ARCTIC CIRCLE / FAIRBANKS / MARGA THE WINNER / ADVENTURING

July 19, 2009 Denali State Park area



ARCTIC CIRCLE
Since Whitehorse, Yukon we have covered much territory, and the Arctic Circle was the most profound. We hooked up our dog sled with Dasher and Prancer and Sarah and Nixon and with a loud yelling of “Mush” we headed north for what would be a twelve hour day up and back from Fairbanks. Some two hundred miles each way does not seem a lot, but half of that was on dirt roads and much of the so called paved roads are in such poor condition they are sometimes even worse than the dirt. That location is of course where one day a year the sun never sets and another day of the year it is dark for 24 hours straight. It is located at Latitude 66 degrees, 33 minutes north. The Arctic Circle is at that same latitude all the way around the World. You will find no major city that far north for very good reason….impossible conditions to live in. If you ever want to go to the “…ends of the earth…” this could be said to be one of those ends. You will probably never meet anyone in your life who has traveled this far away from the equator. So for those of us who have made this trip it is a pretty neat thing to have done. Also, even though the longest day of the year, when the sun did not set, was June 21st, when we were there the sun came up at 3:15 am and set at 12:45 pm according to our GPS. Of course it was light out well before sunrise and after sunset.

Pine trees become fewer and more sickly as we treked north. Anorexic is what these pine trees looked like. Then more and more were completely dead trees, and then no trees at all. The brilliantly pink plants, Fire Weeds, that grow everywhere along highways in Alaska strangely become more abundant the more north we drove until there were whole fields of pink color to belie the harshness that kills almost everything in 40 degrees below zero in the winter. How do these flowers thrive where so much vegetation can not?

Our cars were bouncing up and down like hobby horses on the poor roads as mud and dust covered everything…..hour after hour after hour. We sure know how to have fun…right. “Why are we doing this?”…we asked. The Alaska pipeline paralleled our route and we could see it almost all of the time. This is the four foot diameter pipeline that links the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez for shipping south. It represents 17% of all oil needs of the U.S. Very impressive! Shipping out of Prudhoe Bay is not possible year round because of the harshness of the weather.

Amazingly we once again drove across the Yukon River going to the Arctic Circle. That river was next to us in Whitehorse in Canada and after days and days of driving here it was again. It flows north for hundreds of miles before turning west to cross our path on its way to Alaska’s west coast

After such an abundance of wild animal life in northern Canada we have seen almost none in Alaska….so far. This was especially so on the harrowing ride to the Arctic Circle.

No doubt there is rationale as to why the road are the way they are. The very harsh winter conditions and limited year round daylight time to maintain the roads probably have a lot to do with their condition. But then there seems to be little usage of the road that is probably part of the reason as well. We counted every vehicle that passed us going the other way for three hours and there were only 30 vehicles of all kinds….not a lot.

I have found it fascinating to see many solo motorcycle riders on this trip and we saw several again going to the Circle. Who are these people who undertake these major trips with very few possessions and tent and sleeping bag tied to their bikes? What are they looking for? Will they find it? We even saw a few solo bicyclers, loaded down with their camping gear doing this trip. Are they crazy? Are we also crazy…but just in a little better style?

The Arctic Circle is the northern extreme of our trip from L.A. We have driven over 4,000 miles to get there, helping to confirm my original estimate of some 8,000 miles expected driving for the full trip. Anyway, you can say that we are now on our way back to L.A…..still many more days and adventures in front of us.

MARGA WON!!
The town of Tok was the first town we stayed at in Alaska, most memorable because Marga and I won a pancake throwing contest that earned us a free pancake breakfast. I had to stand on stage with a bucket I held on my head. Marga had to throw the pancakes and try to get them in the bucket. I could move as much as I wanted to catch what she was throwing. Marga got seven pancakes in the bucket and our competition, another couple, got none in their bucket. It was lots of fun and the breakfast was really good. This all happened a few days before Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle, but I did not want to leave it out.

FAIRBANKS
Fairbanks was our home for two days, including the time we went to the Arctic Circle. It was also where we visited a museum about Alaska at the University of Alaska, and had a fabulous dinner at the Pump House Restaurant to celebrate my birthday. Considered one of the best restaurants in the city it is on the river that goes through the town. As we left close to 11 pm it was still light and a wonderful summer evening. Small boats of all kinds were rowed and motored up and down the river next to our table and a tourist river boat also went by during the meal.

One really fun thing to me and I think the rest of us was an F 16 jet that took off going the same direction we were with its runway a short distance from us. The noise was deafening, he was right next to the RV as he went by and almost immediately hit his afterburners and went almost straight up into the sky. What a sight/sound! Eigland Airbase.

ADVENTURING

To recap our adventuring so far; we have driven over 4,000 miles, more than I like to remember on back country-type roads and almost all on two lane streets; gone to one of he northern most corners of the world; crossed hundreds of bridges; passed through mountains most of the voyage; seen lakes and pine trees and plants and flowers of immense beauty; had large wild life to marvel at: bears, both black and grisly, caribou, elk, moose, bison, wolves; seen endless small critters; beaver, lots of rabbits, and chip monks, arctic ground squirrels; and birds: golden eagle, up close, ravens, magpies; a large family of fat, quail-looking ptarmigan in the bushes, swan, etc.; seen the highest mountain in North America, Mt. McKinley …..Ones specific adventure…The Savage River Expedition. All six of us drove our vehicles to the base camp staging area in the heart of Denali National Park. All equipment was checked and double checked. Three of the six of us were armed with heavy duty bear spray [Mace] we called “beer spray”; extra clothing was put on and carried to guard against the cold; rain gear was also carried or worn; camera/binoculars, some supplemental rations and of course substantial amounts of water was all carried; bug protection spray, UV creams and sprays; one emergency GPS “SPOT” system; and various other personal items so dear to each of us. The expedition set out at down the river at 1:41 pm with partly cloudy weather in the 60’s. We followed the trail next to the river going down river with the wind at our backs. With a slight downhill trek with a well laid out trail we forged on to the very end. At that point we crossed over the river on a first quality foot bridge and marched up the trail back from where we started with the wind in our face going up river. A well deserved rest stop along the way was had by all on a park bench made of logs. Everyone in the expedition survived and we all returned to the safety of our vehicles some hour and a half hours later…….we had covered about two miles. The Savage River Expedition had survived to adventure another day, thanks to the bravery of the party, new technology and equipment, and of course luck.

July 23, 2009, in the area of Anchorage

MARGA UPDATE ON INJURY

We arrived in Eagle River, a town right outside of Anchorage last night. We took Marga to one of these emergency clinics where she was checked and determined she has two broken ribs. She was given various prescriptions to deal with the pain which will replace what she had been using. The medical person expected she should have substantial relief from the pain within a week and therefore only gave medication for five days. He did not think we needed to curtail our plans to continue seeing Alaska which we hope to start up again on Friday. We are staying at Vince Shrigley’s home. He is the son of our friends Ralph and Trudy.

Meanwhile or RV is in the shop today for some needed servicing and repair work.