cheesecake with rhubarb sauce. It was all so good!
That's it for today! Later........
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