Fairbanks, AK

We arrived to Fairbanks on Sunday, June 22nd. We are staying at the Rivers Edge Campground on the Chema River. It is a wonderful campground.

Sunday was chill - we arrived, did laundry and set up camp :)

Monday was a busy day! (June 23rd)

We began our day with golfing at the Midnight Sun Golf Course. It is an 18 hole course and it is on perma frost! The ice heaves just aren’t on the roads, but on the fairways, the rough, and the greens. The Pro said - whatever you know about golf courses forget - you are in the Interior!

The fairways were full of ice heaves, and sometimes no grass, and sometimes a lot of melted perma frost - it was so fun!

We then headed to the Discovery Riverboat. The Riverboat carried 60 people and only needed 39 inches of water to run. The family started the service back in the 40’s and has been doing tours ever since. As we began our cruise we saw a demonstration of a float plane with a bush pilot.

We then stopped at Trail Breaker Kennel’s. This is the kennel owned by Susan Butcher. She was the first woman to win the Ideroid and then went on to win three more titles. She won it with her dog Granite. Her daughter and husband still have the kennels and train dogs. We met the daughter and got our lovely LuRu an autographed book from the daughter. Susan’s dies of cancer in 2006.

We then went to a replica of an Athabaskan (First Naiton people of the Interior) where we saw how they set up their fish camp, including a fish wheel, and a smoke house. We then saw a replica of an Athabaskan hunting camp (hunted for Caribou, Bear, and Moose). Finally, there was a showing of authentic Athabaskan clothes.

We ended the day with a wonderful meal at The Pumphouse Restaurant. It is on the National Historic Registry. The pumphouse was used to pump water over 3 miles away with an elevation gain (head) of 440 feet. There were 10 - 660 bpm pumps in the house. That is 6600 gallons per minute of water being pumped up to the cripple creek claim for placer mining. The Cripple Creek brought in over 15 Billion Dollars (in today’s dollar) worth of gold! The pool table is from 1898 and came up with the Gold Rush. It started in Dawson City and came down the Yukon, Tenena, and the Chena rivers to land in Fairbanks.

Tuesday June 24th - Hotsprings, Fishing, Museums and a Funky Bar

We headed 1.5 hours into the interior (more ice heaves) and drove to the end of the road at Chenna Hot Springs. It is a very large resort that boasts several hotel rooms, a train that made it’s last run up, a plan that was assembled there (no idea why), an amazing old dining room and a wonderful hot spring. We both felt so rested and relaxed when we were done. We also so the biggest snow cat either of us has ever seen.

As we drove back to Fairbanks we stopped at two lakes and the Chena river to try fishing. The mosquitos were so bad at the lakes that I stayed in the car. Mike lasted about 5 minutes - they were not big, but boy there were a lot. We tried the river and he had one on that jumped off!

We ended our day by going to Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. It is a very large park full of historical buildings and a River Boat. There was a massive flood in 1967 and there was a lot of info about that. Our last stop was at the Mecca Bar. We met the owner and she showed us this hidey hole that lead to a back hall that ended to a bar that used to be in the basement. They also had the coolest curved bar that was 80 years old. Yet again - people are amazingly friendly here.

Wednesday - June 25th - Golfing, Museum, Gold Dredge

We started our day by golfing the back 9 at Midnight Sun. The tundra was super upset today and ate 3 of Mike’s balls and 2 of mine. The back 9 was much harder, but way cooler - especially our visitor. According the golf pro, the moose in Alaska are bigger than the moose in the lower 48 and the moose in Fairbanks are very skiddish. She was - she bolted the moment we moved the car. She was a yearling and HUGE!

After golf we headed over to UAF - University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Museum of the North. Wonderful exhibits depicting indigenous life in Alaska. The were several Mastadons and Wolly Mammoths around this area, the Wolly Mammoth tusks are the big ones on the floor and the skull is the Mastadon. The bead work by the various First Nations was amazing and the fish baskets were huge! We watched a short movie on the interment of hte Aleus (Aleutian Island Natives). They were displaced for their own safety, but what happened to them was horrible. The dress is made of 20,000 bones.

We ended the day at Gold Dredge 8. This was a dredge owned by the Fairbanks Explopration Company (FEC). This company owned most of the mines in the Fairbanks area and was making money until the depresssion when the government became the only entity to use gold for trade - so they only could sell to the Government at $34 an ounce. The ground is rich with gold flakes, bu dredges are illegal in Alaska now. We panned - Mike got $15 in gold and I got $40 - watch out Tony Beets and Parker - I’m a gold miner :). We also saw the Alaskan Pipeline - we listened to a presentation on it and it is amazing. It is currently running 450,000 barrels a day - in 1988 at the peak of usage it ran 200,000 bpd.

Thank You Fairbanks - it has been AMAZING!

Next Stop Denali National Park!