Alaska redux - Fairbanks

Alaska Redux - Fairbanks

Our destination after Valdez was Fairbanks, but the distance is too far to make it in one day. We decided to dry camp at the Paxson Lake BLM Campground.

Rob favorably remembered staying here 11 years ago. I remembered we had a nice long pull through set comfortably away from other campers. I also remembered finding a pile of moose “poop” just on the other side of the bushes surrounding our campsite. Rob remembers walking down to the lake and not being bothered by mosquitos. Well, things have changed in 11 years! The trees have grown up making almost all of the pull through campsites too close for our long coaches. Steve was miffed most of the day and into dinner due to the scratches on his coach from branches. And then there were MOSQUITOS, making a stroll down to the lake out of the question. Fortunately, it was only for one night.

Fairbanks was only another 3 hours down the road. Someplace, along the way, Rob went through the “unfixit” zone. He was hearing an unusual thwacking noise somewhere under him. After consulting with Steve, via handheld walky talky, we decided to stop and conduct an inspection. So, there were some loose hoses that could have been whacking the generator. After some quicky repairs we were underway again. We only went a few miles before we were looking for another turn-out…the quicky repairs didn’t stop the whacking. Meanwhile, we’re traveling through some beautiful scenery.

Along this highway is a stop where you can walk up to the Alaska Pipeline and read about it on billboards. Well, Steve, “who had the con”, missed the turn. We did stop at another viewing site, but we couldn’t walk up to the pipes and the information was more limited. How do I know this you ask? We had stopped 11 years ago, of course.

The whacking noise continued all the way into Fairbanks, except where the road was without damage…frost heaves, pot holes, ruts, etc. Luckily, there were some pretty smooth stretches of road leading us to surmise that something is loose, since it was only audible when we bounced down the road. The wavy lines are a result of the frost heaves and not because the road painter had a little too much to drink.

Our chosen RV Park was actually in North Pole, Ak about 9 miles south of Fairbanks. It’s a large park and frequently a stopover for the numerous caravans touring Alaska. While we were there, a minimum of two caravans was there also. They usually stay 2-3 days then move on and another caravan moves in. The park was large enough to handle all the coaches without anyone feeling too crowded. I was even able to get my laundry done, although at 5 a.m.

Fairbanks, the third largest city in Alaska, (behind Anchorage and Juneau), is located in about the middle Alaska (they call it the “Heart of Alaska) and on the banks of the Chena River. The population of the city is almost 32,000, with the suburbs it’s closer to 100,000. The “land of the midnight sun”, between May 17 and July 27, the sun never goes below the horizon far enough for it to get dark. Of course, in winter, they have many days with only 5 hours of sunlight.

We made many trips to Fairbanks during our stay. Rob and Steve searched out auto repair shops for parts. We visited the Saturday Farmer’s Market and brought home some fresh produce. Amazing quantity and variety of produce available due to the extended hours of daylight. Rob and I had breakfast at a highly recommended restaurant, The Cookie Jar. We were seated within 10 minutes and our order was taken in decent time. Then we waited 45 minutes before we were served. We saw our waitress once when she refilled Rob’s coffee, until she delivered our food. Then again when she brought the check. Needless to say our opinion wasn’t as high as many others. I noticed one of the caravans in the RV Park was slated to have a meal there. I was tempted to tell them to skip it, but it’s probably already paid for. We also found Fred Meyers and Safeway convenient for picking up things we couldn’t live without. Rob and Steve both needed haircuts so they went in search of a barber. I think the one they found must specialize in the military. Fairbanks is home to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright Army Post. (Eielson is actually in North Pole). The good news is, these haircuts should last until we get home.

One day was devoted to visiting Gold Dredge No. 8 a 5 story 250 foot dredge built in 1928.

The Alaska Pipeline passes through the parking lot of the dredge so we were able to get up close and personal with it finally. The pipeline is cleaned out on a regular basis by means of a "pig".

We were taken to the dredge from the parking lot in a replica of the Tanana Valley Railroad. Travel on the train was accompanied by a description of processing placer gold.  As we departed the train,

we were handed a “poke” bag containing pay dirt. Then we got to pan for gold from out of our “poke” bags.

Rob and I combined our gold before taking it to the Assayer. Our little bag of gold flakes weighed out at $30!

WooHoo! Of course, there was an enticement to turn our gold into a souvenir by having it encased is a glass (or plastic?) bauble. My gold stayed in the little canister they gave us for free. After panning we were able to meander around in and out of the dredge.

The dredge is a giant gold-mining “ship”, 99 feet long and 50 feet wide. It floated in a manmade pond and scooped up gravel containing gold left behind by inefficient drift miners. A “bucket line”

could scoop up 6 cubic feet of gravel in each bucket. The gravel was spilled through a “trommel”, a cylinder 36 feet long and 6 feet wide.  The trommel was perforated with holes of various sizes, thereby sorting the gravel. The trommel would spin and blast the gravel with high pressure water sending the heavier pieces of gold through the holes into sluice boxes. Every two weeks the gold would be recovered from the sluice boxes yielding an about 4000 ounces of gold. The gold was accumulated until there was enough to melt and form bars.

There is a fascinating museum (The University of Alaska Museum of the North) at…the University. This was a “must see” spot on our agenda and we spent at least two hours there. It is on the campus and easy to get to except for the road construction and detours we had to hurdle. The museum is devoted to Alaska’s wildlife, people, and land which it portrays in separate “cubicle-like” exhibitions.  In one such cubicle was a plaque commemorating the contribution to mining made by C.J. Berry. C.J. was a gold miner and a businessman. He originally had a fruit ranch in Selma, California, but left, with his wife and brother, for Alaska when he heard of the Klondike Gold strikes. He and his brother worked claims side by side and literally struck it rich. They were mining areas of permafrost which required heating to enable them to dig. C.J. invented a method of thawing frozen soil and permafrost using cold water or steam rather than using hot rocks or underground fires. The latter methods made the tunnels more susceptible to collapse. C.J. later became an “oilman” forming the Berry Petroleum. Berry Petroleum produced its 100 millionth barrel in 1996.Today Berry Petroleum is trading on Nasdaq at around $13.00. Why is this information important you ask…Because C.J. Berry was a relative of a coat-tail relative of Steve’s…brother’s wife’s family.

For our “Farewell to Fairbanks” dinner we chose the Pump House, overlooking the Chena River. When we drove into the parking lot we were rather dismayed to find in practically full. We envisioned a crowded dining room even though we did have reservations. We were very pleasantly surprised to find the dining room fairly empty. This restaurant is popular for the outdoor deck and it was elbow to elbow with the owners of all the cars in the parking lot. The restaurant’s design was in the motif of the 1890’s Gold Rush using authentic furnishings from the era. A pump house was part of the gold mining water system, necessary in the dredging operation. Pump houses provided pressure for the hydraulics used to wash away the overburden and thaw the permafrost.

With Fairbanks in our rear view mirror, (well, not really since we don’t have a rear view mirror in the motorhome), we moved on to Denali. We seem to be one step behind one of the caravans as they were in the same RV Park near Denali as us. Another park large enough to handle the numbers. We didn’t even see them. Steve and Jeannie drove the 15 miles into the park that is permissible with private vehicles. They opted not to take the bus ride through the park. Rob and I opted to stay in the motorhome. We had taken the bus ride through the park on our last trip and decided it wasn’t worth the time or money to do it again. Weather was not favorable for viewing the mountain. Seems to be the usual condition.

On to Montana Creek and Talkeetna. “The Silvers are in”!!!